Nürnberg Hauptbahnhof
Encyclopedia
Nuremberg Central Station is the main railway station for the city of Nuremberg
in Germany
. It is the largest station in north Bavaria
and belongs to the 20 stations in the highest category of importance
allocated by DB Station&Service
.
It is a through station with 21 platforms and lies on major north-south and east-west transportation axes. It offers connections to the major German cities of Leipzig
, Berlin
, Augsburg
, Ingolstadt
, Munich
, Würzburg
, Frankfurt
and Regensburg
, as well as Linz
and Vienna
in Austria
and Prague
in the Czech Republic
. Over 450 trains stop here daily and more than 180,000 passengers use the station on average every day. It is also a major hub for public transport in Nuremberg.
The Hauptbahnhof is located on the southeastern perimeter of Nuremberg's Altstadt
, immediately opposite the Königstor (King's Gate) where the streets of Marientorgraben, Frauentorgraben, and Bahnhofstraße meet.
The DB Museum, the corporate museum of Deutsche Bahn AG (formerly the Verkehrsmuseum), is close to the station, as is the Nuremberg Opera House
.
West of another Hauptbahnhof in neighbouring Fürth the lines from Würzburg and Bamberg merge and then continue towards Nuremberg. In west Nuremberg they are joined by the railways from Crailsheim, Roth and Augsburg. The four lines then enter together at the western approach to the station.
In southeast Nuremberg the line from Regensburg and the high-speed link from Munich meet one another. At the eastern approach to the station they join the lines from Cheb, Feucht and Schwandorf. They arrive together at the eastern end of the station.
and EuroCity
routes and is the only long-distance station in Nuremberg. These routes generally run to Nuremberg hourly, although some are more frequent as a result of overlapping services.
Long-distance trains travel from here to Munich
, Leipzig
, Berlin
, into the Rhine-Main and the Ruhrgebiet; to Stuttgart
, Karlsruhe
and Hamburg
as well as Passau
and Vienna
. An Interregio-Express
link runs to Chemnitz
and Dresden
. Night train
s travel to various destinations including the Baltic Sea
, Copenhagen
, Vienna
, Prague
and Moscow
.
Almost all long-distance trains travelling from Munich to the north of Germany run in combination to Nuremberg over the high-speed link and then divide up from here. So even for these trunk services there is a frequent service between the two cities. Once the high-speed link between Nuremberg and Leipzig is completed this one, and hence the link to Berlin, will also be considerably faster.
trains mainly serve the Nuremberg area, but also travel to other parts of Bavaria as well as Baden-Württemberg
, Thuringia
and into the Czech Republic
to Prague
. Almost all lines are run at fixed frequencies, mainly hourly. More frequent services are laid on especially at peak times. The Munich-Nuremberg Express provides a fast local service between the two cities over the high-speed link to Ingolstadt and Munich, offering a cheaper alternative to the ICE.
The three S-Bahn lines to Lauf (left of the Pegnitz)
, Altdorf
and Roth also start from the Hauptbahnhof. A fourth S-Bahn line to Forchheim
and hence an extension of the Nuremberg–Fürth
route has been under construction since 2006. Further routes tp Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz
and Ansbach
are being planned and should be working by 2010. The S-Bahn uses platforms 2 and 3 immediately next to the station building which significantly reduces changeover times to the city’s public transport systems.
Below the station is the Hauptbahnhof’s underground station on the Nuremberg U-Bahn
, one of the two crossing stations on the U1, U2 and U3 underground lines. The U1 line goes to the Nuremberg Messe (exhibition hall) amongst others, line U2 links the Hauptbahnhof with Nuremberg Nordost station, the departure point for the Gräfenberg Railway
to Franconian Switzerland
and Nuremberg Airport
. On the station square are stops for the various city tram
and bus lines. At weekends and on public holidays the station square is the meeting place and central changeover hub for the NightLiner night bus line network. East of that, about 200 m away, is the central bus station
, reopened in 2005 after being rebuilt. From here there are even international bus services to various European countries.
