Ennepetal station is a 160-year-old station on the Elberfeld–Dortmund railway

Elberfeld–Dortmund railway

The Elberfeld–Dortmund railway is a major German railway. It is part of a major axis for long distance and regional rail services between Wuppertal and Cologne, and is served by Intercity Express, InterCity, Regional Express, Regionalbahn and S-Bahn trains....

 built by the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company. It is in the city of Ennepetal

Ennepetal

Ennepetal is a town in the district of Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.The town was featured in the headlines when on April 12, 2005, a hostage taker snatched several school children from a school bus and took them as hostages, see Ennepetal hostage taking.- Division of the...

 in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia

North Rhine-Westphalia

North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous state of Germany, with four of the country's ten largest cities. The state was formed in 1946 as a merger of the northern Rhineland and Westphalia, both formerly part of Prussia. Its capital is Düsseldorf. The state is currently run by a coalition of the...

. The former station building is one of the oldest of its kind in North Rhine-Westphalia and has been listed as a monument since 1986. The station is on the Industrial Heritage Trail

The Industrial Heritage Trail

The Industrial Heritage Trail links tourist attractions related to the industrial heritage in the Ruhr area in Germany. It is a part of the European Route of Industrial Heritage.-The route:...

.

History

With the construction of the Elberfeld–Dortmund line by the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company in 1848, a station was opened in Milspe, now a suburb of Ennepetal, on 9 March 1849. The station was a timber-framed

Timber framing

Timber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...

 building. It was called Milspe station until 1954, when it was renamed Ennepetal-Milspe, reflecting the merger of the towns of Milspe and Voerde as Ennepetal 1949. With the closure of Gevelsberg station on the line in 1963, the neighbouring town Gevelsberg no longer had its own station on the Elberfeld–Dortmund line. Thus in 1968 Ennepetal-Milspe station was renamed again as Ennepetal (Gevelsberg) station, although it lies entirely within the city of Ennepetal.

Services

The station is now serves only by Regional-Express services, RE 4 (Wupper-Express), RE 7 (Rhein-Münsterland-Express) and RE 13 (Maas-Wupper-Express). The platform for trains towards Hagen could only be reached at ground level for decades, while the platform for trains towards Wuppertal could only be reached by a subway. In 2010, the existing platform tunnel was rebuilt and extended under the street. Today, there are stairs to the platform and since mid-2011 a lift as well. The central platform has been rebuilt with two new platform edges with a height of 76 cm. This makes the station fully accessible for the disabled for Eurobahn trains, but not for the double-decker trains of DB Regio

DB Regio

DB Regio AG is a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn which operates short and medium distance passenger train services in Germany, and operates light and heavy rail infrastructure in the United Kingdom.-Germany:...

, with their different floor heights. The wooden platform canopy was preserved and repainted.