Karlsruhe Hauptbahnhof
Karlsruhe Hauptbahnhof is a
History
Old station
When the
It was built to
The increased rail traffic and the resulting frequent closures of the level crossings disrupted the ever-growing city and made its expansion more difficult. After several years of discussion, which considered, among other things, the raising of the level of the tracks, the Baden parliament decided in 1902 to relocate the station to a site one kilometre south of the existing site.
After the opening of the new station in 1913, the existing railway station lost its function as a railway station and continued to be used until the 1960s as a market hall. Today, the Baden State Theatre is located on the former railway yard. Some of the remaining tracks were used over the decades as sidings, but have since been entirely removed. The freight yard was used as a repair shop until 1997. Ludwig-Erhard-Allee was built in the meantime on the grounds of the freight yard, the workshop area is currently being redeveloped with blocks of flats (2010).
New station
The station building, which continues in use, was built about a kilometre south of its predecessor between Südstadt and the marshalling yard. Construction began in 1910 to the plans of August Stürzenacker and the station was opened on the night of 22/23 October 1913. The station and access tracks were built in the district of Beiertheim and also occupied a significant part of the Stadtgarten (city garden, the location of Karlsruhe Zoo) and the garden behind the Stephanienbad (now Paul-Gerhardt) church. This resulted in the cutting down of the then oldest eastern cottonwood poplar in Europe.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fd/Karlsruhe_asv2022-10_img19_Hauptbahnhof.jpg/220px-Karlsruhe_asv2022-10_img19_Hauptbahnhof.jpg)
The platforms and the approach tracks were built on an embankment, with access via a pedestrian underpass. The entrance building is on the north side of the tracks. The building has both neoclassical and Art Nouveau features. East of the station building there is a second underpass, which originally served as an outlet for arriving passengers and was used for a time mainly as an underground car park and a few years ago for secure bicycle parking, but it is now back in use as a pedestrian underpass. A five-span, steel concourse was built to cover five island platforms. Later an eleventh platform track was built and, in the 1980s, three more platform tracks were created south of the station concourse. West of the station building a station annex was built with four terminal tracks, where the lines from the Palatinate and Graben-Neudorf (via Eggenstein) terminated. The construction of the new station also affected the access routes. Thus, the former stations at Mühlburger Tor in Karlsruhe and in Beiertheim and Rüppurr were closed. The stations in Mühlburg and Durlach were relocated and the tracks of the line to Mühlacker, which had previously ended in Durlach, were extended to the new Hauptbahnhof, so that there were now four tracks between Durlach and Karlsruhe. Also the new Karlsruhe-West station was opened for passenger services.
The station forecourt was designed by Wilhelm Vitalli. The square with a rectangular ground plan is surrounded by arcades. At the end of the square to the east and the west are two hotel buildings and on the northern side is the entrance to the Stadtgarten and the commercial buildings. The station forecourt is a typical ensemble of urban architecture from the last years before the First World War. East of the station was the railway post office, which had a railway siding on the tramway as well.
A week before the opening of the station a tram line was opened between Ettlinger Tor and the new station, which—after removal of the access tracks to the old station—was connected to the city centre. A new terminus for the Alb Valley Railway (Albtalbahn) was opened 300 meters west of the station in Ebertstraße in 1915.
Development of the station
In the Second World War, the station was damaged by bombing, but not destroyed, so that it could be rebuilt after the war. The period after 1950 was characterised by a continuous modernisation of the station and the forecourt. In 1957, the electrification of the railway was completed. In 1969, the rebuilding of the station forecourt began, where—in the spirit of the times—a pedestrian underpass was created and the car and tram traffic were reorganised. In 1977, a new
At the end of the 1980s, the station was expanded to include three through tracks, 12–14, and a parking garage was built. This was intended to be followed by a redesign of the area immediately south of the station, but this has still not been implemented. Two platforms were extended and modernised for Karlsruhe's inclusion in the
In 1995, there was a further reorganisation of the station forecourt, during which the pedestrian underpass was closed and the tram station was rebuilt. In 1996, a rail link was built between the western track south of the station and the Albtalbahnhof (the Karlsruhe station of the Alb Valley Railway), over which Stadtbahn (light rail) services could run to Rastatt as line S 4/S 41 of the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn between the rail network and the tram network. As a result, two terminating tracks, 103 and 104, were no longer necessary and, in the mid-2000s, they were closed, so the station now has 14 through tracks, 1–14, and two terminating tracks, 101 and 102.
Operations
The Karlsruhe station is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a
The tracks are designed for through services, with platform tracks 1–4 being used for services on the route to Mannheim and Basel, tracks 5–8 for services to and from Heidelberg and Rastatt, tracks 9–14 for services to and from Rastatt and Pforzheim and tracks 101 and 102 for services between Karlsruhe and Neustadt. The through tracks 1–14 can be approached from all lines while tracks 101 and 102 can only be used by services to and from Wörth and Durmersheim.
