Warnemünde Station
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Warnemünde station is located in the seaside resort of Warnemünde, a district of the
Hanseatic The Hanseatic League was a Middle Ages, medieval commercial and defensive network of merchant guilds and market towns in Central Europe, Central and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Growing from a few Northern Germany, North German towns in the ...
city of
Rostock Rostock (; Polabian language, Polabian: ''Roztoc''), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (), is the largest city in the German States of Germany, state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the sta ...
in the German state of
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (MV; ; ), also known by its Anglicisation, anglicized name Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, is a Federated state, state in the north-east of Germany. Of the country's States of Germany, sixteen states, Mecklenburg-Vorpom ...
. The station opened on 30 September 1903 and is located on the Neustrelitz–Warnemünde railway. It is the terminus of all three Rostock S-Bahn lines. In addition, some long-distance trains serve the station. Until 1995, it was the starting point of ferries to
Gedser Gedser is a town at the southern tip of the Denmark, Danish island of Falster in the Guldborgsund Municipality in Region Sjælland, Sjælland region. It is the Extreme points of Denmark, southernmost town in Denmark, and also the southernmost poin ...
in Denmark. The station building and some other facilities of the station have heritage protection.


Infrastructure

The station is located on an island between two arms of the estuary of the
Warnow The Warnow () is a river in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Germany. It flows into the Baltic Sea near the town of Rostock Rostock (; Polabian language, Polabian: ''Roztoc''), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock ( ...
, the old and the new channel, a few metres away from the
Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...
. A
swing bridge A swing bridge (or swing span bridge) is a movable bridge that can be rotated horizontally around a vertical axis. It has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravit ...
connects it to the west to the centre of Warnemünde. To the east of the station on the new channel is the Warnemünde Cruise Terminal, which is the location of berths for
cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports of call, where passengers may go on Tourism, tours k ...
s as well as the departure point of the ferry crossing the Warnow to Hohe Düne. The station consists of a terminal platform for tracks 1 and 2, a broad central platform with track 3, which also terminates, and track 4, which formerly served traffic continuing north to the ferry wharf. This is followed by track 5 and a side platform serving track 6. There were formerly some sidings east of platform 6. Tracks 1 to 4 are reached directly from the station forecourt, while a pedestrian tunnel leads to platform 6 and the berthings. There were some sidings southeast of platform 6 in an area that is now used for paid parking. The station building is located north of the platforms on the station forecourt (''Bahnhofsvorplatz''). On the middle platform there is a building that was formerly used as the waiting room for the grand duke.


Old railway station, freight yard and Warnemünde Werft station

Until 1903 the track ended about one kilometre south of the present passenger station at a terminal station. The site of the old station was then used as a freight yard. Parts of the system of tracks exist until 2014, but like the rest of the site, it was no longer used. Warnemünde Werft (shipyard) station is now in the area of the former freight yard. It consists of two outside platforms. Both platforms are connected to each other and with the suburb by a subway. The freight yard and Werft station are administered as part of Warnemünde station. The station building of the old station remained largely intact during the renovation in 1903 with the tracks to the new station running through it. The building was largely demolished during the electrification of the line in the early 1980s, with only the western part of the station house having been preserved. The remains were destroyed in 2014 when part of the area was used for new resident buildings.


Ferry terminal

To the north of the passenger station there was the ferry terminal, which was the former departure point for ferries to Gedser. Two ferry berths were available for the ferry.


History

The ''Deutsch-Nordische-Lloyd'' (German-Nordic-Lloyd) Railway Company opened the line to Warnemünde in 1886. Its main purpose was to connect
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 ...
with Denmark. The railway was opened on 26 June 1886 along with the two ports of Warnemünde and Gedser, replacing the mail steamer connection between Rostock and
Nykøbing Falster Nykøbing Falster (; originally named Nykøbing) is a city on the island of Falster in southern Denmark. It has a population of 16,682 (1 January 2025). Including the satellite town Sundby (Lolland), Sundby on the Lolland side, with a populatio ...
. The travel time from Berlin to Copenhagen was reduced to 12 hours as a result. Warnemünde station was a railway terminus at the end of the track with an entrance building. Immediately adjacent to it and connected by a covered walkway was the departure point for the steamer to Gedser, which was a 450-metre-long pool. The waterways in Warnemünde were rebuilt at the beginning of the 20th century. The new channel was built as a connection to Rostock for wider vessels and the old channel lost its importance for access to Rostock. The Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg Friedrich-Franz Railway (''Großherzoglich Mecklenburgische Friedrich-Franz-Eisenbahn''), which had acquired the railway in 1894, the ''Postdampferlinie'' (mail steamer line) and the Danish State Railway planned to convert the link into a steam-powered
train ferry A train ferry is a ship (ferry) designed to carry Railroad car, railway vehicles, as well as their cargoes and passengers. Typically, one level of the ship is fitted with Track (rail transport), railway tracks, and the vessel has a door at the f ...
. To allow a train ferry to carry railway cars directly to Denmark, a new railway station and a ferry port were built across the old channel, enabling the direct loading of trains. Construction began in 1900. The city of Rostock took responsibility for constructing the earthworks for the new railway station premises, the reconstruction of the piers, the construction of the new 1.1 kilometre-long sea channel and the construction of a bridge across the old channel to connect with the station. The station building of the old railway station was in the way of the extension of the line. That is why the tracks were built directly through the central part of the entrance building, creating a kind of tunnel.


