The station, then known as
Las Arenas, first opened to the public in 1887 as the western terminus of the Bilbao-Las Arenas railway. It was an at-grade station, covered by a large
train shed. The station was originally built as a
cul-de-sac, but after the extension of the line to
Plentzia in 1893, it was renovated as trains continued along the coast past the station. The station had two side platforms and was one of the most important train stations of the entire railway. Starting in 1947, the narrow-gauge railway companies that operated within the
Bilbao metropolitan area were merged to become
Ferrocarriles y Transportes Suburbanos, shortened FTS and the first precedent of today's
Bilbao Metro. In 1977, the FTS network was transferred to the public company
FEVE and in 1982 to the recently created
Basque Railways. In the 1980s it was decided the station, just like most of the former railway line, would be integrated into
Line 1 of the metro, with the new station opening underground now as part of the metro network on 11 November 1995. The new underground station was designed by
English architect
Norman Foster. Concurrently, it was renamed
Areeta, following the
Basque language orthographic rules and in replacement of the former
Las Arenas name, which was in Spanish. ==Station layout==