Koblenz Hauptbahnhof
Koblenz Hauptbahnhof is a railway station in the city of Koblenz in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is the focal point of rail transport in the Rhine-Moselle-Lahn area. It is a through station in southern Koblenz built below Fort Großfürst Konstantin and opened in 1902 in the Neustadt (new city), which was built after the demolition of the city walls in 1890. The station replaced two former stations on the Left Rhine railway, which were only 900 m apart, and the former Moselle line station. Koblenz-Stadtmitte station opened in April 2011 in the old centre of Koblenz. Koblenz Hauptbahnhof is on the West Rhine Railway and connects to the Moselle line, the East Rhine Railway and to the Lahn Valley Railway. It is used daily by about 40,000 travelers and visitors. In the station forecourt are a bus station and a pavilion.
Since 2002, the station has been part of the Upper Middle Rhine Valley UNESCO World Heritage site.
History
Rhenish railway station
The Bonn-Cologne Railway Company opened its line between Cologne and Bonn in 1844, and extended it to Rolandseck in 1856. This company was taken over by the Rhenish Railway Company in 1857, which extended the line to Koblenz in 1858. On 11 November 1858, the first train, hauled by the locomotive Windsbraut ("whirlwind") ran over the newly built Moselle railway bridge on the Left Rhine line to a provisional station in the street of Fischelstraße. The construction of the bridge and the line was made possible by the first demolition of the Prussian city walls.
In 1859, the route was extended from Koblenz to Bingerbrück and the Rhenish station was expanded. In 1864 the Pfaffendorf Bridge was opened over the Rhine in Koblenz. It was initially built for trains only, connecting the Left and the Right Rhine lines. The last trains crossed the Pfaffendorf Bridge at the beginning of the First World War in August 1914.
Moselle station
In October 1878 the Güls railway bridge was inaugurated on the Moselle line and a year later this was followed by the completion of the Horchheim rail bridge over the Rhine. In 1879, Moselle line was put into operation and its station (Moselbahnhof) was opened below Fort Constantin, near the modern Hauptbahnhof. This line completed the expansion of the Koblenz rail network and was also a section of the strategic railway line between Berlin and Metz, the so-called Cannons Railway (Kanonenbahn).
Construction of the railway station
The Prussian fortifications of Koblenz were abandoned and torn down completely from 1890. The built up area of the city spread outside the small area inside the old walls for the first time. South of the walls a new urban area rapidly grew up along with the southern suburbs. The maintenance of two stations proved to be very complicated, because through trains had to stop twice within 900 m and passengers coming from Trier and wanting to travel on the right Rhine line to the north had to take a horse-drawn cab or walk between the Moselle and the Rhenish station. Thus demands for a central station became louder and planning started on the construction of a new and larger passenger station.
The small Rhenish station in Fischelstraße was abandoned and a magnificent new station was built in the new southern suburbs near the Moselle station from 1899 to 1902 to a design by Fritz Klingholz. The Central Station (Centralbahnhof), as it was officially called at that time, was opened on 1 May 1902. The through station was built like a palace with central and side pavilions, although for functional reasons it was not completely symmetrical. The facades were made of tuff and yellow sandstone in a neo-baroque style. The station building has a length of 96 m. A hall was built over the platforms. The northern wing of the royal room (Fürstenzimmer) was richly decorated and had direct access via a flight of stairs to platform 1, on which the Emperor arrived in Koblenz in 1905.
After the Second World War
The station building and the railway tracks were damaged in air raids during the Second World War. Reconstruction began in 1946. The station lost the hall structure over its platforms and its tower building. The reconstructions were different from the original buildings, simply built and without ornamentation. Functional roofs were installed over the platforms. In 1957 the Rhine line was electrified. In 1967 a new railway station signal box was opened and in 1977 the lobby was renovated. The travel centre was opened in 1984. In 1998 renovation of the station began and it is still continuing.
Train services
Koblenz station has a total of ten platform tracks on four platforms, seven of which are through-tracks (1 to 5, 8 and 9) and three are terminal tracks (104, 105 and 109).
