is a railway station on the

Hakodate Main Line The is a railway line connecting the cities of Hakodate and Asahikawa via Sapporo in Hokkaido, Japan. It is one of the trunk lines operated by the Hokkaido Railway Company (JR Hokkaido). The Sawara Line, a 35 km loop line from Ōnuma to Mo ...

Kutchan, Hokkaido is a town located in Shiribeshi Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. Kutchan lies slightly north of the volcano Mount Yōtei, and is approximately 50 kilometers west of Sapporo. The subprefecture government offices are located in this town, making it ...

, Japan. It is operated by

JR Hokkaido The is one of the constituent companies of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group), and is often referred to using its official abbreviation of . It operates intercity and local rail services in Hokkaido, Japan. The company introduced Kitaca, a sm ...

and has the station number "S23". The station is also planned to become a station of the

Hokkaido Shinkansen The is a Japanese high-speed Shinkansen rail line that links up with the Tōhoku Shinkansen in northern Aomori Prefecture in Honshu and continues on into the interior of Hokkaido through the undersea Seikan Tunnel. Construction started in May ...

between and that is scheduled to open in 2031.

Lines

The station is served by the

and is located 193.3 km from the start of the line at . Both local and the Rapid ' services stop at the station. When the

opens in the spring of 2031, the

will be truncated and the section of track between Oshamabe Station and

Otaru Station is a railway station in Otaru, Hokkaido, Japan, operated by the Hokkaido Railway Company (JR Hokkaido). It is numbered "S15". Lines Otaru Station is served by the Hakodate Main Line. Station layout The station consists of two island platform ...

will be abolished. This will leave Kutchan Station with no conventional line and only the

Shinkansen The , colloquially known in English as the bullet train, is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan. Initially, it was built to connect distant Japanese regions with Tokyo, the capital, to aid economic growth and development. Beyond l ...

will serve it.

Station layout

Platforms

History

The station was opened on 15 October 1904 by the private Hokkaido Railway as an intermediate station during a phase of expansion when its track from to was extended to link up with stretches of track further north to provide through traffic from Hakodate to . After the Hokkaido Railway was nationalized on 1 July 1907,

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 ...

(JGR) took over control of the station. On 12 October 1909 the station became part of the Hakodate Main Line. With the privatization of

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), the successor of JGR, control of the station passed to JR Hokkaido. The served Kutchan from Date's Monbetsu Station of the Muroran Line, but it was discontinued in 1986. A curve, where the track has now been lifted from, can still clearly be seen north of Kutchan Station from satellite imagery.

Surrounding area

Kutchan is a town located in Shiribeshi Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. Kutchan lies slightly north of the volcano Mount Yōtei, and is approximately 50 kilometers west of Sapporo. The subprefecture government offices are located in this town, making it ...

town office

References