Köln Hauptbahnhof

Köln Hauptbahnhof
Aerial view of the station in 2010
Operations
Category	1
Type	Hbf
Platforms in use	11 9 long distance and regional 2 S-Bahn 2 U-Bahn
Daily trains	1230[1]
Daily entry/exit	280,000[1]
DS100 code	KK
Construction and location
Opened	1859, 1894, 1957
Location	Cologne
State	North Rhine-Westphalia
Country	Germany
Local authority	Innenstadt
Home page	www.bahnhof.de
50°56′33″N 6°57′29″E / 50.9425°N 6.95806°E / 50.9425; 6.95806
Route information
Cologne–Frankfurt HSL Cologne–Krefeld S 11 Cologne–Aachen S 12 West Rhine line Cologne–Duisburg S 6 Cologne–Sieg S 12 Cologne–Wuppertal
List of railway stations in North Rhine-Westphalia

Central station in 1900

Station forecourt and entrance

The station hall

Night view from Cathedral

Köln Hauptbahnhof (English: Cologne Central Station, abbr.: Köln Hbf) is the central railway station in Cologne, Germany.

The station is an important local, national and international hub, with many ICE, Thalys and Intercity trains calling there, as well as regional RegionalExpress, RegionalBahn and local S-Bahn trains. EuroNight and DB NachtZug night services also call at the station. It has frequent connections to Frankfurt by way of the Cologne-Frankfurt high-speed rail line, which starts in southern Cologne. On an average day, about 280,000 travellers frequent the station, making it fifth busiest station in Germany.

The station is situated next to Cologne cathedral.

There is another important train station in Cologne, the Köln Messe/Deutz railway station across the river Rhine, just about 400 metres away from Köln Hauptbahnhof. The stations are linked by the Hohenzollernbrücke, a six-track railway bridge with passenger walkways on each side. Frequent local services connect the two stations as well.

History

By 1850 there were five different stations at Cologne railway companies. On the west bank of the Rhine there were the Bonn-Cologne Railway Company (German, old spelling: Bonn-Cölner Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, BCE), the Cologne-Krefeld Railway Company (German, old spelling: Cöln-Crefelder Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, CCE) and the Rhenish Railway Company (German: Rheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, RhE). On the east bank there were the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company (German: Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, BME) and the Cologne-Minden Railway Company (German, old spelling: Cöln-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, CME). In 1854 a controversial decision was taken to locate a new rail and road bridge next to the cathedral, as a bridge could be connected to the existing freight and temporary passenger station on the banks of the Rhine (Rhine Station at the street of Trankgasse). The city agreed to the proposal in 1857 and made available the ground of the former Botanical garden to the north of the cathedral and on the site of part of the old University of Cologne, suppressed by the French in 1798. The railway track was laid at ground level from the bridge over the Rhine and crossing the street of Eigelstein west of the station at ground level and running through the medieval city wall.

Original station

The original Central Station (German: Centralbahnhof) was built beginning in 1857 to the plans of Hermann Otto Pflaume on behalf of the RhE, which had in the same year acquired the BCE. The station was opened on 5. December 1859 together with the Cathedral Bridge (German: Dombrücke, later the site of the Hohenzollernbrücke). The Central Station was a combined terminal and through station: it included four terminal tracks for the RhE running to the west, while the CME had two through tracks connected to its line on the eastern side of the Rhine by the Cathedral Bridge.

The central station quickly reached capacity, but the RhE as operator had only limited interest in developing the station, as this would have mainly benefited competing companies. Serious planning for an enlarged station was therefore only taken after the nationalisation of the railways in the 1880s.

New station

For the planning of the new central station two options were considered:

• Construction of a major railway station in an open area north of Venloer Straße and reclassifying of the original station as a minor station, or
• Replacement of the central station with a new building at the same place with an increase in platforms and the construction of two secondary passenger stations (Cologne West and Cologne South) on the urban railway on the model of Berlin Stadtbahn and a rail freight bypass.

While the German government argued for the second option, opinion in Cologne was split. On 9 January 1883, the Cologne City Council decided by one vote, finally, for the second option under a plan by the engineer E. Grüttefien of Berlin. Construction began in 1889. The tracks were raised by six metres with half the new space created under the track filled with earth and a new entrance building was built to the design of Georg Frentzen, an architect from Aachen.

In 1894, the large tripartite platform hall was completed. The central hall had a roof span of 64 metres covering today's platforms 2 to 7 and outside it were two 13.5 metre-wide aisles, for platforms 1 and 8. The 255 metre-long hall included a two-story waiting room building, with easy access to all platforms. The station included four terminating platforms facing east and four facing west on either side of the waiting rooms and one through platform on the northeast side and one on the southwest side.

During the restructuring of the all the rail tracks in the Cologne area (about 1905-1911), most notable for the construction of the new South Bridge and the four-track Hohenzollern Bridge, the waiting room building was removed and all the platforms were rebuilt as through platforms. Advantage was taken of the previously unused space beneath the tracks. Only the first and second class waiting rooms in Trankgasse and Johannisstraße (streets) survived the World War II and subsequent modifications and are now used as a restaurant and the Alter Wartesaal events centre.

