Kaiserslautern Hauptbahnhof is a through- station in the German city of Kaiserslautern and one of seven stations in the city. It is a stop on the

Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn The Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn ''(S-Bahn RheinNeckar)'' forms the backbone of the urban rail transport network of the Rhine Neckar Area, including the cities of Mannheim, Heidelberg and Ludwigshafen. The S-Bahn operates over 437 km of route in the ...

and Deutsche Bahn’s

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 ...

network and a hub for all the regional trains of the western Palatinate. On 10 June 2007, the ''Rhealys'' high-speed rail consortium established a service with a stop in Kaiserslautern, reducing travel time to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

to two and a half hours. In 2003, the station building was renovated and it now houses among other things, a service point and several shops. The station provides step-free access to all platforms. The redesigned Kaiserslautern station forecourt includes a busy bus station, allowing a convenient transfer between bus and rail. Buses run to the

University of Kaiserslautern Technical University of Kaiserslautern (German: ''Technische Universität Kaiserslautern'', also known as TU Kaiserslautern or TUK) is a public research university in Kaiserslautern, Germany. There are numerous institutes around the university, ...

, Betzenberg and the central bus interchanges at Schillerplatz and Rathaus, where there are connections to all bus routes. Prior to the closure of the Einsiedlerhof marshalling yard, Kaiserslautern was a significant rail freight hub.

History

Kaiserslautern Hauptbahnhof was opened in 1848 along with the Homburg–Kaiserslautern section of the Palatine Ludwig Railway. The Palatine Ludwig Railway is still the most important line serving the station. On 16 May 1871 the

Alsenz Valley Railway The Alsenz Valley Railway (german: Alsenztalbahn) is a line that runs from Hochspeyer via Winnweiler and Alsenz to Bad Munster am Stein in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The line closely follows the Alsenz river from the Enkenbach ...

was completed from Bad Münster to

Hochspeyer Hochspeyer is a municipality in the district of Kaiserslautern, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated in the Palatinate forest (Pfälzer Wald), approx. 10 km east of Kaiserslautern. Hochspeyer was the seat of the former Verban ...

; its trains ran into Kaiserslautern. To shorten the route for long-distance traffic, a line was opened on 15 May 1875 between Kaiserslautern and Enkenbach (at the closest point on the Alsenz Valley Railway), allowing trains to run between Kaiserslautern, Bad Kreuznach and the Ruhr and between Kaiserslautern,

Worms Worms may refer to: *Worm, an invertebrate animal with a tube-like body and no limbs Places *Worms, Germany Worms () is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, situated on the Upper Rhine about south-southwest of Frankfurt am Main. It had ...

and

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 ...

without having to pass through Hochspeyer. It received a new entrance building in 1879. The Lauter Valley Railway was opened on 15 November 1883 between Kaiserslautern and Lauterecken-

Grumbach Grumbach is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a Municipalities of Germany, municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Kusel (district), Kusel Districts of Germany, district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany ...

. In 1913 the Kaiserslautern– Waldfischbach line opened, completing the

Biebermühl Railway The Biebermühl Railway (german: Biebermühlbahn)—sometimes called the Moosalbbahn (Moosalb Railway)—is a 35.9 km long railway line from Kaiserslautern to Pirmasens in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, which was built between 1 ...

Pirmasens Pirmasens (; pfl, Bärmesens (also ''Bermesens'' or ''Bärmasens'')) is an independent town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, near the border with France. It was famous for the manufacture of shoes. The surrounding rural district was called ''Lan ...

. The second station building was badly damaged in the Second World War and demolished after the war. The current station building was completed in the early 1950s. It was rebuilt in 2003.

Connections

There are the following long-distance and local transport connections:

Long distance

S-Bahn and DB regional

Sources

Notes

References

* * *

External links

*{{cite web, url=http://www.deutschebahn.com/site/bahn/de/geschaefte/infrastruktur__schiene/netz/netzzugang/dokumente/Bahnhof/SNB/S/SKL__NBS.pdf , format=PDF , title=Kaiserslautern Hbf track map , publisher= Deutsche Bahn , postscript=(PDF; 196,2 KB) , language=de , access-date=22 July 2010 , url-status=dead , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722191601/http://www.deutschebahn.com/site/bahn/de/geschaefte/infrastruktur__schiene/netz/netzzugang/dokumente/Bahnhof/SNB/S/SKL__NBS.pdf , archive-date=July 22, 2011 Railway stations in Rhineland-Palatinate Buildings and structures in Kaiserslautern Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn stations Railway stations in Germany opened in 1848