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Karlsruhe Hauptbahnhof is a
railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
in the German city of
Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...
. The station is classified as a Category 1 station, as it is a major hub where several railways connect.


History


Old station

When the
Baden Mainline The Baden main line (german: Badische Hauptbahn) is a German railway line that was built between 1840 and 1863. It runs through Baden, from Mannheim via Heidelberg, Karlsruhe, Offenburg, Freiburg, Basle, Waldshut-Tiengen, Waldshut, Schaffhausen an ...
was built between
Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's 2 ...
and
Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...
, the original Karlsruhe station was built on Kriegsstraße between Ettlinger Tor and Mendelssohnplatz about 500 metres south of Karlsruher Marktplatz, the central square of Karlsruhe. The station was designed by
Friedrich Eisenlohr Jakob Friedrich Eisenlohr (23 November 1805, Lörrach - 27 February 1854, Karlsruhe) was a German architect and university professor. His design for a cuckoo clock, now known as the Cuckoo clock#Bahnhäusle style, a successful design from Furtwan ...
and it was opened on 1 April 1843 with two platforms. From the beginning, it was designed as a through station. South of the station there was a locomotive depot and to its east there was a freight yard and a central workshop. It was built to
Irish gauge Railways with a track gauge of fall within the category of broad gauge railways. , they were extant in Australia, Brazil and Ireland. History 600 BC :The Diolkos (Δίολκος) across the Isthmus of Corinth in Greece – a grooved pave ...
(), as were all railways built by the
Grand Duchy of Baden State Railway The Grand Duchy of Baden was an independent state in what is now southwestern Germany until the creation of the German Empire in 1871. It had its own state-owned railway company, the Grand Duchy of Baden State Railways (''Großherzoglich Badische ...
in the early days. It was converted to standard gauge in 1855. In the following years other routes were connected to Karlsruhe station: in 1859 the line to Stuttgart, in 1863 the
Maxau Railway The Maxau Railway (German: ''Maxaubahn'') was a 9.7 kilometre long, railway line opened in 1862, that linked the old Karlsruhe station with the Rhine at Knielingen, near to the '' Maxau'' estate. After the completion of a pontoon over the Rhine, ...
(german: Maxaubahn) connecting with the Palatinate, in 1870 the Rhine Railway to Mannheim, in 1879 the
Kraichgau Railway The Kraichgau Railway (german: Kraichgaubahn ) is a 64.8 km long railway line in the region of Kraichgau in northwestern part of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It runs from Karlsruhe via Bretten and Eppingen to Heilbronn and was buil ...
and in 1895 the strategic railway from
Graben-Neudorf Graben-Neudorf is a municipality in Northern Karlsruhe district in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It was created when the two communities of Graben and Neudorf were united on January 1, 1972. With this union Neudorf was transferred from the distric ...
via
Rastatt Rastatt () is a town with a Baroque core, District of Rastatt, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located in the Upper Rhine Plain on the Murg river, above its junction with the Rhine and has a population of around 50,000 (2011). Rastatt was an ...
to
Haguenau Haguenau (; Alsatian: or ; and historically in English: ''Hagenaw'') is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department of France, of which it is a sub-prefecture. It is second in size in the Bas-Rhin only to Strasbourg, some to the south. To the ...
. The tracks ran at ground level and the approach lines were built with sharp curves because of the confined spaces. The increased rail traffic and the resulting frequent closures of the level crossings disrupted the ever-growing city and made its expansion more difficult. After several years of discussion, which considered, among other things, the raising of the level of the tracks, the
Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in South Germany, in earlier times on both sides of the Upper Rhine but since the Napoleonic Wars only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Baden originated from the House of Zähringen. Baden is ...
parliament decided in 1902 to relocate the station to a site one kilometre south of the existing site. After the opening of the new station in 1913, the existing railway station lost its function as a railway station and continued to be used until the 1960s as a market hall. Today, the Baden State Theatre is located on the former railway yard. Some of the remaining tracks were used over the decades as sidings, but have since been entirely removed. The freight yard was used as a repair shop until 1997. Ludwig-Erhard-Allee was built in the meantime on the grounds of the freight yard, the workshop area is currently being redeveloped with blocks of flats (2010).


