Karlsruhe Hauptbahnhof

Karlsruhe Hauptbahnhof is a railway station in the German city of Karlsruhe. The station is classified as a Category 1 station,[1] as it is a major hub where several railways connect.

Karlsruhe Hauptbahnhof
Through station
Main entrance
LocationBahnhofplatz 1a
76137 Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg
Germany
Coordinates48°59′38″N 8°24′2″E
Line(s)
Platforms16
Connections
  • IRE 1 RE 4 RE 6
  • RB 2 RB 51
  • S 3
  • S 1 S 11 S 31 S 32 S 4 S 5 S 51 S 52 S 7 S 71 S 8 S 81
Construction
Architectural styleNeoclassical and Art Nouveau
Other information
Station code3107
DS100 codeRK
IBNR8000191
Category1[1]
Websitewww.bahnhof.de
History
Opened1913
Traffic
Passengers60,000 daily[2]
Services
Preceding station   DB Fernverkehr   Following station
ICE 12
ICE 20
towards Basel SBB
ICE 26Terminus
towards Cologne
ICE 43
towards Basel SBB
towards Munich
ICE/TGV 83
Strasbourg
towards Paris Est
towards Frankfurt
ICE/TGV 84
towards Marseille
IC/EC 30
towards Offenburg
towards Emden
IC/EC 35
towards Konstanz
towards Karlsruhe
IC 60
towards Munich
Preceding station   DB Regio Mitte   Following station
TerminusRE 4
SÜWEX
via Mainz - Speyer - Ludwigshafen
RE 6
via Landau (Pfalz) - Kandel
Terminus
Karlsruhe-Hagsfeld
toward Biblis
RB 2
via Mannheim
Terminus
Karlsruhe West
RB 51
via Landau (Pfalz) - Kandel
Terminus
Preceding station   Go-Ahead Baden-Württemberg   Following station
TerminusIRE 1
via Stuttgart
toward Aalen Hbf
Preceding station   S-Bahn RheinNeckar   Following station
toward Germersheim
S 3
via Mannheim
Terminus
Location
Karlsruhe
Location in Baden-Württemberg
Karlsruhe
Location in Germany
Karlsruhe
Location in Europe

History

Old station

When the Baden Mainline was built between Mannheim and Basel, the original Karlsruhe station was built on Kriegsstraße between Ettlinger Tor and Mendelssohnplatz about 500 metres south of Karlsruher Marktplatz, the central square of Karlsruhe. The station was designed by Friedrich Eisenlohr and it was opened on 1 April 1843 with two platforms. From the beginning, it was designed as a through station. South of the station there was a locomotive depot and to its east there was a freight yard and a central workshop.

It was built to Irish gauge (1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in)), as were all railways built by the Grand Duchy of Baden State Railway in the early days. It was converted to standard gauge in 1855. In the following years other routes were connected to Karlsruhe station: in 1859 the line to Stuttgart, in 1863 the Maxau Railway (German: Maxaubahn) connecting with the Palatinate, in 1870 the Rhine Railway to Mannheim, in 1879 the Kraichgau Railway and in 1895 the strategic railway from Graben-Neudorf via Rastatt to Haguenau. The tracks ran at ground level and the approach lines were built with sharp curves because of the confined spaces.

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.

Entrance hall

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 interlocking controlled by pushing buttons was put into operation.

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 Intercity-Express network and the access stairs were complemented with lifts and escalators.

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

Tram-train ("Stadtbahnwagen") in the station

The Karlsruhe station is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 1 station.[1] It is served by Intercity-Express trains to Berlin, Hamburg, Dortmund and Basel, from Intercity trains to Stralsund, Cologne, Nuremberg, Munich and Konstanz and by TGV trains to Paris and Stuttgart. It is also served by Regional-Express services to Neustadt an der Weinstraße, Mainz, Stuttgart and Konstanz as well as local and S-Bahn services in the Karlsruhe region. According to DB the station receives about 60,000 passengers and visitors each day.[2]

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 TGV Duplex trains between Paris and Stuttgart.

