Aarhus Central Station () is the main

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

serving the city of

Aarhus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus municipality, Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and app ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. Serving as the main connecting hub for rail traffic between

and the rest of Denmark, the station is used by an average of 6.3 million people per year, making it the busiest station in Denmark outside the Copenhagen area. It is located in the

city centre A city centre, also known as an urban core, is the Commerce, commercial, Culture, cultural and often the historical, Politics, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely e ...

between the districts of Midtbyen and

Frederiksbjerg Frederiksbjerg is a borough in Aarhus, Denmark. Frederiksbjerg is part of the postal district Aarhus C and is located just south of the historical city centre, separated from it by a broad railway yard and connected by three bridges. Despite bein ...

with entrances from Banegårdspladsen and the shopping centre Bruun's Galleri, and with access to platforms from M.P. Bruuns Gade. It is a

through station A train station, railroad station, or railway station is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight, or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track, and a station building providing such a ...

with 4 platforms. The station is located on the East Jutland railway, and is the

terminus Terminus may refer to: Ancient Rome *Terminus (god), a Roman deity who protected boundary markers Transport *Terminal train station or terminus, a railway station serving as an end destination *Bus terminus, a bus station serving as an end des ...

of the

Grenaa Line The Grenaa Line () is a long standard gauge single track railway line in Denmark which runs between Aarhus and Grenaa through the peninsula of Djursland. The railway opened in 1876–1877. It is owned and maintained by Rail Net Denmark and serv ...

and Odder Line. It offers international connections to

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

and

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

InterCity InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the train categories in Europe, classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to InterRegio, regional train, r ...

connections to

Aalborg Aalborg or Ålborg ( , , ) is Denmark's List of cities and towns in Denmark, fourth largest urban settlement (behind Copenhagen, Aarhus, and Odense) with a population of 119,862 (1 July 2022) in the town proper and an Urban area, urban populati ...

Frederikshavn Frederikshavn () is a Danish town in Frederikshavn municipality, Region Nordjylland, on the northeast coast on the North Jutlandic Island in northern Denmark. Its name translates to "Frederik's harbor". It was originally named Fladstrand. The ...

and

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

, regional connections to the rest of

Jutland Jutland (; , ''Jyske Halvø'' or ''Cimbriske Halvø''; , ''Kimbrische Halbinsel'' or ''Jütische Halbinsel'') is a peninsula of Northern Europe that forms the continental portion of Denmark and part of northern Germany (Schleswig-Holstein). It ...

as well as

light rail Light rail (or light rail transit, abbreviated to LRT) is a form of passenger urban rail transit that uses rolling stock derived from tram technology National Conference of the Transportation Research Board while also having some features from ...

services to

Grenå Grenaa (or Grenå) is a Denmark, Danish town and seaport on the east coast of the Jutland peninsula. Tourism, education and commerce are important sectors in the economy of Grenaa. It is the only larger town on Djursland. Grenaa is the municipal ...

and

Odder Odder is a town in Jutland, Denmark. The town is the seat of Odder municipality, and is the biggest town in the municipality. It is located 20 km south of Aarhus and 16 km south-east of Skanderborg. Odder is part of Business Region Aar ...

. The train services are operated by DSB, GoCollective and

Deutsche Bahn (, ; abbreviated as DB or DB AG ) is the national railway company of Germany, and a state-owned enterprise under the control of the German government. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). DB was fou ...

History

The Danish railway network reached Aarhus in 1862 with the construction of the railway line from Aarhus to Randers, built by the British

civil engineering Civil engineering is a regulation and licensure in engineering, professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads ...

company Peto, Brassey and Betts. The city's first railway station opened on 2 September 1862 to serve as the southern

of this new line. It was located near Ryesgade, and encompassed administration buildings and railway works. In 1884, a new and larger station building was constructed. The second station was built in

Neo-Renaissance Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th-century Revivalism (architecture), architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival architecture, Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival ar ...

style by Thomas Arboe and William August Thulstrup and was possibly inspired by

Bonn Central Station Bonn Hauptbahnhof (''Bonn Central Station)'' is a railway station located on the left bank of the Rhine along the Cologne–Mainz line. It is the principal station serving the city of Bonn. In addition to extensive rail service from Deutsche Ba ...

. However, also this building turned out to be to small for the quickly developing city. The third and current Aarhus Central Station was built in 1927 by the Danish State Railway's

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Knud Tanggaard Seest Knud Tanggaard Seest (16 December 1879 – 18 December 1972) was a Danish architect, especially known for the numerous railway stations he designed in functionalist style in his capacity of chief architect for the Danish State Railways from 192 ...

as a part of a plan of the whole area around the station.