Trains on the Left Rhine line from the north can use almost all tracks (1 to 5, 8 and 104), while Mosel line trains only use the three western tracks (5, 8 and 9). Trains on the Left Rhine line from the south can use only the eastern tracks (1 to 5 and 105), while Lahn Valley Railway and Right Rhine line trains can use all tracks (apart from the northern terminal platform, 104).
Long distance traffic
In long-distance traffic, Koblenz is served by Intercity-Express, Intercity and EuroCity trains. Thus, almost every major city in Germany can be reached directly from Koblenz. Regional services consist of Regional-Express and Regionalbahn trains to cities within 200 kilometres towards Saarbrücken, Cologne and the Ruhr, Emmerich / Wesel, Giessen and Mainz-Frankfurt am Main.
DB Regio Südwest operates trains from Koblenz via the Lahn Valley Railway to Limburg (RE25) and (RB23) and to Andernach and Mayen Ost (RB23). The trans regio company operates trains on the Left Rhine line from Cologne to Koblenz (MRB26), and from Koblenz to Mainz (MRB32).
| Line | Route | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| ICE 10 | Berlin Ostbahnhof – Berlin Hbf – Berlin-Spandau – (Wolfsburg –) Hannover – Bielefeld – Hamm (Westf) – Hagen – Wuppertal – Cologne – Bonn – Koblenz | Individual services |
| ICE 31 | (Kiel –) Hamburg – Bremen – Osnabrück – Münster (Westf) – Dortmund – Duisburg – Cologne – Bonn – Koblenz – Mainz – Frankfurt (Main) – Würzburg – Nuremberg – Munich | Individual services |
| ICE 91 | Dortmund – Duisburg – Cologne – Bonn – Koblenz – Mainz – Frankfurt (Main) – Würzburg – Nuremberg – Passau – Linz – Vienna Westbf | Individual services |
| IC/EC 30 | Hamburg-Altona – (individual services: Westerland –) Hamburg Hbf – Bremen – Münster (Westf) – Dortmund – Duisburg – Köln – Bonn – Koblenz – Mainz – Mannheim – Heidelberg – Stuttgart (individual services: Mannheim – Karlsruhe – Freiburg (Brsg) – Basel SBB – Switzerland) | Every 2 hours |
| IC/EC 31 | (Fehmarn-Burg or Kiel –) Hamburg – Bremen – Münster (Westf) – Dortmund – Hagen – Wuppertal – Cologne –Bonn – Koblenz – Mainz – Frankfurt (Main) – Würzburg – Nuremberg (one train pair: Munich – Garmisch-Partenkirchen – Mittenwald / Munich – Freilassing – Berchtesgaden) – Passau – Linz – Vienna (one train pair: Budapest) | Every 2 hours |
| IC/EC 32 | (Fr/Su: Berlin – Hannover – Bielefeld – Hamm (Westf) –) Dortmund – Duisburg – Cologne – Bonn - Remagen – Andernach – Koblenz – Mainz – Mannheim – Heidelberg – Stuttgart (one train pair: Ulm – Augsburg – Munich – Salzburg – Klagenfurt, one train pair: Ulm – Lindau – Innsbruck) | Every 2 hours |
| IC 35 | Norddeich Mole – Lingen – Rheine – Münster (Westf) – Duisburg – Cologne – Bonn – Remagen – Andernach – Koblenz (– Koblenz – Mainz – Mannheim – Stuttgart) | Individual services |
| IC 55 | Leipzig – Halle (Saale) – Magdeburg – Braunschweig – Hannover – Bielefeld – Hamm (Westf) – Dortmund – Duisburg or Wuppertal – Cologne – Bonn – Remagen – Koblenz – Mainz – Mannheim – Heidelberg – Stuttgart – Ulm – Oberstdorf | One pair of services |
Regional services
Here is an overview of all regional services, stopping in Koblenz. Only 3 of the 11 lines continue through the station, the VIAS-operated RheingauLinie (RB10), the trans regio-operated Mittelrheinbahn (RB26) and the DB Regio-operated Lahn-Eifel-Bahn (RB23); the rest start or finish there.
