Wuppertal Hauptbahnhof

Wuppertal Hauptbahnhof
Through station
Front of station building
Location	Döppersberg 37, Wuppertal, North Rhine-Westphalia Germany
Coordinates	51°15′17″N 7°9′0″E / 51.25472°N 7.15000°ECoordinates: 51°15′17″N 7°9′0″E / 51.25472°N 7.15000°E
Line(s)	Düsseldorf–Wuppertal S 8 Wuppertal–Dortmund S 8 (Wuppertal–)Gruiten–Köln-Deutz (Wuppertal–)Wuppertal-Oberbarmen–Solingen S 7 (Wuppertal–)Wuppertal-Vohwinkel–Essen S 9
Platforms	5
Construction
Architect	Hauptner and Ebeling
Architectural style	Neoclassical
Other information
Station code	6914
DS100 code	KW[1]
IBNR	8000266
Category	2[2]
Website	www.bahnhof.de
History
Opened	1850[3]

Wuppertal Hauptbahnhof (German for Wuppertal main station) is a railway station in the city of Wuppertal, just south of the Ruhr Area, in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is on the line between Düsseldorf/Cologne and Dortmund. The 1848 reception building is one of the oldest of its kind. The station was originally Elberfeld station and has been renamed several times since. Since 1992, it has been called Wuppertal Hauptbahnhof.^[3]

History

The Bergisch-Märkische station in 1855, lithography by Wilhelm Riefstahl

Western end of the smallest metropolitan station in Germany

Station forecourt

S-Bahn

On 3 September 1841, a few years after the opening of the first railway in Germany, the Dusseldorf-Elberfeld Railway Company (German: Düsseldorf-Elberfelder Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, DEE) began operation of the Düsseldorf–Elberfeld line from its Düsseldorf station to its Elberfeld station (now Wuppertal-Steinbeck station).^[4] It was the first steam-worked railway line in Western Germany and Prussia.

The Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company (Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, BME), opened its Elberfeld–Dortmund railway from its Elberfeld station (known as Döppersberg station) via Hagen to Dortmund to Schwelm on 9 October 1847. It was extended to Hagen and Dortmund on 20 December 1848.^[4] The BME took over the DEE in 1857.

The first provisional station building became inadequate within a few years. It was decided to build a new building, designed by Hauptner and Ebeling and opened in 1850^[3] on a new section of line connecting the BME and DEE lines, which was completed on 9 March 1849.^[4] Around 1900, a protruding porch was built in front of the ground floor, which conflicted with the architectural design. Nevertheless, this concept was maintained after its reconstruction after World War II. This will only change with the completion of the current renovation of the station/Döppersberg area.

The station has been renamed several times. It was first called Elberfeld, but a few years later it was renamed Elberfeld-Döppersberg and before the First World War it was renamed Elberfeld Hauptbahnhof. In the early 1930s the station’s name was changed to Wuppertal-Elberfeld station as a consequence of the merger of the towns of Elberfeld and Barmen as the city of Wuppertal. Finally in 1992, it was renamed Wuppertal Hauptbahnhof.^[3]

Station Buildings

The station building is located next to platform track 1 and is connected by a tunnel to tracks 2–5. Above the entrance, near the old Reichsbahn railway division of Elberfeld, there are four pillars supporting the roof. The building is connected by the 200 metre long Döppersberg pedestrian tunnel directly with central Elberfeld and the Wuppertal Hbf (Döppersberg) Schwebebahn (monorail) station.

A McDonald's restaurant has been established in the premises of the former baggage check-in and in the tunnel under the entrance there a large newsagency/book shop and a bakery. The low building in front of the historic station building houses a pharmacy. In front of the entrance to the station there is a parking area, including a taxi stand, and nearby there is an Inter City Hotel.

Architecture

The original building is one of the oldest big city railway stations in Germany. It is a three storey ashlar building bounded by tower-like corner projections. The main entrance in the middle of the building is a four-columned portico, with emphasised Corinthian capitals and has strong antique ornamentation. The ground floor originally had arched openings and it has six rectangular windows on each level and on each side of the portico. It was necessary in 1900 to build a ground-floor entrance porch to cater for the growing need for space for counters and waiting rooms.

The station is part of an ensemble of buildings built in neoclassical style, which is grouped around the railway station forecourt. On the western side of the square is the headquarters of the former Reichsbahn railway division of Elberfeld; on the eastern side there used to be the headquarters of the Chief General Manager, but thus was torn down after the Second World War.

