Bremerhaven Hauptbahnhof is a railway station in the city of

Bremerhaven Bremerhaven (, , Low German: ''Bremerhoben'') is a city at the seaport of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms a semi-enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the Riv ...

in northwestern

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It is the main railway hub for the city, offering regional connections to Bremen,

Osnabrück Osnabrück (; wep, Ossenbrügge; archaic ''Osnaburg'') is a city in the German state of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the river Hase in a valley penned between the Wiehen Hills and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest. With a population ...

Cuxhaven Cuxhaven (; ) is an independent town and seat of the Cuxhaven district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town includes the northernmost point of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the shore of the North Sea at the mouth of the Elbe River. Cuxhaven has ...

Bremervörde Bremervörde () is a town in the north of the district (''Landkreis'') of Rotenburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the Oste river near the centre of the "triangle" formed by the rivers Weser and Elbe, roughly equidistant from the cit ...

and

Buxtehude Buxtehude (), officially the Hanseatic City of Buxtehude (german: Hansestadt Buxtehude, nds, Hansestadt Buxthu ()), is a town on the Este River in Northern Germany, belonging to the district of Stade in Lower Saxony. It is part of the Hamburg ...

. Museal services on the line to

Bad Bederkesa Bad Bederkesa ( Northern Low Saxon: ''Beers'') is a village and a former municipality in the district of Cuxhaven, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Since 1 January 2015 it is part of the town of Geestland. It is situated approximately 20 km north ...

also call at the station during weekends in summer.

History

First plans to build a railway link between Bremerhaven and Bremen were laid out as early as the 1850s. From 1859 to 1862, a line was built with a

terminal station A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing su ...

at Geestemünde (now a borough of Bremerhaven). In 1896, the railway line to

was built, also connecting to the terminus station. Due to an increase in traffic, it was decided to abandon the old station and build a new one, because the old one, connected with single-track, can't be increased, and on July 1, 1914 the new station, then called ''Geestemünde-Bremerhaven'', was opened together with a new, grade-separated line to Lehe and Cuxhaven. When Geestemünde and Lehe were merged to form Wesermünde in 1924, the station was renamed to ''Wesermünde-Bremerhaven''. The station building survived World War II, but the station hall was pulled down in the early 70's - having survived the railway electrification in 1966. The station name changed again when Wesermünde was renamed to Bremerhaven in 1947, and the station became known as Bremerhaven Hauptbahnhof. Due to the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

barracks in Bremerhaven, there were also regular military train services, as well as official duty trains to

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

during the Cold War. From the mid-1990s to 2000, there used to be a daily InterCityExpress service to

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

, leaving Bremerhaven in the morning and arriving in the evening. This service was abandoned, leaving the station without long-distance services ever since.

Renovation plans

Deutsche Bahn, along with the city government, have laid out plans to renovate the station. Renovation will include remodeling the platforms, raising them to improve accessibility, as well as removing one of the two staircases per platform and replacing them with a

lift Lift or LIFT may refer to: Physical devices * Elevator, or lift, a device used for raising and lowering people or goods ** Paternoster lift, a type of lift using a continuous chain of cars which do not stop ** Patient lift, or Hoyer lift, mobil ...

. The station subway will also be renovated, as will the entrance hall. Renovation is estimated to be finished by 2009 and first was budgeted at

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists ...

8.2 million, of which the state

Free Hanseatic City of Bremen Bremen (), officially the Free Hanseatic League#Lists of former Hansa cities, Hanseatic City of Bremen (german: Freie Hansestadt Bremen; nds, Free Hansestadt Bremen), is the smallest and least populous of States of Germany, Germany's 16 states. ...

was supposed to pay 3.8 million. With this budget, it would not have been possible to fully restore the station hall, however, and

lobbyist In politics, lobbying, persuasion or interest representation is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying, which ...

groups have called for additional funding to allow the removal of the hall's current low ceiling. After negotiations, the Deutsche Bahn announced to rise its share of the €8.2 million fund to €800,000 on the condition that the city of Bremerhaven would pay €600,000 to allow for the renovation of the entrance hall. The planned shortening of the station platforms to 210 metres is regarded as controversial, as city officials fear this will cut the station off the long-distance network indefinitely. DB, however, has claimed that even with a 210 m platform, a single

ICE 2 The ICE 2 is the second series of German high-speed trains and one of six in the Intercity-Express family since 1995. The ICE 2 (half-) trains are even closer to a conventional push–pull train than the ICE 1, because each train consist ...

unit could still call at the station, as these units are 205 metres long.

Train services

The following services currently call at the station:Timetables for Bremerhaven station
*Regional services ''Bremerhaven-Lehe - Bremen - Nienburg - Hanover'' *Regional services ''Bremerhaven-Lehe - Bremen - Osnabrück'' *Local services ''Buxtehude - Bremervörde - Bremerhaven - Dorum - Cuxhaven'' *Bremen S-Bahn services ''Bremerhaven-Lehe - Osterholz-Scharmbeck - Bremen - Twistringen''

Operational usage

Services operated by DB Regio, EVB and

Bremen S-Bahn The Bremen S-Bahn (german: Regio-S-Bahn Bremen/Niedersachsen) is an S-Bahn network in Germany, covering the Bremen/Oldenburg Metropolitan Region, from Bremerhaven in the north to Twistringen in the south and Bad Zwischenahn and Oldenburg in t ...

call at the station. It is also frequently passed by

freight train Rail freight transport is the use of railroads and trains to transport cargo as opposed to human passengers. A freight train, cargo train, or goods train is a group of freight cars (US) or goods wagons (International Union of Railways) haul ...

s to and from the Bremerhaven seaport, a special through track exists for these trains. There are to

RegionalExpress In Germany, Luxembourg and Austria, the Regional-Express (RE, or in Austria: REX) is a type of regional train. It is similar to a semi-fast train, with average speed at about 70–90 km/h (top speed often 160 km/h) as it calls at ...

connections to Osnabrück Hbf and Hannover Hbf via Bremen Hbf, served by modern double decker trains. The other connections are local only, operated by the

and by the EVB using DMUs, as the lines to Buxtehude and Cuxhaven are not electrified. The next station to the north is Bremerhaven-Lehe, the next station to the south is Bremerhaven-Wulsdorf.

References

External links

Additional information
on U.S. military train Bremerhaven-Berlin. {{Cuxhaven-Bremen railway line Railway stations in Bremen (state)

Hauptbahnhof Central stations or central railway stations emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century as railway stations that had initially been built on the edge of city centres were enveloped by urban expansion and became an integral part of the ...