Innsbruck Hauptbahnhof
Encyclopedia
is the Hauptbahnhof at Innsbruck
Innsbruck
- Main sights :- Buildings :*Golden Roof*Kaiserliche Hofburg *Hofkirche with the cenotaph of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor*Altes Landhaus...

, the capital city of the Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n federal state
States of Austria
Austria is a federal republic made up of nine states, known in German as Länder . Since Land is also the German word for a country, the term Bundesländer is often used instead to avoid ambiguity. The Constitution of Austria uses both terms...

 of Tyrol. Opened in 1853, it is one of the country's busiest railway stations, with around 25,000 passenger movements daily.

The station is owned and operated by the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB). It forms the junction between the Arlberg railway
Arlberg Railway
The Arlberg railway, which connects the Austrian cities Innsbruck and Bludenz, is Austria's only east-west mountain railway. The 135.7 km line is referred as Europe's most difficult mountain railway since it is threatened by avalanches, mudslides, rockfalls or floods...

, the Brenner railway
Brenner railway
The Brenner Railway is a major line connecting the Austrian and Italian railways from Innsbruck and Verona climbing the Wipptal , passing over the Brenner Pass and descending down the Eisack Valley to Bolzano and then down the Adige Valley from Bolzano to Rovereto and from there along the...

, the Mittenwald railway, the Stubai Valley railway and the Lower Inn Valley railway
Lower Inn Valley railway
The Lower Inn Valley Railway is a two-track, electrified railway line that is one of the major lines of the Austrian railways. It was originally opened as the k.k. Nordtiroler Staatsbahn . It begins at the national border at Kufstein as a continuation of the Rosenheim–Kufstein line and runs...

.

Location

Innsbruck Hauptbahnhof is situated in Südtiroler Platz, at the south eastern edge of the city centre.

History

The planning of a railway line in the Tyrolean region began in 1850. Three years later, Emperor Franz Joseph I
Franz Joseph I of Austria
Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I was Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia, King of Croatia, Apostolic King of Hungary, King of Galicia and Lodomeria and Grand Duke of Cracow from 1848 until his death in 1916.In the December of 1848, Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria abdicated the throne as part of...

 approved the route from Innsbruck to Wörgl
Wörgl Hauptbahnhof
Wörgl Hauptbahnhof is the main station of Wörgl, a city in the Kufstein district of the Austrian federal state of Tyrol, about 20 km from the state border with Bavaria.- External links :...

, and a year later its continuation to the border at Kufstein
Kufstein railway station
Kufstein railway station serves the city of Kufstein, in the Kufstein district of the Austrian federal state of Tyrol. Opened in 1876, it is an Austrian-German border station, close to the border between Tyrol and Bavaria....

. Franz Czwerwenka, head of the civil construction department, designed the station, which included one of the most beautiful station building
Station building
A station building, also known as a head house, is the main building of a passenger train station. It is typically used principally to provide services to passengers.A station building is not to be confused with the station itself...

s in the Austrian Empire.

With the opening of the line between Kufstein and Innsbruck, the station was put into operation. It was then still in the midst of meadows and fields. The station assumed greater importance with the commissioning of the Brenner railway (then part of the Südbahn) in 1867, and the Arlberg railway in 1883, for which the Innsbruck West railway station was created. By the 1880s, due to the heavy train traffic over the Brenner Pass
Brenner Pass
- Roadways :The motorway E45 leading from Innsbruck via Bolzano to Verona and Modena uses this pass, and is one of the most important north-south connections in Europe...

, the station had become too small, so the station building and the train shed
Train shed
A train shed is an adjacent building to a railway station where the tracks and platforms are covered by a roof. It is also known as an overall roof...

 were rebuilt.

On 1 January 1924, the ÖBB took over the Austrian lines of the Südbahngesellschaft
Austrian Southern Railway
The Austrian Southern Railway was an Austrian railway company established in 1841...

