Lichtenfels station

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Lichtenfels
Deutsche Bahn
Through station
East facade of the entrance building
General information
LocationAm Bahnhofsplatz 3, Lichtenfels, Bavaria
Germany
Coordinates50°8′46″N 11°3′35″E / 50.14611°N 11.05972°E / 50.14611; 11.05972
Owned byDeutsche Bahn
Operated by
Line(s)
Platforms6
Construction
ArchitectGottfried von Neureuther
Architectural styleNeo-Renaissance
Other information
Station code3700[1]
DS100 codeNLF[2]
IBNR8000228
Category3[1]
Fare zoneVGN: 1301[3]
Websitewww.bahnhof.de
History
Opened15 February 1846
Services
Preceding station DB Fernverkehr Following station
Bamberg
towards Wien Hbf
IC 17 Saalfeld (Saale)
towards Rostock Hbf
Bamberg
towards München Hbf
ICE 28 Terminus
Bamberg IC 61 Kronach
towards Leipzig Hbf
Preceding station DB Regio Bayern Following station
Bad Staffelstein RE 14 Küps
Bad Staffelstein
towards Bamberg
RE 32 Hochstadt-Marktzeuln
RE 35 Hochstadt-Marktzeuln
towards Hof Hbf
Terminus RE 38 Burgkunstadt
towards Bayreuth Hbf
RE 39 Burgkunstadt
towards Hof Hbf
Bad Staffelstein RE 42 Michelau (Oberfr)
towards Leipzig Hbf
RE 49 Schney
Bad Staffelstein
towards Bamberg
RB 25 Michelau (Oberfr)
towards Kronach
Preceding station Following station
Bad Staffelstein RB 22 Terminus
Schney
towards Coburg
RB 24 Michelau (Oberfr)
towards Bad Steben
Map
Location
Lichtenfels is located in Bavaria
Lichtenfels
Lichtenfels
Location in Bavaria
Lichtenfels is located in Germany
Lichtenfels
Lichtenfels
Location in Germany
Lichtenfels is located in Europe
Lichtenfels
Lichtenfels
Location in Europe

Lichtenfels station is in the town of Lichtenfels in Upper Franconia in the German state of Bavaria. It is a regional rail hub and a former ICE stop on the HamburgBerlin Munich route and is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a station of category 3.

Location

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Lichtenfels station is 31.9 km from Bamberg on the Bamberg–Hof railway and 150.9 from Eisenach on the Werra Railway at a height of 262.4 metres above sea level and is located west of the town centre and east of the Main river.

History

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Line map of Lichtenfels area in 1912

Planning of the Bamberg–Lichtenfels section of the Ludwig South-North Railway began in the summer of 1841, and work started shortly later. The line had to penetrate the town's wall, which had to be rebuilt with a new Coburger Tor ("Coburg gate") over the line. The station, together with a depot, was first connected to the line in January 1846. The official opening ceremony followed on 15 February 1846. On 15 October 1846 the line was extended to Neuenmarkt and on 1 November 1848 the line reached its terminus in Hof. The first massive entrance building was a temporary wooden structure built between 1847 and 1850. In January 1859 the Werra Railway was extended to Lichtenfels, making the station a railway hub and requiring the upgrading of the station in 1862 to provide separate tracks for the Werra Railway Company and the Royal Bavarian State Railways. The station gained new significance with the opening of the Franconian Forest Railway to Probstzella in October 1885, part of a new long-distance route to Berlin. The acquisition of the assets of the Werra Railway by the Prussian government in the 1890s was followed by an extensive expansion and restructuring of the railway facilities. The number of running tracks was increased to eleven, with 17 signalman's posts replaced by four signal boxes. Lichtenfels’ station area covered about 30 hectares and the railways employed about 29 percent of the city's workforce in 1914. The Coburger Tor was demolished in 1889. In 1896 the Coburger Straße pedestrian bridge was built over the railway tracks; it was demolished in 1934.