The Deutsche Bahn
has a travel centre and Servicepoint in the central hall (Mittelhalle). On the first floor is a DB lounge for bahn.comfort and 1st class passengers. Numerous electronic signboards in the halls and on the platforms inform passengers about the latest traffic situation. Announcements are automatically played by a recorder. The station building and platforms are mostly accessible without passing through barriers. All floors of the station building can be reached by escalators and lifts. The Bahnhofsmission at Nuremberg Hauptbahnhof is like a free first aid and support centre run by Christian charities and is located in the basement of the station ready to give advice and support to passengers, the homeless and those working at the station. On Christmas Eve
and Maundy Thursday
a service with live music is held in the central hall on the 1st floor.
Numerous businesses for everyday requirements occupy about 20,000 square metres of floor in the station building; these include shops selling travel items, restaurants and fast-food outlets. A total of 55 shops are rented out. More shops and businesses are located in the Königstor passage adjoining the station.
At the beginning of 1999 a multi-storey car park
was opened next to the east hall (Osthalle) with 487 bays. Deutsche Bahn initiated the planning, an insurance company provided the necessary investment.
In the Osthalle there is a service point for the InterCity courier service (IC-Kurierdienst) and a luggage locker room with 766 lockers. On the station forecourt there is a taxicab stand.
went into service at Nuremberg Hauptbahnhof. At each end of the station there is a train dispatcher (Fahrdienstleiter) and assistant (Fahrdiensthelfer) to control the western and eastern approaches, supported by a train monitor (Zugmelder), a train announcer (Zugansager) and a pointsman ( Wärter) for the adjoining coach works. Its area of operations extends as far as Fürth and the station at Schweinau to the west, to Eibach station to the south and the stations of Dutzendteich and Mögeldorf to the east. In all, 38.3 million deutschmarks were invested. 800 train movements and 2,900 shunting movements are handled per day in the Hauptbahnhof area. Planning began in the 1970s, not just for rationalisation, but also to set out the requirements for the planned high-speed railway to Munich. Shortly before the signal box was opened, a new, million deutschmark, departure board went into service in the Mittelhalle, that was controlled by the new signal box using computers. The new signal box replaced ten old ones that were about 70 years old; three more followed suit as part of the S-Bahn extension in the early 1990s. After the removal of these unfavourably sited, old signal boxes, which were not capable of expansion, five groups of storage sidings could be merged into one.
Around 1900, 116 railwaymen per shift worked the points and signals for about one hundred trains on the spot. In 1913, 122 trains stopped here daily, there were 40 workers per shift controlling the station from 14 signal boxes.
Nuremberg Hauptbahnhof, which had been originally built as in the neo-Gothic style, was rebuilt by the architect, Karl Zenger, in 1900 largely in the Neo-Baroque style. The most striking feature is the muschelkalk
which characterises the exterior façade. The portals to the individual halls are richly decorated and primarily depict symbols of technological progress, for example a winged wheel above the portal in the Mittelhalle. The lounge, in which the present-day travel centre is located, was built in 1904/1905 by Bruno Paul
in the Jugendstil. Sections of the walls are decorated with fine mosaics, the roof is ornamented with unobtrusive stucco
. The Jugendstil lounge is one of the few areas of the station, which has survived the destruction of the Second World War. Above the main portal is an advertising column from the early 20th century.
In 1950 plans were made to change the neobaroque style to a neogothic style. Shortly before work began, however, it was stopped, so that only a few areas were changed.
from Lindau to Hof. Because the area at Plärrer, the site of the station belonging to the privately-owned Ludwigsbahn
to Fürth, was not big enough, the state railway decided to build its own station in front of the Frauentorgraben. It was laid out as a terminal, something which was usual for the larges stations of that time. The station building was built in a neogothic style. With the opening of the state railway lines
to Schwabach
(1849) Ansbach
, (1875) and Bayreuth (1877) as well as the Ostbahn lines to Hersbruck
(1859) and Regensburg
(1871) the station became the central station for Nuremberg. The Ostbahn company built its own terminus in 1859 during the construction of the line to Hersbruck, east of the existing one, which was linked in 1876 with the western one by a through station.
