Altenburg station is on the Saxon-Bavarian Railway from

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

to Hof in the city of

Altenburg Altenburg () is a city in Thuringia, Germany, located south of Leipzig, west of Dresden and east of Erfurt. It is the capital of the Altenburger Land district and part of a polycentric old-industrial textile and metal production region betw ...

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 larg ...

. South of Altenburg, in Lehndorf, the line to Gera branches to the west. Passenger services on other lines have been closed to Zeitz and to Narsdorf.

History

Terminal station

The original Altenburg station was located elsewhere on today's Fabrikstraße (street). Its opening ceremony was held on 19 September 1842 and it was the first station in the

Ernestine duchies The Ernestine duchies (), also known as the Saxon duchies (, although the Albertine appanage duchies of Weissenfels, Merseburg and Zeitz were also "Saxon duchies" and adjacent to several Ernestine ones), were a group of small states whose numb ...

. The

Duchy of Saxe-Altenburg Saxe-Altenburg (german: Sachsen-Altenburg, links=no) was one of the Saxon duchies held by the Ernestine branch of the House of Wettin in present-day Thuringia. It was one of the smallest of the German states with an area of 1323 square kilometer ...

required the station to be built as close as possible to the Residenzstadt (city with a royal palace) of Altenburg, which had the consequence that a further construction of the line to the south was not possible for topographical reasons and thus to the station was built as a terminal station. As a result, the line to Hof first ran a short distance to the north and then made a 180-degree turn into the valley of the

Pleiße The Pleiße is a river of Saxony and Thuringia, Germany. The Pleiße has its source southwest of Zwickau at Ebersbrunn, then flows through Werdau, Crimmitschau, Altenburg, and other towns and villages in Saxony and Thuringia, before flowing fr ...

, which is located east of the city. Hauptbahnhof Altenburg

Altenburg Hauptbahnhof

Increasing traffic meant that the terminal station could no longer cope. In 1876, work began on a new station a little further to the east and the mainline was moved to a new route running south through a 375 m long tunnel. On 25 September 1878, the first train ran through the new tunnel. There are still remains of the former station on Fabrikstraße. The roof of Altenburg tunnel was removed for the electrification of the Leipzig–Hof line between 1957 and 1959. Immediately northwest of the passenger station the, now defunct, Zeitz line ran through the marshalling yard, which is now let as sidings to the Villmanngruppe company. As part of economic stimulus package, Altenburg station is being renovated by

DB Station & Service DB Station&Service AG is a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn, responsible for managing over 5,400 train station A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, fre ...

. The focus of the project is the renewal and renovation of the platforms (raising of the platform edges to suit

Intercity-Express The Intercity Express (commonly known as ICE ()) is a system of high-speed trains predominantly running in Germany. It also serves some destinations in Austria, Denmark (ceased in 2017 but planned to resume in 2022), France, Belgium, Switzerla ...

services) and the sealing of the main platform roof. A new lift will facilitate access to the central platform, which are used by tracks 2 and 3.

Passenger services

The station is on served by services on timetable routes 501.5 and 540, which are operated by

DB Regio DB Regio AG is a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn which operates regional and commuter train services in Germany. DB Regio AG, headquartered in Frankfurt am Main. It is a 100% subsidiary of the Deutsche Bahn Group and there part of the DB Regio bus ...

. Express service RE3 to Gera and Erfurt runs every two hours, express service S5X hourly to Halle, Leipzig and Zwickau. Regional service S5 runs hourly towards Leipzig (northbound) and every two hours to Zwickau (southbound).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Altenburg Station Railway stations in Thuringia Altenburg Buildings and structures in Altenburger Land Railway stations in Germany opened in 1878 Baroque Revival architecture in Germany