Sonoda Station

Sonoda station (園田駅) is a passenger railway station located in the city of Amagasaki Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. It is operated by the private transportation company Hankyu Railway. Although technically situated in Amagasaki, it is a five-minute walk to neighboring Osaka Prefecture.

Lines
Sonoda Station is served by the Hankyu Kobe Line, and is located 7.2 km from the terminus of the line at Osaka-umeda.

Layout
The station consists of two elevated island platforms serving four tracks and a single unnumbered side platform outside the inbound siding track. Normally, only the island platform is used, and the single platform is a 'temporary platform' for getting off, which was mainly used when the Sonoda horse race is held.

History
Sonoda Station opened on 20 October 1936.

The station was transformed from a surface-level station to an elevated station in 1980. Work took 2 years to complete.

Station numbering was introduced on 21 December 2013, with Sonoda being designated as station number HK-05.

Passenger statistics
In fiscal year 2019, the station was used by an average of 38,241 passengers daily.

Surrounding area
Below the station itself exists a small shopping centre called Sonoda Hankyu Plaza (園田阪急プラザ) which undertook a major renovation completed at the end of April 2006. It now consists of many restaurants, a Matsumoto Kiyoshi pharmacy, a Mister Donut, a branch of the Kohyo chain of supermarket, a Docomo mobile phone shop as well as various smaller retailers.


 * Sonoda Racecourse
 * Yuri Gakuin Junior and Senior High School
 * Amagasaki Municipal Sonoda Higashi Junior High School