Dresden Hauptbahnhof
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Dresden Hauptbahnhof (usually translated from German as Dresden Central Station, short form: Dresden Hbf) is one of two main inter-city transit hubs in the German city of Dresden. It was built between 1892 and 1897 at the southern border of the inner city.
[edit] Construction
Dresden Hauptbahnhof consists of 18 tracks. While some of the tracks are crossing the station seven tracks are ending from west to east in the middle. The station is divided into three halls from which the biggest central hall is roofing the ending tracks.
The arrival hall is situated in front of the ending tracks giving the station a character of terminal stations. The new roof canopied by teflon-coated synthetics was designed by Sir Norman Foster who is projecting the reconstruction of the station.
[edit] History
Dresden Hauptbahnhof is part of a train route and station system that enables direct connection of the train routes to Berlin, Prague and Nuremberg. By its opening in 1897 it replaced three station in the south of the city.
Between 1933 and 1945 the train station has been an important hub for deportation, military supply chain and military industry supply for the city itself. The station was damaged by the Bombing of Dresden in February 1945 but until a specific attack in April limited in order.
The station was reconstructed after the war but is still not completed yet. It became one of the important train station in the former GDR.
On 4 October 1989 special trains carrying refugees from Prague to Western Germany crossed the station. Demonstrations around the station escalated and begann to get violent. Realizing that violence was used to defame demonstrators as "asocial elements" following Monday demonstrations in GDR where held under the princip of nonviolence.
During the floods in August 2002, the station hall was badly damaged by flooding from the river Weißeritz. The entrance hall and the lower platforms have been flooded up to one metre by the muddy water of the left confluent of the river Elbe coming from the Ore Mountains. Also due to the heavy destruction of several tracks around Dresden it was closed for month.
[edit] Operational usage
| In brief | |
|---|---|
| DB station code: | DH |
| Number of tracks | 18 main line passenger, (of which 7 are terminal tracks) |
| Trains (daily): |
600 |
| Passengers (daily): |
50,000 |
| Station type: | Bf |
Regional and long distance services call at the station. The daily passenger numbers of about 50,000 are relatively low compared to other German cities of the same size (for instance, the central station of Bremen, a city of comparable size, has an attendance of about 100,000); this is due to the fact that Dresden has two stations where long-distance trains call at, Dresden Hauptbahnhof and Dresden-Neustadt. The station is part of the InterCity and ICE network. Night services are provided by DB NachtZug trains. There are also a number of EuroCity services that call at Dresden Hauptbahnhof, providing connections to Prague in the Czech Republic.
