Hamburg-Altona (or simply Altona) 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 Track (rail transport), tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the ...
in
Hamburg
Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...
, Germany, situated to the west of the city's
main station, in the
district which bears its name.
A main line
terminal station
A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing su ...
, most
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, Switzerl ...
(ICE) services to and from southern Germany begin and terminate at Hamburg-Altona. It also has an underground station (named Altona) which is served by the rapid transit trains of the
Hamburg S-Bahn
The Hamburg S-Bahn is a suburban commuter railway network in the Hamburg Metropolitan Region. Together, the S-Bahn, the Hamburg U-Bahn, the AKN railway and the regional railway form the backbone of railway public transport in the city and the s ...
.
The station is managed by
DB Station&Service.
[
]
History
The original Altona station was built by the Altona-Kiel Railway Company
The Altona-Kiel Railway Company (german: Altona-Kieler Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, AKE) was a joint-stock company, established under the law of Denmark in personal union with the Duchy of Holstein, that built and operated an 105 km railway line be ...
at the end of the line from Kiel, some 300 metres south of the current station. It opened in 1844, at which time Altona was an independent city within the Duchy of Holstein
The Duchy of Holstein (german: Herzogtum Holstein, da, Hertugdømmet Holsten) was the northernmost state of the Holy Roman Empire, located in the present German state of Schleswig-Holstein. It originated when King Christian I of Denmark had hi ...
(the old station is currently used as the present-day Altona borough's town hall
In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...
).
In 1866 the link line was opened, allowing trains to run through to Klosterthor station (near the main train station) and on to 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 constitu ...
or Hanover
Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
. In 1867 the Altona-Blankenese railway was opened to the towns on the right bank of the river Elbe
The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Re ...
(this line is today used by S-Bahn lines S1 and S11).
In 1898 ''Altona Hauptbahnhof'' (Altona main station) was opened at the current location. It was badly damaged during 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
but subsequently rebuilt. The building was finally demolished in the late 1970s during the construction of the City-S-Bahn despite protests; it was feared that the tunnelling would cause the structure to collapse. It was replaced by the current two-storey, low-rise precast concrete structure upon its opening in 1979.
Future
In September 2009 the '' Hamburger Morgenpost'' and ''Die Welt
''Die Welt'' ("The World") is a German national daily newspaper, published as a broadsheet by Axel Springer SE.
''Die Welt'' is the flagship newspaper of the Axel Springer publishing group. Its leading competitors are the '' Frankfurter ...
'' revealed that Deutsche Bahn AG
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 ...
plans to close the long distance train station at Altona and to build a new station in the area of Diebsteich station. According to ''Die Welt'', the city government
Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...
had preliminary studies for the area to build flats and a park. Initially it was expected that the new station would open in 2016. As a result of frequent protests, that date has been delayed until 2027.
Station layout
Regional and long-distance trains start and terminate at the street-level bay platforms within the terminal. There are two underground island platforms
An island platform (also center platform, centre platform) is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway interchange. Island platforms are popular on ...
for the Hamburg S-Bahn
The Hamburg S-Bahn is a suburban commuter railway network in the Hamburg Metropolitan Region. Together, the S-Bahn, the Hamburg U-Bahn, the AKN railway and the regional railway form the backbone of railway public transport in the city and the s ...
rapid transit trains, accessible by stairs, escalator
An escalator is a moving staircase which carries people between floors of a building or structure. It consists of a motor-driven chain of individually linked steps on a track which cycle on a pair of tracks which keep the step tread horizo ...
s and lifts. In front of the station there is a bus station
A bus station or a bus interchange is a structure where city or intercity buses stop to pick up and drop off passengers. While the term bus depot can also be used to refer to a bus station, it generally refers to a bus garage. A bus station is ...
with connections across the city.
Station services
Trains
Long distance
Altona is the terminus/starting point for ICE lines 18, 25 and 28 to Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...
