Shin-Tokorozawa Station is a station on the Seibu Railway Shinjuku Line located in Midori-cho 1-chome, Tokorozawa City, Saitama Prefecture. The station number is SS24. Among the Seibu Railway stations in Saitama Prefecture, it has the second largest number of passengers after Tokorozawa Station.
Since the Minamiiriso depot is located on the north side of this station, many trains start and end at this station. The surrounding area is sometimes called by the abbreviation “Shintoko”.
It used to be called ‘Tokorozawa Hikojomae Station,’ but it was later renamed ‘Tokorozawa Miyukicho Station,’ as it was not appropriate for the name to clearly show the military facilities. It was located in Miyuki-cho, the northern part of the central city of Tokorozawa, but after the war, it was renamed ‘Kita Tokorozawa Station’ and moved to its current location.
The base of this station was ‘Tokorozawa Airfield Station’, which opened on June 21, 1938 (Showa 13). At the request of the principal of the Army Aviation Technical School, which was located at Tokorozawa Airfield, and for the sake of the development of the northern part of the city of Tokorozawa and the convenience of local residents, this station was built at the entrance of the road leading to Tokorozawa Airfield and at the place where the Shinjuku Line crosses the Higashi River.
Tokorozawa Airport Front Station is a single-platform, single-track station with a single platform and a small station building. It is attached to the river and guards the embankment at the foot. There are stairs leading to the station building. In addition to being used by military personnel going to the airport, there are also many local users such as commuters and school-goers due to the proximity to the city center. Even after it was renamed “Tokorozawa Miyukicho Station” for counterintelligence purposes on December 1, 1940 (Showa 15), it continued to operate without interruption during and after the war.
However, after the war, a big problem arose between Tokorozawa Miyukicho Station and Iriso Station. At that time, the siding to the weapons supply depot established by the U.S. Forces in Japan branched off near the present location of this station, but the frequency of freight transportation to that point increased, causing problems in setting train schedules.
In order to solve this problem, Seibu Railway made a plan to build a station at the branch point of the branch line, but instead of building a new station, it took the form of relocating the Tokorozawa Miyukicho Station. Try to solve the issue in this way. As mentioned above, the site has a large number of local users and thus has caused a fierce opposition movement. As a result, the station was moved about 2 kilometers north in the direction of Honkawagoe, and was renamed “Kita-Tokorozawa Station”. This is the current station. On February 1, 1959, the name of the station was changed to “Shin-Tororozawa Station”.
In addition, the site of Tokorozawa Miyukicho Station was converted to a double-track site, and nothing remains at all.
