Okayama Station

Okayama Station (岡山駅) is a major railway station in Kita-ku, Okayama, Okayama Prefecture, Japan. The station is operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West).

Lines
Okayama Station is one of the major intersections of railways in the Chūgoku region. All trains connecting Honshū and Shikoku via the Great Seto Bridge originate and terminate here.

The station is served by the following JR West lines:
 * Sanyō Shinkansen
 * San'yō Main Line (including trains to Akō Line and Hakubi Line)
 * Uno Line (Seto-Ōhashi Line)
 * Tsuyama Line
 * Kibi Line

In addition to the JR lines, a tram stop of the Okayama Electric Tramway named Okayama-Ekimae Station is located in front of the JR station.

Station layout
The Shinkansen platforms are located on the 3rd level of the station and has 2 island platforms that serve 4 tracks, whilst the conventional lines on the ground floor have 4 island platforms that serve 10 tracks. All platforms. Platforms 5 and 7 are bay platforms near tracks 6 and 8. In 2004, the Tsuyama and Kibi Line platforms (Platforms 16 and 17 at the time) were moved over to the west side of Okayama Station due to renovations, and the shape and size of all platforms have changed since 2004.

The station building is one of the few stations whose front exit is the Shinkansen exit. It was converted to a bridge in October 2006, and its main functions, including Shinkansen communication, are installed on the second floor. In addition, the west exit station building was abolished due to the construction of the east-west connecting road, and the ticket gates were concentrated on the second floor and underground except for some. Many of the long concourses under the elevated tracks that once existed are now commercial facilities.

This station has a station master that is also the station master for the Sanyo Main Line stations of Kitanagase and Niwase, the Uno Line Stations of Ōmoto through Kuguhara, the Kibi Line stations of Bizen-Mikado through Bitchū-Takamatsu, and the Tsuyama Line stations of Hōkaiin through Fukuwatari.

Prior to this, Kitanagase and Niwase stations were controlled by Kurashiki and Nakashō stations, Omoto through Kuguhara Stations on the Uno line were controlled by Kojima station, Each station on the Kibi Line was managed by the Bitchu Railway Department (after the abolition, Niimi Station [management station] and Soja Station [district station]), but it was changed from the policy of matching with the administrative area in principle.

History
The station opened on March 18, 1891. Between 1972 and 1975, the station was the western terminus of the Sanyō Shinkansen.