Long-distance train station

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Symbol for a train station

As a remote station (or as long-distance train station , even long-distance breakpoint or long-distance maintenance ) is called in the railway a train station or stopping point at which regularly trains in rail passenger transport hold (SPFV), national or international. A long-distance station is usually also a regional station , which is served by passenger trains of the local rail passenger transport (SPNV).

The term long-distance train station was also used in Germany to use the example of the then extensive Szczecin train station in Berlin to explain the division into different train station areas, e.g. B. also to explain to the suburban or freight traffic.

The German term Fernbahnhof has English equivalents like inter-city rail station (in several variants from English inter-city rail station to English InterCity station , roughly for train station in InterCity traffic ).

General and definition

The German-language term long- distance train station or long-distance train station is colloquial and cannot easily be transferred to other languages ​​or represented there reasonably, since “far” is a subjective statement in itself.

In Germany, there is a legal requirement of a minimum run length of 50 kilometers or a scheduled travel time of at least one hour between the starting and destination station so that it can be viewed as long-distance traffic . Correspondingly, long-distance train stations are those that are served by long-distance trains. However, even with this minimum requirement, no objective statement is made as to what distinguishes a long-distance train station from other train stations, since terms such as “near” and “far” have purely subjective meanings. In addition, there are also local trains that cover more than 400 kilometers between the start and end stations and thus travel further than some long-distance trains.

Accordingly, a long-distance train station is not an official function of a train station in the German-speaking area.

Internationally and transnationally, one speaks of InterCity-Verkehr ( English inter-city rail ), whose station is then the station in InterCity-Verkehr ( English inter-city rail station ). InterCity traffic means, above all, “regular” and “accelerated” rail traffic “in a reasonable time” with “fewer stops”. In turn, this means that InterCity traffic can usually cover longer distances, which means that the internationally established scheme of “InterCity traffic” roughly corresponds to a local rail passenger transport. This means that the German-language term long-distance train station can be used roughly synonymously for a train station in InterCity traffic .

Actually, the more meaningful term InterCity station would then be more useful than long-distance train station . In Germany, an Intercity is an established brand and name for a very well-known type of train operated by a railway company (EVU), which departs from stations popularly known as "Intercity stations". The situation is partly similar in other countries. In order to prevent a term used under trademark law from being used for train stations, the more neutral, broader and less clear term long-distance train station is used in the German-speaking area.

The term long-distance train station has established itself despite all the inaccuracies and cannot be neglected. The Frankfurt am Main airport long-distance train station even contains the term in its name.

Train station in InterCity traffic as an element of spatial planning

In the scheme of InterCity traffic , the system of central locations with the regional centers , metropolises , metropolitan regions and regiopolises to be connected plays a major role. In their respective region, these represent nodes of local transport, local rail transport, the catchment area for travelers and passenger volume. Local rail transport in the sense of intercity traffic then has the claim to hierarchically connect the most important of these centers (metropolises and metropolitan regions) with one another and then also the subordinate centers (important regional centers and regiopoles as well as nodes of regional traffic and air traffic). The train stations used by this traffic are then long-distance train stations or train stations in intercity traffic .

Not every country in the world has a well-developed rail infrastructure. Nevertheless, the principle of intercity traffic also works there if two metropolises are to be connected directly to one another; Long-distance train stations can then only be found in the two metropolises and usually also in some cities and regional centers in between. In countries with a well-developed rail infrastructure, on the other hand, it can happen that long-distance train stations are also located outside of metropolitan areas, namely where several railway lines converge. The Altenbeken train station is a well-known example in Germany. This long-distance train station, located in the remote municipality of Altenbeken , is a railway junction in the focus of five routes for local and long-distance rail transport.

