The station is served by the old line or the Nagayo branch of the Nagasaki Main Line and is located 12.3 km from the branch point at Kikitsu.[3] Only local trains run on this branch.[4]
Station layout
The station consists of a side platform serving a single track. The station building is a timber structure and is unstaffed, housing only a waiting area, an automatic ticket vending machine and a SUGOCA card reader. A ramp leads from the station building to the platform. In the past, the platform track was on a siding and trains stopping at the station used to have to perform a switchback manoeuvre to enter and leave. This has been discontinued with the new platform built on the main track but the remnants of the switches and tracks used in the switchback can still be seen.[3][2]
Side view of station showing the system of accessibility ramps leading to the platform.
A view of the platform. To the right can be seen the remnants of the siding and old platform which was entered with a switchback.
Japanese National Railways (JNR) opened the station as Hongawachi Signal Box (本川内信号場, Hongawachi-shingōba) on 1 October 1943 on the existing track of the Nagasaki Main Line. On 1 June 1952, the facility was upgraded to a full passenger station. At the same time, the reading of the station name was changed from Hongawachi to Honkawachi, with no change to the corresponding kanji. On 2 October 1972, a shorter inland bypass route was opened between Kikitsu through Ichinuno to Urakami was opened, which became known as the new line or Ichinuno branch of the Nagasaki Main Line. The section serving Honkawachi which ran from Kikitsu through Nagayo to Urakami became known as the old line or the Nagayo branch. With the privatization of JNR on 1 April 1987, control of the station passed to JR Kyushu.[5][6]
Passenger statistics
In fiscal 2014, there were a total of 29,561 boarding passengers, giving a daily average of 81 passengers.[7]
^ ab"本川内" [Honkawachi]. hacchi-no-he.net. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
^ abKawashima, Ryōzō (2013). 図説: 日本の鉄道 四国・九州ライン 全線・全駅・全配線・第5巻 長崎 佐賀 エリア [Japan Railways Illustrated. Shikoku and Kyushu. All lines, all stations, all track layouts. Volume 5 Nagasaki Saga area] (in Japanese). Kodansha. pp. 42, 69. ISBN9784062951647.
^"本川内" [Honkawachi]. JR Kyushu official station website. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
^Ishino, Tetsu; et al., eds. (1998). 停車場変遷大事典 国鉄・JR編 [Station Transition Directory – JNR/JR] (in Japanese). Vol. I. Tokyo: JTB Corporation. pp. 222–3. ISBN4-533-02980-9.
^Ishino, Tetsu; et al., eds. (1998). 停車場変遷大事典 国鉄・JR編 [Station Transition Directory – JNR/JR] (in Japanese). Vol. II. Tokyo: JTB Corporation. p. 717. ISBN4-533-02980-9.
^"第63版（平成28年）長崎県統計年鑑" [Nagasaki Prefecture Statistics Yearbook 63rd Edition 2016]. Nagasaki Prefectural Government website. Retrieved 16 March 2018. See table at section under Transportation and Communications.
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