Sömmerda station is the station of

Sömmerda Sömmerda is a town near Erfurt in Thuringia, Germany, on the Unstrut river. It is the capital of the district of Sömmerda. History Archeological digs in the area that is now Sömmerda, formerly Leubingen, have uncovered prominently buried h ...

in the German state of

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and lar ...

. It is the public transport hub of the Sömmerda district and the only ''Turmbahnhof'' ("tower station"—two-level interchange station) in Thuringia.

History

The first railway reached Sömmerda on 14 August 1874. It was the Straußfurt–Großheringen railway (known as the ''Pfefferminzbahn''—"Peppermint Railway"), which connects

Straußfurt Straußfurt is a municipality in the Sömmerda district of Thuringia, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germa ...

in the west via Sömmerda to

Großheringen Großheringen is a municipality in the Weimarer Land district of Thuringia, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. ...

in the east. This line was built by the Nordhausen-Erfurt Railway Company (''Nordhausen-Erfurter Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'') and owned by the

Prussian state railways The term Prussian state railways (German: ''Preußische Staatseisenbahnen'') encompasses those railway organisations that were owned or managed by the State of Prussia. The words "state railways" are not capitalized because Prussia did not have a ...

(''Preußische Staatsbahn'') from 1887. On 24 October 1881, the second and more important line, the

Sangerhausen–Erfurt railway The Sangerhausen–Erfurt railway is a two-track, electrified railway, which is located mainly in the north of the German state of Thuringia; a small section is in southwestern Saxony-Anhalt. It represents the southern section of the Erfurt–Magde ...

was opened through Sömmerda. In preparation for it, the station had to be developed into a two-level interchange station in order to link both lines. Since then, the higher Sangerhausen–Erfurt railway has run above the Peppermint Railway. This line served the traffic from Erfurt to the then capital of the

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

Province of Saxony The Province of Saxony (german: link=no, Provinz Sachsen), also known as Prussian Saxony () was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and later the Free State of Prussia from 1816 until 1944. Its capital was Magdeburg. It was formed by the merge ...

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 Mag ...

. It was built by the Magdeburg–Halberstadt Railway Company (''Magdeburg-Halberstädter Eisenbahngesellschaft'') and was taken over by the Prussian government in 1886. A second track was built between Erfurt and Sömmerda. The second track was dismantled in 1946 to provide

reparations Reparation(s) may refer to: Christianity * Restitution (theology), the Christian doctrine calling for reparation * Acts of reparation, prayers for repairing the damages of sin History * War reparations ** World War I reparations, made from ...

, but was restored after the reunification of Germany. The line was electrified by the end of the 1990s. Passenger traffic on the Straußfurt–Sömmerda section ended on 9 December 2007 and Regionalbahn services now run on the Peppermint Railway only to Großheringen.

Infrastructure

Platforms

There is barrier-free access to platform 1 via a ramp and to platform 2/3 (island platform) via a lift. Platforms 4 and 5 are partly barrier-free as platform 5 can only be reached by a pedestrian overpass.

Regional services

In the 2017 timetable, Sömmerda is served by the following services: *RE 10 Erfurt–Sömmerda–Sangerhausen–Güsten–Magdeburg (every two hours alternating with RB 59) *RB 27 Sömmerda–Buttstädt–Großheringen (hourly between Sömmerda and Buttstädt, otherwise every two hours) *RB 59 Erfurt–Sömmerda–Sangerhausen–Halle (Saale)–Bitterfeld (every two hours alternating with RE 10) File:Kreuzungsbereich Turmbahnhof Sömmerda.JPG, Rail crossing in the two-level station File:Sömmerda ob Bf.JPG, Platforms 1–3 (above) File:Sömmerda unt Bf.JPG, Platforms 4–5 (under)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sommerda station Railway stations in Thuringia Railway stations in Germany opened in 1874 Buildings and structures in Sömmerda (district)