| Line | Line name | Route | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|
| RE 1 | Südwest-Express(SÜWEX): | Koblenz – Treis-Karden – Cochem – Bullay – Wittlich – Trier Hauptbahnhof – Saarburg – Saarbrücken – Homburg – Landstuhl – Kaiserslautern – Neustadt – Ludwigshafen Mitte – Mannheim | Hourly to Homburg or Kaiserslautern, every 2 hours to Mannheim |
| RE 11 | Südwest-Express (SÜWEX) | Koblenz – Treis-Karden – Cochem – Bullay – Wittlich – Trier Hbf – Wasserbillig – Wecker – Munsbach – Sandweiler-Contern – Luxemburg | Hourly |
| RE 2 | Südwest-Express (SÜWEX): | Koblenz – Boppard – Bingen – Mainz – Frankfurt Airport (regional) – Frankfurt | Every 2 hours |
| RE 5 | Rhein-Express | Koblenz – Andernach – Remagen – Bonn – Cologne – Köln Messe/Deutz – Düsseldorf – Duisburg – Wesel | Hourly |
| RE 8 | Rhein-Erft-Express | Koblenz – Koblenz Stadtmitte – Neuwied – Bonn-Beuel – Porz (Rhein) – Köln Messe/Deutz – Cologne – Rommerskirchen – Grevenbroich – Mönchengladbach | Hourly |
| RB 10 | RheingauLinie | Neuwied – Koblenz – Rüdesheim – Wiesbaden – Frankfurt | Hourly |
| RE 17 | Koblenz – Boppard – Oberwesel – Bingen – Bad Kreuznach – Kaiserslautern | 120 min | |
| RB 23 | Lahn-Eifel-Bahn | Mayen – Mendig – Andernach – Koblenz – Niederlahnstein – Bad Ems – Diez – Limburg (Lahn) | Hourly |
| RE 25 | Lahn-Eifel-Bahn | Koblenz – Limburg – Weilburg – Wetzlar – Gießen | Every 2 hours |
| RB 26 | Mittelrheinbahn | Köln Messe/Deutz – Cologne – Bonn – Remagen – Andernach – Koblenz – Boppard – Oberwesel – Bingen – Ingelheim – Mainz | Hourly |
| RB 27 | Rhein-Erft-Bahn | Koblenz – Koblenz-Ehrenbreitstein – Engers – Neuwied – Bonn-Beuel – Cologne/Bonn Airport – Köln Messe/Deutz – Köln – Rommerskirchen – Grevenbroich – Mönchengladbach | Hourly |
| RB 81 | Moselbahn | Koblenz – Cochem (Mosel) – Bullay – Wittlich – Trier | Hourly |
References
- ^ a b "Stationspreisliste 2024" [Station price list 2024] (PDF) (in German). DB Station&Service. 24 April 2023. Retrieved 29 November 2023.
- ^ Eisenbahnatlas Deutschland (German railway atlas) (2009/2010 ed.). Schweers + Wall. 2009. ISBN 978-3-89494-139-0.
Sources
- Energieversorgung Mittelrhein GmbH, ed. (1992). Geschichte der Stadt Koblenz (in German). Vol. 1: Von den Anfängen bis zum Ende der kurfürstlichen Zeit. Stuttgart: Theiss. ISBN 3-8062-0876-X.
- Energieversorgung Mittelrhein GmbH, ed. (1993). Geschichte der Stadt Koblenz (in German). Vol. 2: Von der französischen Stadt bis zur Gegenwart. Stuttgart: Theiss. ISBN 3-8062-1036-5.
External links
- "Koblenz Hbf track plan" (PDF (204.0 KB)) (in German). Deutsche Bahn. Retrieved 22 December 2010.
- "Private Website on the history of rail transport in Koblenz, including photographs" (in German). Archived from the original on 27 October 2009. Retrieved 22 December 2010.
