Tamura

Weekday departures: 65/day · Sat & holiday departures: 65/day

First / last departure (weekday): 5:47 / 23:38

Busiest hour: 8:00–9:00 (6)

0:00 ─ 23:00

Figures are typical departures in the timetable data, not a live service count.

Timetable data as of 2 May 2026.

• Hokuriku Line: Nagahama ⇄ Sakata (Shiga)

Tamura Station is on the JR West Hokuriku Main Line in Nagahama, Shiga Prefecture, within the section nicknamed the "Biwako Line" and carrying station number JR-A10. It opened on 14 October 1931 between Hosshōji (now Sakata) and Nagahama as a halt for gasoline-railcar service introduced between Hikone and Nagahama, was suspended on 1 November 1940 because of wartime fuel shortages, and reopened on 10 December 1954. On 1 October 1957 the station became the boundary point for the new AC electrification reaching to Tsuruga, with platform layouts staggered and sidings added so that locomotives could be exchanged here. The Maibara–Tamura section was electrified on DC on 28 December 1962, and the section on to Nagahama was converted from AC to DC on 14 September 1991, allowing through new-rapid trains. The station passed to JR West on 1 April 1987 and gained ICOCA support on 1 November 2003.

From 1957 Tamura marked the start of the AC-electrified line towards Tsuruga — and, once the Maibara side was electrified on DC in 1962, the boundary between AC and DC traction — so locomotive-hauled trains changed engines here, and the platforms were lengthened to take the fourteen-car formations that stopped for the swap. Locomotive exchange ended in 1983, once dual-system EF81 locomotives switched supply on the move; the locomotive sidings were removed but the platforms and running lines were never realigned, so the open space left between the up and down tracks still recalls the old arrangement, and the longest trains calling today are eight cars.