Gießen station

Gießen
Deutsche Bahn

Gießen railway station
Location Bahnhofstraße 102, 35390, Gießen, Hesse
Germany
Coordinates 50°34′44″N 8°39′44″E / 50.57889°N 8.66222°E / 50.57889; 8.66222Coordinates: 50°34′44″N 8°39′44″E / 50.57889°N 8.66222°E / 50.57889; 8.66222
Line(s)
Platforms 11
Construction
Architect Ludwig Hofmann
Architectural style Neo-romantic
Other information
Station code 2120
DS100 codeFG[1]
IBNR8000124
Category2[2]
History
Opened
  • 1853–1854
  • 1904–1911 (rebuilt)
Traffic
Passengers 20,000 per day [3]

Gießen railway station (German: Bahnhof Gießen) is the main railway station in Gießen, Hesse, Germany. The station is a Category 2 station is used by 20,000 passengers daily. The station was opened on 25 August 1850 and is located on the Main-Weser Railway (Kassel – Frankfurt (Main)) and Dill railway (Siegen – Gießen). The current station reception building was built between 1904 and 1911. The main original station building is a historic landmark and has been protected. Outside the station is a bus station and a taxi rank . Parking garages are located nearby.

History

Staircase of the bridge to Alten Wetzlarer Weg

The first Gießen station was a temporary station built in 1850 on the Main-Weser Railway at Oswaldsgarten. This temporary arrangement was replaced in 1853/54 with a new station further south at the present site with an appropriate station building. This was built in a neoclassical style with a symmetrical E-shaped plan. Between 1869 and 1871, the Upper Hessian Railway Company (Oberhessische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft) built the Vogelsberg Railway from Gießen towards Fulda and the Lahn–Kinzig Railway towards Gelnhausen. Its railway facilities in Gießen were on the other side of the station forecourt to the station building of the Main-Weser Railway. The only entrance to the station building was on Liebigstraße (then called Universitätsstraße). It was not until 1893 that a pedestrian bridge was built over the tracks leading to the Vogelsberg Railway and the Lahn–Kinzig Railway to Alten Wetzlarer Weg.

Station building

The current station building was built from 1904 to 1911, reconstructing the old station building of the Main-Weser Railway in a romanesque revival style. It is built at a focal point on the visual axis of the urban extension of 1880. The cast-iron pillars supporting the platform roof were part of the station precinct of 1854. The "new" station building is a three-story building made of red sandstone with a distinctive clock tower and built on an asymmetrical floor plan. The Herborn architect, Ludwig Hoffmann was in charge of planning and executing the station. The station building is now built in the wedge between the Main-Weser Railway and the branch to the east towards the Vogelsberg Railway and the Lahn–Kinzig Railway.[4]

During the Second World War the building was damaged and the Fürstenbahnhof (princely station) located in the northern wing was destroyed in 1944. In November 1968, the station lobby and the north wing of the station building were renovated, extending to the area of the former princely station. The facade was renovated in the early 1970s.

The station building is listed as a historic landmark under the Hessian Monument Protection Act.[4]

At the station there is a ServicePoint, a ticket office, a station bookshop and retail outlets for food and travel needs. The station building still houses the station management including the 3-S-Zentrale office of DB Station&Service and the train announcement office, a Bahnhofsmission (a charity operating at major German stations) and the equipment of DB Services.

Between 2008 and 2010, the facilities for passenger service were rebuilt. The groundbreaking ceremony was held on 16 July 2008. The main objective of the work was the building of a new pedestrian underpass and the provision of barrier-free access to all platforms. After delays due to the long and severe winter, the new building was opened on 21 July 2010, when platform tracks 12–15 could be reached by the new underpass. Because some work was still not finished it was no officially inaugurated until the autumn of 2010.[5]

Layout

The Giessen train station has eleven station platform tracks in its two sections:

Giessen is not part of the German Intercity-Express network, but ICE trains sometimes operate on the Main-Weser Railway during disruptions on the Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe–Frankfurt am Main high-speed route.