Reconstruction and new construction

For several years after World War II, there was debate as to whether the main station should be rebuilt on the site of the Gereon freight yard—now the site of MediaPark. Therefore, the reconstruction of the main railway station was a slow process and for a decade Cologne station included temporary structures.

The first building occurred in 1953 with the demolition of the long building on the western side, which was replaced by a modern building with baggage handling facilities and a hotel. The old station building (which had been only slightly damaged during the war and temporarily repaired) was demolished in 1955. On 23 September 1957, the new station hall with its shell-shaped roof was opened to the design of the architects Schmitt and Schneider. The main station building was built on the northern side of the station following the demolition of an originally built-up area between the streets of Maximinenstraße, Domstraße, Hofergasse and Hermannstraße and the shifting of Goldgasse with the building of Breslauer Platz as a second entrance plaza.

In the course of building the S-Bahn up until 1991, the entire railway line, railway station and the Hohenzollern bridge were supplemented by two independent S-Bahn tracks. First, in 1975 two additional platforms were built (10 and 11) and then the additional tracks were built on the Hohenzollern bridge for the S-Bahn line.

In 2000, a shopping centre was opened at the entry level—including the area under the S-Bahn tracks. The so-called colonnade includes 70 shops and restaurants with over 11,500 square metres of retail space and 700 employees.

Operational usage

The station has to cope with a very high daily load; even though some ICE services now call at the Köln-Deutz station, though its platforms are divided into three sections each, are still remarkably crowded all over the day, and a major extension of the station is impossible because of its unique surroundings. Connections to the local Cologne network Stadtbahn are made by two subterranean stations, Dom/Hbf and Breslauer Platz/Hbf at the respective ends of the station. The station has 11 main line passenger track platforms, of which two are used for S-Bahn services; the two subterranean Stadtbahn stations have two tracks each. Its IATA code is QKL.

The station's building also hosts a large shopping mall, the Colonaden.

Long distance trains

Preceding station		Thalys		Following station
Aachen Hbf toward Paris-Nord		Thalys		Düsseldorf Hbf toward Essen Hbf
Preceding station		DB AG		Following station
Aachen Hbf Terminus		ICE 10		Köln Messe/Deutz toward Berlin Ostbahnhof
Bonn Hbf toward Trier Hbf
Bonn Hbf toward München Hbf		ICE 31 train route splits here and rejoins in Dortmund Hbf		Düsseldorf Hbf toward Kiel Hbf
				Wuppertal Hbf toward Kiel Hbf
Siegburg/Bonn toward München Hbf		ICE 42 reverses out		Düsseldorf Hbf toward Hamburg-Altona
Siegburg/Bonn toward Basel SBB		ICE 43 reverses out		Düsseldorf Hbf toward Amsterdam Centraal
				Solingen Hbf toward Hannover Hbf
Terminus		ICE 45		Köln/Bonn Flughafen toward Stuttgart Hbf
Terminus		ICE 49		Siegburg/Bonn toward Frankfurt (Main) Hbf
Frankfurt Flughafen toward Frankfurt (Main) Hbf		ICE 78 reverses out		Düsseldorf Hbf toward Amsterdam Centraal
Aachen Hbf toward Bruxelles-Midi		ICE 79		Frankfurt Flughafen toward Frankfurt (Main) Hbf
Bonn Hbf toward Wien Westbf		ICE 91 train route rejoins here		Düsseldorf Hbf toward Dortmund Hbf
				Solingen Hbf toward Dortmund Hbf
Terminus		IC 26 Köln-Hamburg		Düsseldorf Hbf toward Hamburg-Altona
Bonn Hbf toward Stuttgart Hbf		IC/EC 30		Düsseldorf Hbf toward Ostseebad Binz or Greifswald
Bonn Hbf toward Passau Hbf		IC/EC 31		Solingen Hbf toward Hamburg-Altona/Kiel Hbf/Puttgarden
Bonn Hbf toward Innsbruck Hbf		IC/EC 32		Düsseldorf Hbf toward Berlin Südkreuz
Bonn Hbf toward Karlsruhe Hbf, Stuttgart Hbf, or Luxembourg		IC/EC 35		Düsseldorf Hbf toward Emden Außenhafen or Norddeich Mole
Terminus		IC 51		Düsseldorf Hbf toward Ostseebad Binz
Bonn Hbf toward Köln Hbf		IC 55 train route splits here and rejoins in Dortmund Hbf		Düsseldorf Hbf toward Leipzig Hbf
				Solingen Hbf toward Leipzig Hbf

