Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe station

Railway station in Kassel, Germany

Kassel Wilhelmshöhe is a railway station in the city of Kassel, in the German state of Hesse. It is the city's most important railway station, as it is connected to the Hanover Würzburg high speed rail line, with InterCityExpress services calling at the station.

Kassel Wilhelmshöhe station was opened as Wahlershausen station with the last section of the Frederick William Northern Railway on 29 December 1849. Whether a station was required at this point on the line was initially controversial. Trains running between Kassel and Gerstungen stopped here as did services running on the Main Weser Railway a little later. The station was immediately adjacent to the Wilhelmshöher Allee crossing, ensuring good road connections. The underpass originally planned under the Allee was, however, replaced by a level crossing for cost reasons. The station served not only the village of Wahlershausen, but also Schloss Wilhelmshöhe, which was two kilometres away. The station building's southern avant corps therefore included a Fürstenzimmer ("prince's room"), a "waiting room for the nation's leaders."

The design of the station comes an architectural competition in 1981. This was the first competition to design a station organised by Deutsche Bundesbahn in around 30 years. The architectural competition was won in 1982 (according to another source: 1981) by the Berlin architect Andreas Brandt (Brandt & Böttcher bureau), Giovanni Signorini and Yadegar Asisi, Deutsche Bundesbahn arranged for the immediate implementation of the zoning section. At the beginning of March 1985, the city and Deutsche Bundesbahn agreed on the design of the station and its transport links. Particularly controversial was the desire of Deutsche Bundesbahn for the development of long ramps to the platforms so that cars could reach the tracks. The topping out ceremony of the station canopy, which marked the completion of the structural work on the entire new line, took place on 18 January 1990. The construction costs amounted to around 300 million marks (about €153 million).

Kassel Wilhelmshöhe station is a through station with four platforms and two through tracks in a cutting. It is divided into two halves for the operation of trains. The two platforms of the west side are served by long distance trains and the two platforms on the east side by regional trains. Numerous personnel, including several hundred police officers, secured the event. On 30 May promotional ICE services were offered to Fulda and back at special prices. The grand opening of the new station stood in the shadow of the symbolic start of operations on the high speed rail services in Germany on the same day (29 May). ICE services commenced on the high speed line between Hanover and Würzburg over its full length. The fact that the ICE opening ceremony would take place in Kassel, had already been scheduled at the end of the 1980s. Other opening speeches were given by Federal Transport Minister Günther Krause, Deutsche Bundesbahn executive board chairman Heinz Dürr and Hesse Prime Minister Hans Eichel. 2,500 invited guests from politics and industry celebrated in the station, from which the public had been excluded. The five special trains left the station after three hours. Since the station toilets were not initially operable, long lines formed in front of two toilets in the station car park.