Neanderthal station is a
Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn
The Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn () is a polycentric S-bahn network covering the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region in the German federated state of North Rhine-Westphalia. This includes most of the Ruhr (and cities such as Dortmund, Duisburg and Essen), the B ...
station in the town of
Mettmann
Mettmann () is a town in the northern part of the Bergisches Land, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the Mettmann (district), district of Mettmann, Germany's most densely populated rural district. The town lies ...
in the German state of
North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...
. It was opened on 15 September 1879. It is located in the
Neandertal
Neanderthals ( ; ''Homo neanderthalensis'' or sometimes ''H. sapiens neanderthalensis'') are an extinct group of archaic humans who inhabited Europe and Western and Central Asia during the Middle to Late Pleistocene. Neanderthal extinction ...
(Neander Valley), which prior to the German spelling reform of 1901 was spelled as ''Neanderthal''.
The reason why the outdated spelling of the station was not updated is not clear. In German, even the spelling of the
Neanderthal
Neanderthals ( ; ''Homo neanderthalensis'' or sometimes ''H. sapiens neanderthalensis'') are an extinction, extinct group of archaic humans who inhabited Europe and Western and Central Asia during the Middle Pleistocene, Middle to Late Plei ...
man (whose fossils were first found in the area) has been updated to ''Neandertaler'' from the outdated ''Neanderthaler''. The nearby
Neanderthal Museum
The Neanderthal Museum is a museum in Mettmann, Germany. It was established in 1996. Located at the site of the first Neanderthal man discovery in the Neandertal, it features an exhibit centered on human evolution. The museum was constructed in 19 ...
and the municipality of Mettmann have adopted the policy that ''all names referring to the prehistoric humans have the "h"'', so they in fact use the spelling ''Neanderthaler'' for the species, which is not done anywhere else anymore in German-speaking areas, but even they do not spell the valley in the outdated way anymore (except seemingly in the name of the museum, which is in fact English, not German). The municipality claims that the German rail authority would not change the spelling because of the proximity of the museum.
History
On 15 September 1879 the
Rhenish Railway Company
The Rhenish Railway Company (German language, German: ''Rheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'', RhE) was along with the Cologne-Minden Railway Company (CME) and the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company (BME) one of the railway companies that in the m ...
opened the last section of its
Düsseldorf-Derendorf–Dortmund Süd railway, locally known as the ''Wuppertaler Nordbahn'' (Wuppertal North Railway), from Mettmann station (now
Mettmann Stadtwald station
Mettmann Stadtwald station is located in the town of Mettmann in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia at the end of a fragment of the Düsseldorf-Derendorf–Dortmund Süd railway, opened by the Rhenish Railway Company. The line and the st ...
) to the Rhenish Railway's
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...
station.
Along with this line, Neanderthal station was also put into operation and the station building was inaugurated. This still exists today, but is no longer used for its original purpose. In the 1980s the whole station area and the station building were purchased by the landscape gardener Richard Bödeker and rebuilt as a residence. The history of the railway was considered in the design of the gardens and parks around the station and the grounds are filled with old artifacts of the railway history along the course of old ''Nordbahn'' as well as hundreds of species of bamboo and elaborately designed wall coatings and ground coverings.
The station had local importance. In addition to the two rail tracks (tracks 1 and 2), each with a platform, it had a fast reversible bypass track (track 3), three marshalling and stabling tracks (tracks 4–6), as well as a siding for freight trains to the nearby Mannesmann
Mannesmann was a German industrial conglomerate. It was originally established as a manufacturer of steel pipes in 1890 under the name "Deutsch-Österreichische Mannesmannröhren-Werke AG" (lit. "German-Austrian Mannesmann pipe-works joint-s ...
lime
Lime most commonly refers to:
* Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit
* Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide
* Lime (color), a color between yellow and green
Lime may also refer to:
Bo ...
plant.
Recently, the line was used only by railcar
A railcar (not to be confused with the generic term railroad car or railway car) is a self-propelled railway vehicle designed to transport passengers. The term "railcar" is usually used in reference to a train consisting of a single coa ...
s and local freight trains. On 2 January 1999, Deutsche Bahn
(, ; abbreviated as DB or DB AG ) is the national railway company of Germany, and a state-owned enterprise under the control of the German government. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG).
DB was fou ...
closed passenger services over the whole line and sold Neanderthal station with a section of the line to ''Regionale Bahngesellschaft Kaarst-Neuss-Düsseldorf-Erkrath-Mettmann-Wuppertal mbH'' (shortened to Regiobahn GmbH
The Regiobahn is the operator of the S28 line of the Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn between Kaarst, Düsseldorf, Mettmann and Wuppertal and the RE 47 between Düsseldorf and in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
There are three companies ...
) on 1 January 1998.
Current situation
Following the acquisition of the line by Regiobahn it was upgraded for S-Bahn operations and all stations were extensively reconstructed and modernised.
Neanderthal station was reduced to being just a halt (that it no longer had any sets of points), all tracks except tracks 1 and 2 were dismantled. The platform next to the station building, which had been used for the stopping of trains towards Mettmann, was demolished. Trains have since stopped at the island platform between the tracks 1 and 2. Since this platform is relatively narrow, a new platform was built for the trains towards Düsseldorf on the site of the former bypass track (track 3), which can be entered directly from the bus station.
Since 26 September 1999, the Regiobahn has operated line S 28 of the Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn—initially every hour, but from 28 May 2000 at 20-minute intervals.
Services
The station is served by the Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn
The Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn () is a polycentric S-bahn network covering the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region in the German federated state of North Rhine-Westphalia. This includes most of the Ruhr (and cities such as Dortmund, Duisburg and Essen), the B ...
line S 28 service. It is operated by Regiobahn.
;Mondays to fridays:
* Westbound
** 3 trains per hour to Kaarster See via Düsseldorf and Neuss
* Eastbound
** 2 trains per hour to Wuppertal via Mettmann
** 1 train per hour to Mettmann Stadtwald
;Saturdays, sundays:
* Westbound
** 2 trains per hour to Kaarster See via Düsseldorf and Neuss
* Eastbound
** 2 trains per hour to Wuppertal via Mettmann
The station is also served by bus route O12 (Posener Str – Kaldenberg – Ratinger Str.) operated by Rheinbahn
Rheinbahn is a German public transport operator operating in Düsseldorf, Meerbusch and Kreis Mettmann. Its network consists of the Düsseldorf Stadtbahn, a network of 11 Stadtbahn (light rail) lines which are integrated in the Rhine-Ruhr St ...
at 20- to 60-minute intervals.
References
{{Reflist
S28 (Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn)
Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn stations
Railway stations in Germany opened in 1879