Saarbrücken Hauptbahnhof

Saarbrücken Hauptbahnhof or Saarbrücken Central Station[3][4][5] also called Eurobahnhof Saarbrucken, is the principal railway station in the German city of Saarbrücken and the largest station in the Saarland, a German state on the border with France. Around 10 million passengers use the station annually.[6] The station is operated by DB Station&Service as a category 2 station, served by regional and long-distance trains.

Saarbrücken Hauptbahnhof
Through station
LocationAm Hauptbahnhof 6-12, Saarbrücken, Saarland
Germany
Coordinates49°14′29″N 6°59′26″E
Owned byDB Netz
Operated byDB Station&Service
Line(s)
Platforms
  • 10 through platforms
  • 4 bay platforms
  • 4 tram platforms (station forecourt)
Other information
Station code5451[1]
DS100 codeSSH[2]
IBNR8000323
Category2[1]
Websitewww.bahnhof.de
History
Opened16 November 1852
Passengers
<50,000 (excluding the Stadtbahn)
Services
Preceding station   DB Fernverkehr   Following station
towards Paris Est
ICE/TGV 82
towards Frankfurt
TerminusIC/EC 62
towards Salzburg
Preceding station   DB Regio Mitte   Following station
toward Koblenz Hbf
RE 1
Mosel-Saar-Express		Terminus
TerminusRE 18
RE 60
RB 68
Pfälz. Schwarzbachtalbahn
Saarbrücken-Burbach
RB 70
Saartal-Bahn
Saarbrücken-Burbach
toward Trier Hbf
RB 71
Saartal-Bahn
toward Homburg Hbf
TerminusRB 72
Fischbach-Illtal-Bahn
Fischbach-Camphausen
toward Lebach-Jabach
RB 73
Bliestal-Bahn
Jägersfreude
Preceding station   Vlexx   Following station
TerminusRE 3
Rhein-Nahe-Express
Location
Saarbrücken Hauptbahnhof
Location in Germany
Saarbrücken Hauptbahnhof
Location in Europe

History

Saarbrücken's central station was opened on 16 November 1852 as St Johann-Saarbrücken. The present city of Saarbrücken emerged later from the amalgamation of (old)Saarbrücken, St Johann, Malstatt and St. Arnual. The station was on the Saarbrücken railway, which ran from Bexbach via Neunkirchen (Saar) and Stieringen to the French Eastern Railway. The 56 metre long, 13.50 metre wide sandstone building was between the two tracks with access by an underpass, there being, unusually for that time, no track crossing.

Forecourt of Saarbrücken Hauptbahnhof in September 1957
Former 'island building' at Saarbrücken Hauptbahnhof with twin-system electric locomotive 181 216 on 10 September 1975

As the railway facilities continued to grow, so the station building was also enlarged. In 1891/1893 a station entrance building with two striking towers was erected in front of the tunnel, and in 1908 there were plans to build a completely new station building. This was to begin in 1914, but the outbreak of the First World War put paid to the plans. In 1932, Saarbrücken handled 453 daily arrivals and departures, of which 51 were express trains, the second-largest number of trains on the Reichsbahn, after Leipzig. After the reannexation of the Saarland in 1935, plans for a new station restarted in earnest. This was to be completed by 1941, but again the war prevented them coming to fruition.

In the Second World War 80% of the railway facilities in Saarbrücken were destroyed. Of the entrance building only the two towers remained, and other buildings like the locomotive shed (Bahnbetriebswerk) were totally destroyed. In the station yard there was not a single through track left. Under US direction, today's track 19 was provisionally restored. Over this track the US troops ran their supply trains towards Neunkirchen-Bexbach-Homburg under their own management and running on sight.

The two towers of the entrance building were linked in 1952 by a flat-roofed building and this formed a temporary structure for many years thereafter. In the 1960s fresh plans were made for a new reception and administrative building. The first sod was turned on 27 June 1963 by the Mayor of Saarbrücken, Fritz Schuster, and the President of the Bundesbahn railway division, Alois Meyer. In the same year the remains of the old entrance building were removed. In September 1967 the new 120-metre-long, 26-metre-high building was inaugurated. On the two-storey-high ground floor were the main hall, luggage check-in, shops and a restaurant; on the upper floors of the seven-storey building were the computer centre, medical services, offices and staff canteen.

In February 1960 electric train services began on the Forbach-Homburg.

