Rastatt station is together with Rastatt Beinl station one of two passenger stations in the city of Rastatt

Rastatt

Rastatt is a city and baroque residence in the District of Rastatt, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located on the Murg river, above its junction with the Rhine and has a population of around 50'000...

 in the German state of Baden-Württemberg

Baden-Württemberg

Baden-Württemberg is one of the 16 states of Germany. Baden-Württemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine, and is the third largest in both area and population of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of and 10.7 million inhabitants...

. It is an important station for the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn, being served by four of its lines, which are operated by the Albtal-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft

Albtal-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft

The Albtal-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft is a company, which is owned 100% by the city of Karlsruhe and operates rail and bus services in the Karlsruhe area....

 ("Alb Valley Transport Company", AVG). In addition, it is served by regional and long-distance trains operated by Deutsche Bahn

Deutsche Bahn

Deutsche Bahn AG is the German national railway company, a private joint stock company . Headquartered in Berlin, it came into existence in 1994 as the successor to the former state railways of Germany, the Deutsche Bundesbahn of West Germany and the Deutsche Reichsbahn of East Germany...

. The station is located at chainage 96.5 km on the Rhine Valley Railway and at chainage 82.9 on the Rhine Railway (both chainages are based on the original distance from Mannheim). The station is also the beginning of the Murg Valley Railway

Murg Valley Railway

The Murg Valley Railway is a 58 kilometre long railway line in the northern part of the Black Forest in Germany, that links Rastatt and Freudenstadt. It was opened in stages from 1868 to 1928 being built outwards from both Rastatt and Freudenstadt. The route through the narrow Murg Valley required...

.

History

The city of Rastatt

Rastatt

Rastatt is a city and baroque residence in the District of Rastatt, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located on the Murg river, above its junction with the Rhine and has a population of around 50'000...

 received its first rail connection on 6 May 1844, when the Grand Duchy of Baden State Railway

Grand Duchy of Baden State Railway

The Grand Duchy of Baden was an independent state in what is now southwestern Germany until the creation of the German Empire in 1871. It had its own state-owned railway company, the Grand Duchy of Baden State Railways , which was founded in 1840...

  opened the Karlsruhe

Karlsruhe

The City of Karlsruhe is a city in the southwest of Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border.Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states...

–Rastatt section of the Rhine Valley Railway. Since at that time Rastatt was a fortress of the German Confederation

Fortresses of the German Confederation

Under the term of the 1815 Peace of Paris, France was obliged to pay for the construction of a line of fortresses to protect the German Confederation against any future aggression by France.Section C...

 and was protected by ramparts and a ditch, the line ran to the east of the city at first. The first Rastatt station was therefore situated in what is now an industrial district.

On 31 May 1869, the first section of the Murg Valley Railway was opened and Rastatt station became a junction station.

With the abolition of the fortifications in 1890, the station was relocated to the west, nearer the central city, and the current entrance building was built.

In 1895 a third railway, the Rhine Railway, was extended for strategic reasons

Strategic railway

A strategic railway is a railway proposed or constructed primarily for military strategic purposes, as opposed to the usual purpose of a railway, which is the transport of civilian passengers or freight. Although the archetypal strategic railway would be one constructed solely as part of a...

 from Karlsruhe to Haguenau

Haguenau

-Economy:The town has a well balanced economy. Centuries of troubled history in the buffer lands between France and Germany have bequeathed to Haguenau a rich historical and cultural heritage which supports a lively tourist trade. There is also a thriving light manufacturing sector centred on the...

, which had become part of Germany as a result of the Franco-Prussian War

Franco-Prussian War

The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...

 of 1870-71. The section of the line that crossed the border to France, as re-established by border changes in 1918 and 1945, was closed in 1966.

The station was electrified in the 1950s as part of the electrification of the Rhine Valley Railway and the Rhine Railway.

In 1994 Rastatt was connected to the network of the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn. At first Stadtbahn services only operated on the Rhine Railway, in the following years, Stadtbahn services were also extended to the Rhine Valley Railway and the Murg Valley Railway, so the station is now served by four Stadtbahn routes.