Southwest of the passenger station is the freight yard, which was the central marshalling yard for freight for central Hesse until December 2006. At that time local freight trains operated from here to several stations in the area (e.g. Frankenberg (Eder), Dillenburg and Nida). The majority of these freight operations have now, however been relocated to Wetzlar freight yard.

Train services

The following services currently call at Gießen:[6]

Series Operator Route Material Frequency Notes
IC 26 DB Lüneberg – Uelzen – Celle – Hannover Hbf – Göttingen – Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe – Wabern – Treysa – Marburg – Gießen – Friedberg – Frankfurt (Main) Hbf – Damstadt Hbf – Bensheim – Weinheim – Heidelberg Hbf – Wiesloch-Walldorf – Bruchsal – Karlsruhe Hbf Every 2 Hours (5x per day) 1 service per day continues to Konstanz Hbf
RE 25 DB Koblenz Hbf – Niederlahnstein – Bad Ems – Nassau (Lahn) – Diez – Limburg (Lahn) – Eschhofen – Weilburg – Wetzlar – Gießen Class 612 Every 2 Hours
RB 25 HLB Limburg (Lahn) – Eschhofen – Kerkerbach – Runkel – Villmar – Arfurt – Aumenau – Fürfurt – Gräveneck – Weilburg – Löhnberg – Stockhausen – Leun/Braunfels – Solms – Albshausen – Wetzlar – Dutenhofen – Gießen HLB LINT 41 1x per hour
RB 30 DB Gießen – Friedberg FLIRT 427 2x per hour
RB 35 HLB Gießen – Gießen Licher Straße – Großen-Buseck – Reiskirchen – Saasen – Göbelnrod – Grünberg – Lehnheim – Mücke – Nieder-Ohmen – Burg- und Nieder-Gemünden – Ehringshausen – Zell-Romrod – Alsfeld – Renzendorf – Wallenrod – Lauterbach Nord – Angersbach – Bad Salzschlirf – Großenlüder – Oberbimbach – Fulda HLB LINT 41 Every 2 Hours
RB 36 HLB Gießen – Gießen Erdkauter Weg – Watzenborn-Steinberg – Garbenteich – Lich – Langsdorf – Hungen – Trais-Horloff – Ober-Widdersheim – Borsdorf – Nidda – Ranstadt – Effolderbach – Glauburg-Stockheim – Bleichenbach – Büches-Düdelsheim – Büdingen – Mittel-Gründau – Lieblos – Gelnhausen GTW 2/6 1x per hour
Preceding station   Deutsche Bahn   Following station
IC 26
Stralsund-Karlsruhe
towards Karlsruhe Hbf
toward Koblenz Hbf
RE 25
Lahn Valley Railway		Terminus
toward Kassel Hbf
RE 30
Main-Weser Railway
Gießen Oswaldsgarten
toward Treysa
SE 30
Mittelhessen-Express
Großen-Linden
toward Dillenburg
SE 40
Mittelhessen-Express
Preceding station   Hessische Landesbahn   Following station
toward Siegen
RE 40/99
Main-Sieg-Express
RB 25
Lahn Valley Railway		Terminus
TerminusRB 35
Vogelsberg Railway
toward Fulda
RB 36
Lahn-Kinzig Railway
Gießen Erdkauter Weg
toward Gelnhausen

Notes

  1. ↑ Eisenbahnatlas Deutschland (German railway atlas) (2009/2010 ed.). Schweers + Wall. 2009. ISBN 978-3-89494-139-0.
  2. ↑ "Stationspreisliste 2016" [Station price list 2016] (PDF) (in German). DB Station&Service. 1 December 2015. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
  3. ↑ "In einem Zug zur Bahn". Frankfurter Rundschau (in German). 31 March 2010. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
  4. 1 2 "Sachgesamtheit Hauptbahnhof" (in German). Landesamt für Denkmalpflege Hessen. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
  5. ↑ "Unterführung am Bahnhof ist freigegeben". Gießener Allgemeine (in German). 21 July 2010. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
  6. ↑ Timetables for Gießen station

References

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