Rising demand for railway traffic during the 1880s and the ever-growing number of tracks made the construction of the subways, which are still there today, necessary. Gradually the various underpasses - the Tafelfeld, Karl-Bröger, Marien and Dürrenhof tunnels as well as the Celtis and Allersberg subways were built. Between 1878 and 1880 the trackage for passenger traffic was again expanded and in 1880 goods traffic moved to the newly built Nuremberg Hauptgüterbahnhof (main goods station) at Kohlenhof. As early as 1897 new plans for the conversion of the Hauptbahnhof were proposed, which included rebuilding the station building, raising the entire track system by about 3.27 m and building pedestrian underpasses (the West and Ost tunnels) under the tracks. Building work began on 19 April 1900 and was finished on 10 March 1906, the Westtunnel and the southern exit was not completed until 1927, however.
. In 1973 work began on an underground (U-Bahn) station underneath the Hauptbahnhof. This required the Mittelhalle to be dug out and stood on stilts. Between 1976 and 1984 new platform roofing was installed and platforms 1 to 15 raised to 76 cm above the rail tops. The rebuilding of the third dome and the Mittelhalle was started in 1977. On 2 April 1984 the restaurant established in 1906 was opened again. It covers an area of 390 m², and is eight metres high. Finally plans were even propose for a total rebuilding, but these did not come to fruition.
The rebuilding of the eastern track system, carried out in eight stages, cost around 100 million D-Marks and was paid for by the Government, the state of Bavaria and the city of Nuremberg. Amongst other things, 16 kilometres of track and 60 points covering an area of 156,000 square metres were relaid, and two new fans of storage sidings (totalling 5.7 km) controlled by a shunting signal box were built. To enable the line to Lauf to cross the line to Altdorf without a track crossing being required, a 60 m long bridge crossing was built. In all ten bridges had to be altered or replaced and 640 m of sound-damping walls were erected. The only examples in Europe of the wild flower, Astragalus arenarius, a plant related to the milk vetch, along with other groups of plants was transferred to a temporary nursery and later to areas around the railway. The conversion of the area with the platforms cost another 40 million D-Marks.
The station serves the entire Nuremberg U-Bahn
network, as all four lines interchange at the station together with the U3 which will open in 2008.
A tramway stop is situated in front of the station.
Nuremberg
Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...
in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. It is the largest station in north Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
and belongs to the 20 stations in the highest category of importance
German railway station categories
About 5,400 railway stations in Germany that are owned and operated by the Deutsche Bahn subsidiary DB Station&Service are assigned into seven categories, denoting the service level available at the station....
allocated by DB Station&Service
DB Station&Service
DB Station&Service is a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn AG, responsible for managing over 5,000 stations on the German railway network....
.
It is a through station with 21 platforms and lies on major north-south and east-west transportation axes. It offers connections to the major German cities of Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
, 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...
, Augsburg
Augsburg
Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...
, Ingolstadt
Ingolstadt
Ingolstadt is a city in the Free State of Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany. It is located along the banks of the Danube River, in the center of Bavaria. As at 31 March 2011, Ingolstadt had 125.407 residents...
, 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...
, Würzburg
Würzburg
Würzburg is a city in the region of Franconia which lies in the northern tip of Bavaria, Germany. Located at the Main River, it is the capital of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. The regional dialect is Franconian....
, Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
and Regensburg
Regensburg
Regensburg is a city in Bavaria, Germany, located at the confluence of the Danube and Regen rivers, at the northernmost bend in the Danube. To the east lies the Bavarian Forest. Regensburg is the capital of the Bavarian administrative region Upper Palatinate...
, as well as 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...
and 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...
in 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...
and Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
in the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
. Over 450 trains stop here daily and more than 180,000 passengers use the station on average every day. It is also a major hub for public transport in Nuremberg.
The Hauptbahnhof is located on the southeastern perimeter of Nuremberg's Altstadt
Altstadt
Altstadt is the German language word for "old town", meaning "historical city centre within the city wall", in contrast to a Neustadt built outside later....
, immediately opposite the Königstor (King's Gate) where the streets of Marientorgraben, Frauentorgraben, and Bahnhofstraße meet.
