Löhne station

Löhne
Through station
Location Löhne, North Rhine-Westphalia
Germany
Coordinates 52°11′47″N 8°42′48″E / 52.19639°N 8.71333°ECoordinates: 52°11′47″N 8°42′48″E / 52.19639°N 8.71333°E
Line(s)
Platforms 8 (6 in operation)
Other information
Station code 3768 [1]
DS100 codeHL [2]
Category4 [1]
History
Opened 21 November 1855 [3]

Löhne (Westfalen) station is in the city of Löhne in the northeast of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It lies on the Hamm–Minden railway, which is part of the Cologne-Minden trunk line that was originally proposed by Friedrich Harkort as part of a line from Berlin to Cologne via Hanover.

In Löhne, line branch off to Rheine via Osnabrück (part of the Hanoverian Western Railway to Emden) and to Elze via Hamelin (continuing to Hildesheim) and, as a result, the station was long an important junction in northwestern Germany as an interchange station with its own marshalling yard.

History

Until the mid-20th century, Löhne station was a major hub for passenger and especially freight traffic in north-western Germany. The lines of the Cologne-Minden Railway Company (opened in 1847), the Royal Hanoverian State Railways (1855) and the Hanover-Altenbeken Railway Company (Löhne–Hildesheim–Vienenburg, 1875) met with each other here.

For many years, long-distance trains crossed here on their way from Berlin to Paris via Hanover and Cologne and Amsterdam to central Germany via Osnabrück and Hildesheim. The extensive rail facilities were built with many tunnels and flyovers so that a grade-separated crossing of the two main lines was possible. Even today, independent paths on the Hamm–Minden Railway and the Elze–Löhne and the Löhne–Rheine lines are possible.

The former significance of the station is lost today and it is only classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 4 station. [1]

Rail services

The station is served by the following Regional-Express and Regionalbahn lines:[4]

Line Name Route Frequency Operator
RE 6 Westfalen-Express Minden – Löhne – Herford – Bielefeld – Hamm – Dortmund – Duisburg – Düsseldorf 60 min DB Regio NRW
RE 60 Ems-Leine-Express Braunschweig – Hannover – Minden – Löhne – Bünde – Osnabrück – Rheine 120 min DB Regio Nord
RE 70 Weser-Leine-Express Braunschweig – Hannover – Minden – Löhne – Herford – Bielefeld 120 min DB Regio Nord
RB 77 Weser-Bahn Hildesheim – Hamelin – Löhne – Bünde 60 min NordWestBahn
RE 78 Porta-Express Nienburg – Minden – Löhne – Herford – Bielefeld 120 min (Mon–Fri) DB Regio NRW
Preceding station   Deutsche Bahn   Following station
RE 6
Westfalen-Express
toward Minden
toward Rheine Hbf
RE 60
Ems-Leine-Express
RE 70
Weser-Leine-Express
RE 78
Porta-Express
toward Nienburg
Preceding station   NordWestBahn   Following station
toward Bünde
RB 77
Weser-Bahn

The station is covered by Der Sechser (“the six”) fares of the Zweckverband Verkehrsverbund OWL (Ostwestfalen-Lippe transport association) and the state-wide NRW-tariff fares. The Niedersachsen-Ticket can also be used on the regional services to Lower Saxony.

The former marshalling yard has been demolished, but no use for the abandoned site has yet been found, so that it presents passengers with a large landscape of gravel. The site is difficult to access as it lies between the lines to Bielefeld and Osnabrück.

Service facilities in the station

Main entrance to the station

The station has a private ticket agency. A new parking area was opened at the back of the station in 2011.

Erich Maria Remarque

The station acquired literary significance in Erich Maria Remarque's novel, All Quiet on the Western Front: during the movement of troops in the First World War, soldiers were always told by their superiors to change at Löhne. The station forecourt, which contains the central bus station, has since its redesign in the 1990s therefore been called Erich-Maria-Remarque-Platz.

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Stationspreisliste 2015" [Station price list 2015] (PDF) (in German). DB Station&Service. 15 December 2014. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
  2. ↑ Eisenbahnatlas Deutschland (German railway atlas) (2009/2010 ed.). Schweers + Wall. 2009. ISBN 978-3-89494-139-0.
  3. ↑ "Löhne station operations". NRW Rail Archive (in German). André Joost. Retrieved 2 January 2014.
  4. ↑ "Löhne station". NRW Rail Archive (in German). André Joost. Retrieved 2 January 2014.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Löhne station.