is a railway station

Train station

A train station, also called a railroad station or railway station and often shortened to just station,"Station" is commonly understood to mean "train station" unless otherwise qualified. This is evident from dictionary entries e.g...

 on the Tōkaidō Main Line

Tokaido Main Line

The is the busiest trunk line of the Japan Railways Group , connecting Tōkyō and Kōbe stations. It is long, not counting its many freight feeder lines around the major cities...

 of East Japan Railway Company

East Japan Railway Company

is the largest passenger railway company in the world and one of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are in Yoyogi, Shibuya, Tokyo....

 in the city of Hiratsuka

Hiratsuka, Kanagawa

is a city located in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. As of 2010, the city had an estimated population of 259,991 and the density of 3,830 persons per km²...

, Kanagawa Prefecture

Kanagawa Prefecture

is a prefecture located in the southern Kantō region of Japan. The capital is Yokohama. Kanagawa is part of the Greater Tokyo Area.-History:The prefecture has some archaeological sites going back to the Jōmon period...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. The station is 63.8 rail kilometers from Tokyo Station

Tokyo Station

is a train station located in the Marunouchi business district of Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan, near the Imperial Palace grounds and the Ginza commercial district....

.

Station history

Hiratsuka Station was opened on July 11, 1887 for both freight and passenger service on what was later designated the Tōkaidō Main Line of the Japan National Railways. A number of short freight spur lines radiated out from Hiratsuka Station to serve the various industries which were developed in the vicinity of the station. Most of these spur lines were no longer in operation by 1924. The original station building was destroyed by Soil liquefaction

Soil liquefaction

Soil liquefaction describes a phenomenon whereby a saturated soil substantially loses strength and stiffness in response to an applied stress, usually earthquake shaking or other sudden change in stress condition, causing it to behave like a liquid....

 during the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake

1923 Great Kanto earthquake

The struck the Kantō plain on the Japanese main island of Honshū at 11:58:44 am JST on September 1, 1923. Varied accounts hold that the duration of the earthquake was between 4 and 10 minutes...

, which also brought down the bridge over the nearby Sagami River

Sagami River

The is a river in Kanagawa and Yamanashi Prefectures on the island of Honshū, Japan.The upper reaches of the river in Yamanashi prefecture are also sometimes known as the , and the portion near the river mouth as the...

.

Regularly scheduled freight services were discontinued in September 1971 with the opening of the Sagami Freight Depot. The station building was completely rebuilt in June 1973.

With the dissolution and privatization

Privatization

Privatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector or to private non-profit organizations...

 of the JNR on April 1, 1987, the station came under the control of the East Japan Railway Company. Automated turnstile

Turnstile

A turnstile, also called a baffle gate, is a form of gate which allows one person to pass at a time. It can also be made so as to enforce one-way traffic of people, and in addition, it can restrict passage only to people who insert a coin, a ticket, a pass, or similar...

s using the Suica

Suica

is a rechargeable contactless smart card used as a fare card on train lines in Japan. Launched in November 2001, the card is usable currently in the Kantō region, at JR East stations near Sendai and Niigata...

 IC Card system came into operation from November 18, 2001.

Lines

This station is served by following lines.

• East Japan Railway Company
  East Japan Railway Company
  is the largest passenger railway company in the world and one of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are in Yoyogi, Shibuya, Tokyo....
  
  
  • Tōkaidō Line
  • Shōnan-Shinjuku Line
    Shonan-Shinjuku Line
    The is a passenger railway service in Japan which commenced in December 2001. The line has no dedicated track as services run through shared sections along the Ryōmō Line, Takasaki Line, Utsunomiya Line, Yamanote Freight Line, Yokosuka Line, and Tōkaidō Main Line...
    
    

Layout

Hiratsuka Station has two island platform

Island platform

An island platform is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway interchange...

s serving four tracks, connected to the station building by an overpass

Overpass

An overpass is a bridge, road, railway or similar structure that crosses over another road or railway...

. The station building has large shopping complexes to the north and south of the tracks.

Station layout

Adjacent stations

External links

• Official home page.