West of the station are carriage sidings with a turntable and the Karlsruhe depot of DB Regio. East of the station there is a second set of carriage sidings. A connecting track allows shunting between the station and Karlsruhe freight yard.
According to DB, the station is used by 130 long-distance trains, 133 regional trains and 121 S-Bahn trains each day (as at 29 June 2011).
Long-distance services
The station is served by 130 long-distance trains each day, mainly ICEs and ICs on the Rhine route and
Line | Route | Interval |
---|---|---|
ICE 11 | Karlsruhe – Mannheim – Frankfurt – Erfurt – Leipzig – Berlin – Berlin Gesundbrunnen | One train |
ICE 12 | Basel (– Bern – Interlaken )
|
Every two hours |
ICE 20 | ( Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe – Frankfurt – Mannheim – Karlsruhe – Baden-Baden – Freiburg – Basel – Zürich (– Chur )
| |
ICE 26 | (Binz – Stralsund –) Hamburg – Hannover – Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe – Gießen – Frankfurt – Heidelberg – Karlsruhe | |
IC 35 | (Norddeich Mole –) Emden – Münster – Gelsenkirchen – Duisburg – Düsseldorf – Cologne – Bonn – Koblenz – Mainz – Mannheim – Karlsruhe – Baden-Baden – Offenburg – Singen – Konstanz | One train pair on the weekend |
ICE 43 | (Hannover – Dortmund –) or (Amsterdam – Duisburg –) Cologne – Frankfurt Airport – Mannheim – Karlsruhe – Offenburg – Freiburg – Basel | Every two hours |
EC 43 | Hamburg-Altona – Hamburg – Bremen – Osnabrück – Münster – Dortmund – Essen – Duisburg – Düsseldorf – Cologne – Bonn – Koblenz – Mainz – Mannheim – Karlsruhe – Baden-Baden – Freiburg – Basel – Zürich / Interlaken | Two train pairs |
ICE 60 | (Basel Bad – Freiburg – Offenburg – Baden-Baden –) Karlsruhe – Stuttgart – Ulm – Augsburg – Munich | Every two hours |
IC 61 | Karlsruhe – Pforzheim – Mühlacker – Vaihingen – Stuttgart – Aalen – Crailsheim – Nuremberg – Bamberg – Jena Paradies – Leipzig | |
ICE/TGV 82 | Strasbourg – Karlsruhe – Mannheim – Frankfurt
|
Two train pairs |
ICE/TGV 83 | Paris Est – Strasbourg – Karlsruhe – Stuttgart (– Ulm – Augsburg – Munich) | Five train pairs |
ICE/TGV 84 | Frankfurt – Mannheim – Karlsruhe – Baden-Baden – Strasbourg – Marseille-Saint-Charles
|
One train pair |
ECE 85 | Frankfurt – Mannheim – Karlsruhe – Baden-Baden – Freiburg – Basel – Lucerne – Bellinzona – Lugano – Chiasso – Monza – Milan |
Regional services
Line | Route | Frequency |
---|---|---|
IRE 1
|
Karlsruhe – Pforzheim – Mühlacker – Vaihingen (Enz) – Stuttgart – Schorndorf – Aalen | Hourly (Stuttgart – Aalen: every two hours) |
RE 2
|
Schwarzwaldbahn Karlsruhe – Baden-Baden – Achern – Offenburg – Villingen – Singen – Konstanz (– Kreuzlingen) |
Hourly |
RE 4
|
Südwest- Express (SÜWEX)
Karlsruhe – Germersheim – Speyer – Ludwigshafen – Frankenthal – Worms – Mainz – Frankfurt |
Every two hours |
RE 6 | Neustadt (Weinstr) – Landau (Pfalz) – Wörth (Rhein) – Karlsruhe | Hourly |
RE 40 | Karlsruhe – Rastatt – Gaggenau – Gernsbach – Forbach – Freudenstadt | Every two hours |
RE 45
|
Karlsruhe – Bretten – Eppingen – Schwaigern – Heilbronn | Hourly |
RE 73 | Karlsruhe – Karlsruhe-Durlach – Bruchsal – Heidelberg | Hourly |
RB 41 | Karlsruhe – Ettlingen West – Rastatt – Gernsbach – Forbach (some trains: Freudenstadt – Bondorf – Herrenberg) | Hourly, Mon-Fri only |
RB 44
|
Karlsruhe – Ettlingen West – Rastatt (some trains: Baden-Baden – Achern) | Hourly |
RB 51 | Karlsruhe – Wörth – Kandel – Landau – Edenkoben – Neustadt | Hourly |
Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn service
Karlsruhe Huaptbahnhof is start and end station of Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn line S3 service on the Karlsruhe– Bruchsal–Heidelberg– Mannheim– Ludwigshafen– Speyer– Germersheim route.
