Bensheim station

Bensheim station is in the town of Bensheim on the Main-Neckar Railway, connecting Frankfurt and Heidelberg, in the German state of Hesse. The station is also the beginning and end of the single-track non-electrified Worms–Bensheim line (Nibelung Railway). 114 trains stop at Bensheim station every day, of which about one-third are long-distance services. It is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 3 station.[1] Bensheim station is protected as a cultural monument under the Hessian heritage legislation.

Bensheim
Through station
LocationAmershamplatz 1, Bensheim, Hesse
Germany
Coordinates49°40′57″N 8°37′0″E
Owned byDeutsche Bahn
Operated byDB Station&Service
Line(s)
Platforms4
Construction
Architectural styleNeoclassical
Other information
Station code488[1]
DS100 codeFBH[2]
IBNR8000031
Category4[1]
Websitewww.bahnhof.de
History
Opened1846
Services
Preceding station   DB Fernverkehr   Following station
ICE 26
towards Karlsruhe
towards Frankfurt
IC/EC 62
towards Salzburg
Preceding station   DB Regio Mitte   Following station
RE 60
Main-Neckar Railway
toward Mannheim Hbf
TerminusRB 67
Main-Neckar Railway
RB 68
Main-Neckar Railway
Lorsch
toward Worms Hbf
RB 63
Nibelungenbahn		Terminus
Preceding station   Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn   Following station
toward Mainz Hbf
S 6
via Mannheim		Terminus
Location
Bensheim
Location in Hesse
Bensheim
Location in Germany
Bensheim
Location in Europe

History
The railway in 1907
The station in central Bensheim

Almost eleven years after the Adler locomotive began to run over the Bavarian Ludwig Railway between Nuremberg and Fürth, the Main-Neckar Railway was opened in 1846. Bensheim station was opened in the same year. The building of this artery through three small states in the Rhine valley stimulated trade and industry throughout the region. In 1851, the Auerbach district—then still a separate municipality—gained its own station.

In 1869, the Nibelungen railway, a section of the Hessian Ludwig Railway (German: Hessische Ludwigsbahn, HLB) was put into operation between Bensheim and Worms. Bensheim now had two railway stations, operated by two railway companies, which were not connected by rail with each other until 1872. As early as 1869 there were plans to extend the Ludwigs Railway to the Odenwald via the Lauter valley to Lindenfels and Reichelsheim to improve transport links. But further attempts to realise this project in 1895, 1925 and 1926 ultimately failed. Between 1910 and 1912, the railway was raised on an embankment through the city area.

In the mid 1990s Bensheim’s freight yard was closed and a few years later the dismantling of its tracks began.

Entrance building
The station in 1882, after a lithograph by Albin Hermann Georg Strauss
The station in 1907

The station building in 1845 was built to plans by Georg Moller in a neoclassical style on the eastern side of the line towards the city. The two-coloured facade of the two-storey, sandstone building had nine bay window around a central group of five windows. In 1900, the outer parts of the facade were replaced by two symmetrically arranged octagonal pavilions designed as porches with further lateral extensions. The eaves of the flat hip roof is decorated with a spiral scroll-like frieze (volute). After Florsheim station, it is the oldest completely preserved station building in Hesse.

Plans

There are plans for the Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn to run between Mannheim and Darmstadt over the Main-Neckar line by 2018, providing connections to the two nearest metropolitan areas of the Rhine-Neckar and the Rhine-Main every half-hour. These plans require the raising of the level of the platforms to the standard height of S-Bahn platforms (76 cm). It is also planned to renovate the station, at a cost of €7.5 million, including an extension of the platforms, so that even long-distance trains can stop at them. The station will also have lifts and escalators, making it accessible for the disabled.

Platforms
  • Tracks 1 and 2 serve long-distance and regional services (Frankfurt am Main and Heidelberg/Mannheim)
  • Track 3 serves regional services towards Mannheim (hourly service)
  • Platform 4 is used for regional services on the Nibelungen line towards Worms (hourly)
  • Track 5 was used as the passing track for the freight yard (now overgrown and abandoned)

Train services

Long-distance services
EuroCity in Bensheim station
Line Route Frequency
ICE 15 Binz – Pasewalk – Berlin – Halle – Erfurt – Frankfurt – Darmstadt – Bensheim  – Stuttgart Individual services
ICE 26 Stralsund – Hamburg – Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe – Gießen – Frankfurt – Darmstadt – Bensheim – Heidelberg – Karlsruhe Every 2 hours
ICE 50 Dresden – Leipzig – Erfurt – Fulda – Frankfurt – Darmstadt – Bensheim – Mannheim – Kaiserslautern – Saarbrücken One train pair
IC 62 Frankfurt – Darmstadt – Bensheim – Stuttgart – Munich – Salzburg Every 2 hours

Regional services
LineRouteFrequency
RE 60Frankfurt (Main) Hbf – Darmstadt Hbf – Bensheim – Weinheim (Bergstraße) – Mannheim Hbf Every 2 hours
RB 63Bensheim – Lorsch – Bürstadt – Worms Hbf Hourly
RB 67 Frankfurt (Main) Hbf – Darmstadt Hbf – Bensheim – Weinheim (Bergstraße) – Neu-Edingen/Friedrichsfeld – Mannheim Hbf Individual services
RB 68Frankfurt (Main) Hbf – Darmstadt Hbf – Bensheim – Weinheim (Bergstraße) – Neu-Edingen/Friedrichsfeld – Heidelberg Hbf Hourly

Bus Station

The bus station is in front of the station building with seven bays and connections to the suburbs of Bensheim by Citybus, and to Lautertal, Bürstadt, Heppenheim, Jugenheim and Lorsch.

Notes
  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.

References
  • Landesamt für Denkmalpflege Hessen, ed. (2005). Eisenbahn in Hessen. Kulturdenkmäler in Hessen. Denkmaltopographie Bundesrepublik Deutschland (in German). 2.1. Stuttgart: Theiss Verlag. p. 72. ISBN 3-8062-1917-6.
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