LineRouteInterval
ICE 12 Berlin Ost Braunschweig Frankfurt Mannheim Karlsruhe Offenburg – Freiburg – Basel (– Bern  Interlaken) Every two hours
ICE 20 (Kiel –) Hamburg Hannover – Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe – Frankfurt – Mannheim Karlsruhe Baden-Baden – Freiburg – Basel Zürich (– Chur) Every two hours
ICE 26 (Binz Stralsund –) Hamburg – Hannover – Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe Gießen – Frankfurt – Heidelberg Karlsruhe Every two hours
IC 30 (Greifswald ← Stralsund ←) Hamburg Bremen Dortmund Duisburg Cologne Koblenz Mainz – Mannheim Stuttgart Karlsruhe – Baden-Baden – Offenburg One train pair
EC 30 Hamburg – Bremen – Münster – Dortmund – Duisburg – Cologne – Koblenz – Mainz – Mannheim Karlsruhe – Baden-Baden – Freiburg – Basel – Zürich or Interlaken Two train pairs daily
IC 35 Emden Lingen – Münster Recklinghausen – Duisburg – Cologne – Koblenz – Mannheim Karlsruhe – Offenburg 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
IC 60 (Basel Bad – Freiburg – Offenburg – Baden-Baden –) Karlsruhe – Stuttgart – Ulm – Augsburg – München Every two hours
IC 61 Karlsruhe Pforzheim – Stuttgart Aalen – Nuremberg (– BambergLichtenfelsSaalfeldJena ParadiesWeißenfelsLeipzig) Every two hours
ICE/TGV 82 Paris Est – Strasbourg Karlsruhe – Mannheim – Frankfurt Two train pairs daily
ICE/TGV 83 Paris Est – Strasbourg Karlsruhe – Stuttgart (– Ulm Augsburg Munich) Five train pairs
TGV 84 Frankfurt – Mannheim Karlsruhe – Baden-Baden – Strasbourg – Mulhouse-Ville – Belfort-Montbéliard – Besançon Franche-Comté – Chalon-sur-Saône – Lyon-Part-Dieu – Avignon – Aix-en-Provence – Marseille-Saint-Charles One train pair daily
ICE 85 Frankfurt – Mannheim – Karlsruhe – Baden-Baden – Freiburg – Basel – LucerneBellinzonaLuganoChiassoMonzaMilan One train pair daily

Regional services

Line Route Frequency
IRE 1 Karlsruhe Pforzheim Mühlacker Vaihingen (Enz) – Stuttgart Hourly
IRE 1 Karlsruhe – Wilferdingen-Singen – Pforzheim – Mühlacker – Vaihingen (Enz) – Stuttgart – Schorndorf Aalen Every two hours
RE 2 Schwarzwaldbahn
Karlsruhe – Baden-Baden – Achern – Offenburg Villingen Singen Konstanz (– Kreuzlingen)
Hourly,
every half hour in the peak to Offenburg
RE 4 Südwest- Express (SÜWEX)

KarlsruheGermersheimSpeyerLudwigshafenFrankenthalWorms – Mainz – Frankfurt

Every two hours
RE 6 Neustadt (Weinstr) Landau (Pfalz) Wörth (Rhein) Karlsruhe Hourly
RB 2 (Biblis – Lampertheim) Mannheim – Schwetzingen – Waghäusel Karlsruhe Hourly + extra services Mannheim–Karlsruhe
RB 51 Neustadt (Weinstr) – Edenkoben – Landau (Pfalz) – Kandel (Pfalz) – Wörth (Rhein) Karlsruhe Hourly
RE (KA–OG)
RB (OG–Bas)
Karlsruhe Baden-Baden Offenburg – Freiburg Müllheim Basel Bad One train pair

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
S 3 Karlsruhe Hbf – KA-Durlach – BruchsalHeidelbergMannheimLudwigshafen (Rhein)SchifferstadtSpeyerGermersheim 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-HochstettenEggenstein-LeopoldshafenKA-Neureut – Karlsruhe Marktplatz – Karlsruhe  BahnhofsvorplatzKA-RüppurrEttlingen Waldbronn-BusenbachBad 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-Langensteinbach – Karlsbad-Ittersbach Between Ettlingen and Neureut at minute intervals (weekdays),

otherwise 20 minute intervals

S 31 (Eutingen im Gäu –) FreudenstadtBaiersbronnForbach (Baden)RastattMuggensturmKarlsruhe 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 EppingenHeilbronn BahnhofsvorplatzÖhringen 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

  1. "Stationspreisliste 2020" [Station price list 2020] (PDF) (in German). DB Station&Service. 4 November 2019. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
  2. "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.
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References

  • Otto Linde (1914). "Der neue Personenbahnhof in Karlsruhe in Baden". Zeitschrift für Bauwesen (in German). 64 (4): 239–264. (urn:nbn:de:kobv:109-opus-91915, with additional illustrations on pages 23 to 27 in the 1914 year book, urn:nbn:de:kobv:109-opus-91974.)
  • Klaus E. R. Lindemann, Barbara Steinhof, ed. (1988). "75 Jahre Hauptbahnhof Karlsruhe" (in German). Karlsruhe: INFO VERLAG. ISBN 3-88190-058-6. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
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