Stendal (german: Bahnhof Stendal) is a railway station in the town of Stendal, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. The station lies on the Berlin-Lehrte railway,

Hanover–Berlin high-speed railway The Hanover–Berlin high-speed railway is a high-speed rail line linking the German cities of Hanover and Berlin. The Wolfsburg-Berlin section was built as a new line and runs largely parallel to the Lehrter Bahn (the old Berlin-Hanover railwa ...

Magdeburg-Wittenberge railway The Magdeburg-Wittenberge railway is a two-track, electrified main line in the east of the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is one of the oldest lines in Germany, opened in 1849 by the ''Magdeburg-Wittenberge Railway Company'', which operated it ...

Stendal–Uelzen railway The Stendal–Uelzen railway is a mostly single-track, electrified main line and connects Stendal station, Stendal in the east of Altmark, Saxony-Anhalt with Uelzen station, Uelzen in Lower Saxony. The most important stop along the way is Salzwede ...

, Stendal-Tangermünde railway and Stendal–Niedergörne railway. It is an important railway hub for regional trains and is also used by Intercity and Intercity-Express (ICE) trains regularly. Until the winter 2012 timetable Stendal station was only by

Deutsche Bahn The (; abbreviated as DB or DB AG) is the national railway company of Germany. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). The Federal Republic of Germany is its single shareholder. describes itself as the se ...

trains. Since December 2012, the station has also been served by some services operated by Ostdeutsche Eisenbahn. It is classified by

as a category 3 station.

History

On 7 July 1849, Stendal received its first railway connection with the opening of the

by the Magdeburg-Wittenberge Company (''Magdeburg-Wittenbergeschen Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft''). This ran on the eastern outskirts of the town and there was a station at Stendal—later called ''Stendal Ost'' (east)—from its opening. During the course of construction of the

and the Berlin–Lehrte railway in 1870, the station was moved to the southern edge of the town to allow passengers to change between the three lines. The Magdeburg-Wittenberge railway was also relocated to be connected to the new station and has run around the town to its west since then. The current station building was also built between 1869 and 1871. It suffered severe bomb damage during World war II, especially on 22 February 1945 due to Operation Clarion and on 7 April 1945. In April 1886, the Stendal-Tangermünde railway was connected to station. In June 1892, a horse tramway was opened between the station forecourt and the ''Uenglinger Tor'' (Uenglingen gate); in October 1909, another horse tramway was added, but this ran between ''Stendal Ost'' station on the original Magdeburg-Wittenberge railway and the Uenglinger Tor. Both tramways were closed in October 1926 and replaced by a bus route. In the autumn of 1908, the station was connected with the Stendal–Arendsee light railway and, in May 1914, with the Stendal–Arneburg railway after this had been converted from

metre gauge Metre-gauge railways are narrow-gauge railways with track gauge of or 1 metre. The metre gauge is used in around of tracks around the world. It was used by European colonial powers, such as the French, British and German Empires. In Europe, la ...

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

. The line to Arendsee was closed gradually from 1978 to 1995. All operations on the line to

Arneburg Arneburg () is a town in the district of Stendal, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated on the left bank of the Elbe, approx. northeast of Stendal. It is part of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") of Arneburg-Goldbeck. In J ...

ended in October 1972. The Stendal–Niedergörne railway was connected to the station in January 1977 to provide a connection to the Stendal Nuclear Power Plant, which was never completed. Since the end of passenger traffic in late 1995, the line has been used only by freight trains. Stendal was connected to the electrical railway network in 1984 with the electrification of the line to Magdeburg. Between 1994 and 1998, the

was built parallel to the Berlin-Lehrte railway. A southern bypass of Stendal was built against the wishes of the town; this is now used by most long-distance trains running on the line. Nevertheless, the first ICE train stopped at Stendal station on 27 September 1998.

State

The station has five through platform tracks and three bay platforms. Track 1 is located next to the station building and tracks 2–5 are on two island platforms. Bay platforms 6 and 7 are located east and west of the entrance building and are accessible via platform 1. The third bay platform is track 8, which is at the eastern end of the island platform that is faced by tracks 2 and 3. West of the station there is a large parking area. Buses on several bus routes operated by ''Stendalbus'' stop outside the station. There is also a taxi stand.

Train services

Stendal is served by Intercity, Regional Express and Regional Bahn services:Timetables for Stendal station

References

External links

*{{Commons category-inline, Stendal Hauptbahnhof
Network map
Railway stations in Saxony-Anhalt Railway stations in Germany opened in 1871 Buildings and structures in Stendal (district) Stendal