Weißenfels station

Weißenfels station is the station of Weißenfels in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It lies at the junction of the Halle–Bebra and the Weißenfels–Zeitz railways.

Weißenfels
Junction station
Entrance building, street side (2011)
Location	Bahnhofstr. 2, Weißenfels, Saxony-Anhalt Germany
Coordinates	51°12′17″N 11°58′16″E
Line(s)	Halle–Bebra (km 31.970) Weißenfels–Zeitz (km 0.037)
Platforms	4
Connections	RE 16 RE 18 RE 42 RB 20 RB 25 RB 76
Other information
Station code	6633[1]
DS100 code	UW[2]
IBNR	8010368
Category	3[1]
Website	www.bahnhof.de
History
Opened	6 June 1846
Services
Preceding station   Abellio Rail Mitteldeutschland   Following station Naumburg (Saale) Hbf toward Erfurt Hbf RE 16 via Naumburg (Saale) - Weimar Merseburg Hbf toward Halle (Saale) Hbf Naumburg (Saale) Hbf toward Erfurt Hbf RE 17 RE 74520 only Bad Dürrenberg toward Leipzig Hbf Leißling toward Eisenach RB 20 via Gotha - Erfurt - Weimar - Naumburg (Saale) Großkorbetha toward Leipzig Hbf Leißling toward Saalfeld (Saale) RB 25 via Naumburg (Saale) - Jena Großkorbetha toward Halle (Saale) Hbf Preceding station   Burgenlandbahn (Saxony-Anhalt)   Following station Terminus RB 76 via Teuchern Weißenfels West toward Zeitz Preceding station   DB Regio Bayern   Following station Leipzig Hbf Terminus RE 42 Naumburg (Saale) Hbf toward Nürnberg Hbf Preceding station   DB Regio Südost   Following station Naumburg (Saale) Hbf toward Jena-Göschwitz RE 18 Saale-Express via Naumburg (Saale) Merseburg Hbf toward Halle (Saale) Hbf
Location
Weißenfels Location within Saxony-Anhalt Show map of Saxony-Anhalt Weißenfels Location within Germany Show map of Germany Weißenfels Location within Europe Show map of Europe

Location

The station is located at line-kilometre 32.0 of the Halle–Bebra railway (measured from Halle). In addition, it is the starting point of a line to Zeitz (km 0.0).

It lies some distance north of the town centre and near the bank of the Saale. It borders the streets of Am Güterbahnhof ("at the freight yard") and Bahnhofstraße ("station street"). The line crossed state road 206 (Merseburger Straße) at the western end of the station.

Großkorbetha station is located about eight kilometres further northeast. Five kilometres to the southwest lies the halt of Leißling. The next stop on the branch line to Zeitz is at the halt of Weissenfels West, which is almost four kilometres away and is further from the town centre than Weissenfels station.

History

On 6 June 1846, Weissenfels station was opened on the Halle–Bebra railway, which already had two tracks.[3] Weißenfels was the terminus of the line until it was extended to Weimar on 1 April 1847. The line to Bebra was completed in 1849.[4]

Plans dating from 1845 provided for the construction of the entrance building to the south near the Saale. This would have been the place where the second building, which still exists, stands. There was also a platform with two adjacent tracks. A coke shed was built in the western station area. A track plan from 1857 indicates the existence of over 30 sets of points. Furthermore, there was already a carriage shed, a roundhouse, a turntable, a water supply point and a toilet.[3]

Initially freight traffic was dominated by lignite.[3]

At the Merseburger Straße level crossing there was a mechanical full barrier system with four barrier arms.[3]

The line to Zeitz was opened on 9 February 1859. This turned Weißenfels into a junction station.[5] This involved a major reconstruction of the track infrastructure.[3]

Entrance building seen from the Saale (2013)

Another reconstruction of the track infrastructure probably took place towards the end of the 1860s. New freight and loading tracks were added. The construction of a second entrance building also began. A third track from the Zeitz direction ran into the station. It ended as two dead-end tracks south of the existing platforms. The platform was also extended to accommodate the trains running from Zeitz.[3]

Renovation of the underpass and the construction of a new platform on tracks 1 and 2 began in the 2010s, which was completed in 2013 at a cost of about €755,000.[6] The northern platform with tracks 3 and 4 had already been modernised.

A bus station, which improved the connections between buses and rail should, was built In 2011/12.[7]

Infrastructure

Platforms and tracks

Platforms with regional trains (2009)

Currently (2017) the station has the following platforms:[8]

Number	Platform height	Usable length
1	55 cm	174 m
2	55 cm	174 m
3	76 cm	323 m
4	76 cm	323 m

Entrance building

Entrance building (2009)

The entrance building is heritage listed.[9]

The city of Weißenfels bought the entrance building from Deutsche Bahn in 2016.[10]

The facade was restored for Sachsen-Anhalt-Tag ("Saxony-Anhalt Day", a festival formerly held annually, now every two years, in different Saxon-Anhalt towns) in 2010.[11] The municipality of Weißenfels continues to campaign for funding from the Revita program of the state of Saxony-Anhalt for an extensive refurbishment of the building.[10]

It is currently (2017) largely unused. A local club is considering opening a museum of Weissenfels railway history in it.[12]

Signal boxes

Before the commissioning of the electronic interlocking the following signal boxes had been built:[13]

Designation	Function	Class
Wb	Dispatcher
Wm	Guard box	S&H 1912
Wo	Dispatcher	S&H 1912
WrI	Guard box	S&H 1912
WrII	Guard box	S&H 1912
Wv	Guard box	S&H 1912
Ww	Guard box	S&H 1912

When the signal boxes were decommissioned on 12 December 1999, a Siemens electronic interlocking went into operation on the same day, which is remotely controlled by an operations centre in Leipzig.

