Dortmund Central Station

Dortmund Hauptbahnhof
Operations
Category	1
Type	Crossing station
Platforms in use	16
Daily entry/exit	130,000
DS100 code	EDO
Station code	1289
Construction and location
Opened	1847 1910 (rebuilt) 1944 (destroyed) 1952 (rebuilt)
Location	Dortmund
State	North Rhine-Westphalia
Country	Germany
Home page	www.bahnhof.de
51°31′3″N 7°27′32″E
Route information
Duisburg–Dortmund Dortmund–Hamm Elberfeld–Dortmund Dortmund–Oberhausen/Duisburg Dortmund–Soest Dortmund–Enschede Dortmund–Iserlohn S-Bahn S 1S 2S 5
List of railway stations in North Rhine-Westphalia

Dortmund Central Station (German: Dortmund Hauptbahnhof) is the central station for the city of Dortmund in Germany.

The station's origins lie in a joint station of the Köln-Mindener Eisenbahn and Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn which was built north of the city centre in 1847. That station was replaced by a new station, erected in 1910 at the current site. It featured raised embankments to allow a better flow of traffic. At the time of its opening, it was one of the largest stations in Germany. It was, however, destroyed in an Allied air raid on 6 October 1944.

The main station hall was rebuilt in the year 1952 in a contemporary style. Its stained glass windows feature then-common professions of Dortmund.

Dortmund Hauptbahnhof is the third largest long distance traffic junction in Germany.

982 trains pass though it each day and make Dortmund Hauptbahnhof the busiest railway station in the Ruhr Area and (excluding the S-Bahn networks) the second busiest in Germany only after Köln Hauptbahnhof.

History

The original Dortmund station was built north of the city centre by the Cologne-Minden Railway Company (Cöln-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, CME) as part of its trunk line and opened on 15 May 1847. Two years later the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company (Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, BME) opened its station as a purely terminating station south of the existing station at the end of its main line to Elberfeld (now Wuppertal), its line to Soest (from 1855) and its Ruhr route to Duisburg and Oberhausen (from 1860).

The original station building, which was built on an island between the tracks with its access from Burgtor, was replaced in 1910 by a new large building at its current location. The new station was opened on 12 December 1910. The tracks had been raised to remove the obstruction of road traffic at level crossings. This second Hauptbahnhof in Dortmund was one of the largest of the former German Empire when it opened. On 6 October 1944, it was destroyed in an Allied bombing raid.

The entrance building of Dortmund Hauptbahnhof was replaced in 1952 by a functionalist building. It is regarded as architecturally insignificant, but it has significant stained glass windows on the theme of the former industrial specialisations of Dortmund. Five large stained glass windows document the Dortmund economy. In the middle one the city is shown, flanked to the left and right by a steelworker, a blast furnace worker, a brewer and a bridge builder. During the reconstruction of the station they were removed and the put on exhibition at the Hattingen Henrichshütte (a former steel works, which is partly used as a museum of industry). They were replaced with exact copies.

Dortmund Hauptbahnhof originally housed a movie theatre. The Live Station discotheque was established in this former cinema in 1986. In April 2009, the nightclub was closed in the course of preparations for the reconstruction.

• 

  The original station in 1870

• 

  The new station of 1910

• 

  The station during the occupation of the Ruhr in September 1924

Reconstruction and rehabilitation

Dortmund Hauptbahnhof

Dortmund HBF from the RWE Tower

Entrance building during the reconstruction phase, February 2010

The reconstruction of the Dortmund Hauptbahnhof has been under discussion since 1997. The original plan for a residential area in the form of an "oversized UFO" (80,000 square metres of usable space) was rejected. On 7 October 1998 a memorandum of had been signed between Deutsche Bahn, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and Westdeutsche Immobilien Bank. The Deutsche Mark (DM) 850 million project was to be completed by 2002.

After the plans for the so-called "Dortmund UFO" were dropped, a new investor was found in 2001 in the form of the Portuguese investment group Sonae Imobiliaria. The DM 1.2 billion project was to be completed by 2006 and new designs were commissioned from architectural firms in the first quarter of 2001. The new proposed development was called "3do" (3 Dortmund). € 75 million of federal and € 55 million of state funds were pledged. It was planned to have 36,000 square metres of retail and 26,500 square metres of entertainment space. On 3 February 2006, the Essen branch of the Federal Railway Authority (Eisenbahn-Bundesamt) approved the plans for "3do". On 28 February 2007, Deutsche Bahn announced that the investor was unwilling to commit to the project.

Through plans for the reconstruction of the station have twice failed, Dortmund Hauptbahnhof suffers significantly from neglect. Only the terminating platforms (tracks 2–5) and the platform of S-Bahn lines S1 and S2 (tracks 6 and 7) have a lift. The other platforms only have a freight lift, which can be used only on request. This is not in the pedestrian area of the station.

The reconstruction and rehabilitation of the Dortmund Hauptbahnhof began in summer 2009. In a first phase, the station building and related operational areas were gutted. During construction the ticket office and a restaurant of a fast-food chain were placed in containers outside the station. The federal police station and the Bahnhofsmission (a German charity focussed on railway stations) were also placed in containers on the north side. On 17 June 2011, the first phase was formally completed. Of the total cost of € 23 million, the federal government contributed € 13.3 million, the state € 1.4 million and the Deutsche Bahn € 8.3 million.

