Witten Hauptbahnhof is a railway station in the town of

Witten Witten () is a city with almost 100,000 inhabitants in the Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis (district) in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Witten is situated in the Ruhr valley, in the southern Ruhr area. Bordering municipalities * Bochum * Dortmun ...

in western

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 ...

. It is situated southwest of the town. In 1849 the station was opened as ''Witten West'' by the '' Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft''. At the end of the 19th century the whole station was reconstructed, the new station building was designed by the architect Richard Witten Sauerbruch and opened in 1901. It is now part of The Industrial Heritage Trail (german: Route Industriekultur). In 1940 the station was renamed ''Witten Hauptbahnhof''.

History

Witten station was originally built as part of the Elberfeld–Dortmund trunk line of the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company, which was opened on 20 December 1848, originally only for freight. On 26 October 1860, the BME began building its Ruhr route from this station.

Deutsche Reichsbahn The ''Deutsche Reichsbahn'', also known as the German National Railway, the German State Railway, German Reich Railway, and the German Imperial Railway, was the German national railway system created after the end of World War I from the regiona ...

opened a freight rail line through Witten-Höhe to Wengern Ost connecting with the

Ruhr Valley Railway The Ruhr Valley Railway (german: Ruhrtalbahn) is a partly abandoned railway line in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, running from Düsseldorf-Rath via Old Kupferdreh station, Bochum-Dahlhausen, Witten-Herbede, Hagen-Vorhalle and Sc ...

on 4 October 1926. In Witten-Höhe, the Witten–Wengern Ost/Schwelm railway branched off from 15 May 1934 to 30 November 1979, carrying passenger trains to Gevelsberg West and

Schwelm Schwelm is a town in the district of Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis in the administrative region of Arnsberg within the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Geography Schwelm is situated in the southeast of the "''Ruhrgebiet''", the Ruhr district of Germany, ...

. This line was permanently closed at the beginning of 1983. Passenger services continued through Wengern Ost to Hagen-Vorhalle for three years, but were also closed on 1 June 1986.

Current situation

The section of the Elberfeld–Dortmund line to the south is used by both long distance and regional services, the section of the line to the north has, however, only been used by

Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn The Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn (german: S-Bahn Rhein-Ruhr) is a polycentric and electrically driven S-train network covering the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region in the German federated state of North Rhine-Westphalia. This includes most of the Ruhr (and ...

line S 5 since 1988. The regional services stop in the station on the Witten/Dortmund–Oberhausen/Duisburg line to

Essen Hauptbahnhof Essen Hauptbahnhof (German for "Essen main station") is a railway station in the city of Essen in western Germany. It is situated south of the old town centre, next to the A 40 motorway. It was opened in 1862 by the Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbah ...

. Since 1988, long-distance services have run without stopping in Witten on the same route as well as on the faster line built via the Oberstraße Tunnel to

Dortmund Hauptbahnhof Dortmund Hauptbahnhof is the main railway station in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The station's origins lie in a joint station of the Köln-Mindener Eisenbahn and Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn which was built north of the city cen ...

. The only lines still in operation on the south bank of the Ruhr (Witten Hbf to Witten-Höhe, Witten-Höhe to Wengern Ost, Wengern Ost to Hagen-Vorhalle) are now connected together as a through freight route. The tram lines 309 and 310 stops nearby Witten Hbf at the stop Witten Bahnhofstraße. The new line 309 runs between Heven Dorf and Bochum-Langendreer S. The bus junction is served by the express bus route SB38 (Ennepetal - Gevelsberg - Wetter - Witten - Hattingen) and city bus lines 320, 371, 375, 376, 379 and 592. At night (weekend) the junction is also served by the night buses NE17 and NE18. All cities closed-by Witten can be reached.

References

External links

* * * * * {{Authority control Railway stations in North Rhine-Westphalia Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn stations Railway stations in Germany opened in 1849

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 ...

S5 (Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn) 1849 establishments in Prussia