Layout of the station

The station has six platform tracks, all of which are through tracks. Track 1 is the main platform next to the entrance building. The other five tracks are on three island platforms. Deutsche Bahn regional and long distance trains and Karlsruhe Stadtbahn services to and from Baden-Baden operate on tracks 3 and 4. Stadtbahn services to and from the Murg Valley Railway and Freudenstadt operate on tracks 5 and 6. Tracks 1 and 2 are no longer regularly used by passenger services; earlier they were used by cross-border trains on the Rhine Railway.

North of the passenger station is Rastatt freight yard. To the west of the station is the Rastatt central bus station, which is served by several city and regional bus routes of the Verkehrsgesellschaft Rastatt (Rastatt Transport Company), operated under the brand name of Rastattbus.

Long distance

Line	Route	Frequency
	(Konstanz Konstanz station Konstanz station is the largest passenger station in the German city of Konstanz. It is served by regional and long distance services operated by Deutsche Bahn and Swiss Federal Railways...  – Singen – Offenburg Offenburg station Offenburg station is in Baden-Wurttemberg and has seven tracks on four platforms. Offenburg used to be railway town and the station was of major economic importance to it. In recent years the maintenance facilities and much of the rail freight yards have been closed...  – Rastatt –) Karlsruhe Karlsruhe Hauptbahnhof is the central railway station in the German city of Karlsruhe. The station is classified as one of the major Category 1 stations in Germany, due to its function as a hub connecting several railway lines with each other.- History :...  – Heidelberg Heidelberg Hauptbahnhof is the central station for Heidelberg. In 2005 it was used by 30,472 passengers daily and is one of the largest passenger stations in Baden-Wurttemberg. The main station entrance opened in 1955 in Willy-Brandt-Platz in the western district of Heidelberg, on the edge of the district. Diagonally...  – Darmstadt Darmstadt Hauptbahnhof is the Hauptbahnhof of the German city Darmstadt. After Frankfurt Hbf and Wiesbaden Hbf, it is the third largest station in the state of Hesse. It is the second busiest station in Hesse, servicing 35 000 passengers and 220 trains per day....  – Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt (Main) Hauptbahnhof is the central station for Frankfurt am Main. In terms of railway traffic, it is the busiest railway station in Germany. With about 350,000 passengers per day the station is the second most frequented railway station in Germany and one of the most frequented in Europe.- Proto-history :In the late...  – Gießen Gießen station Gießen railway station is the main railway station in Gießen, Hesse, Germany. The station is a Category 2 station is used by 20,000 passengers daily. The station was opened on 25 August 1850 and is located on the Main-Weser Railway and Dill railway . The current station reception building was...  – Kassel – Göttingen – Hanover Hannover Hauptbahnhof is the Hauptbahnhof for the city of Hanover in Lower Saxony, Germany.-History:The first station on the current site, a temporary building serving the line to Lehrte, was erected in 1843...  – Hamburg Hamburg Hauptbahnhof is the Hauptbahnhof for the German city of Hamburg. It was opened in 1906 to replace 4 terminal stations. Hamburg Hauptbahnhof is operated by DB Station&Service...  (– Schwerin Schwerin Hauptbahnhof is the main passenger station of the capital of the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and is located in the northwest of the central city. It includes four tracks on two platforms and a siding west of the fourth track. Currently the station is used by about 12,000 passengers a...  – Rostock Rostock Hauptbahnhof is the central railway station in the German city of Rostock. The station was first opened in 1886 by the Deutsch-Nordischer Lloyd, operating a combined railway/ferry line to Nykøbing in Denmark. In 1894, the station was renamed to Central-Bahnhof and finally to Rostock Hauptbahnhof at the turn of...  – Stralsund Stralsund Hauptbahnhof is the main station in Western Pomerania and the central station for railway lines running to Hamburg, Bergen auf Rügen and Berlin in the German Hanseatic city of Stralsund.It is owned and operated by Deutsche Bahn.-Station :... )	Single service

