Heumarkt station is a

Stadtbahn (; German for 'city railway'; plural ) is a German word referring to various types of urban rail transport. One type of transport originated in the 19th century, firstly in Berlin and followed by Vienna, where rail routes were created that co ...

interchange station An interchange station or a transfer station is a train station for more than one railway route in a public transport system that allows passengers to change from one route to another, often without having to leave a station or pay an additional ...

in the historic Altstadt (old town) of

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

, Western Germany. The station is an important hub between (low-floor) East-West and (high-floor) North-South connections.

History

The station is named after one of Cologne's busiest old-town squares, on which it is also located and − to a less favorable extent − whose built environment it has shaped for the last 40 years. Public transport at Heumarkt began in 1879, with several

horsecar A horsecar, horse-drawn tram, horse-drawn streetcar (U.S.), or horse-drawn railway (historical), is a tram or streetcar pulled by a horse. Summary The horse-drawn tram (horsecar) was an early form of public transport, public rail transport, ...

lines encircling the square. Connections were provided to

Dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

and

Central Station Central stations or central railway stations emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century as railway stations that had initially been built on the edge of city centres were enveloped by urban expansion and became an integral part of the ...

to the North, Neumarkt and

Ring (The) Ring(s) may refer to: * Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry * To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell Arts, entertainment, and media Film and TV * ''The Ring'' (franchise), a ...

to the West, and

Rodenkirchen Rodenkirchen () is a southern borough (''Stadtbezirk'') of Cologne (Köln) in Germany. It has about 110,000 inhabitants and covers an area of . The borough includes the quarters Bayenthal, Godorf, Hahnwald, Immendorf, Marienburg, Meschenich, R ...

in the South. By 1902 lines throughout the city were upgraded to

electric tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include segment ...

lines, with tram stops on Heumarkt's eastern and western sides. With completion of the

Deutz Suspension Bridge The Deutz Suspension Bridge () was a self-anchored suspension bridge using eyebar chains, located across the Rhine at Deutz, Cologne, Deutz in Cologne, Germany. It was built from 1913 to 1915. In 1935, it was named Paul von Hindenburg, Hindenburg ...

in 1915, service was complemented with suburban rail connections into Cologne's left-Rhenish districts. Due to the square's proximity to the

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

, a single station within the bridge's head was planned, but never realized. By 1950, the square was served by one tram station, with lines crossing the square midway. Service was restricted to East-West connections, while North-South connections were redirected along the Cologne Ring. During the early 1970s, the former tram system was converted to the currently used

system. This resulted in an extended feeder for the bridge and − in order to obtain exclusive right-of-way for the trains − fences, a level-crossing and traffic-signals for pedestrians. Consequently, the square was split in two: a larger northern part and a smaller, more neglected southern part. The station was rebuilt in 1994 to accomidate low-floor trains as part of the effoert to build out a shared East-West Stadtbahn corridor. In conjunction with the Stadtbahn's extension project called North-South Stadtbahn (), Heumarkt was meant to regain its hub functions. The project's intention is to more directly link the

Hauptbahnhof Central stations or central railway stations emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century as railway stations that had initially been built on the edge of city centres were enveloped by urban expansion and became an integral part of the ...

with Cologne's southern districts, with Heumarkt station in-between. With the project currently halfway through, Heumarkt's underground station was opened on 15 December 2013. It is currently (2022) the southern terminal station for line 5, but with completion of the project will also include line 16, then running all the way to

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

. The total costs for the station were . It lies 27 meters below ground-level, making it the city's deepest station. One of the reasons for this is provisions for in the future to potentially also accommodate the East-West line within the underground station. At this stage however, putting the East-West line below ground is not under further consideration.

Notable places nearby

* Church of St. Maria im Kapitol * Church of St. Maria Lyskirchen * Gürzenich * Overstolzenhaus *

Rheinauhafen The Rheinauhafen (lit. ''Rheinau harbour'') is a urban regeneration project in Cologne, Germany, located along the river Rhine between the Südbrücke (Southern Railway Bridge) and Severinsbrücke (Severin Bridge), just south of the inner city's ...

within walking distance

References

External links

* *
Station info page
{{in lang, de Cologne KVB stations Innenstadt, Cologne Railway stations in Germany opened in 2013

History

Notable places nearby

See also

References

External links