Düren Station
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Düren station is located to the north of the centre of
Düren Düren (; ripuarian: Düre) is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, between Aachen and Cologne on the river Rur. History Roman era The area of Düren was part of Gallia Belgica, more specifically the territory of the Eburones, a people ...
and is the largest station in the city and the district of Düren. It is located at the intersection of the Cologne–Aachen high-speed line with the lines to Linnich, Heimbach and
Euskirchen Euskirchen (; Ripuarian: ''Öskerche'') is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the district Euskirchen. While Euskirchen resembles a modern shopping town, it also has a history dating back over 700 years, having been granted to ...
. Until 1992 it was also connected to the
Erft Railway Bedburg–Horrem railway (also known in German as the ''Erftbahn''—Erft Railway) is a line in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The non-electrified main line was originally built as a line of the Bergheim District Railway and operated ...
. The train is served by
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 f ...
, Regionalbahn and
S-Bahn The S-Bahn is the name of hybrid urban- suburban rail systems serving a metropolitan region in German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit systems, while smaller ones often resemble co ...
trains. It is the terminus of line S19
Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn The Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn (german: S-Bahn Rhein-Ruhr) is a polycentric and electrically driven S-train network covering the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region in the German federated state of North Rhine-Westphalia. This includes most of the Ruhr (and ci ...
. The station was opened on 1 September 1841 by the
Rhenish Railway Company The Rhenish Railway Company (German language, German: ''Rheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'', RhE) was along with the Cologne-Minden Railway Company (CME) and the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company (BME) one of the railway companies that in the m ...
on its original line from Cologne to
Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
.


History

Düren station was established on 1 September 1841 with the opening of the Aachen–Düren–Cologne line. The station became more and more important during the period of industrialisation. This resulted in the opening of the following lines: Due to its ever-improving accessibility Düren was served by increasing numbers of express trains on the various lines. Thus, there were express trains via
Euskirchen Euskirchen (; Ripuarian: ''Öskerche'') is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the district Euskirchen. While Euskirchen resembles a modern shopping town, it also has a history dating back over 700 years, having been granted to ...
to
Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...
and via Bedburg and
Neuss Neuss (; spelled ''Neuß'' until 1968; li, Nüss ; la, Novaesium) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the west bank of the Rhine opposite Düsseldorf. Neuss is the largest city within the Rhein-Kreis Neuss district. It ...
to
Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...
. A depot for the maintenance of locomotives was also built at Düren. It was originally located immediately next to the station. In 1930, construction began on a new railway depot, which was located on the Aachen–Cologne line towards Merzenich. The construction took about three years and it became operational in 1933. Unlike the rest of Düren, which was destroyed by the attacks of the Allies, the station was largely unscathed by
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. During the war, the engine depot was badly damaged and it was only partially rebuilt after the war. Consequently, Düren depot lost its importance.


Post-war

The great destruction of Düren during World War II reduced the city's financial resources. Decades old plans for remodelling the tracks and the construction of a new station building were therefore not implemented. Nevertheless, on 15 May 1949, D-Züge (express trains operated using coaches with corridors) began serving Düren station again. There were two express services: one from
Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
via
Aachen Aachen ( ; ; Aachen dialect: ''Oche'' ; French and traditional English: Aix-la-Chapelle; or ''Aquisgranum''; nl, Aken ; Polish: Akwizgran) is, with around 249,000 inhabitants, the 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the 28th- ...
,
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
Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...
to
Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
, the second from Aachen via Cologne, Wiesbaden,
Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...
,
Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...
and
Ulm Ulm () is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Danube on the border with Bavaria. The city, which has an estimated population of more than 126,000 (2018), forms an urban district of its own (german: link=no, ...
to
Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
. Thus, it was possible to travel from Düren without changing at Cologne or Aachen. Following a significant fall in freight traffic, Düren depot closed on 1 July 1986 and was demolished three years later. As a result, Düren became a hub almost entirely for passenger services with little freight transport. In the next few decades, an increasing number of fast services stopped in Düren, including
InterCity InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to regional, local, or commuter trains) generally call at m ...
, InterRegio,
EuroCity EuroCity, abbreviated as EC, is a cross-border train category within the European inter-city rail network. In contrast to trains allocated to the lower-level "IC" (InterCity) category, EC trains are international services that meet 20 criteri ...
and night trains. The period of fast services ended with the modernisation of the line in the early 21st century. In December 2002, the last D-Züge on the Cologne–Ostend route and the last night train on the Aachen–Dresden route were abandoned. A year later, the InterCity and night train lines were also modified so that Düren was no longer served by long-distance services. The station was also downgraded to a category 4 station. The mayor of Düren unsuccessfully tried to get
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 ...
and
Thalys Thalys (French: ) is a French-Belgian high-speed train operator originally built around the LGV Nord high-speed line between Paris and Brussels. This track is shared with Eurostar trains that go from Paris, Brussels or Amsterdam to London via Li ...
high speed trains on the Aachen–Cologne line to stop at Düren.
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 ...
agreed, however, that the station would be upgraded to category 3 as soon as InterCity or night trains returned to the Aachen-Cologne line. The upgrading of the Aachen–Düren–Cologne line and the related establishment of a S-Bahn line from Düren to Cologne led to a renewed increase in the importance of the Düren node. However, the Düren–Bedburg line was dismantled, the Düren–Euskirchen line was closed and the Düren–Jülich–Linnich and the Düren–Heimbach lines were sold to the ''Dürener Kreisbahn'' (Düren District Railway, DKB). Passenger and freight traffic on the latter lines was subsequently revitalised by the DKB. These services are now operated by
Rurtalbahn Rurtalbahn (German for "Rur Valley Railway") is a railway company servicing the Rur valley from Linnich to Heimbach. Its major hub is Düren station, from where two train lines run to the two destinations. Rurtalbahn GmbH is owned by R.A.T.H G ...
. The station building has been preserved until today. With the development of the high-speed line between Cologne and Aachen, Düren station was partially restored and completely modernised. The tracks and platforms were renewed and later the station building was renovated and modernised in stages. During the first stage of the upgrading of the Cologne–Düren line the platforms were all remodelled and upgraded to make them accessible by the disabled. The entrance to the station from Cologne was rebuilt for a top speed of 160 km/h. During the second stage tracks 1 and 2 will be upgraded for 200 km/h operations.


Service at the station

The station is fully accessible with lifts available at all platforms. There are also guidelines on the ground for the blind. Services are available in the station building, including a ticket office, a bookstore, a bank, toilets, lockers and a DB-Service Store. The station also has a ''Bahnhofsmission'' (a charity that gives assistance of various sorts at German stations). At the southern exit to the station is a subway to the newly built bicycle parking, which was opened in September 2010 after several months of construction.


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Duren Station Railway stations in North Rhine-Westphalia S13 (Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn) Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn stations Railway stations in Germany opened in 1841 Buildings and structures in Düren (district)