. In 1927, the station was therefore adapted to increased traffic, and rebuilt. The departure hall was frescoed by Rudolf Stolz, platforms were connected with pedestrian underpasses, and cheaper platform roofs replaced the train shed. At the same time, the Operations Directorate was housed in the "Clock Tower Building" (so called because of a small clock tower at the top), which was located in the north wing, and still exists today.
At the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, the station was completely destroyed by Allied bombing. An ÖBB architect later combined various designs of well known architects to create a plain, functional replacement station building in the style of the 1950s. In 1954, the Austrian artist Max Weiler
Max Weiler
Max Weiler was a Swiss footballer who played as a defender. He played for FC Winterthur and Grasshopper Club Zürich, and also represented Switzerland at international level...

 was awarded the contract for the design of the large departure hall, which became controversial because of the abstract representation of Innsbruck's history and present displayed in its pair of murals.

During the 1980s, the station received minor alterations, but by then was no longer up to date. As part of its Bahnhofsoffensive launched in 1997, the ÖBB therefore decided to construct a replacement station building.

The new structure was designed by the architects Riegler Riewe. Its groundbreaking ceremony took place in 2001, and the official opening was on 19 May 2004. The rebuilding project included the renovation of the 1920s clock tower building, which now houses a police station, amongst other things. The total construction costs for the project amounted to €25 million.


Station building

The central component of the present station building is the main hall, which extends through to the basement, with access to the platforms through two tunnels (north tunnel and south tunnel). There is also access from the main hall to the underground parking station (and then, via another pedestrian tunnel, to the Hotel Europa and escalators to the bus and tram terminals), and, via an additional pedestrian tunnel, to the bus station and local shops. On its northern side, the station building adjoins an office building.

The striking frescoes by Max Weiler, together with a few centimetres of underlying masonry, were removed from the 1950s station building in one piece and remounted in the new concourse.

Almost simultaneously with the construction of the new station building, a public transport hub was created in the station forecourt, which is paved with a red-colored asphalt (and nicknamed "Red Square"). The new hub serves the Innsbruck tramway network, regional and urban bus lines, and the narrow gauge
Narrow gauge
A narrow gauge railway is a railway that has a track gauge narrower than the of standard gauge railways. Most existing narrow gauge railways have gauges of between and .- Overview :...

 Stubai Valley railway. At the time it was created, a rail junction was built at the southern end of the square for a proposed new tram route towards the south, but construction of the new route itself was deferred.


Other facilities

The station has eight through tracks. Of these, platform 1 is accessible at ground level as "home platform", and platform 8 is accessible from the East (only) for loading cars onto motorail trains.

Additionally, there are four bay platform
Bay platform
Bay platform is a railway-related term commonly used in the UK and Australia to describe a dead-end platform at a railway station that has through lines...

s (platforms 21-22, 31 and 41), for regional passenger traffic via the Mittenwald railway, the Arlberg railway and the Brenner railway.

The Hauptbahnhof complex includes the Frachtenbahnhof
Goods station
A goods station is, in the widest sense, a railway station which is exclusively or predominantly where goods of any description are loaded or unloaded from ships or road vehicles and/or where goods wagons are transferred to local sidings.A station where goods are not specifically received or...

 Innsbruck
, which, amongst other facilities, lost much of its importance when the Innsbruck goods train bypass (Inntaltunnel) was completed in 1994. It now stands to be partially transformed in the course of urban development into a residential area.

The shunting yard
Shunting yard
Shunting yard may refer to:* Classification yard* Shunting yard algorithm* British term for rail yard...

 of the Innsbruck railway junction is located at Hall in Tirol
Hall in Tirol
Hall in Tirol is a town in the Innsbruck-Land district of Tyrol, Austria. Located at an altitude of 574 m, about 5 km east of the state's capital Innsbruck in the Inn valley, it has a population of about 12,700 .-History:...

.

Significance

The station is important for commuter traffic to and from the Tyrolean provincial capital, and in providing a hub function for east-west traffic ((Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...

) – Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 – Salzburg
Salzburg
-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...

 – Wörgl
Wörgl
Wörgl is a town in Tyrol, Austria, in the Kufstein district. It is 20 km from the state border with Bavaria.-Transport:Wörgl is an important railway junction between the line from Innsbruck to Munich, and the inner-Austrian line to Salzburg...

 – Innsbruck (Zürich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

) / Bregenz
Bregenz
-Culture:The annual summer music festival Bregenzer Festspiele is a world-famous festival which takes place on and around a stage on Lake Constance, where a different opera is performed every second year.-Sport:* A1 Bregenz HB is a handball team....

) and north-south traffic (Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

 – Wörgl – Innsbruck – Bolzano – Verona
Verona
Verona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona...

