Vaihingen (Enz) station
Vaihingen (Enz) station  | |
|---|---|
| Through station | |
 Station and forecourt | |
| Location |
Vaihingen an der Enz, Baden-Württemberg Germany |
| Coordinates | 48°56′49″N 8°57′30″E / 48.94704°N 8.95832°ECoordinates: 48°56′49″N 8°57′30″E / 48.94704°N 8.95832°E |
| Line(s) |
|
| Platforms | 4 |
| Other information | |
| Station code | n/a |
| DS100 code | TV |
| IBNR | 8006053 |
| Category | 4 |
| Website | www.bahnhof.de |
| History | |
| Opened | 30 September 1990 |
Vaihingen (Enz) station is a long-distance and the regional station at an important railway junction in the town of Vaihingen an der Enz in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 3 station.
It is one of a few passenger stations in German that are designed to allow Intercity-Express (ICE) trains to pass at 250 km/h. The ICE through tracks do not have platforms.
Location
The station is located about 2.5 kilometers from the centre of Vaihingen, between the town and the suburb of Kleinglattbach[1] at about 250 metres above sea level.[2]
The station lies on the Mannheim–Stuttgart high-speed line (near the 78 km mark from Mannheim) and on the Württemberg Western Railway.
Structure
The railway system consists of eight tracks, which are numbered in ascending order in a northeasterly direction. In the middle of these tracks are the two tracks of the high-speed line for trains running at up to 250 km/h (track 4 and 5). Close by on both sides are two passing tracks (3 and 6). In the northeast is a platform for stopping passenger trains (tracks 7 and 8) and another platform to the south (tracks 1 and 2).
Trains to and from the new line can only stop at the platforms on tracks 2 and 7. Tracks 1 and 8 are used by regional trains running from Mühlacker to Bietigheim-Bissingen (track 1) or Bietigheim to Mühlacker (track 8). Fully grade-separated tracks prevent conflicts between high-speed and regional trains.[2] To the east of the station the high-speed tracks run through the 2.8 km-long Markstein Tunnel and the track running towards Bietigheim crosses over the top of the tunnel, running to the north-east. Both regional tracks then run through the Nebenweg Tunnel. To the northwest of the station the regional track running towards Mühlacker passes under the high-speed tracks. At both ends of the station complex there are crossovers between the regional and high-speed tracks.
Travellers reach the platforms via two north-south subways. Outside the building there are ten to twelve buses, more taxis and more than 300 car parking spaces.[3]
The (now inactive) seven km long Vaihingen Stadtbahn line rail passed under the site of the station. The new station includes a station on the Stadtbahn.[3][1] Operations on the line were abandoned at the end of 2002.[4]
Transport links
In long-distance operations (2008 timetable) the station is served by several regular InterCity (IC) services. In regional transport, the station is served by Interregio-Express (IRE) and Regional-Express (RE) services. The following lines stop here:
- IC Nuremberg–Karlsruhe, every two hours (alternating with IRE service)
- IRE Stuttgart–Karlsruhe, every two hours (alternating with IC service)
- RE Stuttgart–Bietigheim-Bissingen–Heidelberg every two hours (alternating with RE to Karlsruhe)
- RE Bietigheim-Bissingen–Stuttgart–Karlsruhe every two hours (alternating with RE to Heidelberg)
- Karlsruhe Stadtbahn S 5 (Bietigheim-Bissingen–Wörth) every hour, every two hours on weekends
- IRE Stuttgart–Vaihingen: a single peak-hour amplifier service,
- IC Stuttgart–Cologne–Hamburg, individual service
- individual IC services from Wiesbaden, Heidelberg, Saarbrücken and others, some services in peak hour, some in holiday periods
- in the rush hour a Karlsruhe Stadtbahn S 9 service is extended to run between Bietigheim-Bissingen and Bruchsal
- On weekday mornings an Intercity-Express to Stuttgart stops in Vaihingen.
- In addition, on weekdays an ICE to Cologne stops in Vaihingen.
The station also serves as an overtaking facility. As the originally planned mixed traffic of passenger and freight trains has not been realised, this facility is little used.
History
Planning
A major reason for building the station was to promote the urban development of the city of Vaihingen and it was envisaged that the core city would merge with the village of Kleinglattbach.[3]
Construction
The construction of the station complex began on 23 September 1985 with the establishment of the site. On 18 November actual work started on the crossing structures. The design of the station building was created by the Karlsruhe office of Schmitt, Kasimir & Partner and was selected as a result of an architectural competition. On 6 November 1987, a topping-out ceremony for the station building was celebrated and the building was finally completed in September 1990.[5] In the course of construction about ten kilometres of roads were built or rebuilt, along with cycling and foot paths.[6]
About 1.6 million m³ of soil was excavated for the 70 m wide and 2,000 m long station and 1.1 million cubic metres of new earth was put in place. 35 million marks were spent just for earthworks in the station area.[6]
Passenger traffic at the existing station in the centre of Vaihingen was abandoned at the timetable change of 30 September 1990.[5][7] At the same time the existing line was rerouted on a 7.31 km long section and a 1.36 km long single-track branch line to Vaihingen (Enz) North was put into operation.[5]
The commissioning of the new station shortened the travel time between Vaihingen and Stuttgart from 32 to 15 minutes.[3]
Notes
- 1 2 Horst J. Obermayer: Neue Fahrwege für den InterCityExpress. In: Herrmann Merker (Hrsg.): ICE – InterCityExpress am Start. Hermann Merker Verlag, Fürstenfeldbruck 1991, ISBN 3-922404-17-0, p. 57–69.
- 1 2 Ernst Rudolph: Eisenbahn auf neuen Wegen: Hannover–Würzburg, Mannheim–Stuttgart, Hestra-Verlag, Darmstadt 1989, ISBN 3-7771-0216-4, p. 102 f.
- 1 2 3 4 Rüdiger Hartmuth: Neuer Bahnhof Vaihingen (Enz). In: Knut Reimers, Wilhelm Linkerhägner (ed.): Wege in die Zukunft. Neubau- und Ausbaustrecken der DB. Hestra Verlag, Darmstadt 1987, ISBN 3-7771-0200-8, p. 195–198.
- ↑ Wenn die DB (nicht) will. In: Eisenbahn-Revue International, 11/2002,ISSN 1421-2811, p. 490.
- 1 2 3 Hans-Wolfgang Scharf: Die Eisenbahn im Kraichgau. Eisenbahn-Kurier-Verlag, Freiburg 2006, ISBN 3-88255-769-9, p. 202.
- 1 2 Deutsche Bundesbahn (ed.): Bahnhof Vaihingen (Enz). Brochure (four A4 pages), no location, no year (ca. 1986).
- ↑ Jürgen Hörstel, Marcus Niedt: ICE – Neue Züge für neue Strecken. Orell-Füssli-Verlag, Zürich/Wiesbaden 1991, p. 20–24, ISBN 3-280-01994-X.