The Offenbach City Tunnel is a railway tunnel on the Frankfurt Schlachthof–Hanau railway in

Offenbach am Main Offenbach am Main () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Hesse, Germany, on the left bank of the river Main (river), Main. It borders Frankfurt and is part of the Frankfurt urban area and the larger Frankfurt Rhein-Main Regional Aut ...

in the German state of

Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...

. It is used by all of the eastern branches of the

Rhine-Main S-Bahn The Rhine-Main S-Bahn system is an integrated rapid transit and commuter rail, commuter train system for the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main region, which includes the cities Frankfurt am Main, Wiesbaden, Mainz, Offenbach am Main, Hanau and Darmstadt. The ...

( S1, S2, S8 and S9). It runs largely under Berliner Straße.

Construction

Several options were considered and the current route was selected in 1983. Finance for the project was agreed on 4 December 1986, and planning approval was achieved at the end of 1990, allowing construction to begin. However, the symbolic beginning of construction was on 23 March 1988. Parts of the new line run along or below the route of the former Lokalbahn line.

Commissioning and subsequent changes

The line between Frankfurt-Mühlberg and Offenbach Ost was opened on 23 May 1995. This was linked with the extension of line S8 to

Hanau Hanau () is a city in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is 25 km east of Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main and part of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region. Its railway Hanau Hauptbahnhof, station is a ma ...

, while line S1 only went as far as Offenbach Ost. Line S2—which had previously terminated at Muhlberg—was diverted to

Frankfurt South station Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the foreland of the Taunus on its namesake Main, it forms a continuo ...

. Following the completion of the upgrading of the

Rodgau Railway The Rodgau Railway (''Rodgaubahn'') is a railway line that runs from Offenbach Central Station (''Offenbach am Main Hauptbahnhof'') via Rodgau to Rödermark-Ober-Roden in the German state of Hesse. The name ''Rodgaubahn'' is derived from the medi ...

as well as the route to

Dietzenbach Dietzenbach () is the seat of Offenbach district in the ''Regierungsbezirk'' of Darmstadt in Hesse, Germany and lies roughly 12 km southeast of Frankfurt am Main on the waterstream Bieber. Before the Second World War, the current town w ...

on 23 March 2001 lines S1, S2, S8 and S9 now run through the Offenbach City Tunnel. Limited capacity in the

Frankfurt City Tunnel The Frankfurt City Tunnel is a Standard-gauge railway, standard gauge railway in Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt and the core of the Rhine-Main S-Bahn. The line runs underground for its entire length. Central Station to Konstablerwache The first ...

until 13 June 2010, meant that line S2—in contrast to the other lines—could only run every half-hour, while additional peak hour S2 trains could only operate between Dietzenbach and Offenbach Hauptbahnhof and between

Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof Frankfurt (Main) Hauptbahnhof, also called Frankfurt Central Station and Frankfurt Main Station, is the busiest train station in the German state of Hesse. Due to its location near the middle of Germany and usage as a transport hub for long and ...

and

Niedernhausen Niedernhausen im Taunus is a municipality in the Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis in the ''Regierungsbezirk'' of Darmstadt in Hesse, Germany, with almost 15,000 inhabitants. Geography Location Niedernhausen lies in the Rhein-Taunus Nature Park in the west o ...

rather than use the tunnel. In the course of the Offenbach City Tunnel, S-Bahn trains stop at three stations: Kaiserlei, Ledermuseum ( Leather Museum) and Marktplatz. All stations are very similar in construction.

Notes

References

{{coord, 50.0994, 8.7607, type:landmark_globe:earth_region:DE, display=title Buildings and structures in Offenbach am Main Rhine-Main S-Bahn Railway tunnels in Germany 1995 establishments in Germany Underground commuter rail