In a second phase, which begins in 2014 and will not be completed until 2017, the station tunnels and the entrances to the platforms will be renewed. Dortmund is one of the few big-city stations in Germany where access to the platforms has not yet made accessible for the disabled. In the course of these alterations the eastern access to the tunnel linking the station’s buildings and platforms will also be rebuilt. At the same time it is also intended that there will be improvements to facilitate the introduction of the Rhine-Ruhr Express (a planned upgrade to North Rhine-Westphalia’s Regional-Express network). This will require a comprehensive restructuring of the track layout in Dortmund Hauptbahnhof.

Services

Long distance trains

Dortmund Hauptbahnhof is served by Deutsche Bahn Intercity-Express and Intercity services.

Preceding station		Deutsche Bahn		Following station
Bochum Hbf toward Köln/Bonn Flughafen		ICE 10		Hamm toward Berlin Ostbahnhof
Hagen Hbf toward München Hbf		ICE 31 train route splits here and rejoins in Köln Hbf		Münster Hbf toward Kiel Hbf
Bochum Hbf toward München Hbf
Bochum Hbf toward München Hbf		ICE 41		Terminus
		ICE 42		Münster Hbf toward Hamburg-Altona
Hagen Hbf toward Basel SBB		ICE 43		Hamm toward Hannover Hbf
Bochum Hbf toward Wien Westbf		ICE 91 train route splits here and rejoins in Köln Hbf		Terminus
Hagen Hbf toward Wien Westbf
Bochum Hbf toward Köln Hbf		IC 26 Köln-Hamburg		Hamm toward Hamburg-Altona
Bochum Hbf toward Chur		IC/EC 30		Münster Hbf toward Ostseebad Binz or Seebad Heringshof
Hagen Hbf toward Passau Hbf		IC/EC 31		Münster Hbf toward Hamburg-Altona/Kiel Hbf/Puttgarden
Bochum Hbf toward Innsbruck Hbf		IC/EC 32		Hamm toward Berlin Südkreuz
Bochum Hbf toward Köln Hbf		IC 51		Hamm toward Ostseebad Binz
Hagen Hbf toward Köln Hbf		IC 55		Hamm toward Leipzig Hbf

Regional trains

Regional-Express and Regionalbahn services:

Preceding station		Deutsche Bahn		Following station
Bochum Hbf toward Aachen Hbf		RE 1 NRW-Express		Kamen toward Paderborn Hbf
Witten Hbf toward Aachen Hbf		RE 4 Wupper-Express		Terminus
Bochum Hbf toward Düsseldorf Hbf		RE 6 Westfalen-Express		Kamen toward Minden
Bochum Hbf toward Mönchengladbach Hbf		RE 11 Rhein-Hellweg-Express		Dortmund-Scharnhorst toward Hamm
Terminus		RE 57 Dortmund-Sauerland-Express		Dortmund-Hörde toward Winterberg
Terminus		RB 52 Volmetalbahn		Dortmund Signal-Iduna-Park toward Lüdenscheid
Terminus		RB 53 Ardey-Bahn		Dortmund Signal-Iduna-Park toward Iserlohn
Preceding station		eurobahn		Following station
Dortmund-Mengede toward Düsseldorf Hbf		RE 3 Rhein-Emscher-Express		Dortmund-Scharnhorst toward Hamm
Dortmund-Kirchderne toward Münster Hbf		RB 50 Der Lünener		Terminus
Terminus		RB 59 Hellweg-Bahn		Dortmund Signal-Iduna-Park toward Soest
Preceding station		NordWestBahn		Following station
Dortmund-Huckarde Nord toward Dorsten		RB 43 Emschertal-Bahn		Terminus
Preceding station		Prignitzer		Following station
Dortmund-Kirchderne toward Enschede		RB 51 Westmünsterland-Bahn		Terminus

S-Bahn trains

Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn services:

Preceding station		Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn		Following station
Dortmund-Dorstfeld toward Solingen Hbf		S1		Terminus
Dortmund-Dorstfeld toward Duisburg Hbf, Essen Hbf or Recklinghausen Hbf		S2
Dortmund-Barop toward Hagen Hbf		S5

Light rail

Underground platforms of Dortmund Stadtbahn

Light rail services are operated by the Dortmund Stadtbahn.

Preceding station		Rhine-Ruhr Stadtbahn		Following station
Leopoldstraße toward Brambauer Verkehrshof		U41		Kampstraße toward Clarenberg
Terminus		U45		Kampstraße toward Westfalenhallen
Leopoldstraße toward Dortmund-Westerfilde		U47		Kampstraße toward Aplerbeck
Leopoldstraße toward Hafen		U49		Kampstraße toward Hacheney

∗ U45 becomes at the station Westfalenhallen the line U46 and continues to Brunnenstraße. On match days of the Borussia Dortmund soccer club the line ends instead of the regular terminus Westfalenhallen at the Westfalenstadion station, which is only open on these occasions. In this case it does not continue as U46.