The DB Museum, the corporate museum of Deutsche Bahn AG (formerly the Verkehrsmuseum), is close to the station, as is the Nuremberg Opera House
Staatstheater Nürnberg
The Staatstheater Nürnberg is a theatre building in Nuremburg. One of the largest theatres in Germany, it is housed in the Opernhaus Nürnberg, built from 1903 to 1905 in the Art Nouveau by the architect Heinrich Seeling.-Sources:*...
.
Location in the railway network
Nuremberg Hauptbahnhof is an important hub in the south German railway network. Numerous lines meet here from all points of the compass. Amongst them is the newly opened Nuremberg–Ingolstadt–Munich high speed railway, opened in summer 2006 and which shortened journey times on many routes. The Hauptbahnhof will also be the departure point for the Nuremberg–Erfurt high speed line, not due to be completed until 2015 due to financial problems.West of another Hauptbahnhof in neighbouring Fürth the lines from Würzburg and Bamberg merge and then continue towards Nuremberg. In west Nuremberg they are joined by the railways from Crailsheim, Roth and Augsburg. The four lines then enter together at the western approach to the station.
In southeast Nuremberg the line from Regensburg and the high-speed link from Munich meet one another. At the eastern approach to the station they join the lines from Cheb, Feucht and Schwandorf. They arrive together at the eastern end of the station.
Railway services
Long-distance services
The Hauptbahnhof is located at the intersection of various Intercity-Express, InterCityIntercity (Deutsche Bahn)
Intercity is the second-highest train classification in Germany, after the ICE. Intercity services are loco-hauled express services, usually over long-distances. There are Intercity routes throughout Germany, and routes generally operate with a two-hour frequency, with multiple routes giving a more...
and EuroCity
EuroCity
EuroCity, abbreviated EC, denotes an international train service within the European inter-city rail network. In contrast to trains with the "IC" label, "EC" trains are international trains that meet certain criteria. The EuroCity label replaces the older Trans Europ Express name for...
routes and is the only long-distance station in Nuremberg. These routes generally run to Nuremberg hourly, although some are more frequent as a result of overlapping services.
Long-distance trains travel from here to 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...
, Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
, 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...
, into the Rhine-Main and the Ruhrgebiet; to Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
, Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe
The City of Karlsruhe is a city in the southwest of Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border.Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states...
and Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
as well as Passau
Passau
Passau is a town in Lower Bavaria, Germany. It is also known as the Dreiflüssestadt or "City of Three Rivers," because the Danube is joined at Passau by the Inn from the south and the Ilz from the north....
and 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...
. An Interregio-Express
InterRegio
The InterRegio is a train service seen in some European countries. Mostly they are trains that run "from region to region", as best described by Swiss Federal Railways.-Switzerland:...
link runs to Chemnitz
Chemnitz
Chemnitz is the third-largest city of the Free State of Saxony, Germany. Chemnitz is an independent city which is not part of any county and seat of the government region Direktionsbezirk Chemnitz. Located in the northern foothills of the Ore Mountains, it is a part of the Saxon triangle...
and Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
. Night train
Sleeping car
The sleeping car or sleeper is a railway/railroad passenger car that can accommodate all its passengers in beds of one kind or another, primarily for the purpose of making nighttime travel more restful. The first such cars saw sporadic use on American railroads in the 1830s and could be configured...
s travel to various destinations including the Baltic Sea
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
, Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
, 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...
, Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
and Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
.
Almost all long-distance trains travelling from Munich to the north of Germany run in combination to Nuremberg over the high-speed link and then divide up from here. So even for these trunk services there is a frequent service between the two cities. Once the high-speed link between Nuremberg and Leipzig is completed this one, and hence the link to Berlin, will also be considerably faster.
Local services
Local services using Regional-Express and RegionalbahnRegionalBahn
The Regionalbahn is a type of local passenger train in Germany.-Service:Regionalbahn trains usually call at all stations on a given line, with the exception of RB trains within S-Bahn networks, these may only call at selected stations...
trains mainly serve the Nuremberg area, but also travel to other parts of Bavaria as well as Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg is one of the 16 states of Germany. Baden-Württemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine, and is the third largest in both area and population of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of and 10.7 million inhabitants...
