The station is located 928.585 km (577.0 mi) from Bangkok's Thon Buri railway station and serves as a junction for the mainline Southern Line towards Pattani, Yala and Sungai Kolok (border point with Malaysia at Rantau Panjang) and Padang Besar, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore Line (border point with Malaysia at Padang Besar).

[2] In 1978, the line from Hat Yai to Songkhla City closed down, leaving the junction to be only for the mainline to Sungai-Kolok and the branch to Butterworth.

Hat Yai Junction has been a target of multiple terrorist attacks during the South Thailand insurgency.

Hat Yai Junction railway station is the setting of at least two Thai pop songs, including (Thai: สัญญาใจ; RTGS: sanya jai) 'Love Promise') by Narathip Kanchanawat of Chatree band, in 1980, and has been covered by many artists since then.

The second is the Thai protest song (phleng phuea chiwit), titled 'Promise at Hat Yai' (Thai: คำสัญญาที่หาดใหญ่; RTGS: kam sanya thi hat yai) by Jew Khonkhianphleng in 1994.