Further development

The work was completed on 30 September 1903 and the new station went into operation. The tracks of the old railway station have since served as a freight yard. In 1935/36, the outside platform 6 was built on the side to add new capacity at the station. In 1911, the track to Rostock was doubled, but the second track was ripped up after 1945 to provide reparations to the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
. The ferry, which irrespective of political difficulties, had continued even in times of war, was closed on 1 May 1945 and was restored mainly at the instigation of the Danish on 10 May 1947. The ferry infrastructure had survived the war without major damage. After the Second World War, the Warnow shipyard was built. Warnow Werft station was built next to it on the site of the freight yard for the transport of workers in 1949. It was served only at peak-hours until 1959, but since then it has been used for normal traffic. The ferry berths were rebuilt in 1962. The international traffic to Denmark in the decades from the early 1960s to the late 1980s consisted of two pairs of direct trains, the ''Neptun'', which ran during the daytime, and the ''Ostsee-Express'', which ran during the night. In addition, an express train connected with the afternoon ferry to and from Gedser with Berlin. The connection to Rostock was converted into an
S-Bahn The S-Bahn ( , ), , is a hybrid urban rail, urban–suburban rail system serving a metropolitan region predominantly in German language, German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit syst ...
in 1974. After double track had been restored on the section from Rostock Hauptbahnhof to Bramow, the line was fully redoubled. Between Marienehe and Warnemünde Werft, the line was at the same time moved further west to be closer to residential areas. An additional island platform was installed at Warnemünde Werft station, requiring one of the tracks in the freight yard to be dismantled. The line from Rostock to Warnemunde was electrified in 1985. The "tunnel" through the old Warnemünde Werft station building obstructed the electrification, requiring part of the building to be demolished. Only the western part of the building remained and served as a residence. In 1988, a new signal box of ''GSIII SP68'' design was put in operation at the station; it controls traffic to Bramow and replaced three old mechanical signal boxes. After the political change in the GDR (
Die Wende The Peaceful Revolution () – also, in German called ' (, "the turning point") – was one of the peaceful revolutions of 1989 at the peak of the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in the late 1980s. A process of sociopolitical change that led to, am ...
), there was a boom in international travel. A third train service to Denmark was established. However, it turned out that the connection from the ferry terminal to the road network was unsuitable for the increased traffic. Car ferries from the port of Rostock took over the bulk of the traffic. On 23 September 1995, the ferry service from Warnemünde to Denmark was closed thus ending passenger services on this route and the rail connections to the ferry port have been unused since then. Several attempts to restart them have been unsuccessful. In 2014/2015 the berths were rebuilt. In 1992, the passenger station was redeveloped with its historic buildings. Platform 1/2 received a continuous canopy in 1999.


Station operations

The station is the terminus of the S-Bahn service from Rostock every quarter of an hour (every 7.5 minutes during the peak hour). In addition, it is served by an
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to
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via
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running six times a week. In summer, an
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 ...
service runs to
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, Halle and
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. A direct tourist train linking Berlin and Warnemünde runs all year round on weekends. The trains mostly use just platforms 1–4. The outer platform 6 has been used since the early 2000s mostly for special trains to cruise ships and at the nightly shutdown of S-Bahn services. A direct connection between city buses does not exist. A ferry runs from the southeast of the station across the river Warnow to Hohe Dune. The pedestrian tunnel from the ferry, the cruise terminal and platform 6 is planned to be demolished in the future as part of the reconstruction of the station. Tracks 4–6, which lead to the now disused ferry terminal and are crossed by the tunnel, will perhaps be shortened so that a cross platform may be built to connect the ends of the platforms. Three platform tracks for the S-Bahn and another two platforms for other trains and cruise trains remain in operation. It is estimated that the reconstruction costs will amount to €6.5 million. The site of the former terminals would be available for the urban development, but now partly belongs to Scandlines. A car park has been established on the remaining part. In the freight yard, the disused railway siding to the shipyard was put back into operation at the end of 2007. The area around the former freight yard and at the station Warnemünde Werft was rebuilt. The pedestrian bridge was replaced by a tunnel for pedestrians and cyclists. South of the station a road bridge has been built that is used by traffic running to the cruise terminal and the Warnemünde – Hohe Düne ferry. The level crossing between the passenger station and the freight yard was closed after the completion of the bridge. On the site of the disused freight yard apartments are to be built. Several parts of the station have heritage protection. These include the entrance building, the grand waiting room on the central platform 3/4, the platform itself with its canopy on cast-iron columns, the former post office building and the old signal box on the eastern side of the station. The
swing bridge A swing bridge (or swing span bridge) is a movable bridge that can be rotated horizontally around a vertical axis. It has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravit ...
over the old channel that connects the station and central Warnemünde is also a listed building.


Rail services


See also

* Rail transport in Germany *
Railway stations in Germany This article shows a List of railway stations, list of railway stations in Germany. The list is subdivided per States of Germany, federal state. Due to the number of railway stations it shows a selection of the principal stations an ...


Notes


References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Warnemunde railway station Railway stations in Rostock Railway stations in Germany opened in 1903 Rostock S-Bahn stations Railway stations serving harbours and ports