In metropolitan regions and regiopolises, several InterCity train stations (or long-distance train stations) can exist close together - visible, for example, in the Netherlands , where the population density is so high and three metropolitan regions are so close to one another that their InterCity train stations (or long-distance train stations) are subjective German understanding would no longer be attributed to long-distance traffic. The opposite extreme is around Moscow in Russia , where the next regional center outside the Moscow metropolitan area is so far away that even extensive local transport and suburban trains would have to be classified as long-distance connections according to the German subjective understanding and their stations as long-distance stations. According to the InterCity traffic scheme , these stations are only InterCity stations (or long-distance stations) if they at least allow travel to another metropolitan area outside the Moscow metropolitan area (e.g. to Kursk ).

High-speed traffic also has its place in a spatial planning concept with metropolises and metropolitan regions that are connected to one another . This often happens in competition with regional air traffic from a distance of around 200–500 kilometers between two centers, which makes an increased train speed appear sensible in order to arrive at the destination “in a reasonable time”. Under such conditions, high-speed traffic (e.g. on its own and correspondingly long high-speed routes) are automatically part of InterCity traffic - and thus their stations are automatically long-distance stations.

Long-distance train station in Europe

There are many national solutions for long-distance transport in Europe , but the aim within the EU is to promote cross-border transport. This also has an impact on the design of the long-distance train stations.

Minimum requirements for long-distance train stations

In order to ensure interoperability between the rail networks and transnational long-distance rail passenger transport, efforts are being made, especially in the EU, to link long-distance rail networks and to make long-distance stations and conurbations accessible to international long-distance passenger rail providers . The “Infrastructure” TSI from the end of 2014 is particularly important for this.

In order to ensure the interoperability of the railway networks in Europe and thus cross-border rail traffic, the EU's "Infrastructure" TSI implicitly defines, among other things, minimum standards for long-distance platforms (and thus for long-distance stations). With the appearance of the new TEN -T regulation VO (EU) 1315/2013, Trans-European Networks (TEN) etc. a. redefined for rail transport. The stations on these routes must be expanded in accordance with the specifications of the "Infrastructure" TSI.

Stations that meet implicit or explicit minimum requirements for cross-border long-distance traffic in Europe (on the standard gauge , track width 1435 millimeters) along the TEN corridors therefore have the following minimum requirements according to the "Infrastructure" TSI in the area of ​​the platforms to be used for long-distance traffic:

  • Platform height 550 mm or 760 mm
  • usable platform length at least 200 meters
  • The platform is located on an electrified route that is approved for 120 km / h or more
  • special safety measures required if speeds ≥ 200 km / h are possible on the platform
  • The clearance profile above the track must at least correspond to the GB boundary line
  • relevant track distances

If a station is to be approached by a high-speed train that reaches top speeds of 250 km / h and more on its route, the following deviations apply to the above-mentioned minimum requirements in the area of ​​the platforms to be approached:

  • usable platform length 400 meters
  • The clearance profile corresponds to the GC boundary line at speeds ≥ 250 km / h on the platform

Long-distance train stations located outside the TEN corridors do not have to comply with European regulations, which means that they may or may not be accessible for international traffic.

Long-distance train stations in Germany

This article or paragraph presents the situation in Germany . Help us to describe the situation in other countries.

In Germany, the regional rail transport is ordered as a basic service by the public sector and paid for or subsidized by regionalization funds. In the basic service, all or most of the stations are served by a rail route. Transport that goes beyond that is operated as long-distance transport by EVU. In order to be competitive against the trains of the basic service, the long-distance trains have to do what distinguishes an InterCity traffic : regular and accelerated rail traffic that reaches a destination in a reasonable time with fewer intermediate stops.

The long-distance trains that stop in long-distance stations are organizationally separated from local transport in Germany due to the different funding bases. ICE , railjet , TGV , Thalys as well as IC , EC , EN , HKX , HBX , LCM and alex are used in long-distance transport . Then there is the IRE Berlin – Hamburg .

The trains on IC line 56 between Bremen main station and Norddeich Mole or Emden Außenhafen station (including the trains on IC line 35 that run on parts of this route) are run as a special case as subsidized local transport, represent a basic service and are therefore not taken into account. They stop at all train stations where the regional express train stops, and thus at all seven subway train stations between Bad Zwischenahn and Norddeich Mole. With the exception of Marienhafe , which is still not served by line 35, they did so before they were classified as local transport.