, Thuringia
Thuringia
The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....
and into the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
to Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
. Almost all lines are run at fixed frequencies, mainly hourly. More frequent services are laid on especially at peak times. The Munich-Nuremberg Express provides a fast local service between the two cities over the high-speed link to Ingolstadt and Munich, offering a cheaper alternative to the ICE.
The three S-Bahn lines to Lauf (left of the Pegnitz)
Lauf an der Pegnitz
Lauf an der Pegnitz is a municipality near Nuremberg, Germany. It is the capital of the district Nürnberger Land, in Bavaria....
, Altdorf
Altdorf bei Nürnberg
Altdorf bei Nürnberg is a town in south-eastern Germany. It is situated 25 km east of Nuremberg, in the district Nürnberger Land. Its name literally means Altdorf near Nuremberg, to distinguish it from other Altdorfs.-History:...
and Roth also start from the Hauptbahnhof. A fourth S-Bahn line to Forchheim
Forchheim
Forchheim may refer to the following places in Germany:*Forchheim, capital of the district of Forchheim, Bavaria*Forchheim am Kaiserstuhl, a municipality in Baden-Württemberg*Forchheim , part of Rheinstetten, Baden-Württemberg...
and hence an extension of the Nuremberg–Fürth
Fürth
The city of Fürth is located in northern Bavaria, Germany in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. It is now contiguous with the larger city of Nuremberg, the centres of the two cities being only 7 km apart....
route has been under construction since 2006. Further routes tp Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz
Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz
Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz is the capital of the Neumarkt district in the administrative region of the Upper Palatinate, in Bavaria, Germany. With a population of about 40,000, Neumarkt is the seat of various projects, and acts as the economic and cultural center of the western Upper Palatinate,...
and Ansbach
Ansbach
Ansbach, originally Onolzbach, is a town in Bavaria, Germany. It is the capital of the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Ansbach is situated southwest of Nuremberg and north of Munich, on the Fränkische Rezat, a tributary of the Main river. As of 2004, its population was 40,723.Ansbach...
are being planned and should be working by 2010. The S-Bahn uses platforms 2 and 3 immediately next to the station building which significantly reduces changeover times to the city’s public transport systems.
City services
Nuremberg U-Bahn
The Nuremberg U-Bahn is a metro run by VAG Nürnberg , which itself is a member of the VGN . The Nuremberg U-Bahn is Germany's newest metro...
, one of the two crossing stations on the U1, U2 and U3 underground lines. The U1 line goes to the Nuremberg Messe (exhibition hall) amongst others, line U2 links the Hauptbahnhof with Nuremberg Nordost station, the departure point for the Gräfenberg Railway
Gräfenberg Railway
The Gräfenberg Railway is the railway line from the Nuremberg Nordost station via Heroldsberg, Kalchreuth and Eschenau to Gräfenberg. It is a successful reference project for the revitalisation of railway lines threatened with closure...
to Franconian Switzerland
Franconian Switzerland
The Little Switzerland is an upland in Upper Franconia, northern Bavaria and a popular tourist retreat. Located between the Pegnitz River in the east and the south, the Regnitz River in the west and the Main River in the north, its relief reaches 600 metres in height.The Franconian Switzerland is...
and Nuremberg Airport
Nuremberg Airport
Nuremberg Airport is the international airport of the Franconian metropolitan area of Nuremberg and the second-busiest airport in Bavaria. The airport is ranked 10th among German airports and 87th in Europe. It is also a hub for Air Berlin - Germany's second largest airline...
. On the station square are stops for the various city tram
Stadtbahn
A ' is a tramway or light railway that includes segments built to rapid transit standards, usually as part of a process of conversion to a metro railway, mainly by the building of tunnels in the central city area....
and bus lines. At weekends and on public holidays the station square is the meeting place and central changeover hub for the NightLiner night bus line network. East of that, about 200 m away, is the central bus station
Bus station
A bus station is a structure where city or intercity buses stop to pick up and drop off passengers. It is larger than a bus stop, which is usually simply a place on the roadside, where buses can stop...
, reopened in 2005 after being rebuilt. From here there are even international bus services to various European countries.
