Lehrte (german: Bahnhof Lehrte) is a railway station located in

Lehrte Lehrte is a town in the district of Hanover, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approximately 17 km east of Hanover. In the 19th century Lehrte was the most important railway junction in the former Kingdom of Hanover. As of the 21st ...

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 ...

. The station opened on 15 August 1843 and is located on the Berlin-Lehrte Railway and Hanover–Brunswick railway. The train services are operated 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 se ...

, WestfalenBahn and

Metronom Metronom Eisenbahngesellschaft mbH is a German non-entirely-state-owned railway company based in Uelzen, Lower Saxony since December 2005. The company's activities focus exclusively on passenger transport, operating services from Hamburg to Bre ...

History

Lehrte had developed by the mid-19th century into a major railway junction of the

Royal Hanoverian State Railways The Royal Hanoverian State Railways (German: ''Königlich Hannöversche Staatseisenbahnen'') existed from 1843 until the annexation of the Kingdom of Hanover by the Kingdom of Prussia in 1866. At that time its railway network, which comprised 800&nb ...

(''Königlich Hannöverschen Staatseisenbahnen'') and it had become known as a typical railway town. The railway line between

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 ...

and Lehrte via Peine was built in 1843 and extended in the following years to Brunswick (Braunschweig). Branch lines were subsequently built from Lehrte to Celle (1845) and to Hildesheim (1846). In 1844, an entrance building was built in the neoclassical style to a design by Eduard Ferdinand Schwarz. The Berlin-Lehrte railway was built by the Magdeburg-Halberstadt Railway Company (''Magdeburg-Halberstädter Eisenbahngesellschaft'', MHE) and was opened throughout in 1871. It competed with the existing line via

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river. Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebur ...

and Brunswick. The end of the line was at the Lehrter Bahnhof in Berlin, which was demolished in 1958. This was on the site of the new

Berlin Hauptbahnhof Berlin Hauptbahnhof () (English: Berlin Central Station) is the main railway station in Berlin, Germany. It came into full operation two days after a ceremonial opening on 26 May 2006. It is located on the site of the historic Lehrter Bahnhof, ...

. The line to Hildesheim, which had previously run to the south through the centre of the town was relocated in 1990 and reconnected to the Berlin-Lehrte line to the east of Lehrte. As a result, it eased congestion in the centre of the town, which had long been desired. The old railway embankment was converted into an

urban green space In land-use planning, urban green space is open-space areas reserved for parks and other "green spaces", including plant life, water features -also referred to as blue spaces- and other kinds of natural environment. Most urban open spaces are ...

. As a result, the level crossings that had been common in Lehrte were removed in the centre of the town. In 1998, a

high-speed railway High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail system that runs significantly faster than traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated tracks. While there is no single standard that applies worldwide, line ...

was opened from Hanover to Berlin next to the old Berlin-Lehrte railway via Lehrte,

Meinersen Meinersen is a municipality in the Gifhorn (district), district of Gifhorn, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated between the rivers Oker and Aller (Germany), Aller, approx. 12 km west of Gifhorn, and 25 km southeast of Celle. The Mun ...

, Gifhorn,

Wolfsburg Wolfsburg (; Eastphalian: ''Wulfsborg'') is the fifth largest city in the German state of Lower Saxony, located on the river Aller. It lies about east of Hanover and west of Berlin. Wolfsburg is famous as the location of Volkswagen AG's hea ...

, Oebisfelde, Stendal and

Spandau Spandau () is the westernmost of the 12 boroughs () of Berlin, situated at the confluence of the Havel and Spree rivers and extending along the western bank of the Havel. It is the smallest borough by population, but the fourth largest by land ...

. Lehrte station is now used only for regional transport services, as the

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, Switzerla ...

and

Intercity InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to regional, local, or commuter trains) generally call at m ...

(IC) services towards Berlin and the IC services towards Leipzig run through without stopping. By the summer of 2008, the junction in Lehrte was rebuilt again to provide a grade-separated connection for freight trains from the Hanover freight bypass to the east and to give a grade-separated route from Celle to Hildesheim and Brunswick; this involved the raising of the tracks of the high-speed rail line. The long-distance trains from Wolfsburg and Brunswick can now run through Lehrte at 120 km/h.

Train services

Lehrte is a major hub for public transport in the

Großraum-Verkehr Hannover Großraum-Verkehr Hannover (GVH; English: Greater Hanover Transport) is a transport association in Germany, operating in the Region Hannover metropolitan area in the state of Lower Saxony. It was founded on March 4, 1970 and is the second oldest ...

(GVH; Greater Hanover Transport Association) with connections to the

Hanover S-Bahn The Hanover S-Bahn (in German: ''S-Bahn Hannover'') is an S-Bahn network operated by DB Regio and Transdev Hannover in the area of Hanover in the German state capital of Lower Saxony. It went operational shortly before Expo 2000 and is focused o ...

. Trains of various train classes to/from Bielefeld, Brunswick, Celle,

Hildesheim Hildesheim (; nds, Hilmessen, Hilmssen; la, Hildesia) is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany with 101,693 inhabitants. It is in the district of Hildesheim, about southeast of Hanover on the banks of the Innerste River, a small tributary of the Lei ...

Rheine Rheine () is a city in the district of Steinfurt in Westphalia, Germany. It is the largest city in the district and the location of Rheine Air Base. Geography Rheine is on the river Ems, approx. north of Münster, approx. west of Osnabrück a ...

and

stop at Lehrte. The station is served by the following service(s):Timetables for Lehrte station
*Regional services ''Hannover - Lehrte - Gifhorn - Wolfsburg'' *Regional services ''Rheine - Osnabrück - Minden - Hannover - Braunschweig'' *Regional services ''Bielefeld - Herford - Minden - Hannover - Braunschweig'' *Hannover S-Bahn services ''Hannover - Lehrte - Hildesheim'' *Hannover S-Bahn services ''Hannover - Lehrte - Celle''

Notes

References

* * (dissertation of the University of Freiburg, 1966)

External links

* {{cite web, url=http://stredax.dbnetze.com/Dokumente/ISR/BS/NBS/H/HLER_NBS.pdf , title=Track plan , publisher=

, accessdate=9 February 2015, language=de Railway stations in Lower Saxony Hannover S-Bahn stations Railway stations in Germany opened in 1843