In 1977 work on a thorough modernisation was begun. Amongst other things the platforms were raised to a height of 760 mm. In order to create space for more through tracks, the first station building from 1852, the so-called 'island building', was demolished between 18 September 1978 and March 1979.

Saarbrücken 21
The station before modernisation

The Eurobahnhof (or Eurostation) is the name for the Saarbrücken 21 project to modernise the station. The existing station and surrounding land was rebuilt. In June 2007 an important milestone during the work was passed with the opening of the Paris-Eastern France-Southern Germany (POS) high-speed route, with its branches to Stuttgart and Frankfurt, the latter from Saarbrücken.

Key changes included a new southern façade for the station building, a newly designed entrance hall and pedestrian underpass, new lifts and a new access to the station from the north from the district of Rodenhof. The costs of about €31 million were divided between the state capital of Saarbrücken, the Saarland and Deutsche Bahn AG.

The extensive network of tracks north of the station was largely removed; east of the station tracks were relaid in a different layout and modernised. New train maintenance and storage facilities were constructed within a relatively compact space. The area freed up is intended to be used for car parking and a new industrial estate, the "Eurostation Estate" or Quartier Eurobahnhof. The construction of access roads to the site and attracting business are proving to be protracted processes, and will take a long time yet. The large Servicepoint (tickets and catering) set up by DB AG at the north entrance was closed after a short time due to lack of customers.

The first sod was turned on 5 May 2006 and the official opening ceremony of the modernised station took place on 15 December 2007. A year later, however, the station was still not ready; containerised shops and building materials cluttered the station forecourt, and rats were also frequently seen there, much to the consternation of the local population and passengers.[7]

Reception hall/ city entrance
View inside the entrance hall

Now that it has become a Eurostation, Saarbrücken Hauptbahnhof opens onto the city and the pedestrian zone (Reichsstrasse/Bahnhofstrasse) via a large reception hall. This has rows of shops on two floors which sell everyday fare and popular goods. The shops include a supermarket, fast-food restaurant, newsagents and stationers, tobacconists, florists and more), the DB Service Point, the DB/Ameropa travel centre and a terminal with DB ticket machines.

In front of the city entrance is the large station forecourt, mostly traffic-free, numerous bicycle stands and the four-track Hauptbahnhof tram stop of the Saarbrücken Stadtbahn (Saarbahn), from which run 290 services per day to France/Kleinblittersdorf/Südstadt/Innenstadt and Riegelsberg/Nordstadt. Hundreds of town and regional buses also stop here.

Pedestrian tunnel / Lower level

All 16 platforms are accessible via the fully renovated pedestrian tunnel and via the Osttunnel. This is about 100 metres long and climbs gently from the City entrance hall to the new North entrance in the district of Rodenhof, and is decorated in plain blue and white shades of colour.

All the platforms are barrier-free and apart from platforms 1-3 are each accessible by lift, escalator and stairs; platforms 1-3 are accessible by staircase and lift.

North terminal / Rodenhof north exit
North terminal

Together with the renovation and rebuilding work as part of the Saarbrücken 21 (Eurobahnhof) project, the pedestrian tunnel, which previously ended at platform  16, and to about 2001 at platform 22, was extended into the district of Rodenhof. There a new entrance was built, the North Terminal, which connects to a new Park & Ride area with several hundred spaces; a direct connexion to the Ludwigsbergkreisel and from there to the A 1, A 620 and A 623 motorways is planned. If required the DB-Servicepoint may be opened again.

Platforms
2008 track layout

The platforms (apart from the tram lines in front of the City entrance) are about 20 metres above the pedestrian tunnel that links the two station entrances. The tracks are numbered 1–16, of which only ten are used for passenger trains; these are numbers 1-3, 5-6, 8, 11-12, 14 and 16. The other tracks are for other railway operations or no longer exist. Amongst the ten tracks used for passenger services are six through tracks, that are used by trains passing through Saarbrücken, and four bay platforms (2, 6, 8, 11), at which train services begin or terminate.

Reference projects

Traffic connexions

Long-distance services
The Frankfurt-Paris ICE entering Saarbrücken Hbf in June 2008
The Paris-Frankfurt TGV at Saarbrücken Hbf in June 2008

Since December 2007 Saarbrücken Hbf has been on the German high-speed railway network and an arrival and departure gateway for the cross-border ICE trains between Paris and Frankfurt. In addition, long-distance trains run to Dresden, Stuttgart and Salzburg.

