Gelsenkirchen Hauptbahnhof is a railway station in the German city of

Gelsenkirchen Gelsenkirchen (, , ; wep, Gelsenkiärken) is the 25th most populous city of Germany and the 11th most populous in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with 262,528 (2016) inhabitants. On the Emscher River (a tributary of the Rhine), it lies ...

. It connects the city to the regional and long-distance rail service of

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 ...

and other railway companies in Germany.

History

The Gelsenkirchen railway station was opened in 1847 with the Cologne-Minden railway. The station has since been rebuilt two times. The first time was in 1904, because the capacity of the old station was no longer sufficient. Since then the station has been a Hauptbahnhof. As part of this construction project, the tracks, which were located at ground level at the time, were raised. This allowed for traffic to Bochum could happen freely pass through. The second new development was carried out from 1982 to 1983. In preparations for the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host th ...

the station underwent extensive renovations. On 4 August 1914, English civilian Henry Hadley was fatally shot by a German officer while their train was standing at the station. Dying the next day, shortly after war was declared, he is sometimes described as the "first British casualty" of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

Operational usage

The station has connect to the

InterCity InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to regional, local, or commuter trains) generally call at m ...

trains towards

Norddeich Mole Norddeich Mole is a railway station located in Norddeich, Lower Saxony, Germany. The station is located on the Emsland Railway. The train services are operated by Deutsche Bahn. Norddeich Mole is a port for combined passenger and car ferr ...

via

Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state di ...

and

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

via

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

. To the week-end, even some ICE-trains connecting

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

stop here. It is also an important connection point for

RegionalExpress In Germany, Luxembourg and Austria, the Regional-Express (RE, or in Austria: REX) is a type of regional train. It is similar to a semi-fast train, with average speed at about 70–90 km/h (top speed often 160 km/h) as it calls at ...

and RegionalBahn lines to Hamm, Düsseldorf, Münster and Essen and has a

S-Bahn The S-Bahn is the name of hybrid urban-suburban rail systems serving a metropolitan region in German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit systems, while smaller ones often resemble c ...

line of the Rhein-Ruhr S-Bahn calling at the station. The Stadtbahn station below the Hauptbahnhof offers local connections by tram to GE-Buer/Horst, Bochum and Essen. File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-00827, Gelsenkirchen, Postamt und Hauptbahnhof.jpg, The station and main post office in 1924 File:Hbf ge ubahn.jpg, Underground Stadtbahn platforms at Gelsenkirchen Hauptbahnhof

References

External links

* Railway stations in North Rhine-Westphalia Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn stations S2 (Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn) Buildings and structures in Gelsenkirchen Railway stations in Germany opened in 1847 1847 establishments in Prussia {{NorthRhineWestphalia-railstation-stub