Winnweiler station is the station of the town of
Winnweiler
Winnweiler is a municipality in the Donnersbergkreis, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the upper course of the river Alsenz, approx. north-east of Kaiserslautern. Winnweiler is the seat of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' ("collectiv ...
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 ...
.
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 ...
classifies it as a
category 6 station and it has two platforms.
It is located on the
Alsenz Valley Railway (''Alsenztalbahn'',
Hochspeyer
Hochspeyer is a municipality in the Kaiserslautern (district), district of Kaiserslautern, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated in the Palatinate forest (Pfälzer Wald), approx. 10 km east of Kaiserslautern.
Hochspeyer was the se ...
–
Bad Münster) and was opened on 29 October 1870 with the first section from Hochspeyer to Winnweiler.
Location
The station is located on the north-eastern edge of Winnweiler. There is a pedestrian level crossing at the station. In addition, a bridge crosses the station, connecting the
B48 with the village centre.
History
With the opening of the Hochspeyer–Winnweiler section of the Alsenz Valley Railway on 29 October 1870, Winnweiler was connected to the railway network. For about half a year, Winnweiler was the terminus of this line. On 16 May 1871, the line was extended to Bad Münster am Stein and thus completed. Since then, Winnweiler station has been a through station.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the station had
ticket gates like other stations in the Palatinate.
During this time, the station was managed by the ''Betriebs- und Bauinspektion Kaiserslautern II'' (operations and construction inspectorate of Kaiserslautern II) and was part of the responsibility of the ''Bahnmeisterei Rockenhausen'' (office of the track master of Rockenhausen).
In 1922, the station was integrated into the new ''Reichsbahndirektion Ludwigshafen'' (
railway division of
Ludwigshafen
Ludwigshafen, officially Ludwigshafen am Rhein (; meaning " Ludwig's Port upon Rhine"), is a city in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, on the river Rhine, opposite Mannheim. With Mannheim, Heidelberg, and the surrounding region, it form ...
). A year later, the railway workers employed at the railway station were expelled during the operation of the railway by the French military during the occupation of the
Palatinate by France. During the dissolution of the railway division of Ludwigshafen, on 1 April 1937, it was transferred to the railway division of Mainz and the ''Betriebsamtes (RBA) Bad Kreuznach'' (operations office of Bad Kreuznach).
After the Second World War, the newly founded
Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) transferred the station to the ''Bundesbahndirektion Mainz'' (Bundesbahn railway division of Mainz), which was assigned all railway lines within the newly created 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 ...
. As early as 1971, it became a part of the railway division of Saarbrücken with the dissolution of the railway division of Mainz. In 2000, the station, like all stations in the
Western Palatinate, became part of the ''Westpfalz-Verkehrsverbund'' (Western Palatinate transport association, WVV) at its foundation, but the WVV was absorbed into the
Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar (Rhine-Neckar transport association, VRN) six years later. Since the abandonment of passenger operations at the neighbouring
Langmeil (Pfalz) station, Winnweiler has been the only railway station within the municipality of Winnweiler that has passenger services.
At the beginning of March 2008, the upgrading of Winnweiler station to provide
accessibility
Accessibility is the design of products, devices, services, vehicles, or environments so as to be usable by people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design and practice of accessible development ensures both "direct access" (i. ...
began. For total costs of €1,025,000, platform 1 was extended and the island with platforms 2 and 3 was replaced by an outside platform, platform 2. Since then, Winnweiler station has only had two instead of the previous three platforms. The conversion, which was originally intended to cost only €873,000, was completed in July 2008. The official inauguration of the new station took place on 10 September 2008.
Infrastructure
The railway station is crossed by a bridge, which carries district route 4. It has a signal box containing a push-button
relay interlocking without automatic course setting built by
Siemens
Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad.
The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', '' ...
and designated as ''Wf''.
It used to be called ''Wnf''.
Operations
Passengers
Winnweiler station is one of the most important stations of the Alsenz Valley Railway. It is served by
Regionalbahn services on line RB 65 on the route from
Kaiserslautern Hbf
Kaiserslautern Hauptbahnhof is a through- station in the German city of Kaiserslautern and one of seven stations in the city. It is a stop on the Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn and Deutsche Bahn’s Intercity-Express network and a hub for all the regional ...
via
Bad Kreuznach
Bad Kreuznach () is a town in the Bad Kreuznach district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a spa town, most well known for its medieval bridge dating from around 1300, the Alte Nahebrücke, which is one of the few remaining bridges in th ...
to
Bingen (Rhein) Hbf at hourly intervals and since December 2014 by
Regional-Express services on line RE 15 between Kaiserslautern Hbf and
Mainz Hbf
Mainz Hauptbahnhof ("Mainz main station", formerly known as ''Centralbahnhof Mainz''von Meyer, Arthur (1891). ''Geschichte und Geographie der deutschen Eisenbahnen von ihrer Entstehung bis auf die Gegenwart'', W. Baensch, p. 1131) is a railway st ...
(individual services).
Winnweiler station is served by regional bus routes.
Freight
In 1871 a pair of freight trains ran on the Kaiserslautern – Münster route. In addition, there was a "supplemental” pair of freight trains, which served only the larger stations between Kaiserslautern and Münster such as Winnweiler. The stop at Winnweiler station always took more than ten minutes. Towards the beginning of the twentieth century, freight trains on the Kaiserslautern – Bingerbrück and Kaiserslautern – Bad Münster routes served the station.
Sources
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Winnweiler station
Railway stations in Rhineland-Palatinate
Donnersbergkreis
Railway stations in Germany opened in 1870