Köln Hauptbahnhof

Railway station in Cologne, North Rhine Westphalia, Germany
9 long distance and regional
2 S Bahn
4 (2 stops) Stadtbahn
| passengers = 280,000
| code =
| zone = VRS: 2100
| start = 1859 12 05
| former = 1859 1894 Cöln Centralbahnhof1894 1919 Cöln Hauptbahnhof
| electrified = 1958 11 17, 15 kV  16 2⁄3 Hz AC system (overhead)
| years1 = 1894 is the central railway station of Cologne, Germany. The station is an important local, national and international transport hub, with many ICE, Eurostar and Intercity trains calling there, as well as regional Regional Express, RegionalBahn and local S Bahn trains. EuroNight and Nightjet night services also call at the station. It has frequent connections to Frankfurt by way of the Cologne–Frankfurt high speed rail line, which starts in southern Cologne. On an average day, about 280,000 travellers frequent the station,

The station is situated next to Cologne Cathedral. There is another important station in Cologne, the Köln Messe/Deutz station across the river Rhine, just about 400 metres away from Köln Hauptbahnhof. The stations are linked by the Hohenzollern Bridge, a six track railway bridge with pedestrian and bicycle lanes on each side. Frequent local services connect the two stations.

By 1850 there were five stations at Cologne that had been built by different railway companies. On the west bank of the Rhine there were the Bonn Cologne Railway Company (German, old spelling: Bonn Cölner Eisenbahn Gesellschaft, BCE), the Cologne Krefeld Railway Company (German, old spelling: Cöln Crefelder Eisenbahn Gesellschaft, CCE) and the Rhenish Railway Company (German: Rheinische Eisenbahn Gesellschaft, RhE). On the east bank there were the Bergisch Märkische Railway Company (German: Bergisch Märkische Eisenbahn Gesellschaft, BME) and the Cologne Minden Railway Company (German, old spelling: Cöln Mindener Eisenbahn Gesellschaft, CME). In 1854 a controversial decision was taken to locate a new rail and road bridge next to the cathedral, following consideration of such proposals as connecting the bridge to an existing freight yard and temporary passenger station on the banks of the Rhine (Rhine Station) at the street of Trankgasse, which is to the southeast of the current Hauptbahnhof. It was suggested that carriages could be lowered by lift to the Trankgasse station, but it was quickly realized that the only effective way for connecting the left and right bank line was to create a central station. The city agreed to the proposal in 1857 and made available the ground of the former Botanical garden to the north of the cathedral and on the site of part of the old University of Cologne, suppressed by the French in 1798. The railway track was laid at ground level from the bridge over the Rhine and crossing the street of Eigelstein west of the station at ground level and running through the medieval city wall.

The original Central Station (German: Centralbahnhof) was built beginning in 1857 to the plans of Hermann Otto Pflaume on behalf of the RhE, which had in the same year acquired the BCE. The station was opened on 5 December 1859 together with the Cathedral Bridge (German: Dombrücke, later the site of the Hohenzollernbrücke). The Central Station was a combined terminus and through station: it included four terminating tracks for the RhE running to the west, while the CME had two through tracks connected to its line on the eastern side of the Rhine by the Cathedral Bridge. The station quickly reached capacity, but the RhE as operator had only limited interest in developing the station, as this would have mainly benefited competing companies. Serious planning for an enlarged station was therefore only taken after the nationalisation of the railways in Prussia in the 1880s.

For several years after World War II, there was debate as to whether the main station should be rebuilt on the site of the Gereon freight yard—now the site of MediaPark. Therefore, the reconstruction of the main railway station was a slow process and for a decade Cologne station included temporary structures. The first building occurred in 1953 with the demolition of the long building on the western side, which was replaced by a modern building with baggage handling facilities and a hotel. The old station building (which had been only slightly damaged during the war and temporarily repaired) was demolished in 1955. On 23 September 1957, the new station hall with its shell shaped roof was opened to the design of the architects Schmitt and Schneider. The main station building was built on the northern side of the station following the demolition of an originally built up area between the streets of Maximinenstraße, Domstraße, Hofergasse and Hermannstraße and the shifting of Goldgasse with the building of Breslauer Platz as a second entrance plaza. In the course of building the S Bahn up until 1991, the entire railway line, railway station and the Hohenzollern bridge were supplemented by two independent S Bahn tracks. First, in 1975 two additional platforms were built (10 and 11) and then the additional tracks were built on the Hohenzollern bridge for the S Bahn line. In 2000, a shopping centre was opened at the entry level—including the area under the S Bahn tracks. The so called colonnade includes 70 shops and restaurants with over of retail space and 700 employees.

At a summit of Deutsche Bahn, the federal government and the state of North Rhine Westphalia on 31 March 2010 in Düsseldorf, it was decided that the station should be extended by 2019 with an S Bahn platform with two S Bahn tracks at Breslauer Platz. The estimated cost would amount to €60 million. It is planned to extend the platform for track 1 to provide a secure area for checking passenger and baggage to enable ICE trains to run to London St Pancras in 2016. It will be operationally difficult for trains departing towards London to cross all the western approach tracks, as will be necessary.

Since January 2010, a system of "open access" on European high speed railway lines now permits different rail operators to apply to run high speed passenger services. DB Fernverkehr have announced their intention to operate a direct ICE service from Cologne to London St Pancras via Brussels and the Channel Tunnel. The proposal, first put forward in 2007, was delayed by Eurotunnel safety regulations which required operators to use trainsets which could be divided in the Tunnel in the event of an emergency, allowing passengers to be transported out of the tunnel in two directions. This regulation has now been relaxed, and it was envisaged that DB could begin direct London Cologne services before the end of 2014. These plans have since been delayed, and services are not expected to start until at least 2018.