Osaka Station (大阪駅, Ōsaka-eki) is a major railway station in the Umeda district of Kita-ku, Osaka, Japan, operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West). It forms as one of the city's main railway terminals to the north, the other being Shin-Ōsaka.
Osaka Station and Umeda Station, effectively part of the same complex, together constitute the busiest station in Western Japan, serving 2,343,727 passengers daily in 2005, and the fourth-busiest railway station in the world.[1]
Osaka Station also houses a large terminal for overnight bus services to other cities in Japan, and until March 2013 also had a nearby freight terminal complex, Umeda Freight Terminal, owned by JR Freight.
Station layout
Grand Front Osaka North Gate Building in December 2015Osaka Station Toki no hiroba plaza in June 2011Commuter trains at Osaka StationOsaka Station at sunset
Osaka station is elevated above street level, on the second floor of the station complex. There are four concourses, corresponding to four sets of ticket gates: the Midosuji gates, serving as a transfer point to Hankyu and SubwayUmeda Station and Higashi-Umeda Station; the Central gates, with access to Daimaru, Lucua, Yodobashi Camera, Umeda Sky Building, Grand Front and transfers to Hanshin Umeda and JR Kitashinchi Station; the Sakurabashi gates, with access to Osaka Garden City and transfers to Subway Nishi-Umeda Station, city bus, hotel shuttle buses and taxi; and the Bridge Gates, with direct access into Daimaru and Lucua, as well as a bridge passage to Hankyu Umeda. The Midosuji concourse is on the lower level, with escalators and elevators leading directly to platforms; the Central concourse has both direct escalators and a mezzanine-level transfer passage connected by stairs; the Sakurabashi concourse has gates on ground level but is primarily on the mezzanine level, connected to the central concourse by a corridor; and the Bridge Gate is on the third level above the platforms, and connected by escalators and elevators. An additional concourse is planned for the west side of the station, which will link the elevated platforms with the under-construction underground platforms to the northwest of the main station.
Platforms and tracks are on the second floor. There were previously six island platforms and one side platform serving 13 tracks; the highest-numbered track was Track 11, as the Osaka Loop Line tracks were referred to as "Inner Loop" and "Outer Loop" only. In preparation for the construction of the new north building, the sixth platform was closed and the seventh was removed altogether; at the same time, the remaining platforms were renumbered so that Tracks 1 and 2 were for the Osaka Loop Line, and so on. The sixth platform reopened on 20 December 2009 and there became five island platforms and a side platform serving 11 tracks in total (up to the new Track 11—the old Track 9). The remainder of the old Track 11 platform, on the west side of the station, was used as a pedestrian walkway linking the North Gate Building with its parking garage until 2020, when it was removed to facilitate construction of a new West Gate Building. There was originally a through track in between tracks 8 and 9, but it had been long disused; during the closure of Track 11, the platform for Tracks 9 and 10 was expanded and this track was used temporarily as Track 9. Since 12 October 2010, this track has been used permanently as Track 8 after the widening of the adjoining platform.
A new line called the Naniwasuji Line is planned to be opened by 2031 and will route trains under the Naniwasuji corridor to JR Namba Station and further south.[2] To prepare for the opening of the line, an additional two underground platforms (serving four tracks on the former Umeda Freight Line) are currently under construction on the northwest side of the station; these are tentatively slated for opening in fiscal 2023, and their numbering has yet to be made public. Once these platforms are opened, there will be a total of eight platforms serving 16 tracks. They will also enable the limited express Haruka and Kuroshio (both services currently runs on the former Umeda Freight Line that bypasses the station completely) to make a stop at Osaka Station.[3]
Osaka Station opened on May 11, 1874, as one of the first railway stations in the Kansai region when the railway between Osaka and Kobe started operation. It was electrified along with the Tōkaidō Main Line in 1934.
The existence of the station naturally made the area the primary transport hub of the city. Railways that set Ōsaka Station as the terminal or built their terminal around Osaka Station include Osaka Railway (present-day east half of the Osaka Loop Line) in 1895, Nishinari Railway (west half of the Osaka Loop Line) in 1898, Hanshin Electric Railway in 1906, Minoo Arima Electric Tramway (Hankyu Railway) in 1910, and Osaka Municipal Subway in 1933. The regional railways tended to name their stations Umeda, the name of the area, rather than the city name.
The air raids in World War II flattened the blocks in front of the station. Immediately after the war, the area turned into a huge black market, the atmosphere of which remained until redevelopment in the 1970s.
The station building was rebuilt in 1901, 1940, and 1979 (north building). In 1983, a high-rise building, Acty Osaka, which housed a department store and a hotel, was added to the south of the station. A new north station building (the North Gate Building) was opened in 2011, coinciding with an expansion of Acty Osaka (now the South Gate Building) and major renovation of the station areas with a new concourse and north–south connection. This is the first step in a larger drive to redevelop the land used by JR Freight's Umeda Terminal, which is seen as the last undeveloped piece of real estate in the area. Plans also call for moving the Umeda Freight Line underground and establishing a terminal for the Osaka Higashi Line just north of ALBi, with an eye towards a future extension to JR Namba Station (thus alleviating delays on the Osaka Loop Line caused by Limited Express trains), though details have not yet been firmly decided.
Major renovation
August 2007
June 2009
September 2009
March 2010
April 2011
Surrounding area
Exterior of Osaka StationSouth Gate Building, December 2014
^"なにわ筋線「北梅田～ＪＲ難波・南海新今宮」の鉄道事業許可" [Railway business license for Naniwasuji Line "Kita Umeda-JR Namba / Nankai Shin-Imamiya"] (PDF). Japan Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport (MLIT) (in Japanese). July 9, 2019. Retrieved February 7, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
^杉山, 淳一 (November 11, 2016). "「なにわ筋線」の開通で特急「ラピート」と「はるか」が統合される？" [Will the limited express "Rapi:t" and "Haruka" be integrated with the opening of "Naniwasuji Line"?]. itmedia.co.jp/ (in Japanese). Retrieved February 11, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Osaka Station.
August 2007
June 2009
September 2009
March 2010
April 2011