New station

The station building, which continues in use, was built about a kilometre south of its predecessor between Südstadt and the marshalling yard. Construction began in 1910 to the plans of August Stürzenacker and the station was opened on the night of 22/23 October 1913. The station and access tracks were built in the district of Beiertheim and also occupied a significant part of the Stadtgarten (city garden, the location of
Karlsruhe Zoo Karlsruhe Zoo is located north of Karlsruhe Central Station in the city of Karlsruhe, Germany. It was opened in 1865 and is one of the oldest zoo A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in whic ...
) and the garden behind the Stephanienbad (now Paul-Gerhardt) church. This resulted in the cutting down of the then oldest eastern cottonwood poplar in Europe. The platforms and the approach tracks were built on an embankment, with access via a pedestrian underpass. The entrance building is on the north side of the tracks. The building has both neoclassical and
Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...
features. East of the station building there is a second underpass, which originally served as an outlet for arriving passengers and was used for a time mainly as an underground car park and a few years ago for secure bicycle parking, but it is now back in use as a pedestrian underpass. A five-span, steel concourse was built to cover five island platforms. Later an eleventh platform track was built and, in the 1980s, three more platform tracks were created south of the station concourse. West of the station building a station annex was built with four terminal tracks, where the lines from the Palatinate and Graben-Neudorf ( via Eggenstein) terminated. The construction of the new station also affected the access routes. Thus, the former stations at Mühlburger Tor in Karlsruhe and in Beiertheim and Rüppurr were closed. The stations in Mühlburg and
Durlach Durlach is a borough of the German city of Karlsruhe with a population of roughly 30,000. History Durlach was bestowed by emperor Frederick II on the margrave Hermann V of Zähringen as an allodial possession. It was chosen by the margrave Ch ...
were relocated and the tracks of the line to Mühlacker, which had previously ended in Durlach, were extended to the new Hauptbahnhof, so that there were now four tracks between Durlach and Karlsruhe. Also the new Karlsruhe-West station was opened for passenger services. The station forecourt was designed by Wilhelm Vitalli. The square with a rectangular ground plan is surrounded by arcades. At the end of the square to the east and the west are two hotel buildings and on the northern side is the entrance to the Stadtgarten and the commercial buildings. The station forecourt is a typical ensemble of urban architecture from the last years before the First World War. East of the station was the railway post office, which had a railway siding on the tramway as well. A week before the opening of the station a tram line was opened between Ettlinger Tor and the new station, which—after removal of the access tracks to the old station—was connected to the city centre. A new terminus for the
Alb Valley Railway The Alb Valley Railway (german: Albtalbahn) is a railway line in southern Germany that runs from Karlsruhe via Ettlingen to Bad Herrenalb with a branch to Ittersbach. The line is owned and operated, as part of the Stadtbahn Karlsruhe, by the Albt ...
(''Albtalbahn'') was opened 300 meters west of the station in Ebertstraße in 1915.


Development of the station

In the Second World War, the station was damaged by bombing, but not destroyed, so that it could be rebuilt after the war. The period after 1950 was characterised by a continuous modernisation of the station and the forecourt. In 1957, the electrification of the railway was completed. In 1969, the rebuilding of the station forecourt began, where—in the spirit of the times—a pedestrian underpass was created and the car and tram traffic were reorganised. In 1977, a new interlocking controlled by pushing buttons was put into operation. At the end of the 1980s, the station was expanded to include three through tracks, 12–14, and a parking garage was built. This was intended to be followed by a redesign of the area immediately south of the station, but this has still not been implemented. Two platforms were extended and modernised for Karlsruhe's inclusion in the
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 ...
network and the access stairs were complemented with lifts and escalators. In 1995, there was a further reorganisation of the station forecourt, during which the pedestrian underpass was closed and the tram station was rebuilt. In 1996, a rail link was built between the western track south of the station and the ''Albtalbahnhof'' (the Karlsruhe station of the Alb Valley Railway), over which
Stadtbahn ' (; German for "city railway"; plural ') is a German word referring to various types of urban rail transport. One type of transport originated in the 19th century, firstly in Berlin and followed by Vienna, where rail routes were created that co ...
(light rail) services could run to Rastatt as line S 4/S 41 of the
Karlsruhe Stadtbahn The Karlsruhe Stadtbahn is a German tram-train system combining tram lines in the city of Karlsruhe with railway lines in the surrounding countryside, serving the entire region of the middle upper Rhine valley and creating connections to neighbou ...
between the rail network and the tram network. As a result, two terminating tracks, 103 and 104, were no longer necessary and, in the mid-2000s, they were closed, so the station now has 14 through tracks, 1–14, and two terminating tracks, 101 and 102.