Facilities
Because of its importance for long-distance and local services the station has a comprehensive range of facilities.The Deutsche Bahn
Deutsche Bahn
Deutsche Bahn AG is the German national railway company, a private joint stock company . Headquartered in Berlin, it came into existence in 1994 as the successor to the former state railways of Germany, the Deutsche Bundesbahn of West Germany and the Deutsche Reichsbahn of East Germany...
has a travel centre and Servicepoint in the central hall (Mittelhalle). On the first floor is a DB lounge for bahn.comfort and 1st class passengers. Numerous electronic signboards in the halls and on the platforms inform passengers about the latest traffic situation. Announcements are automatically played by a recorder. The station building and platforms are mostly accessible without passing through barriers. All floors of the station building can be reached by escalators and lifts. The Bahnhofsmission at Nuremberg Hauptbahnhof is like a free first aid and support centre run by Christian charities and is located in the basement of the station ready to give advice and support to passengers, the homeless and those working at the station. On Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that takes place on December 25...
and Maundy Thursday
Maundy Thursday
Maundy Thursday, also known as Holy Thursday, Covenant Thursday, Great & Holy Thursday, and Thursday of Mysteries, is the Christian feast or holy day falling on the Thursday before Easter that commemorates the Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles as described in the Canonical gospels...
a service with live music is held in the central hall on the 1st floor.
At the beginning of 1999 a multi-storey car park
Multi-storey car park
A multi-storey car-park is a building designed specifically to be for car parking and where there are a number of floors or levels on which parking takes place...
was opened next to the east hall (Osthalle) with 487 bays. Deutsche Bahn initiated the planning, an insurance company provided the necessary investment.
In the Osthalle there is a service point for the InterCity courier service (IC-Kurierdienst) and a luggage locker room with 766 lockers. On the station forecourt there is a taxicab stand.
Signal box
At the end of November 1988 a new central signal boxSignal box
On a rail transport system, signalling control is the process by which control is exercised over train movements by way of railway signals and block systems to ensure that trains operate safely, over the correct route and to the proper timetable...
went into service at Nuremberg Hauptbahnhof. At each end of the station there is a train dispatcher (Fahrdienstleiter) and assistant (Fahrdiensthelfer) to control the western and eastern approaches, supported by a train monitor (Zugmelder), a train announcer (Zugansager) and a pointsman ( Wärter) for the adjoining coach works. Its area of operations extends as far as Fürth and the station at Schweinau to the west, to Eibach station to the south and the stations of Dutzendteich and Mögeldorf to the east. In all, 38.3 million deutschmarks were invested. 800 train movements and 2,900 shunting movements are handled per day in the Hauptbahnhof area. Planning began in the 1970s, not just for rationalisation, but also to set out the requirements for the planned high-speed railway to Munich. Shortly before the signal box was opened, a new, million deutschmark, departure board went into service in the Mittelhalle, that was controlled by the new signal box using computers. The new signal box replaced ten old ones that were about 70 years old; three more followed suit as part of the S-Bahn extension in the early 1990s. After the removal of these unfavourably sited, old signal boxes, which were not capable of expansion, five groups of storage sidings could be merged into one.
Around 1900, 116 railwaymen per shift worked the points and signals for about one hundred trains on the spot. In 1913, 122 trains stopped here daily, there were 40 workers per shift controlling the station from 14 signal boxes.
Architecture
Muschelkalk
The Muschelkalk is a sequence of sedimentary rock strata in the geology of central and western Europe. It has a Middle Triassic age and forms the middle part of the Germanic Trias, that further consists of the Buntsandstein and Keuper...
which characterises the exterior façade. The portals to the individual halls are richly decorated and primarily depict symbols of technological progress, for example a winged wheel above the portal in the Mittelhalle. The lounge, in which the present-day travel centre is located, was built in 1904/1905 by Bruno Paul
Bruno Paul
Bruno Paul was a German architect, illustrator, interior designer, and furniture designer.Bruno Paul was born in Seifhennersdorf, a village in rural Saxony, in 1874. His father was an independent tradesman, craftsman, and dealer in building materials...
in the Jugendstil. Sections of the walls are decorated with fine mosaics, the roof is ornamented with unobtrusive stucco
Stucco
Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...
