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Frankfurt (Main) Hauptwache station (german: link=no, Bahnhof Frankfurt (Main) Hauptwache) is a major train station in the city centre of
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 it ...
, Germany. With 181,000 passengers per day, Hauptwache station is the third-busiest
rapid transit Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT), also known as heavy rail or metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. A rapid transit system that primarily or traditionally runs below the surface may be ...
station in Frankfurt after
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 ...
and Konstablerwache station and a major hub for commuter transport in the
Frankfurt/Rhine-Main The Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region, often simply referred to as Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Frankfurt Rhine-Main area or Rhine-Main area (German: ''Rhein-Main-Gebiet'' or ''Frankfurt/Rhein-Main'', abbreviated FRM), is the second-largest metropolitan re ...
region. It is served by eight
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 c ...
lines (S1–S6, S8, S9) and six
U-Bahn Rapid transit in Germany consists of four U-Bahn systems and fourteen S-Bahn systems. The U-Bahn commonly understood to stand for Untergrundbahn (''underground railway'') are conventional rapid transit systems that run mostly underground, while ...
lines (U1-U3, U6-U8) on 2 levels.


Name

The underground station is named after a
baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including ...
building which stands on a plaza above the station. The Hauptwache building was constructed in 1730 and was used as a prison, therefore the name that translates as "main guard-house". Today the square surrounding the building is also called "Hauptwache" (formal: ''An der Hauptwache'').


Location

Hauptwache station is situated at the western end of Frankfurt's main shopping street, the
Zeil The Zeil () is a street in the city centre of Frankfurt, Germany. The name, which dates back to the 14th century, is derived from the German word '' Zeile'' "row" and originally referred to a row of houses on the eastern end of the north side; t ...
. Konstablerwache station is located at the eastern end of the Zeil.


History

In 1961 the Frankfurt city council agreed to build a U-Bahn network. Construction began in 1963 on a line between the ''Nordweststadt'' (a new housing estate in the north-western suburbs) and the city centre. The first section opened in 1968 from ''Nordweststadt'' to ''Hauptwache'', which was the terminus of the line until 1973, when it was extended south to Theaterplatz, now
Willy-Brandt-Platz The Willy-Brandt-Platz is a central square in Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany. Its name was Theaterplatz (Theatre square) until 1992, when it was named after Willy Brandt, the former chancellor. It is located between the Main Station and the Al ...
. This line (known as route A) is now used by trains on lines U1–U3 and U8. In 1986 the east-west route C opened, which is used by trains on lines U6 and U7.
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 remaine ...
committed to build an S-Bahn network in 1962, but no new line was opened until 28 May 1978, when the first section of the
City Tunnel City Tunnell may refer to: * City Tunnel (Malmö), a railway tunnel in Sweden * Cross City Tunnel, a road tunnel in Sydney, Australia * Frankfurt City Tunnel, a railway tunnel in Germany * Offenbach City Tunnel, a railway tunnel in Germany * Leipzi ...
from the
central station 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 ...
to ''Hauptwache'' was opened. Hauptwache was the terminus of the S-Bahn until 1983, when the line was extended to
Konstablerwache Konstablerwache is a central square in the centre of Frankfurt am Main and part of its pedestrian zone. It lies to the east of Hauptwache with both squares linked by the Zeil, the central shopping area of the city. History At the corner of th ...
, at the other end of the
Zeil The Zeil () is a street in the city centre of Frankfurt, Germany. The name, which dates back to the 14th century, is derived from the German word '' Zeile'' "row" and originally referred to a row of houses on the eastern end of the north side; t ...
shopping street. In 1986 the tramline serving ''Hauptwache'' was closed.


Operational Usage


References

{{Railway stations in Frankfurt Frankfurt U-Bahn stations Rhine-Main S-Bahn stations Railway stations in Germany opened in 1968 Railway stations located underground in Frankfurt