Koblenz-Lützel station
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Koblenz-Lützel station is the oldest still-operating station in the city of
Koblenz Koblenz (; Moselle Franconian language, Moselle Franconian: ''Kowelenz''), spelled Coblenz before 1926, is a German city on the banks of the Rhine and the Moselle, a multi-nation tributary. Koblenz was established as a Roman Empire, Roman mili ...
in the German state of
Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...
. It was built at the same time as the Koblenz Rhenish station (german: Rheinischer Bahnhof), which was abandoned in 1902 with the opening of the
Koblenz Central Station Koblenz Hauptbahnhof is a railway station in the city of Koblenz in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is the focal point of rail transport in the Rhine- Moselle-Lahn area. It is a through station in southern Koblenz built below For ...
(''Hautptbahnhof'') and destroyed in World War II. The station is located in the Koblenz suburb of Lützel, near the
Moselle river The Moselle ( , ; german: Mosel ; lb, Musel ) is a river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becom ...
and the Moselle railway bridge. It includes a passenger station and a freight yard. There was also a freight wagon repair shop, which is now closed and is now the site of the DB Museum, Koblenz. The now dismantled Koblenz-Lützel–Mayen Ost railway branched off the
West Rhine Railway The West Rhine railway (German: ''Linke Rheinstrecke'', literally 'left (bank of the) Rhine route') is a famously picturesque, double-track electrified railway line running for 185 km from Cologne via Bonn, Koblenz, and Bingen to Mainz. It i ...
(the left bank line, german: Linke Rheinstrecke) in Koblenz-Lützel from 1904 to 2003. The
Neuwied–Koblenz railway The Koblenz–Neuwied railway is a two-track, electrified main line railway in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It connects the Neuwied station on the East Rhine Railway, Right (east) Rhine line to the major railway junction at Koblenz Hau ...
was built to connect the
East Rhine Railway The East Rhine Railway (German: ''Rechte Rheinstrecke'', literally 'right (of the) Rhine railway') is a major, double-track, electrified railway line, running along the right bank of the Rhine from Cologne to Wiesbaden. The -long line forms two De ...
(the right bank line, ''Rechte Rheinstrecke'') to the left bank line and the Moselle line, which is important for freight traffic, at Koblenz-Lützel station. Koblenz has had three stations in two kilometres on the left bank line with Koblenz-Lützel station, Koblenz Central Station and Koblenz City Centre Station (''Koblenz Stadtmitte''), completed of in 2011.


