Oberlahnstein station is, along with

Niederlahnstein Niederlahnstein is a part of the city of Lahnstein in Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany. Description and history Niederlahnstein is situated on the right bank of the Rhine. In 1905, it had a population of 4,351 people. By 1939, this had grown to 6,81 ...

and Friedrichssegen, one of three stations in the town of

Lahnstein Lahnstein () is a ''verband''-free town of Rhein-Lahn-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated at the confluence of the Lahn with the Rhine, approximately south of Koblenz. Lahnstein was created in 1969 by the merger of the prev ...

in the German state of

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...

. It is a through station with 3 platform tracks on the

East Rhine Railway The East Rhine Railway (German: ''Rechte Rheinstrecke'', literally 'right (of the) Rhine railway') is a major, double-track, electrified railway line, running along the right bank of the Rhine from Cologne to Wiesbaden. The -long line forms two D ...

(german: Rechte Rheinstrecke) and is located in the

Oberlahnstein Oberlahnstein () is a part of the city of Lahnstein in Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany. It lies on the right bank of the Rhine, at the confluence of the Lahn 4 m. above Koblenz, on the Right Rhine railway from Cologne to Frankfurt-on-Main. Oberla ...

district. The adjacent former freight depot is now a

brownfield In urban planning, brownfield land is any previously developed land that is not currently in use. It may be potentially contaminated, but this is not required for the area to be considered brownfield. The term is also used to describe land prev ...

site.

History

The first section of the Lahn Valley Railway was opened from Oberlahnstein to

Bad Ems Bad Ems () is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Rhein-Lahn rural district and is well known as a spa on the river Lahn. Bad Ems is the seat of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' (administrative community) Ba ...

on 1 July 1858, but shortly afterwards it was buried by a landslide. The Nassau Rhine Railway Company (''Nassauische Rhein Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'') opened in 1856, the first section of the

Nassau Rhine Railway The East Rhine Railway (German: ''Rechte Rheinstrecke'', literally 'right (of the) Rhine railway') is a major, double-track, electrified railway line, running along the right bank of the Rhine from Cologne to Wiesbaden. The -long line forms two D ...

(''Nassauische Rheinbahn'') from

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...

to Rudesheim, which was authorised in 1853. Due to financial and technical difficulties, the line was not opened to Oberlahnstein until 1862. It was extended to

on 3 June 1864. The Stolzenfels–Oberlahnstein

train ferry A train ferry is a ship (ferry) designed to carry railway vehicles. Typically, one level of the ship is fitted with railway tracks, and the vessel has a door at the front and/or rear to give access to the wharves. In the United States, train ...

connected the right and the left Rhine lines for two years from the second half of 1862. A direct connection was opened from Niederlahnstein to Hohenrhein junction on the Lahn Valley Railway in 1879. This meant that Oberlahnstein station lost some of its importance. Around 1960, the entire East Rhine Railway from Cologne to Wiesbaden was electrified. The station building, which had been heavily damaged in World War II, was replaced by a new building in 1968. On 30 May 1983, the Oberlahnstein–Friedrichssegen section of the Lahn Valley Railway was closed and dismantled. Thus Oberlahnstein station lost its function as a railway junction in the

Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , so ...

- Mosel-

Lahn The Lahn is a , right (or eastern) tributary of the Rhine in Germany. Its course passes through the federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia (23.0 km), Hesse (165.6 km), and Rhineland-Palatinate (57.0 km). It has its source in t ...

area, which has now largely been transferred to the Niederlahnstein station and

Koblenz Central Station Koblenz Hauptbahnhof is a railway station in the city of Koblenz in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is the focal point of rail transport in the Rhine- Moselle-Lahn area. It is a through station in southern Koblenz built below For ...

(''Hauptbahnhof''). However, no passenger trains had run on this section since the 1910s, except for a brief period after the Second World War. In December 2007, an

electronic interlocking In railway signalling, an interlocking is an arrangement of signal apparatus that prevents conflicting movements through an arrangement of tracks such as junctions or crossings. The signalling appliances and tracks are sometimes collectively re ...

was commissioned on the Right Rhine line. In the summer of 2008, the second phase of the project was completed and the Oberlahnstein–Niederlahnstein section was connected to the electronic interlocking system.

Oberlahnstein depot

As early as 1862 a small locomotive depot (''Lokstation'') was established in Oberlahnstein, which later developed into the Oberlahnstein depot (

Bahnbetriebswerk A ''Bahnbetriebswerk'' is the equivalent of a locomotive depot (or motive power depot) on the German and Austrian railways. It is an installation that carries out the maintenance, minor repairs, refuelling and cleaning of locomotives and other ...

). The depot was disbanded as a separate unit in 1962, when the roundhouse was also demolished.

Platforms

Oberlahnstein station once had an extensive system of tracks, which were mainly located in the now closed and dismantled freight yard. Passenger services use a “home” and a side platform. The numbering begins on the southwest side of the station building. *Track 1 is a through track and is the home platform in front of the station building. Today the Stadt-Express services on the ''RheingauLinie'' (SE 10) towards Koblenz Hbf and

Neuwied Neuwied () is a town in the north of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, capital of the District of Neuwied. Neuwied lies on the east bank of the Rhine, 12 km northwest of Koblenz, on the railway from Frankfurt am Main to Cologne. Th ...

stop here. *Track 2 is also a through track and shares an island platform with track 4. This is used by the

VIAS The Vias GmbH (stylized VIAS) is a rail service company based in Frankfurt (Germany). The name of the company was taken from the Latin word via for ''way'' and the letter ''S'' for service. It operates rail services in the states of Hesse, Rhine ...

trains to

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 ...

(''Hbf'') via Rüdesheim and Wiesbaden Central Station (''Hbf''). *Track 4 is a through track and shares the platform with track 2. This track is overgrown with vegetation and is no longer usable today. The tracks of the former Oberlahnstein freight yard are slightly offset to the tracks of the passenger station and the site is considered a brownfield.

Rail services

Oberlahnstein station is only served by local trains. The southern section of the East Rhine Railway (Koblenz–Wiesbaden–Frankfurt) was served until the beginning of the 2010/2011 timetable in December 2010 by the ''Loreley-Bahn'' (RB 10) and the ''Loreley-Express'' (RE 10), which were operated by Deutsche Bahn (DB). As the result of a Europe-wide tender, services since 12 December 2010 have been operated as a single Regionalbahn service every hour, sometimes even at half-hour intervals, by ''VIAS GmbH'', using new Stadler FLIRT sets.

Notes

External links

{{commons category-inline, Bahnhof Oberlahnstein, Oberlahnstein station Railway stations in Rhineland-Palatinate Railway stations in Germany opened in 1858 Rhein-Lahn-Kreis