Erftstadt station is the only passenger station of the town of

Erftstadt Erftstadt () is a town located about 20 km south-west of Cologne in the Rhein-Erft-Kreis, state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The name of the town derives from the river that flows through it, the Erft. The neighbouring towns are Brüh ...

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 ...

and is thus the major transport hub of the town. The station building is located in the district of Liblar. The station 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 ...

services, RE 22 (

Eifel Railway The Eifel (; lb, Äifel, ) is a low mountain range in western Germany and eastern Belgium. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the southern area of the German-speaking Community of ...

) and RE 12 ( Eifel-Mosel-Express) and Regionalbahn service RB 24 ( Eifelbahn) of the

Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Sieg The Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Sieg (''Rhine-Sieg Transport Association''; VRS) is the public transport association covering the area of the Cologne/Bonn Region, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded on 1 September 1987, and covers an area ...

(Rhine-Sieg transport association, VRS), which run from Trier via Kalle to

Cologne Hauptbahnhof Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 million ...

and together provide services at 30-minute intervals. These services operate on the

(''Eifelstrecke'').

Location

The station area is located on the south-eastern edge of the town between the Ville chain of lakes in the east and the town centre of Erftstadt in the west. The station itself is located in the southern part of the Liblar district.

History

In 1874, 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 ...

(''Rheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'', RhE) began the construction of an elaborate station in a

historicist Historicism is an approach to explaining the existence of phenomena, especially social and cultural practices (including ideas and beliefs), by studying their history, that is, by studying the process by which they came about. The term is widely u ...

style, which was opened in October 1875 with the name of ''Liblar''. The first Rhenish

briquette A briquette (; also spelled briquet) is a compressed block of coal dust or other combustible biomass material (e.g. charcoal, sawdust, wood chips, peat, or paper) used for fuel and kindling to start a fire. The term derives from the French word '' ...

s were made on 1 March 1877. As a result, Liblar station also developed into a substantial freight yard in subsequent years. The station building was enlarged in 1913. In 1938, Liblar station was expanded to 16 tracks due to the ever growing demand for

brown coal Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible, sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35%, and is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its relatively low heat ...

. By 1960, the last

open-pit Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock (geology), rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a Borrow pit, b ...

mines had been closed and dismantled and the export of brown coal from Liblar had ended. In the following years, Liblar station lost its importance. In 1969, as part of a municipal reform and the reorganisation of the district of Euskirchen, several municipalities (including Liblar) were combined and the city of Erftstadt was founded. In 1981, the old station building was demolished by

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 ...

. The modern station was built in the same location as the original station during the upgrade of the Cologne–Trier railway. The station was renamed ''Erftstadt'' on 27 May 1990.

Infrastructure

The station has two platform tracks. In addition, the station has parking, bicycle parking, direct access to the bus stop, a taxi stand and a small kiosk. It is served by three regional rail services together providing two services an hour during working days. Rail services are operated by

DB Regio DB Regio AG is a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn which operates regional and commuter train services in Germany. DB Regio AG, headquartered in Frankfurt am Main. It is a 100% subsidiary of the Deutsche Bahn Group and there part of the DB Regio bus ...

Südwest with diesel railcars of classes 620 and 622 with up to three sets coupled. Currently, however, only a maximum of three two-part or two three-part sets are coupled together. The station is also served by four bus routes: 920 (Lechenich – Gymnich – Türnich – Kerpen – Sindorf –

Horrem Kerpen (; Ripuarian: ''Kerpe'') is the most populated town in the Rhein-Erft-Kreis (North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany). It is located about 20 kilometres southwest from Cologne. Division of the town The town of Kerpen was created in 1975, whe ...

, operated by ''Regionalverkehr Köln'' at 30- to 60-minute intervals), 975 (Türnich – Horrem – Bergheim – Bedburg – Kaster, operated by ''Rhein-Erft-Verkehrsgesellschaftat'' (REVG) at 60-minute intervals), 977 (Liblar – Türnich – Frechen, operated by REVG at 30- to 60-minute intervals), 990 (Lechenich + Brühl – Wesseling, operated by REVG at 30- to 60-minute intervals).

References

Footnotes

Sources

* * * *{{cite book , publisher=City of Erftstadt , title= Year Book , date=2002 , language=de, ref={{SfnRef, Year Book, 2002 Railway stations in North Rhine-Westphalia Erftstadt Railway stations in Germany opened in 1875 Buildings and structures in Rhein-Erft-Kreis