| Tara Station | |
| Native Name: | 多良駅 |
| Native Name Lang: | ja |
| Symbol Location: | jp |
| Symbol: | jrk |
| Style: | JR Kyushu |
| Address: | 1702-5 Tara, Tara-cho, Fujitsu-gun, Saga-ken 849-1602 |
| Country: | Japan |
| Coordinates: | 33.026°N 130.1759°W |
| Operator: | JR Kyushu |
| Line: | Nagasaki Main Line |
| Distance: | 67.7 km from |
| Platforms: | 1 side + 1 island platforms |
| Tracks: | 3 + 2 sidings |
| Structure: | At grade |
| Accessible: | No - access to island platform by footbridge |
| Status: | Staffed ticket window (outsourced) |
| Passengers: | 323 daily |
| Pass Year: | FY2016 |
| Map Type: | Japan Saga Prefecture#Japan |
| Map Dot Label: | Tara Station |
| Mapframe: | yes |
| Mapframe-Zoom: | 17 |
is a passenger railway station located in the city of Tara, Fujitsu District, Saga Prefecture, Japan. It is operated by JR Kyushu and is on the Nagasaki Main Line.[1]
The station is served by the Nagasaki Main Line and is located 67.7 km from the starting point of the line at . Besides the local services on the line, about two trains a day from the JR Kyushu Limited Express service Kamome between and also stop at the station.[2]
The station consists of a side platform and an island platform serving three tracks. A siding branches off track 1 and another off track 3. The station building is a timber built structure of western design and houses a waiting room and a ticket window. Access to the island platform is by means of a footbridge.[3] [4]
Management of 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 window which is equipped with a POS machine but does not have a Midori no Madoguchi facility.[5] [6]
Japanese Government Railways (JGR) built the station in the 1930s during the development of an alternative route for the Nagasaki Main Line along the coast of the Ariake Sea which was at first known as the Ariake Line. The track was built from to, opening on 9 March 1930, and then to, opening on 30 November 1930. In the next phase of expansion, the track was extended to Tara which opened on 16 April 1934 as the new southern terminus. On 1 December 1934, the entire route was completed and through-traffic achieved from Hizen-Yamaguchi through the station to Nagasaki. The track was then redesignated as part of the Nagasaki Main Line. With the privatization of Japanese National Railways (JNR), the successor of JGR, on 1 April 1987, control of the station passed to JR Kyushu.
In fiscal 2016, the station was used by an average of 323 passengers daily (boarding passengers only), and it ranked 300th among the busiest stations of JR Kyushu.[7]