Train service
Weekday departures: 10/day · Sat & holiday departures: 10/day
First / last train (weekday): 5:44 / 20:20
Busiest hour: 5:00–6:00 (1)
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0:00 ─ 23:00
Counts are departures in the timetable data shown on our live map.
Adjacent stations
- Nishikigawa Seiryu Line: Yanaze
Location
History
Nishiki-chō Station opened on 1 October 1963 as the western terminus of the Japanese National Railways' Gannichi Line when the track was extended from Kawayama, in what is now Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Prefecture. JNR's privatisation on 1 April 1987 transferred operations to JR West, which then ceded the line to the third-sector Nishikigawa Railway on 25 July 1987, rebranding the route as the Nishikigawa Seiryū Line. On 7 July 2002, the unused trackbed of the cancelled Gannichi-Hokusen line beyond the station was repurposed as a rubber-tyred sightseeing vehicle route to Sōzukyō Onsen; the service was named "Tokotoko Train" by public vote in 2003. The station is staffed and houses the Nishikigawa Railway corporate headquarters.
Notes
The station was originally built with a curved alignment so that the Gannichi Line could one day be extended onward to Mukaichi and Hinohara in Shimane Prefecture — a plan that was abandoned, leaving the curved track and the cancelled Gannichi-Hokusen roadbed to be reused decades later for the Tokotoko Train sightseeing service.
Sources
Last updated: 2026-05-18