Heilbronn Central Station

Heilbronn Hauptbahnhof
Reception building, town side
Operations
Category 2 [1]
Type Through station
Platforms in use 7
DS100 code TH
Station code 2648
Construction and location
Opened 6 March 1874
Location Heilbronn
State Baden-Württemberg
Country Germany
Home page www.bahnhof.de
Route information
List of railway stations in Baden-Württemberg

Heilbronn Central Station (German: Heilbronn Hauptbahnhof) is the main passenger station in Heilbronn in the German state of Baden-Württemberg.

Contents

Description

The station is located about 1 km west of the inner city of Heilbronn and the Old Neckar on a 1 km wide island between the old Neckar and the modern canalised Neckar. Southwest of the modern Neckar is the Heilbronn goods yard. At the western end of the station is the beginning of Bahnhofstraße (station street), which runs over the Friedrich Ebert Bridge and is a direct extension of Kaiserstrasse running to Marktplatz (market square), the historic centre of Heilbronn.

Lobby

The main building was completed in 1958 to a design by Hellmut Kasel, based on a preliminary draft by Emil Schuh. The station’s front has the canopy roof architecture of the time.[2][3] The station building has a width of 120 m and is built out of concrete and glass, with a copper-covered roof. The central part of the building is a long hall with a glass front, 40 m long, 11.5 m wide and 7.5 m high. The floor of the lobby is made of Jurassic limestone tiles, and the walls are covered with Jurassic and Travertine panels. The ceiling includes a Rabitzkonstruktion (an installation of wire-reinforced plaster, invented by Carl Rabitz), consisting of panels that are sprayed with blue plaster.

The entire lobby is divided by vertical and horizontal lines. The southeast side of the hall consists almost entirely of glass.

To the west of the lobby there was formerly a restaurant, where there is still a stained glass window by Friedrich Knoedler. The west wing has a large open terrace on the ground floor and the former restaurant upstairs. The walls of the restaurant upstairs are covered with elm and maple. There is also a wall mosaic by Friedrich Knoedler. On the staircase there is also a statue of a girl with a fish by Hermann Koziol.

At the eastern end of the station there is a three storey office building. On the eastern wall of the reception building is a colourful metal relief in silicate paint and wrought iron made in 1958 by Peter Jakob Schober, called "Travel by train—Heilbronn and the world" (Reisen mit der Bahn—Heilbronn und die Welt), which includes symbols of Heilbronn and the world.[4]

The stained glass windows of the subway were created by Valentin Saile.

Forecourt

In the autumn of 1958, a new roof was built above the bus station in front of the station, which was designed by Heinrich Röhm. It was 20 m long and 3.40 m wide and has been described as a "sleek airplane-like structure". It rested on five pillars.[5] The roof was replaced by a suspended honeycomb structure in 1980.

In 2001, a new canopy was built to connect the station with the Heilbronn Stadtbahn stop and the bus station. This was designed by Fritz Auer, Carlo Weber and Götz Guggenberger.

Previous station

The original Heilbronn station of 1848 was built a little further east on the Neckar River near the harbour. The tracks to this station ran further south along the modern Bahnhofstrasse.

The re-routing of the line and the increase in traffic meant that a new station was built at the current location in 1873. The station building of 1873 was destroyed in an air raid on Heilbronn on 4 December 1944. Today's station was built on its foundations.

Operations

Mühlacker station is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 2 station.

Lines

The station is served by the following lines:

Services

The following lines operate through Heilbronn Hauptbahnhof:

Service type Route Frequency
Regional-Express WürzburgOsterburkenHeilbronnStuttgart 120 minutes
Regional-Express HeilbronnÖhringenSchwäbisch HallCrailsheim 120 minutes
Regional-Express MannheimHeidelbergMeckesheimBad Friedrichshall-JagstfeldHeilbronn 120 minutes
Regional-Express Mannheim – Heidelberg – EberbachMosbach-Neckarelz – Bad Friedrichshall-Jagstfeld – Heilbronn 120 minutes
Regionalbahn Mosbach-Neckarelz – Bad Friedrichshall-Jagstfeld – Heilbronn – Stuttgart (– Ulm) 60 minutes
30 minutes between Heilbronn and Stuttgart
Stadtbahn S 4 (express) (Weinsberg –) Heilbronn Pfühlpark – Heilbronn HbfEppingenBrettenKarlsruheAchern 60 minutes
Stadtbahn S 4 (Öhringen-Cappel –) Heilbronn Pfühlpark – Heilbronn HbfSchwaigern West (– Eppingen – Bretten – Karlsruhe) 20 minutes

Notes

  1. ^ "Station catgories 2011" (in German) (PDF). Deutsche Bahn. http://www.deutschebahn.com/site/shared/de/dateianhaenge/infomaterial/sonstige/bahnhofskategorieliste__db__station__service__2011.pdf. Retrieved 5 December 2011. 
  2. ^ Fekete, Julius; Haag, Simon; Hanke, Adelheid; Naumann, Daniela (2007) (in German). Denkmaltopographie Baden-Württemberg. I.5 Stadtkreis Heilbronn. Stuttgart: Theiss. pp. 73–74. ISBN 978-3-8062-1988-3. 
  3. ^ Bernhard Lattner with text byJoachim J. Hennze (2005) (in German). Stille Zeitzeugen. 500 Jahre Heilbronner Architektur. Heilbronn: Edition Lattner,. p. 123. ISBN 3-9807729-6-9. 
  4. ^ (in German) Heilbronn und die Kunst der 50er Jahre. Heilbronn: Städtische Museen. 1993. pp. 20, 102 (figure no. 137) and 103. 
  5. ^ (in German) Heilbronn und die Kunst der 50er Jahre. Heilbronn: Städtische Museen. 1993. p. 24. 

References

External links