Bremen Hauptbahnhof (

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

for ''Bremen main station'') is a railway station in the city of Bremen in northwestern

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It is the most important rail station for both the city and

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of Bremen; InterCityExpress,

Intercity InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to regional, local, or commuter trains) generally call at m ...

, EuroCity,

CityNightLine CityNightLine AG (timetable and platform sign abbreviation: CNL) was a Swiss night train service. CNL had right of passage grants in Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and Denmark. It served stations in Belgium, France, Italy and t ...

and DB NachtZug services call at the station, which is situated to the Northeast of the city centre. The train services are operated by Deutsche Bahn,

NordWestBahn The NordWestBahn GmbH is a private railway company providing regional train services on several routes in northern and western Germany. It is a joint venture of Stadtwerke Osnabrück AG, Verkehr und Wasser GmbH in Oldenburg and Transdev Ge ...

Metronom Metronom Eisenbahngesellschaft mbH is a German non-entirely-state-owned railway company based in Uelzen, Lower Saxony since December 2005. The company's activities focus exclusively on passenger transport, operating services from Hamburg to Bre ...

and Erixx.

History

Bremen's first train station was opened in 1847 on the site of today's station, on the line to Hanover. Later, lines leading to

Vegesack Vegesack is a northern district of the city of Bremen. Geography ''Vegesack'' is located about north from the centre of Bremen-city at the mouth of the river Lesum, beside the river Weser (). Abutting the district of Vegesack to the northwest is ...

( Bremen-Vegesack–Bremen line),

Bremerhaven Bremerhaven (, , Low German: ''Bremerhoben'') is a city at the seaport of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms a semi-enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the Riv ...

(then ''Wesermünde'', Bremen–Bremerhaven line), Oldenburg and

Uelzen Uelzen (; officially the ''Hanseatic Town of Uelzen'', German: ''Hansestadt Uelzen'', , Low German ''Ülz’n'') is a town in northeast Lower Saxony, Germany, and capital of the county of Uelzen. It is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, a ...

( Uelzen–Langwedel railway) were connected to the station. In 1870, the

Köln-Mindener Eisenbahn The Cologne-Minden Railway Company (German, old spelling: ''Cöln-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'', ''CME'') was along with the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company and the Rhenish Railway Company one of the railway companies that in the mid-19th ...

, opening its Wanne-Eickel–Hamburg line (''Rollbahn''), built another station some hundred metres north of the old station, since the old station could not cope with the additional Rollbahn traffic. Eventually, it was decided that a single station would be better, and so today's station was built from 1886 to 1891 after plans by Hubert Stier, with

sculptures Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

by Diedrich Samuel Kropp and Carl Dopmeyer. In 1907, additional tracks were added. Whilst the station hall has been remodeled several times due to war damage and modernisation, its basic outline still resembles the original 1880s building. The station hall was thoroughly renovated in the late 1990s and early 2000s, merging the two formerly separated passenger tunnels into a single concourse. Since 1973, it is protected by the monument protection act. The station's platforms, however, were only partially renovated, but are expected to be refurbished from 2008 on for €12.6 million.