Rail services

According to an article in the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung published in 2013, more than 3000 passengers use the station daily.[14]

Long distance services

Weißenfels is served by various long-distance services. However, the only trains that stop are relief trains or trains stopping early or late in the day. The remaining long-distance trains pass through the station without stopping. It has been affected by the significant reduction of long-distance traffic on the section between Erfurt and Halle/Leipzig on the Halle–Bebra railway following the opening of the Erfurt–Leipzig/Halle high-speed railway in December 2015.

In the 2017 timetable, the following long-distance service stops in Weißenfels:

• ICE 1531 Jena Paradies – Naumburg Hbf – Weißenfels – Halle Hbf – Berlin Südkreuz – Berlin Hbf (Mon–Fri once a day, only towards Berlin)

In the past, trains stopped on the following routes:[15]

• ICE/IC Frankfurt Rhine-Main ‹› Saxony
• IC Frankfurt Rhine-Main ‹› Berlin or Baltic Sea coast
• IC Berlin or Baltic Sea coast ‹› North Rhine-Westphalia
• IC Frankfurt Rhine-Main ‹› Magdeburg

Until 2001, Weißenfels was served by InterRegio services, which took a similar route. Until 1998, it was still served by D-Zug (traditional express) services.

Regional services

Currently, Weißenfels station is served by the following regional services:

Line	Route	Operator	Interval (min)
RE 16	Halle – Merseburg – Weißenfels – Naumburg – Bad Kösen – Apolda – Weimar – Erfurt	120	Abellio
RE 18	Halle – Merseburg – Weißenfels – Naumburg – Bad Kösen – Jena Paradies – Jena-Göschwitz	120	DB Regio Südost
RE 42	Leipzig – Weißenfels – Naumburg – Jena Paradies – Saalfeld – Lichtenfels – Bamberg – Nuremberg	120	DB Regio Bayern
RB 20	Leipzig Hbf – Bad Dürrenberg – Weißenfels – Naumburg – Apolda – Weimar – Erfurt – Neudietendorf – Gotha – Eisenach	060	Abellio
RB 25	Halle – Merseburg – Weißenfels – Naumburg – Jena Paradies – Saalfeld	060	Abellio
RB 76	Weißenfels – Teuchern – Deuben – Zeitz	060 (Mon–Fri) 120 (Sat–Sun)	DB Regio Südost

References

1. "Stationspreisliste 2020" [Station price list 2020] (PDF) (in German). DB Station&Service. 4 November 2019. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
2. Eisenbahnatlas Deutschland (German railway atlas) (2009/2010 ed.). Schweers + Wall. 2009. ISBN 978-3-89494-139-0.
3. IG Eisenbahn in Weißenfels (3 April 2013). "Protokoll der siebenundzwanzigsten Zusammenkunft der Interessengemeinschaft "Eisenbahn in Weißenfels"" (PDF) (in German). pp. 12–16. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 August 2017. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
4. "Bahnstrecke Halle–Bebra" (in German). rbd-erfurt.de. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
5. "Bahnstrecke Weißenfels–Zeitz" (in German). rbd-erfurt.de. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
6. "Weißenfels" (in German). Bahnhofsprogramm Sachsen-Anhalt. Archived from the original on 16 August 2017. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
7. Bärbel Schmuck (5 September 2012). "Neuer Busbahnhof mit außergewöhnlichem Dach". Mitteldeutsche Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 1 December 2017.
8. "Station Weißenfels" (in German). DB Station&Service AG. Retrieved 2 December 2017.
9. "Kleine Anfrage und Antwort Olaf Meister (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen), Prof. Dr. Claudia Dalbert (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen), Kultusministerium 19.03.2015 Drucksache 6/3905 (KA 6/8670) Denkmalverzeichnis Sachsen-Anhalt" (PDF). Parliamentary Journal of the Landtag of Sachony-Anhalt (in German) (6/3905). 19 March 2015. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
10. Andreas Richter (2 April 2016). "Verkehrsknoten Weißenfels – Problemfall Bahnhof". Mitteldeutsche Zeitung (in German). Archived from the original on 2 April 2016. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
11. Klaus-Dieter Kunick (21 June 2016). "Verödet der Weißenfelser Bahnhof vollends?". Mitteldeutsche Zeitung (in German). Archived from the original on 24 June 2016. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
12. Andreas Richter (8 June 2017). "Bekommt verödeter Bahnhof ein Museum?". Mitteldeutsche Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 3 December 2017.
13. "List of German signal boxes" (in German). stellwerke.de. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
14. Andreas Richter (13 April 2013). "Stadtentwicklung: Lichtblick im Weißenfelser Bahnhof". Mitteldeutsche Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 4 December 2017.
15. "Datenbank Fernverkehr" (in German). grahnert.de. Retrieved 4 December 2017.

External links

• "Weißenfels station track plan". Retrieved 4 December 2017.