Line Route Interval
ICE 16 Saarbrücken – Mannheim – Frankfurt – Erfurt – Halle (Saale) – Berlin Hbf – Berlin Gesundbrunnen 1 daily
ICE/TGV 82 Paris – Saarbrücken – Kaiserslautern – Mannheim – Frankfurt 5 daily
IC/EC 62 Saarbrücken – Homburg – Kaiserslautern – Mannheim – Stuttgart (– Munich – Salzburg – Graz) 2 daily

Local services

Saarbrücken Hauptbahnhof is the main hub for regional railway services in the Saarland. With few exceptions, Saarland local services begin and terminate at Saarbrücken Hbf.

Route No.RouteFrequency
RE 1Saarbrücken–Völklingen–Saarlouis–Merzig–Trier–Koblenztwo-hourly
RE 3Saarbrücken-Neunkirchen–Türkismühle–Mainzhourly
RE 18Saarbrücken–Forbach–Metzhourly (with gaps)
RE 19Saarbrücken–Sarreguemines–Strasbourgsingle trains
RE 60Saarbrücken–St. Ingbert–Homburg–Kaiserslauternhourly
RB 68Saarbrücken–St. Ingbert–Zweibrücken–Pirmasenshourly
RB 70Merzig (Saar)–Saarlouis–Saarbrücken Hbf–St. Ingbert–Homburg (Saar) Hbf–Kaiserslautern Hbfhourly
RB 71Trier Hbf–Merzig (Saar)–Saarlouis Hbf – Saarbrücken Hbf–Homburg (Saar) Hbfhourly
RB 72Saarbrücken–Illingen–Lebach-Jabachhourly
RB 73Saarbrücken–Neunkirchen–St. Wendel–(Türkismühle–Neubrücke/Nahe)half-hourly/hourly
RB 76Saarbrücken–Wemmetsweiler–Neunkirchen–Homburgsingle trains

Stadtbahn services

The Saarbahn Stadtbahn lines of the Saarbrücken transport company Saarbahn GmbH run from the four tram platforms on the station forecourt

Route No.RouteFrequency
S 1Hauptbahnhof-Rathaus-Römerkastell-Brebach15 min.
S 1Hauptbahnhof-Rathaus-Römerkastell-Brebach-Kleinblittersdorf30 min.
S 1Hauptbahnhof-Rathaus-Römerkastell-Brebach-Sarreguemines30 min.
S 1Hauptbahnhof-Rastpfuhl-Siedlerheim15 min.
S 1Hauptbahnhof-Rastpfuhl-Siedlerheim-Riegelsberg Süd15 min.

Trams run every 7.5 minutes on the inner city line between Brebach and Siedlerheim in both directions, every 15 minutes to Kleinblittersdorf and Riegelsberg-Süd and every 30 minutes to Sarreguemines (German: Saargemünd).

Formerly the Messe line used to occasionally run services to exhibitions or special events at the exhibition centre (Messezentrum) in Saarbrücken (the last occasion was German Catholic Day in 2006). Nowadays a part of the route has been decommissioned.

Route No.RouteFrequency
S 2Hauptbahnhof-Messebahnhof30 min.
S 2Hauptbahnhof-Rathaus-Römerkastell30 min.

If the inner-city route may not be used, the replacement line S9 is used. The line runs on a platform 8 at the station.

Route No.RouteFrequency
S 9Sarreguemines-Brebach-Saarbrücken Ost-Hauptbahnhof30 min.
S 9Hauptbahnhof-Saarbrücken Ost-Brebach-Sarreguemines30 min.

Sources
  • Ankunft Saarbrücken Hbf, (150 Jahre Eisenbahn an der Saar), Herausg. Staatskanzlei, Saarbrücken 2002, ISBN 3-9808556-0-0

See also

References
  1. "Stationspreisliste 2021" [Station price list 2021] (PDF) (in German). DB Station&Service. 16 November 2020. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
  2. Eisenbahnatlas Deutschland (German railway atlas) (2009/2010 ed.). Schweers + Wall. 2009. ISBN 978-3-89494-139-0.
  3. The New Passenger and Administration Building at Saarbrücken Central Station, ETR: Eisenbahntechnische Rundschau, Volume 18, p. 370, 1969.
  4. Guide to the Max Planck Institutes, 2000, p. 117, Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science, Office of Press and Public Relations, 1999.
  5. How to find us in Saarbrücken, Saarland University website. Accessed on 15 Aug 2013
  6. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-07-19. Retrieved 2008-11-26.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. Saarbrücker Zeitung, 22 November 2008
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