From 1934 to 1936 extensive works were carried out in preparation for the electrification of the line, including the building of a pedestrian underpass to the platforms, a road underpass for Coburger Straße, the raising of the level of the tracks and the installation of modern signal boxes and interlockings. Electric train operations were included in schedules from 15 May 1939.

During the Second World War, the depot was destroyed in an air raid on 23 February 1945. The German army demolished the switches and water cranes on 11 April 1945. 95 percent of the damage had been repaired by the end of 1945.[4]

In the autumn of 1983 a new central interlocking was commissioned to the design of Lorenz.[5] At the beginning of the 21st century this was followed by a further reorganisation of the station. The platforms were redesigned and they received a new roof, lifts, and 76 cm high platforms.

Looking west, a "wrong-coloured" 218 217-8 on the right in 1995

Passenger services

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Long-distance

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In Long-distance traffic ICE services on line 28, Hamburg–Berlin–Leipzig–Jena–Nürnberg–Munich, stopped every two hours until December 9, 2017.

With the start of the Ebensfeld–Erfurt high-speed railway in December 2017, it lost its status as a station for long-distance trains.[6] The new line runs a few kilometres to the west of Lichtenfels. Now, the closest regular ICE stop is Bamberg and Intercity trains (Karlsruhe–Leipzig) serve Lichtenfels once a day each way.

Lichtenfels is served by the current long-distance services (2019):

Line Route Frequency
IC 17 (Warnemünde –) RostockNeustrelitzBerlinLeipzigHalleLichtenfelsNurembergWien One train pair
ICE 28 LichtenfelsBambergErlangen – Nuremberg – IngolstadtMunich One train
IC 61 Leipzig – Naumburg – Jena Paradies – Saalfeld – Lichtenfels – Bamberg – Nuremberg  – Stuttgart – Karlsruhe Every 2 hours

According to a traffic modelling on behalf of the Coburg Chamber of Commerce in 2014, the station would handle 520 ICE passengers daily, 170 of those changing trains and 340 starting or finishing their journeys at the station.[7]

Regional services

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In regional transport, Lichtenfels is a hub with hourly connections to Upper Franconia and South Thuringia. The station is the start or end point for Regionalbahn connections and a through station for an agilis connection and three Regional-Express services:

Train class Route Frequency Rolling stock
RE 49 Franken-Thüringen-Express:
NurembergFürthErlangenBambergLichtenfels
CoburgSonneberg Every 2 hours Talent 2
(class 442)
RE 14 KronachSaalfeld Every 2 hours
RE 42 Franken-Thüringen-Express:
Nuremberg – Fürth – Erlangen – Bamberg – Lichtenfels – Saalfeld – JenaLeipzig
Every 2 hours
RE 32 Main-Saale-Express:
Bamberg – Lichtenfels – Neuenmarkt-Wirsberg –
Bayreuth (– Nuremberg) Every 2 hours RegioSwinger
(class 612)
RE 35 Hof
RE 38 Main-Saale-Express:
(Bamberg –) Lichtenfels – Neuenmarkt-Wirsberg –
Bayreuth Every 2 hours Alstom Coradia A TER
(class 641)
RE 39 Hof
RE 54 Main-Spessart-Express:
Lichtenfels –> Bamberg – Haßfurt – Schweinfurt – Würzburg – Gemünden – Aschaffenburg – Hanau – Maintal – Frankfurt
1 train Twindexx Vario
(class 445)
RE 55 Bamberg – Lichtenfels 1 train
RB 25 (Kronach–) – Lichtenfels – Bamberg Hourly Talent 2
RB 22 Lichtenfels – Bamberg – Forchheim – Ebermannstadt 1 train pair Stadler Regio-Shuttle RS1
(class 650)
RB 24 Coburg – Lichtenfels – Kulmbach – Neuenmarkt-Wirsberg – Bayreuth (– Kirchenlaibach – Hof – Bad Steben) Hourly
RB 18 Lichtenfels – Coburg – Bad Rodach One train
RB 34 Coburg – Lichtenfels – Kulmbach – Neuenmarkt-Wirsberg – Bayreuth – Kirchenlaibach – Weiden (– Weidenberg) Some trains

Since December 2013, the regional express service, Würzburg–Bamberg–Lichtenfels–Bayreuth/Hof, has been divided into two lines. DB Regio Franken won the tender for services from 2015 in the Main-Spessart region and now operates to Bamberg, some services extended to Frankfurt via Würzburg. The Bamberg– Lichtenfels–Bayreuth/Hof route continues to be operated by DB Regio Oberfranken.