 – (Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

 / Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

 / Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 )).

Since December 2007, the station has also been the focal point of Tyrol S-Bahn lines , and , and a terminus of lines and .

The railway line between Baumkirchen
Baumkirchen
Baumkirchen is a community in the district of Innsbruck Land. It lies in the Inn Valley north of the Inn River on a batter of the Gnadenwald terrace. The village can be reached via the Inn Valley Motorway.-External links:*...

 (about 15 km (9.3 mi) east of Innsbruck Hauptbahnhof) and Wörgl Hauptbahnhof
Wörgl Hauptbahnhof
Wörgl Hauptbahnhof is the main station of Wörgl, a city in the Kufstein district of the Austrian federal state of Tyrol, about 20 km from the state border with Bavaria.- External links :...

 (known as the Lower Inn Valley railway
Lower Inn Valley railway
The Lower Inn Valley Railway is a two-track, electrified railway line that is one of the major lines of the Austrian railways. It was originally opened as the k.k. Nordtiroler Staatsbahn . It begins at the national border at Kufstein as a continuation of the Rosenheim–Kufstein line and runs...

) is one of the busiest railway lines in Austria (up to 430 trains a day) and is therefore currently being rebuilt as a four track line, as part of the TEN Berlin–Palermo axis
Berlin–Palermo railway axis
The Berlin-Palermo railway axis is Line 1 of the Trans-European Transport Networks ,which involves the creation of a 2,200 km-long high-speed rail line between Berlin and Palermo.-Germany:...

. In Wörgl Hauptbahnhof, the railway line divides into a northern branch via Kufstein
Kufstein
Kufstein is a city in Tyrol, Austria, located along the river Inn, in the lower Inn valley, near the border with Bavaria, Germany, and is the site of a post World War II French sector United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration Displaced Persons camp.Kufstein is the second largest city...

 to Salzburg and Munich, and an eastern branch via Zell am See
Zell am See
Zell am See is the capital city of the Zell am See district in the Austrian state of Salzburg. The city has about 10,000 inhabitants.Zell am See is a tourist destination and a transportation hub for the region...

 to Salzburg, Graz
Graz
The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...

 and Klagenfurt
Klagenfurt
-Name:Carinthia's eminent linguists Primus Lessiak and Eberhard Kranzmayer assumed that the city's name, which literally translates as "ford of lament" or "ford of complaints", had something to do with the superstitious thought that fateful fairies or demons tend to live around treacherous waters...

] (Gisela Railway
Salzburg-Tyrol Railway
The Salzburg-Tyrol Railway is a main line railway in Austria. It runs through the states of Salzburg and Tyrol from Salzburg to Wörgl and belongs to the core network of the Austrian Federal Railways ....

).

Rail services

  • (Budapest
    Budapest
    Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...

     (H))–Vienna
    Vienna
    Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

    Linz
    Linz
    Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria . It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube. The population of the city is , and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about...

    Salzburg
    Salzburg
    -Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...

    Wörgl
    Wörgl
    Wörgl is a town in Tyrol, Austria, in the Kufstein district. It is 20 km from the state border with Bavaria.-Transport:Wörgl is an important railway junction between the line from Innsbruck to Munich, and the inner-Austrian line to Salzburg...

    InnsbruckFeldkirch
    Feldkirch, Vorarlberg
    - Schools :* Bundesgymnasium und Bundesrealgymnasium Feldkirch * Bundeshandelsakademie und Bundeshandelsschule Feldkirch* Bundesoberstufenrealgymnasium und Bundesrealgymnasium Schillerstrasse...

    Bregenz
    Bregenz
    -Culture:The annual summer music festival Bregenzer Festspiele is a world-famous festival which takes place on and around a stage on Lake Constance, where a different opera is performed every second year.-Sport:* A1 Bregenz HB is a handball team....

    /Zürich
    Zürich
    Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

    Basel
    Basel
    Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...

     (CH)
  • (Berlin
    Berlin
    Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

     (D))–Munich
    Munich
    Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

    Wörgl
    Wörgl
    Wörgl is a town in Tyrol, Austria, in the Kufstein district. It is 20 km from the state border with Bavaria.-Transport:Wörgl is an important railway junction between the line from Innsbruck to Munich, and the inner-Austrian line to Salzburg...