Operations

The Karlsruhe station is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 1 station. It is served by Intercity-Express trains to
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
,
Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...
,
Dortmund Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the la ...
and
Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...
, from
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 to
Stralsund Stralsund (; Swedish: ''Strålsund''), officially the Hanseatic City of Stralsund (German: ''Hansestadt Stralsund''), is the fifth-largest city in the northeastern German federal state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania after Rostock, Schwerin, Neub ...
,
Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
,
Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
,
Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
and
Konstanz Konstanz (, , locally: ; also written as Constance in English) is a university city with approximately 83,000 inhabitants located at the western end of Lake Constance in the south of Germany. The city houses the University of Konstanz and was th ...
and by
TGV The TGV (french: Train à Grande Vitesse, "high-speed train"; previously french: TurboTrain à Grande Vitesse, label=none) is France's intercity high-speed rail service, operated by SNCF. SNCF worked on a high-speed rail network from 1966 to 19 ...
trains to
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
and
Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...
. It is also served by
Regional-Express 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 f ...
services to
Neustadt an der Weinstraße Neustadt an der Weinstraße (, formerly known as ; lb, Neustadt op der Wäistrooss ; pfl, Naischdadt) is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. With 53,300 inhabitants , it is the largest town called ''Neustadt''. Geography Location T ...
,
Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...
, Stuttgart and Konstanz as well as local and S-Bahn services in the Karlsruhe region. According to DB the station receives about 60,000 passengers and visitors each day. The tracks are designed for through services, with platform tracks 1–4 being used for services on the route to Mannheim and Basel, tracks 5–8 for services to and from
Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...
and Rastatt, tracks 9–14 for services to and from Rastatt and
Pforzheim Pforzheim () is a city of over 125,000 inhabitants in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg, in the southwest of Germany. It is known for its jewelry and watch-making industry, and as such has gained the nickname "Goldstadt" ("Golden City") ...
and tracks 101 and 102 for services between Karlsruhe and Neustadt. The through tracks 1–14 can be approached from all lines while tracks 101 and 102 can only be used by services to and from Wörth and Durmersheim. West of the station are carriage sidings with a turntable and the Karlsruhe depot of
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 ...
. East of the station there is a second set of carriage sidings. A connecting track allows shunting between the station and Karlsruhe freight yard. According to DB, the station is used by 130 long-distance trains, 133 regional trains and 121 S-Bahn trains each day (as at 29 June 2011).


Long-distance services

The station is served by 130 long-distance trains each day, mainly ICEs and ICs on the Rhine route and
TGV Duplex The TGV Duplex is a French high-speed train of the TGV family, manufactured by Alstom, and operated by the French national railway company SNCF. It is unique among TGV trains in that it features bi-level carriages. The Duplex inaugurated the t ...
trains between Paris and Stuttgart.


Regional services


Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn service

Karlsruhe Huaptbahnhof is start and end station of
Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn The Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn ''(S-Bahn RheinNeckar)'' forms the backbone of the urban rail transport network of the Rhine Neckar Area, including the cities of Mannheim, Heidelberg and Ludwigshafen. The S-Bahn operates over 437 km of route in the ...
line S3 service on the Karlsruhe– Bruchsal–Heidelberg– Mannheim– Ludwigshafen– Speyer– Germersheim route.


Karlsruhe Stadtbahn services

Karlsruhe station is a hub for S-Bahn train services of the
Karlsruhe Stadtbahn The Karlsruhe Stadtbahn is a German tram-train system combining tram lines in the city of Karlsruhe with railway lines in the surrounding countryside, serving the entire region of the middle upper Rhine valley and creating connections to neighbou ...
of the
Albtal-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft ''Albtal-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft'' ('Alb Valley Transport Company', AVG) is a company owned by the city of Karlsruhe that operates rail and bus services in the Karlsruhe area, southwest Germany. It is a member of the '' Karlsruher Verkehrsverbu ...
. Most of the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn services, however, use platforms A to D on the station forecourt (officially: ''Bahnhofplatz''), which is shared with urban trams and buses.


Notes


References

* (, with additional illustrations on pages 23 to 27 in the 1914 year book, .) *


External links

* * {{Authority control
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 ...
Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn stations Art Nouveau architecture in Germany Railway stations in Germany opened in 1913 Art Nouveau railway stations Karlsruhe Stadtbahn stations Mannheim–Karlsruhe–Basel railway