Tracks

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The station has eleven through tracks, some without access to platforms. On its three island platforms lie platform tracks 1 and 2 (170 m long), 3 and 5 (370 m) and 6 and 7 (210 m). These are accessed by an underpass, connected by stairs and elevators. There is no longer a platform attached to the main building.

In the roundhouse of the old railway depot contains some locomotives of the Nuremberg Transport Museum.

Entrance building

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Western view

The entrance building was built in 1848 and 1849 to an 1847 design of the architect Gottfried Neureuther. It consisted of a three-story central building with four windows and on both sides it had three-storey wings. In 1859/60 the wings were extended. In 1862 the station building was completely reconstructed in a Renaissance Revival style. It was south of an additional building that was designed similar to the old central building and connected to it by a three-storey building. In 1886 a symmetrical reception building was added. The station building is now listed as a monument by the Bavarian government.

Notes

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  1. ^ a b "Stationspreisliste 2024" [Station price list 2024] (PDF) (in German). DB Station&Service. 24 April 2023. Retrieved 29 November 2023.
  2. ^ Eisenbahnatlas Deutschland (German railway atlas) (2009/2010 ed.). Schweers + Wall. 2009. ISBN 978-3-89494-139-0.
  3. ^ "Tarifzonenplan: VGN-Gesamtraum" (PDF). Verkehrsverbund Großraum Nürnberg. 1 January 2019. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 October 2019. Retrieved 24 October 2019.
  4. ^ Ulrich Rockelmann/Thomas Naumann: Die Frankenwaldbahn. Die Geschichte der Steilrampe über den Frankenwald. EK-Verlag Freiburg 1997. ISBN 3-88255-581-5, p. 95
  5. ^ Steffen Dietsch, Stefan Goldschmidt, Hans Löhner: Die Werrabahn. Verlag Eisenbahnfreunde Steinachtalbahn-Coburg, Coburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-9810681-3-9, p. 183
  6. ^ Manuel Rehkopf (26 August 2013). Vollständige Inbetriebnahme der Neu-/Ausbaustrecke VDE 8, Angebotskonzept DB Fernverkehr AG (in German). p. 7. (presentation)
  7. ^ "Erstellung eines kleinteiligen Verkehrsmodells mit Potentialanalyse für den ICE-Systemhalt Coburg: Zusammenfassung" (Press release) (in German). Hannover: IHK zu Coburg. 28 January 2015. pp. 3, 5.

References

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  • Dippold, Günter (April 2001). "Eisenbahn und Kleinstadt - Auswirkungen des Knotenpunktes auf Lichtenfels im 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhundert" (PDF). Heimatbeilage zum Oberfränkischen Schulanzeiger (in German) (281). Bayreuth. Archived from the original (PDF, 1.56 MB) on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 1 January 2011.
  • Ulrich, Werner; Pohlmann, Dieter; Kaetzke, Friedrich (1982). "Erhaltung der Hochbauten, dargestellt an den Empfangsgebäuden der Bahnhöfe Nürnberg, Regensburg und Lichtenfels". ETR (in German). 32 (1/2): 58–61.
  • Schäfer, Hans-Peter (1990). "Über die Durchgangsstation zum Eisenbahnknoten Lichtenfels – Zu den Anfängen der Eisenbahngeschichte am Obermain". In Dippold, Günter; Urban, Josef (eds.). Im oberen Maintal, auf dem Jura, an Rodach und Itz. Landschaft, Geschichte, Kultur (in German). Lichtenfels: self-published by Kreissparkasse Lichtenfels. pp. 197–224.
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