is the Hauptbahnhof for the city of Regensburg

Regensburg

Regensburg is a city in Bavaria, Germany, located at the confluence of the Danube and Regen rivers, at the northernmost bend in the Danube. To the east lies the Bavarian Forest. Regensburg is the capital of the Bavarian administrative region Upper Palatinate...

 in southern Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

.

Location

Regensburg Hauptbahnhof is located on the southern edge of the old city (Altstadt) in the immediate vicinity of Schloss St. Emmeram. In front of the station building are a taxi rank and the regional bus station. A short distance away is the central public transport hub known as Bustreff Albertstraße. The station has numerous shops; since its renovation in 2004 the overbridge also enables access to the Regensburg Arcade shopping centre south of the station tracks. At the site there are 177 car parking bays and stands for 300 bicycles.

History

Regensburg was connected to the railway network relatively late; although the first line in Bavaria opened in 1835, it took until 1859 for the Bavarian Eastern Railway

Bavarian Eastern Railway

The Royal Bavarian Eastern Railway Company or Bavarian Ostbahn was founded in 1856...

 (Königlich privilegirte Actiengesellschaft der bayerischen Ostbahnen) to link this east Bavarian metropolis with Nuremberg

Nuremberg

Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...

 and Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

, the first line to be built going via Amberg

Amberg

Amberg is a town in Bavaria, Germany. It is located in the Upper Palatinate, roughly halfway between Regensburg and Bayreuth. Population: 44,756 .- History :...

. In 1860 Regensburg was connected to Passau

Passau

Passau is a town in Lower Bavaria, Germany. It is also known as the Dreiflüssestadt or "City of Three Rivers," because the Danube is joined at Passau by the Inn from the south and the Ilz from the north....

; in 1873 a direct line to Nuremberg was opened; and this was followed by a connection to Ingolstadt in 1874.

The first station building was built between 1859 and 1864 at the southern end of Maximilianstraße to plans by architect Heinrich von Hügel, its great length, twin towers and five-arched portal reflecting the influence of the Italian renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

. The building was torn down in 1888 and replaced by a new building in the contemporary style of the Gründerzeit

Gründerzeit

' refers to the economic phase in 19th century Germany and Austria before the great stock market crash of 1873. At this time in Central Europe the age of industrialisation was taking place, whose beginnings were found in the 1840s...

. This second station building was destroyed in World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

; its successor was finished in 1955 and renovated in 2004.
After just under five years of construction, a new signal box went into service at the Hauptbahnhof in spring 1988. At a cost of 24 million DM it replaced eight old signal boxes that had been repaired at the end of the Second World War. Plans for the replacement began in 1981. 180 sets of points

Railroad switch

A railroad switch, turnout or [set of] points is a mechanical installation enabling railway trains to be guided from one track to another at a railway junction....

 and 220 signals in the marshalling yard and main station are controlled by the new box; the 9-metre-long control panel was designed for an expansion of the area to be controlled. For the first time in the history of the Deutsche Bundesbahn

Deutsche Bundesbahn

The Deutsche Bundesbahn or DB was formed as the state railway of the newly established Federal Republic of Germany on September 7, 1949 as a successor of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft '...

, time signals were no longer controlled by cable but by long wave transmissions from the Mainflingen transmitter.

The marshalling yard, which is west of the main passenger station and adjacent to it, has been closed and is to be demolished.

Operational usage

Regensburg is situated at the crossing of the main line

Main line (railway)

The Mainline or Main line of a railway is a track that is used for through trains or is the principal artery of the system from which branch lines, yards, sidings and spurs are connected....

 railway lines Munich

München Hauptbahnhof

Munich Central Station is the main railway station of the city of Munich in Germany. It is one of the three long distance train stations in Munich, the others being München-Pasing and München Ost. The station sees about 350,000 passengers a day, which puts it on par with other large stations in...