Coverage with long-distance train stations

The coverage of Germany with long-distance train stations is currently (as of Nov. 2016) 312 train stations or stops in the long-distance traffic of Deutsche Bahn good, purely arithmetically then each long-distance train station supplies around 262,000 German citizens on average. The Harz-Berlin-Express brings six more train stations into the coverage, the IRE Berlin-Hamburg three. The Flixtrain (formerly: Hamburg-Cologne-Express ) brings in another long-distance train station.

Usually, the long-distance stations for national long-distance passenger transport (SPFV) are also long-distance stations for international long-distance transport, almost always in cooperation with Deutsche Bahn. There is one exception, however. The alex , which continues to operate as Eurocity between Munich Hauptbahnhof and Prague Hauptbahnhof in the Czech Republic , is formally operated as a regional rail transport train in Bavaria , but is considered a full interregional replacement service with on-board catering. The Schwandorf , Furth i.Wald , Cham and Landshut Hauptbahnhof train stations will become long-distance train stations.

The eleven German metropolitan regions are all well connected to local rail transport via a number of long-distance train stations. All metropolitan regions can be reached from other metropolitan regions, at least in part, via high-speed routes. In order to stay competitive with long-distance trains of Deutsche Bahn in long-distance rail transport between the large metropolitan regions " Metropolitan Region Hamburg " and " Metropolitan Region Rhine-Ruhr " with short travel times, the privately operated Flixtrain (formerly: Hamburg-Köln-Express ) does not stop in the long-distance train stations of " Metropolitan Region Northwest ", which is justified primarily with the unfavorable location of the long-distance train stations in this metropolitan region in the opinion of the operators.

The 312 German long-distance train stations face 115 regional centers. However, there are special cases in which large regional centers do not contain a long-distance train station or train stations that do not comply with the requirements of the "Infrastructure" TSI. Krefeld, with around 220,000 inhabitants, has a long-distance train station ( Krefeld Hauptbahnhof ), but this is only served on weekdays and only by a single long-distance train pair. The platforms of the station only have usable lengths of well under 200 meters. However, as part of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region, Krefeld has good connections to the surrounding cities that have well-frequented long-distance train stations ( Duisburg Hauptbahnhof , Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof ).

The situation in Saxony is much less favorable . So Chemnitz as an important regional center and city not connected in Saxony with around 250,000 inhabitants on the German mainline system and therefore also has no train station. Chemnitz is the center of a regiopole, is the junction of six local railroad lines and is located in a densely populated region with two other regional centers ( Zwickau , Plauen ), which also have no connection to long-distance transport and no long-distance train stations. The usable length of two platforms in Chemnitz main station was extended to 200 meters by mid-2014. It is planned to reconnect Chemnitz to the long-distance network from 2022, a second connection is planned for 2032. Chemnitz Hauptbahnhof (as of summer 2016) is used by 11,000 passengers a day, this is to be seen in relation to the ten metropolitan railway stations with the most passengers in Berlin , which each (not counting the particularly high- volume Berlin Hauptbahnhof ) see an average of almost 100,000 passengers a day. Attempts to connect Chemnitz and surrounding cities to the local rail transport have failed several times in the past, most recently the Vogtland Express was abandoned.

Saxony itself has a total of only five current long-distance train stations, four of which are in the catchment area of ​​a single regional center, Dresden (as of November 2016). This is a long-distance train station with an average of around 820,000 inhabitants in Saxony. In the rest of Germany there is one long-distance train station for every 262,000 inhabitants. From a purely statistical point of view, there are no eleven long-distance train stations in Saxony outside of the greater Dresden area.

DB Station & Service is based on price classes into which a. the service requirement in passenger traffic within the station building is included. The division does not differentiate between long-distance train stations and other passenger train stations and stops. Most of the train stations in price classes 1 and 2 are long-distance train stations, including some in price classes 3 and 4. These long-distance train stations in price class 1 and the long-distance train stations within price class 2 as well as the metropolitan train stations are predominantly located in the centers of larger cities, and are mostly the main train stations of the relevant ones Cities.