Station facilities

The station itself houses a large ticket kiosk, public toilets, a

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...

restaurant, two

7-Eleven 7-Eleven, Inc. is an American convenience store chain, headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Seven-Eleven Japan, which in turn is owned by the retail holdings company Seven & I Holdings. The chain was founde ...

's, and a couple of other shops, but the station building is also combined with a three-storey shopping centre (Bruun's Galleri) housing 93 stores, restaurants and cafés and a large underground car park. The upper deck of the groundfloor train station holds a shopping arcade (Bruuns Arkade) with more restaurants, and a two-storey bike parking facility. The square outside the station ('' Banegårdsplads'') has a taxi hub, a bike-share facility, a pharmacy, a money transfer and exchange store, and more shops, kiosks, cafés and eateries. The railway terminal has a flow of 13 million people per year.

Operations

Aarhus Central Station serves the whole of Denmark with inter-city rail and

with regional rail. The regional connections include

Herning Herning () is a Denmark, Danish town in the Central Denmark Region of the Jutland peninsula. It is the main town and the administrative seat of Herning Municipality. Herning has a population of 51,782 (1 January 2025)

/ Skjern in the west and Struer in the northwest.

Aarhus Light Rail The Aarhus Letbane (Aarhus light rail) is a light rail system in the city of Aarhus, Denmark. It is operated by the company Midttrafik. The first line opened in December 2017, but the system is under continuous development and expansion. Service ...

with electric trams opened its first line from Aarhus Central Station in December 2017. It connects with

Aarhus University Hospital Aarhus University Hospital (AUH) is a university hospital located in Aarhus, Denmark. The hospital develops and provides highly specialised medical treatment, research and education at an international level. The university hospital's headquarters ...

(DNU) in Skejby. In 2018, a southward suburban rail line to

opened, and a northbound section to

Grenaa Grenaa (or Grenå) is a Danish town and seaport on the east coast of the Jutland peninsula. Tourism, education and commerce are important sectors in the economy of Grenaa. It is the only larger town on Djursland. Grenaa is the municipal seat, a ...

is scheduled for 2019. More local expansions of the system are planned for the near future.

Services

The following services currently call at the station: *Intercity services ''Frederikshavn–Hjoerring–Aalborg–Aarhus–Fredericia–Odense–Copenhagen–Copenhagen Airport'' *Regional services ''Aarhus–Horsens–Fredericia–Kolding–Esbjerg'' *Regional services ''Herning–Silkeborg–Aarhus'' *Local services ''Struer–Skive–Viborg–Aarhus'' *Local services ''Skjern–Herning–Silkeborg–Aarhus'' *Light rail/tramway ''Odder–Aarhus–Lisbjergskolen/Lystrup'' *Light rail/tramway ''Odder–Aarhus–Skødstrup–Ryomgård–Grenaa''

Gallery

1905 banegård.jpg, The second station in Aarhus in 1905 Aarhus Hovedbanegård (april).jpg, Entry facade of the present station AarhusH forhallen.jpg, Entrance Hall AarhusHafgangshallen.jpg, Departure Hall Aarhus station 2016 8.jpg, Groundfloor train station Aarhus station 2016 10.jpg, Outside stairways connecting the street level (upper deck) and the railway yard Aarhus - panoramio (3).jpg, Bike parking corridor (upper deck) Banegraven (øst).jpg, Railway Yard, arrival Banegraven (Bruuns Bro).jpg, Railway Yard, departure

References

Citations

Bibliography

* *

External links

Banedanmark
–

government agency A government agency or state agency, sometimes an appointed commission, is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government (bureaucracy) that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions, s ...

responsible for

maintenance The technical meaning of maintenance involves functional checks, servicing, repairing or replacing of necessary devices, equipment, machinery, building infrastructure and supporting utilities in industrial, business, and residential installa ...

and

traffic control Traffic management is a key branch within logistics. It concerns the planning, control and purchasing of transport services needed to physically move vehicles (for example aircraft, road vehicles, rolling stock and watercraft) and freight. Traff ...

of most of the Danish railway network
DSB
– largest Danish

train operating company In the railway system of Great Britain, a train operating company (TOC) is a railway undertaking operating passenger trains under the collective National Rail brand. TOCs have existed since the privatisation of the network under the Railways ...

GoCollective
– private public transport company operating bus and train services in Denmark
Danske Jernbaner
– website with information on

railway history The history of rail transport began before the beginning of the common era. It can be divided into several discrete periods defined by the principal means of track material and motive power used. Ancient systems The Post Track, a prehisto ...

in Denmark {{DEFAULTSORT:Arhus Central Station

Central Station 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 ...

Transit centers in Denmark Railway stations in Denmark opened in 1862 Railway stations in Denmark opened in 1927 Knud Tanggaard Seest railway stations