Kobe (Hyogo)

Weekday departures: 546/day · Sat & holiday departures: 546/day

First / last train (weekday): 4:58 / 24:46

Busiest hour: 8:00–9:00 (34)

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0:00 ─ 23:00

Counts are departures in the timetable data shown on our live map.

• JR Sanyō Main Line: Hyōgo
• Tōkaidō Main Line: Motomachi (Hyogo)

Kōbe Station opened on 11 May 1874 as the terminus of Japan's second government-built railway, linking the new port at Kobe with Osaka. Trains began through to Tokyo on 1 July 1889, the same date a second-generation brick station building entered use, and the private Sanyō Railway began calling here that September before being nationalised in 1906. The present third-generation building, completed on 1 July 1930 and listed as a Modern-Era heritage structure, preceded the elevation of the tracks in October 1931. Operations passed to JR West at JNR privatisation on 1 April 1987.

Although Kōbe Station marks the boundary between the Tōkaidō and Sanyō Main Lines, the city's commercial heart and prefectural offices have shifted east to Sannomiya and Motomachi, and a once-lavish first-class waiting room remains as a relic of the station's earlier prominence.