History

In 1858, the
Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...
–Koblenz section of the West Rhine Railway was completed. The location of the Koblenz station presented difficulties. Two sites had been seriously discussed. One was on the north bank of the Moselle and the other was in the Moselweiser Feld. A decree of the Prince Regent William in April 1858 finally led to the separation of the passenger station and the freight yard. Thus the Rhenish station was built near the current City Centre Station and the Rhenish freight yard was built outside the city limits of Koblenz on the north bank of the Moselle below the Kaiser Franz fortress, where the current Koblenz-Lützel station is located. Construction began shortly after the announcement of the royal decree in May 1858 and the freight yard was opened in November of that year. The provisional station building was opened in 1859 and the permanent station was probably opened the following year. The entire station area was extensively protected in 1864–66 by
crenellated A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interva ...
walls. The Moselle railway bridge connected the freight yard to the passenger station on the other bank of the Moselle. The rise of the economically important district of Lützel was the direct result of the construction of the station. In 1889, most of the workforce was employed in the rail system. Company settlements were mainly established between Neuendorferstraße and the freight yard. In 1900, construction of the Koblenz-Lützel–Mayen Ost railway started and it was opened in 1904. In 1905 the freight yard was expanded and the Koblenz-Lützel railway workshop (''Bahnbetriebswerk Koblenz-Lützel'') was built. Freight wagons were repaired in a shed that still exists and freight locomotives were parked in the adjacent roundhouse with twin turntables. In 1918, the
Prussian state railways The term Prussian state railways (German: ''Preußische Staatseisenbahnen'') encompasses those railway organisations that were owned or managed by the State of Prussia. The words "state railways" are not capitalized because Prussia did not have a ...
opened the Crown Prince William bridge (''Kronprinz-Wilhelm-Brücke''), completing the Neuwied–Koblenz railway. This provided a link to north of Koblenz between the left and right bank lines in addition to the Horchheim Railway Bridge in southern Koblenz. In the
Third Reich Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
the first large-scale
deportations Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. The term ''expulsion'' is often used as a synonym for deportation, though expulsion is more often used in the context of international law, while deportation ...
from the metropolitan area of Koblenz were carried out through the freight yard. In 1942, 870 Jews were deported from Lützel to Cologne and from there dispatched to labour and concentration camps. Lützel station was destroyed during air raids in 1944. German troops destroyed all the bridges in Koblenz during their retreat in 1945, including the Crown Prince William and the Moselle (Lützel) railway bridges, which were very important for the station. In the same year the Lützel railway bridge was temporarily repaired by the Americans. Koblenz-Lützel station was also rebuilt. It was not until 1954 that the Urmitz railway bridge was rebuilt with a single track, replacing the Prince William bridge. On 22 September 1962, the double-track, electrified and upgraded Neuwied–Koblenz railway was opened to traffic. In 1968, the railway workshop was abandoned and dismantled in several stages. Since the early 1980s, the roundhouse and other parts of the train depot have been demolished. Freight wagons were repaired in the hall of the wagon depot until 1995. In 2001, the DB Museum, Koblenz, a remote site of the
Nuremberg Transport Museum The Nuremberg Transport Museum (') is based in Nuremberg, Germany, and consists of the Deutsche Bahn's own DB Museum and the Museum of Communications ('). It also has two satellite museums at Koblenz-Lützel (the '' DB Museum Koblenz'') and Hall ...
, transferred an exhibition of old locomotives and trains to this hall and at the station tracks. The Koblenz-Lützel–Mayen Ost railway was closed in 2003 and partially dismantled.


Passenger services

Koblenz-Lützel station has two 76 cm high central platforms, which can be accessed only by stairs, so the station is not accessible for the disabled. Access to the platforms is from the east side of ''Am Güterbahnhof'', a dead-end and run-down street. The eastern platform is located on the West Rhine line and is served by ''MittelrheinBahn'' (RB 26) services, all other services on the left bank line pass through without stopping. The western platform is located on the Neuwied–Koblenz railway and is served by the ''Rhein-Erft-Bahn'' (RB 27); however, the extended
RheingauLinie The East Rhine Railway (German: ''Rechte Rheinstrecke'', literally 'right (of the) Rhine railway') is a major, double-track, electrified railway line, running along the right bank of the Rhine from Cologne to Wiesbaden. The -long line forms two De ...
(RB 10) runs between Koblenz City Centre Station and
Neuwied Neuwied () is a town in the north of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, capital of the District of Neuwied. Neuwied lies on the east bank of the Rhine, 12 km northwest of Koblenz, on the railway from Frankfurt am Main to Cologne. Th ...
without stopping. Near Koblenz-Lützel station there are also bus stops of the ''Koblenzer Elektrizitätswerk und Verkehrs-AG'' (Koblenz electric supply and transport company, the municipal utility). These are, however, on Schüllerplatz or Mayener Straße on the western side of the station, which makes changing transport mode more difficult.


Freight yard

The Koblenz-Lützel freight yard, now part of a tri-modal Koblenz freight distribution centre, was built in 1858. It now consists of four loading tracks and a variety of sidings, now partly used by the DB Museum in Koblenz. There is also at the freight depot a connection to the Rhine port railway, which has 10 km of track connecting Koblenz-Lützel freight yard and the Rhine port and thus connects the waterways of the
Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , so ...
and the Moselle to the
Deutsche Bahn The (; abbreviated as DB or DB AG) is the national railway company of Germany. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). The Federal Republic of Germany is its single shareholder. describes itself as the se ...
network.


Notes


References

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External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Koblenz-Lutzel station Lützel Railway stations in Germany opened in 1858