Bielefeld Hauptbahnhof
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Bielefeld Hauptbahnhof is the main station in the region of
Ostwestfalen-Lippe Ostwestfalen-Lippe (, literally ''East(ern) Westphalia-Lippe'', abbreviation OWL) is the eastern region of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, congruent with the administrative region of Detmold and containing the eastern part of Westph ...
, in the German state of
North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a States of Germany, state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more tha ...
. It is an important station because of the size of the city of
Bielefeld Bielefeld () is a city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 341,755, it is also the most populous city in the administrative region (''Regierungsbezirk'') of Detmold and the ...
and its location at the Bielefeld Pass, which makes it a node for long-distance and regional traffic. It was opened in 1847 with the opening of the
Cologne-Minden trunk line {{unreferenced, date=January 2014 The Cologne-Minden trunk line is a railway built by the Cologne-Minden Railway Company (''Cöln-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'', CME). The line is the westernmost part of the railway line from Berlin to the Rhin ...
. It is classified 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 ...
as a category 2 station.


Station environment

Bielefeld Hauptbahnhof is located in the north-west of Bielefeld between the ''Neue Bahnhofsviertel'' (new station district) and the city centre. Not far from the station building is the entrance to the underground station on the
Stadtbahn ' (; German for "city railway"; plural ') is a German word referring to various types of urban rail transport. One type of transport originated in the 19th century, firstly in Berlin and followed by Vienna, where rail routes were created that co ...
line running through the inner city. Opposite is the ''Stadthalle Bielefeld'' conference centre, which includes a hotel. It is a through station on the
Hamm–Minden railway The Hamm–Minden Railway is an important and historically significant railway in Germany. It is completely quadruple track. It is a major axis for long distance passenger and freight trains between the Ruhr and the north and east of Germany. I ...
, which runs through the city from the north-east to the south-west. Since it has no train shed, the platforms have individual canopies.


History

At the opening of the Hamm–Minden railway section of the
Cologne-Minden Railway Company The Cologne-Minden Railway Company (German, old spelling: ''Cöln-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'', ''CME'') was along with the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company and the Rhenish Railway Company one of the railway companies that in the mid-19th ...
’s trunk line on 15 October 1847, Bielefeld station had only a temporary wooden building. The first stone station building was completed in 1849. It was rebuilt and enlarged in 1885. The station at the time was far to the north of the city, because enough flat land was available there. Southwest of the station, the line passes close to the old town, but is already rising to cross the Bielefeld Pass. The almost one km between the old town and the station stimulated the development of public transport in Bielefeld. In the coming decades, the residential and industrial development of the city extended to the station and eventually beyond. In the first decades not all express train stopped in Bielefeld.
Minden Minden () is a middle-sized town in the very north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the greatest town between Bielefeld and Hanover. It is the capital of the district (''Kreis'') of Minden-Lübbecke, which is part of the region of Detm ...
as a seat of the provincial government and a fortress with a large garrison was more important to the government of
Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
than the industrial town of Bielefeld. The number of passengers rose sharply, so that a new station building was required in Bielefeld. The construction of today's entrance building began in 1907. The
Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...
building with natural stone facades was opened on 1 May 1910. In the west wing there was a waiting room for first and second class passengers and a waiting room for third and fourth class passengers, in the east wing rail offices and apartments for rail staff. In the entrance hall there were a ticket office and a baggage counter. The entrance building originally had an adjoining platform. During the reconstruction of the Hamm–Minden line to four tracks between 1911 and 1917, six platform tracks were built on three platforms connected to the station building by passenger and baggage tunnels. Until the beginning of the 21st century the platforms were hardly changed. This means that track 1 runs directly alongside the station building and all the platforms are only accessible through the tunnel. A freight terminal building, which was stylistically matched to the entrance building, but without its natural stone facades, was built on the north side of the station's tracks. The heavy air raids on Bielefeld in September 1944 left the station almost undamaged so that the façade is virtually unchanged despite several modernisations of the building. There is a memorial on the station forecourt in remembrance of the deportation of Jews to the
extermination camp Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (german: Vernichtungslager), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocaust. The v ...
s from Bielefeld station during the Nazi dictatorship. In 1946 and 1947 Bielefeld station was the headquarters of the railways of the American and British occupation zone (''Hauptverwaltung der Eisenbahnen des amerikanischen und britischen Besatzungsgebiets''), from which
Deutsche Bundesbahn The Deutsche Bundesbahn or DB (German Federal Railway) was formed as the state railway of the newly established Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) on 7 September 1949 as a successor of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (DRG). The DB remained ...
emerged in 1949. The last act of the Deutsche Bundesbahn, ''Generalbetriebsleitung'' (general management) West, Bielefeld was to publish the official winter timetable for the period from 2 October 1949 to 13 May 1950. The importance of the station in the railway network was consolidated with the electrification of the Hamm–Hanover main line on 29 September 1968 and the introduction of the
Intercity-Express The Intercity Express (commonly known as ICE ()) is a system of high-speed trains predominantly running in Germany. It also serves some destinations in Austria, Denmark (ceased in 2017 but planned to resume in 2022), France, Belgium, Switzerla ...
connection between
Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
and
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
in the 1990s, stopping in Bielefeld, with connections at regular-intervals with regional services.