Regional Transport

Line	Route	Frequency
	Karlsruhe – Rastatt – Baden-Baden Baden-Baden station Baden-Baden station is the most important of the three stations in the city of Baden-Baden in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is regularly served by local and long distance trains operated by Deutsche Bahn. It is also the served by two lines of the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn, operated by...  – Offenburg – Villingen Villingen-Schwenningen Villingen-Schwenningen is a city in the Schwarzwald-Baar district in southern Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It has 80,941 inhabitants .-History:...  – Singen (Hohentwiel) – Konstanz – Kreuzlingen; some services: – Offenburg – Emmendingen Emmendingen Emmendingen is a town in Baden-Württemberg, capital of the district Emmendingen of Germany. It is located at the Elz River, north of Freiburg im Breisgau...  – Freiburg	Hourly, additional services in peak between Karlsruhe and Offenburg

Karlsruhe Stadtbahn

Line	Route
	Freudenstadt Freudenstadt Hauptbahnhof is the main station in the town of Freudenstadt in the German state of Baden-Württemberg and is an important railway junction in the northern Black Forest.-Location :...  – Baiersbronn Baiersbronn Baiersbronn is a municipality in the district of Freudenstadt in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. It is situated in the Black Forest on the Murg river.Administratively, Baiersbronn consists of the following nine villages:* Baiersbronn* Friedrichstal...  – Forbach (Baden) Forbach (Baden) Forbach is a village in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It lies in the district of Rastatt. It is located in the Murg river valley, in the northern part of the Schwarzwald mountains. Forbach is further broken down into the following districts: Langenbrand, Bermersbach, Gausbach, Hundsbach, Herrenwies,...  – Rastatt – Muggensturm Muggensturm Muggensturm is a town in the district of Rastatt in Baden-Württemberg in Germany....  – Karlsruhe Hbf – Karlsruhe-Durlach Karlsruhe-Durlach station Karlsruhe-Durlach station is the second largest station in the city of Karlsruhe in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Karlsruhe Hauptbahnhof...  – Bruchsal Bruchsal station Bruchsal station is the centre of the rail transport in the city of Bruchsal in the German state of Baden-Württemberg.-History :The original station of the baroque town of Bruchsal opened on 10 April 1843 as part of the Karlsruhe–Heidelberg section of the old Baden main line, which eventually...  – Odenheim
	Achern Achern Achern is a city in Western Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located approximately 18 km southwest of Baden-Baden and 19 km northeast of Offenburg...  – Baden-Baden Baden-Baden station Baden-Baden station is the most important of the three stations in the city of Baden-Baden in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is regularly served by local and long distance trains operated by Deutsche Bahn. It is also the served by two lines of the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn, operated by...  – Rastatt – Muggensturm – Karlsruhe Hbf – Karlsruhe-Durlach – Bruchsal – Menzingen
	Achern – Baden-Baden – Rastatt – Durmersheim Durmersheim Durmersheim is a small town in the district of Rastatt, Baden-Württemberg, Southwest Germany and has a population of 12,049 .Durmersheim is situated between Karlsruhe and Rastatt, in the valley of the river Rhine near the border to France. There is also a forest in the valley, named Hardtwald, c...  – Karlsruhe Hbf – Karlsruhe Tullastraße/Verkehrsbetriebe – Karlsruhe-Durlach – Grötzingen – Bretten Bretten station Bretten station is the centre of rail transport in the town of Bretten in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. The Württemberg Western Railway and the Kraichgau line cross at the station.-History :...  – Eppingen Eppingen Eppingen is a town in the district of Heilbronn in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The town has the second-largest population in the district....  – Heilbronn Heilbronn Hauptbahnhof is the main passenger station in Heilbronn in the German state of Baden-Württemberg.-Description :The station is located about 1 km west of the inner city of Heilbronn and the Old Neckar on a 1 km wide island between the old Neckar and the modern canalised Neckar. Southwest of the modern...  – Öhringen Öhringen Öhringen is the largest city in Hohenlohe in the state of Baden-Württemberg, in southwest Germany, near Heilbronn. Öhringen is on the railways to Schwäbisch Hall and Crailsheim.With a population of 22,745 , the city is diverse...
	Eutingen im Gäu Eutingen im Gäu Eutingen is a town in the district of Freudenstadt in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany.-References:... – Freudenstadt – Baiersbronn – Forbach (Baden) – Rastatt – Durmersheim – Karlsruhe Hbf – Karlsruhe Tullastraße/Verkehrsbetriebe

External links