Frankfurt (Main) West station (german: Bahnhof Frankfurt (Main) West or ''Frankfurt Westbahnhof'') is a
railway station
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
for regional 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 ...
services in
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 ...
,
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 ...
, on the
Main-Weser Railway, in the district of
Bockenheim, near the
Frankfurt Trade Fair grounds and the Bockenheim campus of the
Goethe University Frankfurt
Goethe University (german: link=no, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main) is a university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the wealt ...
.
History
The station was opened as ''Bockenheim station'' in 1849 during the construction of the Main-Weser Railway from Frankfurt to
Kassel
Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...
. The then independent city of Bockenheim was until 1866 in the territory of the
Electorate of Hesse-Kassel
The Electorate of Hesse (german: Kurfürstentum Hessen), also known as Hesse-Kassel or Kurhessen, was a landgraviate whose prince was given the right to elect the Emperor by Napoleon. When the Holy Roman Empire was abolished in 1806, its prin ...
. The station building was built in a relatively elaborate
Renaissance Revival
Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range o ...
style to a design by Julius Eugen Ruhl.
The first major change in the railways to affect Bockenheim station occurred in 1888 with the opening of the new
Frankfurt Central Station
Frankfurt (Main) Hauptbahnhof, also called Frankfurt Central Station and Frankfurt Main Station, is the busiest railway station in the German state of Hesse. Because of its location near the middle of Germany and usage as a transport hub for lo ...
. As part of this project a connection was opened on 10 May 1884 from Bockenheim to the
Homburg Railway
The Homburg Railway (german: Homburger Bahn ) is an 18 km line from Frankfurt am Main to Bad Homburg in the German state of Hesse. It was opened in 1860 as one of the first railway lines in Germany. It is now part of the Rhine-Main S-Bahn ...
, a connection that could not be built fifteen years earlier during the Homburg line's original construction because the various small states involved failed to come to an agreement.
In addition, a sweeping curve was built for the Main-Weser line's northern approach to the new Central Station. The old ran from the old Main-Weser terminus to ''Am Hauptbahnhof'' (the square in front of the Hauptbahnhof) along the current ''Kaiserstraße'' and then turned north. Its abandoned path to Bockenheim was turned into a street, which was initially called ''Bahnstraße'', and it is now a series of streets: ''Hamburger Allee'', ''Friedrich-Ebert-Anlage'' and ''Düsseldorfer Straße''.
Modern station
In 1913, the station was renamed ''Frankfurt West''. The historic station building was destroyed in
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 ...
. A modern functional building was built in 1961. During the building of the S-Bahn in the 1970s most of this station was demolished and replaced by a simple building, which seems to be tucked under the elevated S-Bahn line.
The current station has two levels. The ground level is used by regional trains and S-Bahn S6 trains towards the city on platforms 3, 4 and 5. The S-Bahn lines S3, S4 and S5 and S6 towards
Friedberg use an approximately one kilometre long elevated section with a two-track elevated station (platforms 1 and 2).
Services
The station is served by S-Bahn lines
S3,
S4,
S5 and
S6.
References
*
*
{{Railway stations in Frankfurt
Railway stations in Frankfurt
Rhine-Main S-Bahn stations
Railway stations in Germany opened in 1848