Train services

The following services currently call at the station:Timetables for Bremen Hbf station
*Intercity Express services (ICE 10) ''Oldenburg - Bremen - Hanover - Berlin'' *Intercity Express services (ICE 25) ''Bremen - Hanover - Kassel - Würzburg - München'' *Intercity Express services (ICE 42) ''Hamburg - Bremen - Münster - Dortmund - Wuppertal - Köln - Frankfurt - Stuttgart - Ulm - München'' *EuroCity services (EC 7) ''Hamburg - Bremen - Münster - Dortmund - Düsseldorf - Köln - Bonn - Karlsruhe - Freiburg - Basel - Zürich'' *Intercity services (IC 30) ''Hamburg - Bremen - Münster - Essen - Düsseldorf - Köln - Bonn - Stuttgart'' *Intercity services (IC 31) ''Hamburg - Bremen - Münster - Dortmund - Wuppertal - Köln - Bonn - Frankfurt'' *Intercity services (IC 56) ''Norddeich - Emden - Oldenburg - Bremen - Hanover - Braunschweig - Magdeburg - Leipzig - Dresden'' *Regional services ''Norddeich - Emden - Oldenburg - Bremen - Nienburg - Hanover'' *Regional services ''Bremen - Rotenburg - Buchholz - Hamburg'' *Regional services ''Bremerhaven-Lehe - Bremen - Nienburg - Hanover'' *Regional services ''Bremerhaven-Lehe - Bremen - Osnabrück'' *Local services Der Heidesprinter ''Bremen - Soltau - Uelzen'' *Local services ''Bremen - Rotenburg - Tostedt - Buchholz - Hamburg'' *Local services ''Osnabrück - Bramsche - Vechta - Delmenhorst - Bremen'' *Bremen S-Bahn services ''Bremen-Farge - Bremen-Vegesack - Bremen - Verden'' *Bremen S-Bahn services ''Bremerhaven-Lehe - Osterholz-Scharmbeck - Bremen - Twistringen'' *Bremen S-Bahn services ''Bad Zwischenahn - Oldenburg - Delmenhorst - Bremen'' *Bremen S-Bahn services ''Nordenham - Hude - Delmenhorst - Bremen''

Operational usage

The station sees 100 long-distance and 410 regional trains per day. About 100,000 passengers per day use the station. The station features nine

platform Platform may refer to: Technology * Computing platform, a framework on which applications may be run * Platform game, a genre of video games * Car platform, a set of components shared by several vehicle models * Weapons platform, a system or ...

tracks, of which seven are in the station hall. In the hall, two tracks serve as through tracks for freight traffic. The station is electrified since 1964 and has been thoroughly modernised during the late 1990s. Both the passenger and mail subways, which used to be separate, were joined together and the station's subway now features a rich selection of shops and food halls, akin to a

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

. The platforms have been partly modernised as well (most notably platforms 5 and 6, which carry most of the southbound long distance traffic), and lifts have been put in.
Trains usually depart from: * Track 1 -

Osnabrück Osnabrück (; wep, Ossenbrügge; archaic ''Osnaburg'') is a city in the German state of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the river Hase in a valley penned between the Wiehen Hills and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest. With a population ...

( Wanne-Eickel–Hamburg line) * Track 2 - Oldenburg ( Oldenburg–Bremen line),

Nordenham Nordenham () is a town in the Wesermarsch district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located at the mouth (on the west bank) of the Weser river on the Butjadingen peninsula on the coast of the North Sea. The seaport city of Bremerhaven is located ...

( Hude–Blexen line) * Track 5 - Verden,

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

( Bremen–Hanover line) * Track 6 -

( Bremen–Bremerhaven line) * Track 7 -

(

Diepholz Diepholz (; Northern Low Saxon: ''Deefholt'') is a town and capital of the district of Diepholz in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the rivers Hunte and Lohne, approximately 45 km northeast of Osnabrück, and 60 km southwest of ...

( Wanne-Eickel–Hamburg line) * Track 8 -

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

( Wanne-Eickel–Hamburg line),

( Uelzen–Langwedel line) * Track 9 -

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

(

, Wanne-Eickel–Hamburg line) * Track 10 -

Rotenburg Rotenburg may refer to: *Rotenburg (district), Lower Saxony, Germany *Rotenburg an der Wümme, capital of the district *Rotenburg an der Fulda, near Kassel in Hesse *Rothenburg ob der Tauber, in the Franconia region of Bavaria *Hersfeld-Rotenburg, ...

( Wanne-Eickel–Hamburg line) The station is connected to the Bremen

tram A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...

way network operated by BSAG by a large, six-track tram station in front of the main hall.

Decorations

The sculptures on the façade, among other railway-related symbolisms, depict the coats of arms of the cities of Bremen and Hamburg, the original destinations of the line. There is a large

mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...

inside the station's main hall, dating back to the 1950s and showing scenes from the city port. It went into oblivion when it was drywalled off and station announcement boards were put over it in the 1970s, but has been carefully renovated at the station's most recent interior overhaul and is now viewable to the public again.

References

External links