Oberursel station

Oberursel station
Entrance building and island platform
Operations
Category	4 [1]
Type	Through station
Platforms in use	2
Daily entry/exit	about 11,000 [2]
DS100 code	FOU
Station code	4702
Construction and location
Opened	1860
Location	Oberursel (Taunus)
State	Hesse
Country	Germany
Home page	Station information
50°11′56″N 8°35′18″E / 50.19889°N 8.58833°E / 50.19889; 8.58833
Route information
Homburg Railway Line A (U-Bahn)
List of railway stations in Hesse

Oberursel (Taunus) station is a station on S-Bahn line S5 in Oberursel (Taunus), near Frankfurt am Main, Germany on the Homburg line. The former Mountain Railway (German: Gebirgsbahn) ran from the station to Hohemark; it is now part of U-Bahn line U3.

History

Entrance building, track side

Entrance building, street side

The Homburg Railway was opened in 1860 to connect Frankfurt and Bad Homburg, replacing a horse bus line established in 1850. Oberursel station was opened with the line. The station was initially west of the crossing of the Frankfurter Landstraße; later the existing station was built east of the road.

In 1901 the line from Homburg to Friedberg was extended to Friedrichsdorf. At the personal request of the Emperor, the capacity of the entire route from Frankfurt to Friedberg and Friedrichsdorf was increased, including the duplication of the line from 1907 to 1910.

In 1899 the standard gauge Mountain Railway was opened to Hohemark, with steam-hauled freight and passenger trains. A connection was built to the Homburg Railway in the eastern part of the station. In 1910 this was followed by a light railway from Heddernheim, which connected the Mountain Railway with the Frankfurt tram network.

From 1968 the line from Frankfurt to Hohemark was operated as premetro line 24, later renamed line A3. In 1978 Oberursel became the terminal of U-Bahn line U3. The line, which had been single-track, was duplicated for its incorporation in the U-Bahn. The link to the Homburg Railway was used for the delivery of the U-Bahn’s original U2 rollingstock.

On 27 September 1970, the line via Oberursel and Bad Homburg to Friedrichsdorf was electrified.^[3] In 1974 the Frankfurt Transport Authority (Frankfurter Verkehrsverbund, FVV) was established with an S-Bahn-like network connecting Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof with Friedrichsdorf, with the route number of R5.^[4] In 1978, this operation was redesignated as an S-Bahn and renumbered with its current designation of S5. Since the Taunusbahn became part of the FVV in 1993, trains have run on it to Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof, stopping in Oberursel, but not at Stierstadt or Weißkirchen.

Current situation

U-Bahn station

Abandoned freight yard

Only two of its many original buildings still exist: the former station master’s house and the entrance building. The Homburg line station now has only two tracks on either side of an island platform. The tracks in the spacious freight yard are now abandoned and largely overgrown, with 200 species of wild flower identified.^[5] The connection to the U-Bahn network is now blocked by a GSM-R mast. The U-Bahn station consists of a twin-track station with provision for reversal before the line branches off towards Hohemark.

Services

The station is served by S-Bahn line S5 services every 30 minutes (every 15 minutes during peak hour). It is also served by SE15 regional services on the High Taunus line. U-Bahn line U3 stops at Oberursel station every 7–8 minutes during peak hour, every 15 minutes during the near-peak and every 30 minutes at off-peak times. During peak hours every other train terminates at Oberursel station.

Preceding station		Rhine-Main S-Bahn		Following station
Bad Homburg toward Friedrichsdorf		S5		Oberursel-Stierstadt toward Südbahnhof

References

1. ^ "Station catgories 2011" (in German) (PDF). Deutsche Bahn. http://www.deutschebahn.com/site/shared/de/dateianhaenge/infomaterial/sonstige/bahnhofskategorieliste__db__station__service__2011.pdf. Retrieved 19 November 2011. 
2. ^ Article in der Frankfurter Rundschau
3. ^ "Friedrichsdorf" (in German). weiltalbahn.de. http://www.weiltalbahn.de/Nebenbahnen/Taunusbahn/Friedrichsdorf/friedrichsdorf.html. Retrieved 11 July 2010. 
4. ^ "Liniennetzplan 1974" (in German). stadtregion.org. http://www.stadtregion.org/bahn/frankfurt-uplan1974.htm. Retrieved 11 July 2010. 
5. ^ "Bahnhof Oberursel: Blumengarten im alten Gleisbett (Flower garden in the old track bed)" (in German). fr-online. 21 July 2009. http://www.fr-online.de/frankfurt_und_hessen/nachrichten/bad_homburg/1846730_Bahnhof-Oberursel-Blumengarten-im-alten-Gleisbett.html. Retrieved 12 July 2010.