The Offenbach City Tunnel is a railway tunnel on the Frankfurt Schlachthof–Hanau line in Offenbach am Main in the German state of

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are Dar ...

. It is used by all of the eastern branches of the

Rhine-Main S-Bahn The Rhine-Main S-Bahn system is an integrated rapid transit and commuter train system for the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main region, which includes the cities Frankfurt am Main, Wiesbaden, Mainz, Offenbach am Main, Hanau and Darmstadt. The network compris ...

( S1, S2, S8 and S9). It runs largely under Berliner Straße.

Construction

Several options were considered and the current route was selected in 1983. Finance for the project was agreed on 4 December 1986, and planning approval was achieved at the end of 1990, allowing construction to begin. However, the symbolic beginning of construction was on 23 March 1988. Parts of the new line run along or below the route of the former Lokalbahn line.

Commissioning and subsequent changes

The line between Frankfurt-Mühlberg and Offenbach Ost was opened on 23 May 1995. This was linked with the extension of line S8 to

Hanau Hanau () is a town in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is located 25 km east of Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main and is part of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region. Its Hanau Hauptbahnhof, station is a ...

, while line S1 only went as far as Offenbach Ost. Line S2—which had previously terminated at Muhlberg—was diverted to

Frankfurt South station 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 its ...

. Following the completion of the upgrading of the Rodgau Railway as well as the route to

Dietzenbach Dietzenbach is the seat of Offenbach district in the ''Regierungsbezirk'' of Darmstadt in Hesse, Germany and lies roughly 12 km southeast of Frankfurt am Main on the waterstream Bieber. Before the Second World War, the current town was ...

on 23 March 2001 lines S1, S2, S8 and S9 now run through the Offenbach City Tunnel. Limited capacity in the

Frankfurt City Tunnel The Frankfurt City Tunnel is standard gauge railway in Frankfurt and the core of the Rhine-Main S-Bahn. The line runs underground for its entire length. Central Station to Konstablerwache The first section was put into operation on 28 May 1978 t ...

until 13 June 2010, meant that line S2—in contrast to the other lines—could only run every half-hour, while additional peak hour S2 trains could only operate between Dietzenbach and

Offenbach Hauptbahnhof Offenbach am Main Hauptbahnhof is a railway station serving the German city of Offenbach am Main. It is located on the Frankfurt–Bebra railway/ South Main line between Frankfurt and Hanau on the south bank of the Main. It is also the starting ...

and between

Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof 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 ...

and

Niedernhausen Niedernhausen im Taunus is a municipality in the Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis in the ''Regierungsbezirk'' of Darmstadt in Hesse, Germany, with almost 15,000 inhabitants. Geography Location Niedernhausen lies in the Rhein-Taunus Nature Park in the west o ...

rather than use the tunnel. In the course of the Offenbach City Tunnel, S-Bahn trains stop at three stations: Kaiserlei, Ledermuseum ( Leather Museum) and Marktplatz. All stations are very similar in construction.

Notes

References

* {{coord missing, Hesse Railway lines in Hesse Buildings and structures in Offenbach am Main Rhine-Main S-Bahn Railway tunnels in Germany Railway lines opened in 1995 1995 establishments in Germany Underground commuter rail