Recent reconstruction

During the rebuilding of the central sections of the Bielefeld tramway underground, the underground Stadtbahn station was not built under the Hauptbahnhof for cost reasons. The Hauptbahnhof Stadtbahn station was instead built 150 m to the south-east and is connected to the station forecourt by a covered
travelator A moving walkway, also known as an autowalk, moving pavement, moving sidewalk, people-mover, travolator, or travelator, is a slow-moving conveyor mechanism that transports people across a horizontal or inclined plane over a short to medium distan ...
(popularly known as ''die Tüte'': "the bag"). At the beginning of the 21st century the old freight yard to the north of the line was demolished to make room for an entrance and exit of the ''Ostwestfalendamm'' expressway and the ''Neue Bahnhofsviertel'' (new station district). The construction included the widening and extension of the pedestrian tunnel to the north and the provision of barrier-free access to existing platforms and to the heritage-listed station building. Additional tracks and a new platform were built on the north side of the station. The station was expanded to seven platform tracks next to four platforms. The expansion and modernisation of the station were intended to be completed in 2000. But after the bankruptcy of the general contractor, construction work was suspended due to unresolved financial issues for a period of 17 months. Since the reconstruction took place under traffic, this resulted in significant disruptions for passengers. Construction was finally completed in September 2006. These works cost a total of €26.2 million. The station is now directly connected to the new station district on the north side, increasing the attractiveness of the city. The dining establishments, nightclubs, spa and leisure facilities benefit from the direct access to the station. The station district and the railway station also support each other, as for example the car park of the new district is also used by rail passengers.


Rail services

Long-distance and regional services run from Bielefeld Hauptbahnhof on the Ruhr–Hanover line and regional services run within the Ostwestfalen-Lippe region. Because the station has only 7 platform tracks, individual platforms are sometimes occupied by two trains at the same time.Timetables for Bielefeld Hbf station


Long-distance


Regional services

All regional trains, trams and buses can be used with ''Der Sechser'' (“the six”) fares of the ''Zweckverband Verkehrsverbund OWL'' (
Ostwestfalen-Lippe Ostwestfalen-Lippe (, literally ''East(ern) Westphalia-Lippe'', abbreviation OWL) is the eastern region of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, congruent with the administrative region of Detmold and containing the eastern part of Westph ...
transport association) and ''NRW-tariff'' fares. An exception to this rule are the night buses running between 1 AM and 5 AM. The Niedersachsen-Ticket can be used on the
Regional-Express 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 ...
service RE 70 ( Weser-Leine-Express) by buying a supplement from/to Herford.


Stadtbahn connections

The underground Stadtbahn station is served by all Stadtbahn lines: Buses run from the station forecourt to, among other places,
Bad Salzuflen Bad Salzuflen is a town and thermal spa resort in the Lippe district of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. At the end of 2013, it had 52,121 inhabitants. Geography Bad Salzuflen lies on the eastern edge of the Ravensberg Basin, at the confluence o ...
,
Leopoldshöhe Leopoldshöhe is a municipality in the Lippe district of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, with ca. 16,000 inhabitants (2015). Located in the rolling plains north of the Teutoburger Wald range, Leopoldshöhe consists of eight formerly independent ...
,
Borgholzhausen Borgholzhausen is a town in the district of Gütersloh in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the Teutoburg Forest, approx. 20 km north-west of Bielefeld. Borgholzhausen is a sister city to New Haven, Missouri in ...
,
Gütersloh Gütersloh () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, in the area of Westphalia and the administrative region of Detmold. Gütersloh is the administrative centre for a district of the same name and has a population of 100,194 peo ...
and Steinhagen. These also serve urban destinations, such as Heepen, Dornsberg and Quelle (Bielefeld). Nevertheless, the central bus transfer point in Bielefeld is located at ''Jahnplatz'' (a stadbahn stop away), where buses run in all directions.


Parking and cycle facilities

There is a parking area In the new station district on the north-west side of the station. There is cycle parking right next to the station building. Alternatively, it is possible to hire bikes and electric bikes.


Access

The main entrance is located in the station forecourt (''Bahnhofsplatz''), just 200 metres walk from the entrance to the Stadtbahn station. It is accessible by barrier-free lifts and moving walkways. Furthermore, the station is accessible from the new station district, which lies on the opposite side of the station. Platform tracks 1 to 6 are accessible by wheelchair using lifts and the underpass. Track 8 can be reached from ground level from the new station district, which can be reached by lift and underpass from the station building.


Notes


References

* *


External links

* {{cite web, url=http://stredax.dbnetze.com/Dokumente/ISR/BS/NBS/E/EBIL_NBS.pdf , title=Track plan , publisher=
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 ...
, access-date= 30 December 2013 , language=de Railway stations in North Rhine-Westphalia
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 ...
Art Nouveau architecture in Germany Railway stations in Germany opened in 1847 Buildings and structures completed in 1910 Art Nouveau railway stations 1847 establishments in Prussia