, line 22 to 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 Sw ...
, line 26 to Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...
and line 20 to Basel
, french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese
, neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (B ...
. All ICE services are run 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 ...
.
Regional trains
Regional services available from Altona include number RE 6/60 to Westerland (Sylt) and RB 71 to Itzehoe and Wrist
In human anatomy, the wrist is variously defined as (1) the carpus or carpal bones, the complex of eight bones forming the proximal skeletal segment of the hand; "The wrist contains eight bones, roughly aligned in two rows, known as the carp ...
.
S-Bahn (Rapid transit)
The S1 and S11 line trains on the Blankenese line from the west of the city call at Altona and continue on towards Hamburg Hauptbahnhof
Hamburg Hauptbahnhof (abbrev. ''Hamburg Hbf'') is the main railway station of the city of Hamburg, Germany. Opened in 1906 to replace four separate terminal stations, today Hamburg Hauptbahnhof is operated by DB Station&Service AG. With an aver ...
via the City S-Bahn and the link line towards Hamburg Airport
Hamburg Airport , known in German as ''Flughafen Hamburg'', is a major international airport in Hamburg, the second-largest city in Germany. Since November 2016 the airport has been christened after the former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt. ...
and the northern terminus at Poppenbüttel. Route S3 runs from Pinneberg
Pinneberg (; Northern Low Saxon: ''Pinnbarg'') is a town in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany. It is the capital of the district of Pinneberg and has a population of about 43,500 inhabitants. Pinneberg is located 18&nb ...
in the north-west of the city via the Pinneberg line and continues via Jungfernstieg station
Jungfernstieg () is an underground railway stationName, station code and category: Liste Bahnhofskategorie 2008, DB Station&Service AG, Köthener Straße 2, 10963 Berlin (2008) in the city centre of Hamburg, Germany, served by the underground ...
and the Hauptbahnhof and via the Harburg S-Bahn towards Neugraben
[] is a Boroughs and quarters of Hamburg, quarter of Hamburg, Germany, belongs to the borough Harburg, Hamburg, Harburg. The quarter consists of the old settlements ''Neugraben'' and ''Fischbek'', and the more recently constructed area ''Neuwieden ...
, eventually terminating at Stade
Stade (), officially the Hanseatic City of Stade (german: Hansestadt Stade, nds, Hansestadt Stood) is a city in Lower Saxony in northern Germany. First mentioned in records in 934, it is the seat of the district () which bears its name. It is l ...
in Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...
. Route S31 starts here and runs via the link line, Holstenstrasse station and the Hauptbahnhof towards Harburg and Neugraben.
Facilities
Several shops are located in the station building, along with emergency and information telephones, ticket machine
A ticket machine, also known as a ticket vending machine (TVM), is a vending machine that produces paper or electronic tickets, or recharges a stored-value card or smart card or the user's mobile wallet, typically on a smartphone. For instanc ...
s, toilets, lockboxes and personnel.
Gallery
File:Altonarbf90.jpg, The first station with wings built in 1890, as seen from the south]
File:130-altona-cropped.GIF, Bahnhof Altona (railway station) in 1971. Buses, trams, trains and S-Bahn trains all met here.
File:Bahnhof Hamburg Altona.JPG, Present-day platforms and tracks
See also
* Hamburger Verkehrsverbund
The Hamburger Verkehrsverbund (HVV) ( en, "Hamburg Transport Association") is a transport association coordinating public transport in and around Hamburg, Germany. Its main objectives are to provide a unified fare system, requiring only a sin ...
* List of Hamburg S-Bahn stations
References
External links
DB station information
Picture of the Hamburg-Altona station
Network plan HVV
(PDF, 560 KiB)
{{Authority control
Hamburg S-Bahn stations
Railway stations in Germany opened in 1844
Altona
Buildings and structures in Altona, Hamburg
Hermann Eggert buildings