The new Hatsushima train station was printed at a factory, shipped to the Japanese city of Arida and assembled overnight. — Noriko Hayashi/The New York Times
IN the six hours between the departure of the night’s last train and the arrival of the morning’s first one, workers in rural Japan built an entirely new train station. It will replace a significantly bigger wooden structure that has served commuters in this remote community for more than 75 years.
The new station’s components were 3D-printed elsewhere and assembled on site last month, in what the railway’s operators say is a world first. It may look more like a shelter than a station, but building one the traditional way would have taken more than two months and cost twice as much, according to the West Japan Railway Co.
