Железнодорожный вокзал Франкфуртского аэропорта: История и особенности

Railway station in Frankfurt, Germany

Frankfurt am Main Airport long distance station (Frankfurt am Main Flughafen Fernbahnhof) is a railway station at Frankfurt Airport in Frankfurt, Germany. It is served by long distance trains, mostly ICE services running on the Cologne–Frankfurt high speed rail line. It is the largest railway station serving an airport in Germany with about 23,000 passengers each day. The station is served by 210 long distance trains daily, of which 185 are Intercity Expresses. It and Limburg Süd station are the only railway stations in Germany that are served exclusively by long distance trains. After nearly four years of construction, it was opened in 1999. The entire station is glazed on the outside and appears to be open. The upper deck is at a height of and is composed of a thick reinforced concrete slab with an area of about The slab is supported by steel beams, which transfer their loads on to thick trusses. These span across the railway station with a maximum span of about and are apart. The trusses are designed to support a building that is up to eight storeys high. Originally, the regional station was to be expanded as part of the new line project with a fourth track. Despite the high cost of the reconstruction of the existing station it was forecast that the capacity would not be sufficient in the medium term. Another proposal considered was to build an additional station in the existing building. Although a feasibility study found that would have had positive returns, this option was rejected due to its high cost. If there was sufficient traffic demand, the new station would also serve regional traffic from the south. The establishment of a new station between the A 3 and B 43 was examined for its economic justification for long distance traffic as well as for the regional traffic towards Mannheim. Two options were examined for connections from the airport station to the new line. In addition to the realised route along the A3 via Mönchhof, a route running north towards the Mainz–Kelsterbach–Frankfurt line through the southern outskirts of Kelsterbach was examined. A connection with the Mainz Frankfurt line was provided in both cases. Deutsche Bundesbahn classified the (unrealised) Klaraberg route as favourable for operations. The Mönchhof option had lower costs and lower environmental impact on Kelsterbach. The establishment of connecting curves between the new line and the line to Mainz would reduce the operational drawbacks of the Mönchhof option. The planning approval process for the airport station and the section to Frankfurter Kreuz autobahn interchange, collectively called "section 36", was initiated in April 1994 as the first of around 50 planning approval processes for the new line.

The project was jointly implemented by Deutsche Bahn and Flughafen Frankfurt/Main AG (Frankfurt/Main Airport Company, FAG, now Fraport). Construction work on the line began in December 1995. In September 1996, Deutsche Bahn awarded the first contracts for the construction of the station and its associated tracks. The top deck of the station was designed to support a building complex, although its nature had not been determined. The groundbreaking ceremony was held on 1 October 1997. About 300 employees were employed on the site. FAG provided DM 257 million (as of 1998) for the check in building, including the roof.

At the end of November 1998, the first service operated as a works train with invited guests from Zeppelinheim station through the tunnel to the Frankfurt Airport long distance station. The first regular scheduled train ran from the train station on 30 May 1999 as Intercity 537 (Moritzburg) at 05:37 AM. Deutsche Bahn initially forecast five million passengers per year. After completion of the high speed line to Cologne in 2002, this figure was expected to rise to nine million passengers annually. This corresponded to a quadrupling of the ridership previously measured at the regional station. Initially 83 services operated through the station between 5:00 AM and 0:30 AM daily. Before the commissioning of the station had been completed, its opening was delayed by a major fire in the check in area in November 1998. In the first year of operation it was used by approximately 9,000 passengers per day. In 2008, about 22,500 used the station each day. Prior to the opening of the station this rate (at the old station) was 14 percent. In 2003, the design of the building was awarded a special prize in the Renault Traffic Design Awards.

On 1 March 2007, the foundation stone was laid for a controversial project called Frankfurt Airrail Centre to be built on a slab over the station. Meanwhile, the nine storey complex with more than eight hectares of office space, 550–700 hotel rooms, restaurants and shops, which had been built at a cost around €660 million, (a portmanteau word derived from the English words "square" and "air"). The glass dome has been retained in the centre and on each side is the foyer of the hotel and the connection to the office wing. The opening was originally scheduled for autumn 2009, but was delayed until early 2011. The complex was completed in the spring of 2011. 20 applicants had applied in 1998 to build the development at the station. After a pre qualification phase a short list of seven investor groups were eventually invited to apply to carry it out. In March 1999, an international selection committee chose two companies to finally develop the project: e Pfa Immobilienmanagement (Wiesbaden) and TERCON Immobilien Projektentwicklungs GmbH (Munich). A feasibility study for the project estimated that the centre would create 3,400–4,000 new jobs.