is a railway station on the Yokosuka Line in

Kamakura, Kanagawa is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Kamakura has an estimated population of 172,929 (1 September 2020) and a population density of 4,359 persons per km² over the total area of . Kamakura was designated as a city on 3 November 1939. Kamak ...

, 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 ar ...

(JR East).

Lines

Kamakura Station is served by the Yokosuka Line and Shōnan-Shinjuku Line. It is located from the junction at

Ōfuna Station Ōfuna Station( ja, 大船駅, ) is a railway station in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan, operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). Lines Ōfuna Station is served by the Tokaido Main Line, Shōnan-Shinjuku Line, Negishi Line ( Keihin-T ...

, and from

Tokyo Station Tokyo Station ( ja, 東京駅, ) is a railway station in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The original station is located in Chiyoda's Marunouchi business district near the Imperial Palace grounds. The newer Eastern extension is not far from the Ginza ...

. It is also the

terminal station A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing su ...

for the Enoshima Electric Railway, whose station is adjacent.

Station layout

JR East Station

JR Kamakura Station has a single

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 o ...

connected to the station building by two underpasses. Beside the two main lines there is also one additional line where trains can stop. Because the platform is built on a hill, its elevation is higher than the ticket gates and Enoden platform. Because the station serves a popular tourist area, there are many extra trains at weekends and holidays. However, in spite of the extra side line for trains to stop in, trains cannot change direction at this station, so many trains meant to serve this station have to run between Zushi and Tamachi Depot. In the evening, passenger trains also run from Tamachi Depot to Zushi, then back to Kamakura. In most areas with stairs there are

elevator An elevator or lift is a cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or decks of a building, vessel, or other structure. They ...

s and

escalator An escalator is a moving staircase which carries people between floors of a building or structure. It consists of a motor-driven chain of individually linked steps on a track which cycle on a pair of tracks which keep the step tread horizo ...

s. There are also two automatic vending machines for Green car (first class) tickets for use with Suica on the platform. At the station's east exit there were previously several shops, especially restaurants. However, this area was rebuilt as , a shopping facility which opened on 31 October 2007. Besides a convenience store and a Kamakura tourist information center, the first floor consists entirely of eateries. There is a "

Midori no Madoguchi , which stands for ''Multi Access (originally Magnetic-electronic Automatic) seat Reservation System'', is a train ticket reservation system used by the railway companies of former Japanese National Railways, currently Japan Railways Group (JR Gro ...

" staffed ticket counter the east entrance, which operates during the hours 7:00 to 20:00.

Enoshima Electric Railway Station

The Enoshima Electric Railway (Enoden) has a ground-level

bay platform In the United Kingdom and in Australia, a bay platform is a dead-end railway platform at a railway station that has through lines. It is normal for bay platforms to be shorter than their associated through platforms. Overview Bay and isl ...

around two tracks. The platforms are numbered in coordination with the JR lines, so that Enoden uses lines designated as 3 through 5, the signs of which are controlled by machine, usually displaying only 3 and 4. Line 5 is used only for the early morning train that departs at 5:47. During this time, there is already a train in line 3, and in order to change the order of trains on the tracks (that of two-car and four-car trains) line 5 is used. In the periods around New Year, Golden Week, and other busy times, a special, staggered schedule using the two lines 3 and 5. An entrance ticket at other Enoden stations is 190 yen (as of September 2012), but in order to match JR, which shares the Kamakura station, the ticket is 130 yen at Kamakura station, although this ticket can only be used on the Enoden side. At the time of introduction of Pasmo, automatic ticket gates were installed in both Kamakura Station and Fujisawa Station.

JR platforms

Enoshima Electric Railway platforms

Bus service

East exit

Kamakura station bus terminal

; Bus stop number 1 ; Bus stop number 2 ; Bus stop number 3 ; Bus stop number 4 ; Bus stop number 5 ; Bus stop number 6 ; Bus stop number 7

West Exit

Kamakura Shiyakusyo-mae bus stop

History

Kamakura Station opened on 16 June 1889 as a station on 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 industr ...

from Ōfuna 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 R ...

(JGR), the pre-war predecessor to the

Japan 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) to serve the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal and related

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...

facilities at Yokosuka. This line was renamed the Yokosuka Line in October 1909. The terminus of the Enoshima Electric Railway was relocated to Kamakura Station on 1 March 1949. All freight operations were stopped in 1962. The station building was rebuilt in October 1984. The station came under the management of JR East upon the

privatization Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

of 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 pre ...

(JNR) on 1 April 1987.

Station numbering Station numbering is a sign system which assigns station codes consisting of a few letters and numbers to train stations. It aims to facilitate navigation for foreign travelers not familiar with the local language by using globally understood ...

was introduced to the Enoshima Electric Railway January 2014 with Kamakura being assigned station number EN15. The JR East platforms received station numbers in 2016 with Kamakura being assigned station numbers JO07 for the Yokosuka line and JS07 for the Shonan-Shinjuku line.

References

* Harris, Ken and Clarke, Jackie. ''Jane's World Railways 2008–2009''. Jane's Information Group (2008).

External links

Kamakura Station information
(JR East)
Enoden website
{{coord, 35, 19, 8.66, N, 139, 33, 1.57, E, type:railwaystation_region:JP, display=title Railway stations in Kanagawa Prefecture Railway stations in Japan opened in 1889 Yokosuka Line Buildings and structures in Kamakura, Kanagawa Stations of Enoshima Electric Railway