Line | Route | Frequency |
---|---|---|
S3 | Karlsruhe Hbf – KA-Durlach – Bruchsal – Heidelberg – Mannheim – Ludwigshafen (Rhein) – Schifferstadt – Speyer – Germersheim | Hourly,
peak hours: 30 minute intervals |
Karlsruhe Stadtbahn services
Karlsruhe station is a hub for S-Bahn train services of the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn of the Albtal-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft. Most of the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn services, however, use platforms A to D on the station forecourt (officially: Bahnhofplatz), which is shared with urban trams and buses.
Line | Route | Frequency |
---|---|---|
S 1 | Linkenheim-Hochstetten – Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen – KA-Neureut – Karlsruhe Marktplatz – Karlsruhe Bahnhofsvorplatz – KA-Rüppurr – Ettlingen – Waldbronn-Busenbach – Bad Herrenalb | Between Ettlingen and Neureut at 10-minute intervals (weekdays),
otherwise 20 minute intervals |
S 11 | Linkenheim-Hochstetten – Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen – KA-Neureut – Karlsruhe Marktplatz – Karlsruhe Bahnhofsvorplatz – KA-Rüppurr – Ettlingen – Waldbronn-Busenbach – Karlsbad-Ittersbach
|
Between Ettlingen and Neureut at minute intervals (weekdays),
otherwise 20 minute intervals |
S 31 | (Eutingen im Gäu –) Freudenstadt – Baiersbronn – Forbach (Baden) – Rastatt – Muggensturm – Karlsruhe Hbf – KA-Durlach Bf – Bruchsal – Östringen-Odenheim | 20 minute intervals |
S 32 | Achern – Baden-Baden – Rastatt – Muggensturm – Karlsruhe Hbf – KA-Durlach Bf – Bruchsal – Kraichtal-Menzingen
|
20 minute intervals |
S 4 | Achern – Baden-Baden – Rastatt – Durmersheim – Karlsruhe Bahnhofsvorplatz – Karlsruhe Marktplatz – KA-Durlach Bf – Bretten – Eppingen – Heilbronn Bahnhofsvorplatz – Öhringen | 3 an hour |
S 51 | Karlsruhe-Marktplatz – Karlsruhe Bahnhofsvorplatz – Karlsruhe West – Maximiliansau – Wörth – Jockgrim – Rheinzabern – Rülzheim – Bellheim – Germersheim | Hourly |
S 7 | Achern – Baden-Baden – Rastatt – Durmersheim – Karlsruhe Bahnhofsvorplatz – Karlsruhe Tullastraße/VBK | |
S 71 | Achern – Baden-Baden – Rastatt – Muggensturm – Karlsruhe | |
S 8 | (Herrenberg –) Eutingen im Gäu – Freudenstadt – Baiersbronn – Forbach (Baden) – Rastatt – Durmersheim – Karlsruhe Bahnhofsvorplatz – Karlsruhe Tullastraße/VBK | Every 30 minutes between Freudenstadt Hbf and Freudenstadtstadt, every 60 minutes between Freudenstadt Hbf and Karlsruhe Tullastr., every 120 minutes between Eutingen in the Gäu and Freudenstadt Hbf, a single journey from/to Herrenberg in the evening |
S 81 | Karlsruhe Hbf – Rastatt – Gaggenau – Gernsbach – Forbach (Schwarzwald) – Baiersbronn – Freudenstadt Stadt – Freudenstadt Hbf | Every 120 minutes, express service |
Notes
- ^ a b c "Stationspreisliste 2024" [Station price list 2024] (PDF) (in German). DB Station&Service. 24 April 2023. Retrieved 29 November 2023.
- ^ "Wabenplan" (PDF). Karlsruher Verkehrsverbund. 13 December 2020. Retrieved 19 February 2021.
- ^ a b "Reisen, Service und Shopping für täglich 60.000 Reisende und Besucher Information" (in German). Deutsche Bahn. Archived from the original on 15 February 2012. Retrieved 6 April 2012.
References
- Otto Linde (1914). "Der neue Personenbahnhof in Karlsruhe in Baden". Zeitschrift für Bauwesen (in German). 64 (4): 239–264. (.)
- Klaus E. R. Lindemann, Barbara Steinhof, ed. (1988). 75 Jahre Hauptbahnhof Karlsruhe (in German). Karlsruhe: INFO VERLAG. ISBN 3-88190-058-6.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- "Station track plan" (PDF; 197,2 kB) (in German). Deutsche Bahn. Retrieved 6 April 2012.
- Vanessa Beer (12 September 2010). "Der Hauptbahnhof Karlsruhe" (in German). Archived from the original on 6 September 2010. Retrieved 6 April 2012(The origin and architecture of the station and its forecourt)
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