Long-distance train stations in large cities

Some major cities in Germany have several long-distance train stations in the urban area. Compared to the French and British rail networks, it is noticeable that today there are no longer any German cities with several long-distance terminus stations arranged around the city center. At the beginning of the railway era, these terminal stations were created due to the construction of the lines by various private and state railway companies. There were corresponding terminal stations in Berlin , Hamburg , Frankfurt am Main and Leipzig , for example . With the exception of Berlin, the various terminal stations in all other cities were closed or rebuilt in favor of a single central station before the First World War . The Berlin terminus stations such as the Anhalter Bahnhof or the Lehrter Bahnhof were closed after the Second World War as a result of the division of Berlin . Long-distance trains then ran in the western part of the city exclusively on the Berlin Stadtbahn , while in the eastern part, in addition to the Stadtbahn, various former suburban railway stations were provisionally prepared for long-distance traffic. Only after the reunification took place a reorganization of the Berlin railway facilities with facility of the central, opened in 2006, the main station .

Today, all German cities with several train stations served by long-distance trains each have a central train station that dominates in terms of traffic volume and capacity (which does not always have the word central station in its name), as well as other long-distance train stations that serve to distribute the traffic load, including:

With the location of the transfer stations, regional traffic is often distributed according to the main traffic direction. In all cities, the long-distance train stations are directly connected by local transport.

In the major cities of Dresden (with the main train station and Neustadt ), Frankfurt am Main (with the main train station and south ) and Cologne (with the main train station and Messe / Deutz ), two train stations are of supraregional importance due to the geographical division of the city by the rivers Elbe , Main and Rhine emerged. While the Dresden Neustadt train station has been an important long-distance train station since its construction, the other two train stations in Cologne and Frankfurt were hardly used for long-distance traffic for decades and were only important for local and regional traffic. Only in the last few decades has the increase in passengers and services, especially in ICE traffic, ensured that both stations are also used by regular long-distance connections to relieve the respective main station.

In the course of the incorporation of the 20th century, especially in the Rhineland and Westphalia, many cities were merged, both of which had an important train station. So there are two main train stations in the area of ​​the city of Mönchengladbach to this day: Mönchengladbach Hauptbahnhof and Rheydt Hauptbahnhof , only the former having occasional long-distance traffic. When the already amalgamated town of Wanne-Eickel was incorporated into Herne , the more important Wanne-Eickel Hauptbahnhof station retained its name, as did Herne station , which, unlike the main station, has no long-distance traffic.

In order to further develop and upgrade all of these central metropolitan train stations - a central train station or two geographically separated main long-distance train stations - among other things, the Bahnhof 21 concept was launched in the recent past , which in addition to reallocation of areas also includes the further development of the main train stations , which are often designed as terminus , into long-distance train stations with through traffic close. The goal is u. a. to accelerate long-distance traffic and to turn the central train stations into hubs in local and long-distance rail traffic. A well-known example of this is Stuttgart 21 . The Neue Mitte Altona project to relocate the Hamburg-Altona railway terminus also belongs to this category. Overall, this will upgrade the major urban long-distance train stations and eliminate bottlenecks in long-distance traffic. The most important station and the most frequented station for long-distance passengers, however, is Frankfurt Central Station, which is expected to remain the terminus.

Long-distance train stations that are not a main train station

The Kassel train station, where all long-distance train traffic will be handled after the high-speed line Hanover-Würzburg goes into operation , is the Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe train station . This previously happened in Kassel Hauptbahnhof , a terminus station .

Bonn has next to its main railway station to Siegburg / Bonn nominally a second remote station. This station on the high-speed route Cologne – Rhine / Main is outside the Bonn city area in the city of Siegburg and is connected to Bonn by the Bonn Stadtbahn via the Siegburger Bahn .

