Langerwehe station is a station 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 state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inha ...

on the

Cologne–Aachen high-speed railway The Cologne–Aachen high-speed line is the German part of the Trans-European transport networks project ''high-speed line Paris–Brussels–Cologne''. It is not a newly built railway line, but a project to upgrade the existing railway line which ...

. It is in the centre of Langerwehe in the district of Düren, about 25 km east of Aachen.

History

The station was built in 1841 to coincide with the completion of the railway from

Cologne 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 millio ...

to Aachen. The two-story central section of the station building dates from this period. Since the line originally served particularly freight traffic between the Belgian city of Antwerp and the

Rhineland The Rhineland (german: Rheinland; french: Rhénanie; nl, Rijnland; ksh, Rhingland; Latinised name: ''Rhenania'') is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly its middle section. Term Historically, the Rhinelands ...

, a

freight house A freight house is a building owned and operated by a railroad for receiving, loading, unloading, and temporary storage of less-than-car load (LCL) freight. Having a protected area for temporary freight storage improves efficiency by allowing ...

was also established, which was partly used for the temporary storage of wood for the nearby coal mines of the Aachen district. With the growing importance of passenger services at the end of the 19th century patronage of Langerwehe station increased strongly. At the beginning of the 20th century, the station was therefore significantly expanded, with a two-story extension added to the station building. The freight house became disused and was later partly demolished. In the late 1990s and early 2000s the line from Cologne to Aachen was rebuilt as a high-speed line. In the station two additional tracks without platforms were built to provide continuous main tracks for through trains (including high-speed

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 ...

and

Thalys Thalys (French: ) is a French-Belgian high-speed rail, high-speed train operator originally built around the LGV Nord high-speed line between Gare du Nord, Paris and Brussels-South railway station, Brussels. This track is shared with Eurostar tr ...

trains). Two new side platform were built for passenger services, track 1 (towards Cologne) and 4 (towards Aachen), each 220 metres long and interconnected by a pedestrian tunnel. The latest renovation in 2009 created a new platform track 5 with a bus station and a "park and rail" parking area. Track 5 is adjacent to track 4, but separated from it by a sound barrier. This is a terminating track, used only by

Euregiobahn Euregiobahn is a system of regional trains (RB 20) in the combined area of the ''AVV (Aachener Verkehrverbund)'' at the Aachen (district), Düren (district) operated by DB Regio NRW. History The historical predecessors of ''Euregiobahn'' were ...

services from Aachen ending in Langerwehe. These services connect to the main line a few hundred metres west of the station. These services can also run to the station on track 4 and, since the timetable change of December 2009, half of the Euregiobahn services operate to Düren.

Current operations

Langerwehe station is currently served exclusively by regional trains: each hour it is served by

NRW-Express The NRW-Express is a Regional-Express rail service in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), running from Aachen via Cologne, Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Essen, Bochum and Dortmund to Hamm as line RE 1. The line is part of the Rhine-Ruh ...

(RE 1) and

Rhein-Sieg-Express The Rhein-Sieg-Express is a Regional-Express service in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate running from Aachen via Düren, Cologne, Troisdorf, Siegburg and Betzdorf to Siegen. It is operated by DB Regio NRW. Histo ...

(RE 9) services. In addition Langerwehe is served by Euregiobahn services on the Eschweiler Valley Railway from Weisweiler every half hour on the new line. These services continue every hour to Düren.

Notes

External links

* {{KBS 480 Railway stations in North Rhine-Westphalia Railway stations in Germany opened in 1841 1841 establishments in Prussia Buildings and structures in Düren (district)