The construction of the station was accompanied by extensive urban development in the Döppersberg area. The Döppersberg bridge (Döppersberger Brücke) was built to connect centre of old Elberfeld with the station over the Wupper.

Reconstruction

Preparations for the reconstruction of the Hauptbahnhof and the surrounding area of Döppersberg began in July 2009. The modernisation of the station was formally launched on 30 June 2009. The new station will have a two-floor shopping level, the “Mall”, a square glass cube with space for offices, a large station forecourt, built in the current Bahnhofstraße, and a bridge, which will include a café, over federal highway 7 (B 7), which will be lowered by about seven metres. The bus station that is now on the B 7 will replace the car park next to the station. The renovation will be completed in 2016.

The modernisation of the entrance building by Deutsche Bahn will start in 2014, at a total cost of € 12.4 million. It is expected that these upgrades will be completed in 2016 simultaneously with the reconstruction of the Döppersberg area.^[5]

Train services

Although the station possesses only five tracks, less than the other stations of the city, nearly all services running through Wuppertal stop here, except for the S 68 S-Bahn service terminating in Vohwinkel. The following services stop at the station:

• S-Bahn (S 7, S 8, S 9)
• Regionalbahn (RB48)
• Regionalexpress (RE4, RE7, RE13)
• InterCity
• InterCityExpress
• EuroCity

Long distance trains

The following services currently call at Wuppertal Hauptbahnhof:

Line	Route		Frequency
ICE 10	Berlin – Hannover – Bielefeld – Hamm (Westf) – Hagen – Wuppertal – Cologne		Hourly
ICE 31	Kiel – Hamburg – Münster (Westf) – Dortmund – Hagen – Wuppertal – Solingen – Cologne – Koblenz – Frankfurt Airport  –	Würzburg – Nuremberg – Regensburg	3 times a day
		Mannheim – Basel
ICE 42	Hamburg – Bremen – Dortmund – Hagen – Wuppertal – Solingen – Cologne – Frankfurt (Main) Flughafen – Mannheim – Stuttgart – Munich		Individual services
ICE 43	Hannover – Hamm (Westf) – Dortmund – Hagen – Wuppertal – Solingen – Cologne – Frankfurt Airport – Mannheim – Basel		Individual services
IC 31	(Fehmarn-Burg/Kiel –) Hamburg – Münster (Westf) – Dortmund – Hagen – Wuppertal – Solingen – Cologne – Koblenz – Frankfurt (Main) – Nuremberg – Passau		Every 2 Hours
IC 55	Leipzig – Halle (Saale) – Braunschweig – Hannover – Hamm (Westf) – Dortmund – Hagen – Wuppertal – Solingen – Köln		Every 2 Hours

Regional trains

The following regional services (Regional-Express and Regionalbahn) call at Wuppertal Hbf:^[6]

Line	Route	Frequency
RE 4	Wupper-Express	Aachen – Mönchengladbach – Düsseldorf – Wuppertal – Hagen – Dortmund
RE 7	Rhein-Münsterland-Express	Krefeld – Neuss – Cologne – Solingen – Wuppertal – Hagen – Hamm (Westf) – Münster (Westf) – Rheine
RE 13	Maas-Wupper-Express	Venlo – Viersen – Mönchengladbach – Düsseldorf – Wuppertal – Hagen – Hamm (Westf)
RB 48	Rhein-Wupper-Bahn	Bonn-Mehlem – Bonn Hbf – Cologne – Solingen – Wuppertal – Oberbarmen
S 7	Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn	Solingen – Remscheid – Wuppertal
S 8	Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn	Hagen – Gevelsberg – Wuppertal – Düsseldorf – Neuss – Mönchengladbach
S 9	Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn	Haltern am See – Bottrop – Essen – Velbert-Langenberg – Wuppertal

References

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. "Wuppertal Hauptbahnhof operations". NRW Rail Archive (in German). André Joost. Retrieved 31 October 2011.
4. "Line 2550: Aachen - Kassel". NRW Rail Archive (in German). André Joost. Retrieved 31 October 2011.
5. "Döppersberg: Ab 2014 wird der Bahnhof saniert". Westdeutsche Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 3 November 2011.
6. "Wuppertal Hauptbahnhof". NRW Rail Archive (in German). André Joost. Retrieved 31 October 2011.

External links

• "Current departure time in Wuppertal Hbf". Deutsche Bahn. Retrieved 3 January 2014.
• "Wuppertal Hauptbahnhof track plan" (PDF, 319 kB) (in German). Deutsche Bahn. Retrieved 31 October 2011.