Regional trains

Preceding station		DB AG		Following station
Köln-Ehrenfeld toward Aachen Hbf		RE 1 NRW-Express		Köln Messe/Deutz toward Paderborn Hbf
Köln Süd toward Koblenz Hbf		RE 5 Rhein-Express		Köln Messe/Deutz toward Emmerich
Dormagen toward Krefeld Hbf		RE 7 Rhein-Münsterland-Express		Köln Messe/Deutz toward Rheine
Köln-Ehrenfeld toward Mönchengladbach Hbf		RE 8 Rhein-Erft-Express		Köln Messe/Deutz toward Koblenz Hbf
Köln-Ehrenfeld toward Aachen Hbf		RE 9 Rhein-Sieg-Express		Köln Messe/Deutz toward Siegen
Köln-West toward Trier Hbf		RE 12 Eifel-Mosel-Express		Köln Messe/Deutz Terminus
Köln-West toward Gerolstein		RE 22 Eifel-Express
Köln-West toward Kall		RB 24 Eifel-Bahn		Köln Messe/Deutz Terminus
Köln Hansaring Terminus		RB 25 Oberbergische Bahn		Köln Messe/Deutz toward Marienheide
Köln-Ehrenfeld toward Mönchengladbach Hbf		RB 27 Rhein-Erft-Bahn		Köln Messe/Deutz toward Koblenz Hbf
Köln-Ehrenfeld toward Düsseldorf Hbf		RB 38 Erft-Bahn		Terminus
Köln-West toward Bonn-Mehlem		RB 48 Rhein-Wupper-Bahn		Köln Messe/Deutz toward Wuppertal Hbf
Preceding station		trans regio		Following station
Köln-West toward Koblenz Hbf		MRB 26 MittelrheinBahn		Köln Messe/Deutz Terminus

S-Bahn trains

Several Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn lines call at the station:

• S 6 Köln-Nippes — Köln Hbf — Langenfeld — Düsseldorf Hbf — Ratingen Ost — Essen Hbf
• S 11 (Wuppertal-Vohwinkel —) Düsseldorf — Neuss — Dormagen — Köln Hbf — Bergisch Gladbach
• S 12 Düren — Horrem — Köln Hbf — Troisdorf — Siegburg/Bonn — Hennef — Au
• S 13 (Horrem —) Köln Hbf — Cologne/Bonn Airport — Troisdorf

Preceding station		Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn		Following station
Köln Hansaring toward Köln-Nippes		S6		Köln Messe/Deutz toward Essen Hbf
Köln Hansaring toward Düsseldorf Flughafen Terminal		S11		Köln Messe/Deutz toward Bergisch Gladbach
Köln Hansaring toward Düren		S12		Köln Messe/Deutz toward Au (Sieg)
Köln Hansaring toward Köln Hansaring or Horrem		S13		Köln Messe/Deutz toward Troisdorf

Local services

Dom/Hbf station

Breslauer Platz/Hbf station before closure

Connection to local Stadtbahn lines is provided by the underground stations Dom/Hbf and Breslauer Platz/Hbf. The former one is located below the southern end, next to the cathedral, the latter at the northern end where it connects to the bus station. Currently, Breslauer Platz/Hbf is closed because it is being rebuilt to link the new North-south line with the existing network. Reopening is scheduled for December 2011. Formerly, all trains stopped at Dom/Hbf and Breslauer Platz/Hbf, but, as the junction for the new line will be between these stations, line 5 trains will only stop at Dom/Hbf and line 16 trains only at Breslauer Platz/Hbf when the line is opened.

Services are offered by the Cologne Stadtbahn and the Bonn Stadtbahn, often referred to as Stadtbahn Rhein-Sieg after the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Sieg (VRS - Rhein-Sieg Transit Authority).

Preceding station		KVB		Following station
Appellhofplatz toward Am Butzweilerhof		5		Ebertplatz toward Reichenspergerplatz
Appellhofplatz toward Bad Godesberg Stadthalle		16		Ebertplatz toward Niehl Sebastianstraße
Appellhofplatz toward Bonn Hbf		18		Ebertplatz toward Thielenbruch

Future

London services

A Deutsche Bahn high-speed train

Since January 2010, a system of "open access" on European high-speed railway lines now permits different rail operators to apply to run high-speed passenger services. DB Fernverkehr have announced their intention to operate a direct ICE service from Cologne to London St Pancras via Brussels and the Channel Tunnel. The proposal, first put forward in 2007,^[2] was delayed by Eurotunnel safety regulations which required operators to use trainsets which could be divided in the Tunnel in the event of an emergency, allowing passengers to be transported out of the tunnel in two directions. This regulation is now due to be relaxed, and it is envisaged that DB could begin direct London-Cologne services in advance of the 2012 Olympics.^[3]

See also

• Köln Messe/Deutz railway station
• Hauptbahnhof

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Hauptbahnhof Köln – Drehkreuz des Westen. Information on bahnhof.de, accessed on 13 December 2008
2. ^ Murray, Dick (19 December 2007). "German rival for Eurostar". London Evening Standard. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23419061-german-rival-for-eurostar.do. Retrieved 7 February 2010. 
3. ^ Lydall, Ross (3 February 2010). "The train at St Pancras will be departing for ... Germany via Channel Tunnel". London Evening Standard. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23801905-the-train-at-st-pancras-will-be-departing-for-germany-via-channel-tunnel.do. Retrieved 7 February 2010. 

External links

Media related to Köln Hauptbahnhof at Wikimedia Commons Coordinates: 50°56′35″N 6°57′29″E / 50.943151°N 6.958015°E / 50.943151; 6.958015

• DB informational web site (German)
• View of the platforms and nearby churches