Railway station in Dortmund, Germany
Dortmund Hauptbahnhof
is the main railway station in
Dortmund
,
North Rhine-Westphalia
,
Germany
. The station's origins lie in a joint station of the
Koln-Mindener Eisenbahn
and
Bergisch-Markische Eisenbahn
which was built north of the city centre in 1847. That station was replaced by a new station, erected in 1910 at the current site. It featured raised embankments to allow a better flow of traffic. At the time of its opening, it was one of the largest stations in Germany. It was, however, destroyed in an Allied air raid on 6 October 1944.
The main station hall was rebuilt in the year 1952 in a contemporary style. Its stained glass windows feature then-common professions of Dortmund.
The station has 190,000 passengers passing through each day.
[7]
History
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The original Dortmund station was built north of the city centre by the
Cologne-Minden Railway Company
(
Coln-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft
, CME) as part of its
trunk line
and opened on 15 May 1847.
[5]
Two years later the
Bergisch-Markische Railway Company
(
Bergisch-Markische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft
, BME) opened its station as a purely terminating station south of the existing station at the end of its
main line to Elberfeld
(now
Wuppertal
),
[8]
its
line to Soest
(from 1855)
[9]
and its
Ruhr route to Duisburg and Oberhausen
(from 1860).
[10]
The original station building on an island, with access from the castle gate, was replaced in 1910 by a spacious new building at the current location. The tracks were raised to end the obstacle to road traffic through restricted level crossings. This second Dortmund station was inaugurated on 12 December 1910 and was one of the largest in the German Empire when it opened. The station then received the name "Dortmund Hbf" on 1 October 1912. It was destroyed during the Second World War.
[5]
The entrance building of Dortmund Hauptbahnhof was replaced in 1952 by a
functionalist
building. It is regarded as architecturally insignificant, but it has significant
stained glass
windows on the theme of the former industrial specialisations of Dortmund. Five large stained glass windows document the Dortmund economy. In the middle one the city is shown, flanked to the left and right by a steelworker, a blast furnace worker, a brewer and a bridge builder. During the reconstruction of the station they were removed and the put on exhibition at the
Hattingen
Henrichshutte
(a former steel works, which is partly used as a museum of industry). They were replaced with exact copies.
[11]
Reconstruction and rehabilitation
[
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]
Dortmund Hauptbahnhof
Dortmund Hauptbahnhof from the RWE Tower
Thalys, Dortmund-Paris-North
The reconstruction of the Dortmund Hauptbahnhof has been under discussion since 1997. The original plan for a residential area in the form of an "oversized UFO" (80,000 square metres (860,000 sq ft) of usable space) was rejected. On 7 October 1998 a memorandum of understanding had been signed between
Deutsche Bahn
, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and Westdeutsche Immobilien Bank. The
Deutsche Mark
(DM) 850 million project was to be completed by 2002.
[12]
After the plans for the so-called "Dortmund
UFO
" were dropped, a new investor was found in 2001 in the form of the Portuguese investment group
Sonae Imobiliaria
. The DM 1.2 billion project was to be completed by 2006 and new designs were commissioned from architectural firms in the first quarter of 2001.
[13]
The new proposed development was called "3do" (3 Dortmund). €75 million of federal and €55 million of state funds were pledged. It was planned to have 36,000 square metres (390,000 sq ft) of retail and 26,500 square metres (285,000 sq ft) of entertainment space. On 3 February 2006, the Essen branch of the
Federal Railway Authority
(
Eisenbahn-Bundesamt
) approved the plans for "3do". On 28 February 2007, Deutsche Bahn announced that the investor was unwilling to commit to the project.
[
citation needed
]
Through plans for the reconstruction of the station have twice failed, Dortmund Hauptbahnhof suffers significantly from neglect. Only the terminating platforms (tracks 2?5) and the platform of S-Bahn lines S1 and S2 (tracks 6 and 7) have a lift.
[
citation needed
]
The reconstruction and rehabilitation of the Dortmund Hauptbahnhof began in summer 2009. In a first phase, the station building and related operational areas were gutted. During construction the ticket office and a restaurant of a fast-food chain were placed in containers outside the station. The federal police station and the
Bahnhofsmission
(a German charity focussed on railway stations) were also placed in containers on the north side. On 17 June 2011, the first phase was formally completed. Of the total cost of €23 million, the federal government contributed €13.3 million, the state €1.4 million and the Deutsche Bahn €8.3 million.
[14]
In a second phase, which is scheduled to be completed until 2024, the station tunnels and the entrances to the platforms will be renewed.
[15]
Dortmund is one of the few big-city stations in Germany where access to the platforms has not yet made accessible for the disabled. In the course of these alterations the eastern access to the tunnel linking the station's buildings and platforms will also be rebuilt. At the same time it is also intended that there will be improvements to facilitate the introduction of the
Rhine-Ruhr Express
(a planned upgrade to North Rhine-Westphalia's
Regional-Express
network).
[16]
Services
[
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]
[
citation needed
]
Long distance
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Dortmund Hauptbahnhof is served by
Thalys
,
Flixtrain
,
Deutsche Bahn
Intercity-Express
and
Intercity
services.
Regional services
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]
In local passenger service, Dortmund is served by several regional and S-Bahn lines (as of 2020):
[17]
Light rail
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Underground platforms of
Dortmund Stadtbahn
The station is served by lines U41, U45, U47 and U49 of the
Dortmund Stadtbahn
.
? U45 becomes at the station
Westfalenhallen
the line U46 and continues to
Brunnenstraße
. On match days of the
Borussia Dortmund
soccer club the line ends instead of the regular terminus Westfalenhallen at the
Westfalenstadion
station, which is only open on these occasions. In this case it does not continue as U46.
[
citation needed
]
References
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