    Innsbruck–Brenner–Verona
    Verona
    Verona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona...

    Milan
    Milan
    Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

    /Rome
    Rome
    Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

    /Venice
    Venice
    Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

     (I)
  • (Belgrade
    Belgrade
    Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...

     (SRB))–Graz
    Graz
    The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...

    Wörgl
    Wörgl
    Wörgl is a town in Tyrol, Austria, in the Kufstein district. It is 20 km from the state border with Bavaria.-Transport:Wörgl is an important railway junction between the line from Innsbruck to Munich, and the inner-Austrian line to Salzburg...

    InnsbruckFeldkirch
    Feldkirch, Vorarlberg
    - Schools :* Bundesgymnasium und Bundesrealgymnasium Feldkirch * Bundeshandelsakademie und Bundeshandelsschule Feldkirch* Bundesoberstufenrealgymnasium und Bundesrealgymnasium Schillerstrasse...

    Bregenz
    Bregenz
    -Culture:The annual summer music festival Bregenzer Festspiele is a world-famous festival which takes place on and around a stage on Lake Constance, where a different opera is performed every second year.-Sport:* A1 Bregenz HB is a handball team....

    /(Zürich
    Zürich
    Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

     (CH))
  • InnsbruckFeldkirch
    Feldkirch, Vorarlberg
    - Schools :* Bundesgymnasium und Bundesrealgymnasium Feldkirch * Bundeshandelsakademie und Bundeshandelsschule Feldkirch* Bundesoberstufenrealgymnasium und Bundesrealgymnasium Schillerstrasse...

    Bregenz
    Bregenz
    -Culture:The annual summer music festival Bregenzer Festspiele is a world-famous festival which takes place on and around a stage on Lake Constance, where a different opera is performed every second year.-Sport:* A1 Bregenz HB is a handball team....

    Dortmund
    Dortmund
    Dortmund is a city in Germany. It is located in the Bundesland of North Rhine-Westphalia, in the Ruhr area. Its population of 585,045 makes it the 7th largest city in Germany and the 34th largest in the European Union....

    Münster
    Münster
    Münster is an independent city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also capital of the local government region Münsterland...

     (D)
  • InnsbruckSeefeld
    Seefeld, Tirol
    Seefeld in Tirol is a municipality of the Innsbruck-Land District in the Austrian state of Tyrol, located about northwest of Innsbruck. With more than one million overnight stays each year, it is one of the most popular Tyrolean tourist destinations especially for skiing in winter, but also for...

    Garmisch-Partenkirchen
    Garmisch-Partenkirchen
    Garmisch-Partenkirchen is a mountain resort town in Bavaria, southern Germany. It is the administrative centre of the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, in the Oberbayern region, and the district is on the border with Austria...

    Munich
    Munich
    Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

  • InnsbruckFulpmes
    Fulpmes
    Fulpmes is a village in Tyrolese Stubaital, Austria, with a population of approximately 4000...

     (Stubaitalbahn)

Bus services

Innsbruck Hauptbahnhof is the hub of IVB, the bus and tram operator of Innsbruck. Most of the lines have a stop at Hauptbahnhof. With the bus line F, the station is connected to Innsbruck Airport
Innsbruck Airport
-External links:*...

. From the station forecourt there are departing not only city lines but also regional lines to different destinations in in all directions.

Connecting lines

!Previous Station!!!!ÖBB
ÖBB
The Austrian Federal Railways is the national railway system of Austria, and the administrators of Liechtenstein's railways...

!!!!Next Station

See also

  • History of rail transport in Austria
    History of rail transport in Austria
    The history of rail transport in Austria began with the Reisszug, a private funicular serving the Fortress of Salzburg. Built at the end of the 15th century and first documented in 1515, it is the oldest known funicular in the world, and possibly the oldest existing railway line.In 1837, following...

  • Rail transport in Austria
    Rail transport in Austria
    Rail transport in Austria is mainly owned by the national rail company ÖBB. The railway network consists of 6,123 km, its gauge is 1,435 mm and 3,523 km are electrified....


External links



This article is based upon a translation of the German language version
Innsbruck Hauptbahnhof
is the Hauptbahnhof at Innsbruck, the capital city of the Austrian federal state of Tyrol. Opened in 1853, it is one of the country's busiest railway stations, with around 25,000 passenger movements daily....

as at July 2011.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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