Bremerhaven Hauptbahnhof

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Bremerhaven Hbf
Station building in 1998
Location
State	Bremen
Place	Bremerhaven
Local authority	Geestemünde
Operations
Station code	0868
DS100 code	HBH
Type	Bf
Category	3
Platforms in use	4
History
Key dates	Opened 1914
Deutsche Bahn - Stations in Germany
BW BY BE BR HB HH HE MV NI NW RP SL SN ST SH TH

Bremerhaven Hauptbahnhof (usually translated from German as Bremerhaven Central Station, short form: Bremerhaven Hbf) is the Hauptbahnhof for the city of Bremerhaven in Northwestern Germany. It is the main railway hub for the city, offering regional connections to Bremen Hbf, Osnabrück Hbf, Cuxhaven, Bremervörde and Hamburg Hbf. Museal services on the line to Bad Bederkesa also call at the station during weekends in summer.

1 History
2 Renovation plans
3 Operational usage
4 External links
5 References

[edit] History

First plans to build a railway link between Bremerhaven and Bremen were laid out as early as the 1850s. From 1859 to 1862, a line was built with a terminal station at Geestemünde (now a borough of Bremerhaven). In 1896, the railway line to Cuxhaven was built, also connecting to the terminus station. Due to an increase in traffic, it was decided to abandon the old station and build a new one that was more central to the growing city, and on July 1, 1914 the new station, then called Geestemünde-Bremerhaven, was opened together with a new, grade-separated line to Lehe and Cuxhaven.

When Geestemünde and Lehe were merged to form Wesermünde in 1924, the station was renamed to Wesermünde-Bremerhaven. The station building survived World War II, but the station hall was destroyed in a 1944 air raid and never rebuilt. The station name changed again when Wesermünde was renamed to Bremerhaven in 1947, and the station became known as Bremerhaven Hauptbahnhof. In 1966, the railway line was electrified.

From the mid-1990s to 2000, there used to be a daily InterCityExpress service to Munich, leaving Bremerhaven in the morning and arriving in the evening. This service was abandoned, leaving the station without long-distance services ever since. Due to the US Army barracks in Bremerhaven, there also were regular military train services in the 1970s.^[1]

[edit] Renovation plans

Deutsche Bahn, along with the city government, have laid out plans to renovate the station. Renovation will include remodeling the platforms, raising them to improve accessibility, as well as removing one of the two staircases per platform and replacing them with a lift. The station subway will also be renovated, as will the entrance hall. Renovation is estimated to be finished by 2009 and is budgeted at € 3.8 million.

[edit] Operational usage

Services operated by DB Regio, EVB and Nordseebahn call at the station. It is also frequently passed by freight trains to and from the Bremerhaven seaport, a special through track exists for these trains. There is a RegionalExpress connection to Osnabrück Hbf via Bremen Hbf, served by modern double decker trains. The other connections are local only, either operated by DB using renovated Silberling carriages or by the private carriers using DMUs, as the lines to Hamburg and Cuxhaven are not electrified. The next station to the north is Bremerhaven-Lehe, the next station to the south is Bremerhaven-Wulsdorf.