Stuttgart West train station

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Stuttgart West train station
Remnants of the Westbahnhof.jpg
The Stuttgart Westbahnhof in February 2007, in the foreground the platform edge of the house platform, in the background the former SWf signal box . The houses on the right in the picture are former railway workers' apartments, some of which are still occupied today by employees of Deutsche Bahn AG .
Data
Location in the network Intermediate station
Platform tracks 3
abbreviation TSW
opening 1879
Conveyance 1985/1993
location
Place / district Stuttgart
country Baden-Württemberg
Country Germany
Coordinates 48 ° 46 '6 "  N , 9 ° 8' 43"  E Coordinates: 48 ° 46 '6 "  N , 9 ° 8' 43"  E
Railway lines

Railway stations in Baden-Württemberg
i16 i16 i18

The Westbahnhof in Stuttgart (official sign: Stuttgart West ; until 1895 called Stuttgart Hasenberg ) was a train station on the Gäubahn , which was initially closed for passenger traffic on September 29, 1985 (start of the winter timetable) and finally also for goods traffic in 1993 and then dismantled has been.

location

The Westbahnhof, designed as a through station , was 370 meters above sea level on the edge of the Stuttgart valley basin. Immediately south of this is the 258 meter long Hasenberg tunnel through the Hasenberg to Heslach . The next train stations were the Stuttgart main station at a distance of 8.6 kilometers and the stopping point Stuttgart-Heslach at a distance of 800 meters, beyond the Hasenberg tunnel.

There were a total of three tracks for passenger traffic, on the one hand the main platform ( track 1 ) and on the other hand the central platform ( tracks 2 and 3 ) accessible through an underpass . The freight tracks, on the other hand, were much more extensive; in addition to several through tracks, there were numerous sidings in the neighboring industrial area of Unter dem Birkenkopf .

history

Emergence

On September 1, 1879, the Gäubahn from Freudenstadt to Stuttgart was opened by the Royal Württemberg State Railroad . In the course of this route, the station, initially called Hasenberg , was set up on what was then Rothenwald-Strasse (today's spelling: Rotenwaldstrasse ), which was specially built as an access road to the station. The Hasenberg station was initially simply set up; it was outside and with a difference in altitude of almost 80 meters, far above the then residential city of Stuttgart. Its purpose was to enable train crossings on the initially single-track Gäubahn, for which there was no other opportunity on the downhill sections to Stuttgart or Vaihingen on the Fildern . The Hasenberg station, which was laid out horizontally, was 626 meters long. The reception building - it was initially intended as a temporary measure - was 48 meters long and remained in place until 1960.

Not implemented freight bypass

Initially it was planned to build a freight bypass between the Hasenbergbahnhof and Zuffenhausen . With their help, the transit goods traffic should be diverted around the Stuttgart main station. This bypass route was not implemented later, instead a local connecting curve was built in the area of ​​the Stuttgart Nordbahnhof and the bypass via the Rankbachbahn was widely used.

However, part of the planned route towards Zuffenhausen has already been tackled. This torso ends, measured from the former station building, about 800 meters after the Westbahnhof, in a deep cut below the Botnang saddle. This should then be crossed under by means of a tunnel. The Westbahnhof was originally designed as a branching station .

Operation over the years

Design by Georg Morlok for the unrealized Hasenberg train station, 1890.

Initially, the Hasenberg station was only set up for passenger and luggage traffic. As early as October 1, 1888, however, it was expanded into a wagon load station. In 1894/95 the station took on other freight traffic tasks, they served to relieve the main station. In addition, the section to the main train station was expanded to two tracks. On May 1, 1895, the station was finally renamed Stuttgart Westbahnhof . The growing traffic on the Gäubahn soon made the double-track expansion of the section to Vaihingen necessary; this measure was completed on October 1, 1905. Since the development in the west of Stuttgart had grown further towards the Westbahnhof, and the Stuttgart trams connected it to their network on December 7, 1899, the importance of the Westbahnhof also grew in passenger and freight traffic. To this end, extensive expansion measures took place between 1908 and 1913. So behind the train station an extensive industrial area was created in which numerous freight transport customers were served. In detail these were:

  • Company Ropa paper
  • Company Zewa paper goods (paper towels and the like)
  • Knauf company (plasterboard)
  • Small furniture distribution warehouse
  • Bair company (coal trade)
  • Coal Thier Company (scrap trade)
  • Heess company (edible oils)
  • Ruckgaberle company (potatoes)
  • Hauser company (potatoes and vegetables)
  • Fresh concrete west concrete plant (including gravel and sand delivery)
  • Dry ice sales
  • Brendle ESSO petrol station
  • Waldbaur company

After the old station building from the opening year had become dilapidated, it was demolished in 1960 and replaced by a new low-rise building. With the electrification of the Stuttgart – Böblingen line on May 26, 1963, the Westbahnhof was also integrated into Stuttgart's electric suburban traffic . With the commissioning of the main S-Bahn line from Hauptbahnhof to Schwabstraße , the first section of the so-called connecting line , on September 30, 1978, the tram line to the Westbahnhof was also closed. In order to avoid parallel service between the S-Bahn and the tram in the course of Rotebühlstraße, the last tram line 14 (Westbahnhof - Mühlhausen ) that ran here was replaced by bus line 44, which continues to this day to the Westbahnhof.

Abandonment of the station

On Sunday, September 29, 1985, the scheduled S-Bahn traffic to Stuttgart-Vaihingen and Böblingen began, at that time with the newly built Hasenberg tunnel of the connecting railway (not to be confused with the Hasenberg tunnel of the Gäubahn ), the second construction phase of the connecting railway went into operation . This was the new Schwabstrasse – Österfeld line and the subsequent upgraded Österfeld – Rohr line . At the same time, the local trains on the Stuttgart – Böblingen line were discontinued, they were replaced by the S1 trains (at that time Böblingen – Plochingen). The Westbahnhof was henceforth dispensable and was closed to passenger traffic after more than 100 years. The express and express trains that continue to operate on this route will pass it without stopping as before. The service of the sidings in the neighboring industrial area Unter dem Birkenkopf was able to last a little longer , this freight traffic was finally given up in 1993. Most of the goods loading facilities were dismantled beforehand. The two signal boxes were also given up in 1993, and the Westbahnhof has been unoccupied since then. The signal box is now remote-controlled from the Stuttgart-Vaihingen signal box. The Stuttgart graphic artist Kurt Weidemann used one of the signal boxes as a workplace.

However, track 3 still served as an alternative or passing track for a few years. At the turn of the millennium, track 3 was finally separated from the rest of the network. The station building itself was demolished at the end of 1994 to make way for an office and business complex.

Todays situation

Even many years after the cessation of operations, various relics are still reminiscent of the former Westbahnhof. The bus lines 44, 50 and 92 of the SSB still serve the stop on the former station forecourt , still called Westbahnhof , the lines 44 and 50 also have their terminus there. The two mechanically operated signal boxes with the label Stuttgart West have also been preserved : an older one from 1927 just before the portal of the Hasenberg tunnel (internal company abbreviation Swt ) and a newer one from 1954 at the station exit towards Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof (internal company abbreviation Swf ) . The old platform edge of the house platform (track 1) is also clearly visible. Furthermore, the street name Am Stellwerk is still a reminder of the earlier railway operations. However, this road was only built after the station was abandoned; it runs almost completely on the former freight tracks. And the steel viaduct along the Unter dem Birkenkopf road also clearly shows the dimensions of the former railway station, with a length of around 40 meters, this passage is significantly wider than the two tracks of the Gäubahn that still exist today. In this area six tracks used to run parallel to each other, the viaduct is therefore a clear indication of the earlier expansion of the railway systems in the area of ​​the former Westbahnhof. In addition, there are still some traces of track in the area of ​​the former industrial connections, i.e. left and right of Dantestrasse .

See also

literature

  • Andreas M. Räntzsch: Stuttgart and its railways. The development of the railway system in the Stuttgart area . Uwe Siedentop, Heidenheim 1987, ISBN 3-925887-03-2 .
  • Andreas M. Räntzsch: The inclusion of Stuttgart in the modern transport system through the construction of the railway, volume 1 and 2. Verlag Dr. Kovač, Hamburg 2005, ISBN 3-8300-1958-0 (also dissertation, University of Stuttgart, 2005).

Web links

Commons : Bahnhof Stuttgart West  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Kurt Weidemann is dead , in: Stuttgarter Zeitung of March 31, 2011