Solingen Hauptbahnhof is the only railway station in

Solingen Solingen (; li, Solich) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located some 25 km east of Düsseldorf along the northern edge of the region called Bergisches Land, south of the Ruhr area, and, with a 2009 population of 161,366 ...

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 ...

, to be served by

ICE Ice is water frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 degrees Celsius or Depending on the presence of impurities such as particles of soil or bubbles of air, it can appear transparent or a more or less opaqu ...

and IC long distance trains. Solingen-Mitte station serves central Solingen, but only has Regionalbahn trains.

History

The first station in the area of present-day town of Solingen was built with the opening of the Gruiten-Cologne-Mülheim railway by the

Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company The Bergisch-Markisch Railway Company (german: Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, BME), also referred to as the Berg-Mark Railway Company or, more rarely, as the Bergisch-Markische Railway Company, was a German railway company that togeth ...

. The station opened on 25 September 1867 and was named ''Ohligs Wald'' ("Ohligs forest"). That same year a branch line to Solingen was built from this station. In 1890, the ''Wald'' part of the name was dropped and with the incorporation of

Ohligs Solingen (; li, Solich) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located some 25 km east of Düsseldorf along the northern edge of the region called Bergisches Land, south of the Ruhr area, and, with a 2009 population of 161,366 ...

into Solingen in 1929, the station was renamed ''Solingen-Ohligs''. In 1894, the line from Hilden was opened. The importance of the Solingen-Ohligs station always exceeded that of the other stations in Solingen, including the old ''Solingen Hauptbahnhof'', since only Ohligs station is located on a main line. Consequently, it was the stopping point for long-distance traffic. This factor lead to the discussion of renaming this station to ''Hauptbahnhof'' and giving the ''Hauptbahnhof'' a new name. These discussions, however, never came to a conclusion, so the station kept its name until the end of 2006. With the decommissioning of the old ''Hauptbahnhof'' in May 2006, Solingen-Ohligs station was renamed as ''Solingen Hauptbahnhof'' on 10 December 2006.

Operational usage

Long distance trains

Regional trains

Notes

External links

* * {{cite web, url= http://nrwbahnarchiv.bplaced.net/bf/8000087.htm, title= Solingen Hbf , work=NRW Rail Archive , publisher= André Joost , accessdate=2 October 2011 , language=German Railway stations in North Rhine-Westphalia Railway stations in Germany opened in 1867 1867 establishments in Prussia Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn stations S1 (Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn) S7 (Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn)

Hauptbahnhof Central stations or central railway stations emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century as railway stations that had initially been built on the edge of city centres were enveloped by urban expansion and became an integral part of the ...