. The Jugendstil lounge is one of the few areas of the station, which has survived the destruction of the Second World War. Above the main portal is an advertising column from the early 20th century.
In 1950 plans were made to change the neobaroque style to a neogothic style. Shortly before work began, however, it was stopped, so that only a few areas were changed.
From opening to the first rebuilding
Between 1844 and 1847 Nuremberg Central Station appeared in its present location during the construction of the state-owned Ludwig South-North RailwayLudwig South-North Railway
The Ludwig South-North railway , built between 1843 and 1854, was the first railway line to be constructed by Royal Bavarian State Railways...
from Lindau to Hof. Because the area at Plärrer, the site of the station belonging to the privately-owned Ludwigsbahn
Bavarian Ludwigsbahn
The Bavarian Ludwig Railway was the first steam-hauled railway opened in Germany. The Königlich privilegirte Ludwigs-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft received a concession to build a railway from Nuremberg to Fürth in the state of Bavaria on 19...
to Fürth, was not big enough, the state railway decided to build its own station in front of the Frauentorgraben. It was laid out as a terminal, something which was usual for the larges stations of that time. The station building was built in a neogothic style. With the opening of the state railway lines
Royal Bavarian State Railways
As a nation-state, Germany did not come into being until the creation of the German Empire in 1871 from the various German-speaking states such as Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, Baden and Württemberg. By then each of the major states had formed its own state railway and these continued to remain...
to Schwabach
Schwabach
Schwabach is a German town of about 40,000 inhabitants near Nuremberg, in the center of the region of Franconia in the North of Bavaria. The city is an autonomous administrative district . Schwabach is also the name of a river which runs through the city prior joining the Rednitz.Schwabach is...
(1849) Ansbach
Ansbach
Ansbach, originally Onolzbach, is a town in Bavaria, Germany. It is the capital of the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Ansbach is situated southwest of Nuremberg and north of Munich, on the Fränkische Rezat, a tributary of the Main river. As of 2004, its population was 40,723.Ansbach...
, (1875) and Bayreuth (1877) as well as the Ostbahn lines to Hersbruck
Hersbruck
Hersbruck is a small town in Middle Franconia, Bavaria, Germany, belonging to the district Nürnberger Land. Famous for the late-gothic artwork of the Hersbruck altar, the "Hirtenmuseum" and the beautiful landscape of the "Hersbrucker Schweiz".-History:...
(1859) and Regensburg
Regensburg
Regensburg is a city in Bavaria, Germany, located at the confluence of the Danube and Regen rivers, at the northernmost bend in the Danube. To the east lies the Bavarian Forest. Regensburg is the capital of the Bavarian administrative region Upper Palatinate...
(1871) the station became the central station for Nuremberg. The Ostbahn company built its own terminus in 1859 during the construction of the line to Hersbruck, east of the existing one, which was linked in 1876 with the western one by a through station.
Rising demand for railway traffic during the 1880s and the ever-growing number of tracks made the construction of the subways, which are still there today, necessary. Gradually the various underpasses - the Tafelfeld, Karl-Bröger, Marien and Dürrenhof tunnels as well as the Celtis and Allersberg subways were built. Between 1878 and 1880 the trackage for passenger traffic was again expanded and in 1880 goods traffic moved to the newly built Nuremberg Hauptgüterbahnhof (main goods station) at Kohlenhof. As early as 1897 new plans for the conversion of the Hauptbahnhof were proposed, which included rebuilding the station building, raising the entire track system by about 3.27 m and building pedestrian underpasses (the West and Ost tunnels) under the tracks. Building work began on 19 April 1900 and was finished on 10 March 1906, the Westtunnel and the southern exit was not completed until 1927, however.
Destruction and rebuilding
As a result of allied bombing at the end of the Second World War the station building, with the exception of the Jugendstil lounge suffered heavily and on 16 March 1945 had to be closed for nine days. Its reconstruction took place between 1945 and 1956 and had to be simplified due to a lack of money. One new feature was the inclusion of a cinemaMovie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
. In 1973 work began on an underground (U-Bahn) station underneath the Hauptbahnhof. This required the Mittelhalle to be dug out and stood on stilts. Between 1976 and 1984 new platform roofing was installed and platforms 1 to 15 raised to 76 cm above the rail tops. The rebuilding of the third dome and the Mittelhalle was started in 1977. On 2 April 1984 the restaurant established in 1906 was opened again. It covers an area of 390 m², and is eight metres high. Finally plans were even propose for a total rebuilding, but these did not come to fruition.