It was similar in Berlin , where the Berlin-Schönefeld Airport train station is outside the Berlin urban area in the Brandenburg municipality of Schönefeld . Until the opening of the Berlin Central Station on the north-south long-distance line on May 27, 2006, the Berlin-Schönefeld Airport station was also served by long-distance traffic.

In the Region Hannover is next to the main train station of Hannover Railroad Fair / Laatzen in the field of city Laatzen , which among other things to the big fairs CeBIT and Hannover-Messe is served by long-distance transport.

There are airport train stations in the city that also serve as long-distance train stations in Düsseldorf , Cologne and Frankfurt am Main .

Frankfurt am Main Flughafen Fernbahnhof and Limburg Süd are the only train stations in Germany where only long-distance trains stop as scheduled.

Main train stations that are not long-distance stations

Due to the shift in traffic flows, the main train stations of various cities have lost their function as long-distance train stations, for example Bottrop , Castrop-Rauxel , Chemnitz , Kassel , Lünen and Trier . The main train stations of Gevelsberg and Remscheid were even downgraded to pure stations of the Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn .

Interoperability of long-distance train stations

Almost all German train stations of DB Netz follow the clearance profile with the (national) G2 gauge of the EBO , which meets all the minimum requirements of the GA TSI gauge, but not the minimum requirements of the GB TSI gauge in parts. Conversely, the requirements of the G2 gauge go well beyond the requirements of the European TSI gauge GB. As a result, all German routes and stations on routes in the overall TEN network must be converted to the European clearance profile with the TSI limit line GC. This clearance profile has significantly higher requirements than the other clearance profiles and therefore sometimes requires extensive work. The changeover is advanced, the status can be queried via the infrastructure pages of DB Netz (see web links).

This is particularly relevant for the new Intercity 2 trains of Deutsche Bahn, which consist of double-decker cars . These require the conditions of the clearance profile with the TSI gauge GC. As a result, individual tests are required for each train station that is served by Intercity 2 and that has not or not yet been converted to the clearance profile with the GC TSI gauging line before approval for operation on site. This can also lead to operating bans.

This is of particular importance in the German rail network outside of the TEN. Both electrification and changes to the clearance profile with the TSI gauge GC are not absolutely necessary. As a result, by 2030 at the latest, when the first-generation IC trains are decommissioned and the IC2 form the backbone of long-distance transport, some routes and regions that currently do not have a long-distance train station may not have a long-distance train station or a long-distance connection in the future. The "Infrastructure" TSI provides for minimum requirements of 200–400 meters of usable platform length and a platform height of 550 or 760 millimeters for long-distance train stations. The required platform lengths and heights are met in the national part of the TEN networks as well as in almost all upper and many medium-sized centers in Germany. All types of train in German long-distance transport are designed entirely for platform heights of 550 or 760 millimeters. Long-distance rail transport is also mostly served by train formation configurations with train lengths of almost exactly 200 meters or almost exactly 400 meters, or with train lengths in between (in traditional, locomotive-hauled wagon trains).

This means that almost all train stations in the German regional centers and metropolitan regions can actually serve as long-distance train stations and be served by the appropriate national and international long-distance trains in the interests of European interoperability.

The new IC2 double-decker sets are again a special case (as with the clearance profile) . These are (without locomotive) in the standard train formation only 134.50 meters long and therefore fit on platforms of at least 140 meters in length, as is common in German regional rail transport. As a consequence, IC double-decker trains could open up new stations for long-distance traffic, which are actually only suitable for local traffic due to the short platforms.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Roell, Encyclopedia of Railways 1912, Section IX: Examples
  2. ↑ Regulation (EU) No. 1299/2014 of the Commission of November 18, 2014 on the technical specification for the interoperability of the "Infrastructure" subsystem of the rail system in the European Union , accessed on November 18, 2016
  3. ↑ Regulation (EU) No. 1315/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of December 11, 2013 on Union guidelines for the development of a trans-European transport network , accessed on November 19, 2016
  4. ↑ More rail for metropolises and regions. (PDF; 4 MiB) March 18, 2015, p. 17 , accessed on November 19, 2016 .