The station is served by the Nippō Main Line and is located 130.4 km from the starting point of the line at Kokura.[3]
Layout
The station consists of an island platform serving two tracks at grade. The station building is an old timber structure of traditional Japanese design but is now largely used by JR Freight with only a small portion devoted to passenger waiting area. Access to the island platform is by means of a footbridge. A staffed ticket window is located on the island platform. On both sides of the island platform are numerous sidings used by JR freight.[2][3][4]
Management of the passenger facilities at the station has been outsourced to the JR Kyushu Tetsudou Eigyou Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of JR Kyushu specialising in station services. It staffs the ticket booth on the island platform which is equipped with a POS machine but does not have a Midori no Madoguchi facility.[5][6]
The private Kyushu Railway had, by 1909, through acquisition and its own expansion, established a track from Kokura to Yanagigaura. The Kyushu Railway was nationalised on 1 July 1907. Japanese Government Railways (JGR), designated the track as the Hōshū Main Line on 12 October 1909 and expanded it southwards in phases. Ōota opened as the new southern terminus on 1 November 1911 after the track was extended there from Beppu. On the same day, this station was opened as an intermediate station on the new track. On 15 December 1923, the Hōshū Main Line was renamed the Nippō Main Line. With the privatization of Japanese National Railways (JNR), the successor of JGR, on 1 April 1987, the station came under the control of JR Kyushu.[7][8]
Passenger statistics
In fiscal 2016, the station was used by an average of 478 passengers daily (boarding passengers only), and it ranked 249th among the busiest stations of JR Kyushu.[9]
Freight operations
On the southeast side of the station building (northeast side of the passenger platform) is a two-track container platform used by JR Freight. There is no arrival/departure track exclusively for freight trains, and the tracks parallel to the outside of the upper and lower main lines are all siding tracks. One of the siding lines on the down side touches the container platform and serves as a cargo handling line, and there is another deadhead type cargo handling line outside the container platform. These siding lines are entered via pull-up lines. The container platforms are not long enough for container trains to enter the line as a whole, and it is necessary to divide the trains or move the trains to accommodate cargo handling operations, and shunting locomotives (small diesel locomotives) are used for these operations.
Surrounding area
Yusuhara Hachimangū Shrine's mid-autumn festival, ``Hamanoichi, is held around the station from September 14 to 20 every year.
^ ab"西大分" [Nishi-Ōita]. hacchi-no-he.net. Retrieved 1 May 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4巻 福岡エリア [Japan Railways Illustrated. Shikoku and Kyushu. All lines, all stations, all track layouts. Volume 4 Fukuoka Area] (in Japanese). Kodansha. pp. 43, 81. ISBN9784062951630.
^"西大分駅" [Nishi-Ōita]. Retrieved 1 May 2018. Blog entry with good photographic coverage of station facilities.
^"大分支店内各駅" [Stations within the Ōita Branch]. JRTE website. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
^"西大分駅" [Nishi-Ōita Station]. jr-mars.dyndns.org. Retrieved 1 May 2018. See images of tickets sold.
^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. 228–9. 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. 753. ISBN4-533-02980-9.
^"駅別乗車人員上位300駅（平成28年度）" [Passengers embarking by station - Top 300 stations (Fiscal 2016)] (PDF). JR Kyushu. 31 July 2017. Archived from the original(PDF) on 1 August 2017. Retrieved 3 March 2018.
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