-Hof and Nuremberg

Nürnberg Hauptbahnhof

Nuremberg Central Station is the main railway station for the city of Nuremberg in Germany. It is the largest station in north Bavaria and belongs to the 20 stations in the highest category of importance allocated by DB Station&Service....

-Passau

Passau Hauptbahnhof

Passau Hauptbahnhof is the main station at Passau in Bavaria, Germany, and was built in 1860. It has eight platforms, of which three are bay platforms and three are through tracks. The ca...

; smaller branch lines connect Regensburg to Ulm

Ulm Hauptbahnhof

is the Hauptbahnhof or central railway station for the city of Ulm, which lies on the Danube, on the border of the German states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. It is on ICE line from Stuttgart to Munich and the Paris –Budapest Magistrale for Europe line that is supported by the European Union...

 and Prague

Praha hlavní nádraží

Praha hlavní nádraží is the largest and most important railway station in Prague in the Czech Republic. It was originally opened in 1871 and named Franz Joseph I after Franz Joseph I of Austria. During the First Republic and from 1945 to 1953 the station was called Wilson station after former...

.

Regensburg today sees about 200 trains per day, most of them operated by Deutsche Bahn AG, though some regional services are operated by Vogtlandbahn

Vogtlandbahn

The Vogtlandbahn is a private railway company in Germany, which runs diesel trains on regional lines in the states of Saxony, Thuringia, Bavaria, Brandenburg, and Berlin and as well as routes into the Czech Republic...

. The following is a summary:

Train type Train categories in Europe Railway companies in Europe assign their trains to different categories or train types depending on their role. Passenger trains may be broadly split into long-distance and local trains; the latter having average journey times of under an hour and a range of less than 50 kilometres. Goods trains...		Route	Frequency
Intercity-Express (Linie 91)		Wien Wien Wien is the German language name for Vienna, the city and federal state in Austria.* Wien , in Vienna, Austria* Theater an der Wien, a theater in Vienna located at the former river WienWien may also refer to:...  − Passau Passau Passau is a town in Lower Bavaria, Germany. It is also known as the Dreiflüssestadt or "City of Three Rivers," because the Danube is joined at Passau by the Inn from the south and the Ilz from the north....  − Regensburg – Nuremberg Nuremberg Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...  – Würzburg Würzburg Würzburg is a city in the region of Franconia which lies in the northern tip of Bavaria, Germany. Located at the Main River, it is the capital of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. The regional dialect is Franconian....  − Frankfurt am Main − Köln KOLN KOLN, digital channel 10, is the CBS affiliate in Lincoln, Nebraska. It operates a satellite station, KGIN, on digital channel 11 in Grand Island. KGIN repeats all KOLN programming, but airs separate commercials...  – Düsseldorf Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...  – Oberhausen Oberhausen Oberhausen is a city on the river Emscher in the Ruhr Area, Germany, located between Duisburg and Essen . The city hosts the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and its Gasometer Oberhausen is an anchor point of the European Route of Industrial Heritage. It is also well known for the...  − Essen Essen - Origin of the name :In German-speaking countries, the name of the city Essen often causes confusion as to its origins, because it is commonly known as the German infinitive of the verb for the act of eating, and/or the German noun for food. Although scholars still dispute the interpretation of...  (− Dortmund Dortmund Dortmund is a city in Germany. It is located in the Bundesland of North Rhine-Westphalia, in the Ruhr area. Its population of 585,045 makes it the 7th largest city in Germany and the 34th largest in the European Union.... )	Two-hourly
Intercity-Express (Linie 31)		Passau − Regensburg – Nuremberg – Würzburg − Frankfurt − Köln – Düsseldorf − Oberhausen − Essen − Dortmund − Hannover − Hamburg Hamburg -History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...  − Kiel Kiel Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...	Once per day
Intercity (Linie 26)		Passau − Regensburg – Nuremberg – Frankfurt – Dortmund − Hamburg	Once per day
ALEX (Arriva-Länderbahn-Express)		Munich Munich Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...  – Regensburg – Schwandorf Schwandorf The town of Schwandorf is the seat of the district of Schwandorf in Bavaria in Germany. It is situated on the river Naab.-International relations:Schwandorf is twinned with:*Libourne *Sokolov...  – Hof / Furth im Wald Furth im Wald Furth im Wald is a town in the District of Cham, in Bavaria, Germany, near the Czech border. It is situated in the Bavarian Forest, 16 km northeast of Cham, and 17 km southwest of Domažlice....  – Prague Prague Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...	Two-hourly
Regional-Express		Munich – Regensburg – Nuremberg	Two-hourly
Regional-Express		Regensburg – Schwandorf Schwandorf The town of Schwandorf is the seat of the district of Schwandorf in Bavaria in Germany. It is situated on the river Naab.-International relations:Schwandorf is twinned with:*Libourne *Sokolov...  – Amberg Amberg Amberg is a town in Bavaria, Germany. It is located in the Upper Palatinate, roughly halfway between Regensburg and Bayreuth. Population: 44,756 .- History :...  – Nuremberg	Two-hourly
Regional-Express		Regensburg – Schwandorf Schwandorf The town of Schwandorf is the seat of the district of Schwandorf in Bavaria in Germany. It is situated on the river Naab.-International relations:Schwandorf is twinned with:*Libourne *Sokolov...  − Hof (− Gera Gera Gera, the third-largest city in the German state of Thuringia , lies in east Thuringia on the river Weiße Elster, approximately 60 kilometres to the south of the city of Leipzig and 80 kilometres to the east of Erfurt... )	Every 4 hours
VBG		Regensburg − Schwandorf Schwandorf The town of Schwandorf is the seat of the district of Schwandorf in Bavaria in Germany. It is situated on the river Naab.-International relations:Schwandorf is twinned with:*Libourne *Sokolov...  − Weiden(Oberpf) Weiden in der Oberpfalz Weiden in der Oberpfalz is a district-free city in Bavaria, Germany. It is located 100 km east of Nuremberg and 35 km west of the Czech border. A branch of the German Army's NCO Academy is located here...  ( − Hof)	Two-hourly
Regionalbahn		Neumarkt(Oberpf) Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz is the capital of the Neumarkt district in the administrative region of the Upper Palatinate, in Bavaria, Germany. With a population of about 40,000, Neumarkt is the seat of various projects, and acts as the economic and cultural center of the western Upper Palatinate,...  − Regensburg − Plattling Plattling Plattling is a town in the district of Deggendorf, in Bavaria, Germany.During World War II, a subcamp of Flossenburg concentration camp was located here...	Hourly
Regionalbahn Danube Valley Railway		Regensburg − Ingolstadt Ingolstadt Ingolstadt is a city in the Free State of Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany. It is located along the banks of the Danube River, in the center of Bavaria. As at 31 March 2011, Ingolstadt had 125.407 residents...  − Donauwörth Donauwörth Donauwörth is a city in the German State of Bavaria , in the region of Swabia . It is said to have been founded by two fisherman where the Danube and Wörnitz rivers meet...  − Günzburg Günzburg Günzburg is a Große Kreisstadt and capital of the district of Günzburg in Swabia, Bavaria. This district was constituted in 1972 by combining the city of Günzburg—which had not previously been assigned to a Kreis —with the district of Günzburg and the district of Krumbach.Günzburg lies...  − Ulm Ulm Ulm is a city in the federal German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the River Danube. The city, whose population is estimated at 120,000 , forms an urban district of its own and is the administrative seat of the Alb-Donau district. Ulm, founded around 850, is rich in history and...	Hourly services Sat, Sun and public hols: two-hourly
Regionalbahn		Regensburg − Eggmühl	Hourly

The platform announcements which inform travellers of the arrival and departure of trains at Regensburg Hauptbahnhof and also welcome alighting passengers were digitalised in July 2008.