is a railway station on the

Ōu Main Line The is a railway line in Japan, operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). It connects Fukushima Station through Akita Station to Aomori Station. Since the opening of the Yamagata Shinkansen on July 1, 1992, the Fukushima–Yamag ...

and

Gonō Line The is a railway line in Japan linking Higashi-Noshiro Station in Akita Prefecture with Kawabe Station in Aomori Prefecture, in the northern Tōhoku region of Honshu. The line stretches 147.2 km (91.5 mi) along the Sea of Japan coast ...

in the village of Inakadate,

Aomori Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan in the Tōhoku region. The prefecture's capital, largest city, and namesake is the city of Aomori. Aomori is the northernmost prefecture on Japan's main island, Honshu, and is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the east, ...

, Japan, operated by

East Japan Railway Company The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and is the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are ...

(JR East).

Lines

Kawabe Station is served by the

, and is 453.4 kilometers from the southern terminus of the line at . It is also the northern terminal station for the Gonō Line.

Station layout

Kawabe Station has two ground level

island platform An island platform (also center platform, centre platform) is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway interchange. Island platforms are popular on ...

s, serving three tracks, connected to the station building by a footbridge. The station will be unmanned from March 18, 2023. A fourth track has not been in use since April 1, 1998 with the discontinuation of the Kuroishi Line.

Platforms

History

Kawabe Station opened on December 1, 1894 as a station on the

Japanese Government Railways The Japanese Government Railways (JGR) was the national railway system directly operated by the Japanese Ministry of Railways ( ja, 鉄道省, Tetsudō-shō, ) until 1949. It was a predecessor of Japanese National Railways and the later Japan Rai ...

, the predecessor to the

Japanese National Railways The abbreviated JNR or , was the business entity that operated Japan's national railway network from 1949 to 1987. Network Railways As of June 1, 1949, the date of establishment of JNR, it operated of narrow gauge () railways in all 46 pref ...

(JNR) on the Ōu Northern Line. From August 15, 1912, a

spur line A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Industrial spur An industri ...

opened to Kuroishi, and from September 25, 1918, the Mutsu Railway (present-day Gonō Line) began operations from Kawabe Station. On November 1, 1984, operations on the Kuroishi Line were transferred from JNR to the Konan Railway. All freight operations were discontinued from April 1987. With the privatization of JNR on April 1, 1987, it came under the operational control of JR East. The Kuroishi Line ceased operations from April 1, 1998.

Passenger statistics

In fiscal 2018, the station was used by an average of 285 passengers daily (boarding passengers only).

Surrounding area

*Kawabe-Izumi Post office

Bus services

Kōnan Bus services for Kuroishi Station via Maeda-Yashiki.

References

* *

External links

* {{Gono Line Stations of East Japan Railway Company Railway stations in Japan opened in 1894 Railway stations in Aomori Prefecture Inakadate, Aomori Ōu Main Line Gonō Line