Rebuilding of the eastern approach for the S-Bahn
In summer 1988 major building work began to construct the main route of the Nuremberg S-Bahn in the area of the Hauptbahnhof. By building its own S-Bahn platforms in the northeast part of the Hauptbahnhof the S-Bahn stop could be moved from platforms 18/19 (on the far side from the city) to platforms 2/3. By using these platforms closer to the city the distance passengers had to walk between tramway, U-Bahn and Bus was significantly reduced. In addition the new S-Bahn station of Nuremberg-Dürrenhof was built.The rebuilding of the eastern track system, carried out in eight stages, cost around 100 million D-Marks and was paid for by the Government, the state of Bavaria and the city of Nuremberg. Amongst other things, 16 kilometres of track and 60 points covering an area of 156,000 square metres were relaid, and two new fans of storage sidings (totalling 5.7 km) controlled by a shunting signal box were built. To enable the line to Lauf to cross the line to Altdorf without a track crossing being required, a 60 m long bridge crossing was built. In all ten bridges had to be altered or replaced and 640 m of sound-damping walls were erected. The only examples in Europe of the wild flower, Astragalus arenarius, a plant related to the milk vetch, along with other groups of plants was transferred to a temporary nursery and later to areas around the railway. The conversion of the area with the platforms cost another 40 million D-Marks.
Modernisation at the turn of the millenium
At the end of the 20the century the last major changes took place. The cinema was removed and the entire interior reworked. The intermediate floors of the station building were opened to the public and the whole area turned into a shopping mall. Ticket purchase and information was moved to the historic Jugendstil lounge. Three wall mosaics were made by the artist, Iris Rauh. The mosaic Zeitreise ("time journey"), which portrays the subject of travel during the course of time, became nationally noted. On 24 June 2002 the opening ceremony of the station building, now placed under historical building protection, took place.Planning
As a result of the expansion of the Nuremberg S-Bahn network in the period to 2010, work needs to be carried out on the existing S-Bahn platforms and new ones need to be built. The eastern end of the home platform (no. 1) of the future S-Bahn to Neumarkt (S3) is being lengthened; it will then have 213 m of usable length and a new height of 76 cm above the rail tops. An extra exit to the Osttunnel is also being constructed. For through services on the Hartmannshof – Nuremberg – Forchheim (S1) line , platforms 2 and 3 are being partially lowered to 76 cm and linked by a ramp to the unchanged 96 cm high existing structure. The platform intended for the S-Bahn to Ansbach (S4), number 11 (tracks 22 and 23) will be raised from its present height of 38 cm to 76 cm; at the same time stairs and a lift will be provided and a new platform roof.Operational usage
The station's footprint is rather large, numbered passenger tracks reach as far as 22.The station serves the entire Nuremberg U-Bahn
Nuremberg U-Bahn
The Nuremberg U-Bahn is a metro run by VAG Nürnberg , which itself is a member of the VGN . The Nuremberg U-Bahn is Germany's newest metro...
network, as all four lines interchange at the station together with the U3 which will open in 2008.
A tramway stop is situated in front of the station.
Source
- Karl Heinz Ferstl, Heinrich W. Kaiser, Hauptbahnhof Nürnberg, Geschichte und Visionen, Haidhausen Verlag, Munich, 2002, ISBN 3-926429-15-1
External links
- Overview and Plan of Nuremberg at www.bahnhof.de
- Current departure table on the DB website for passenger information
- Platform information on the DB website
- Track plan of Nürnberg Hbf on the DB website (PDF; 1.98 MB)
- Track plan of the Hauptbahnhof in 1979 at sporenplan.nl (private)
- Architecture of Nuremberg Hauptbahnhof at baukunst-nuernberg.de
- Mosaics