Limburg Süd () is a station in the town of Limburg an der Lahn, in the German state of Hesse. It is located in the Eschhöfer Feld ("Eschhofen field") (brochure, 20 pages) in the district of Eschhofen at the 110.5 kilometre point of the Cologne–Frankfurt high-speed railway. Limburg Süd is the only station in Germany that is served solely by Intercity-Express (ICE) services.
Infrastructure
The entrance building, which has of usable space, is located on platform 1 (used by trains to Frankfurt) and houses the Deutsche Bahn travel centre, waiting benches and vending machines for beverages and confectioneries. There are no public toilets in the station itself, but there are some in the adjacent parking garage. Alternatively, there is a coin-operated toilet cubicle in the forecourt.
The area on the second floor has been largely empty since the opening of the station. However, it is now planned to establish a control room of DB Energie there.
Railway tracks
The station has four tracks. The two middle tracks serve as through tracks and are built as slab tracks. ICE trains can pass through the station without decelerating at up to , while stopping trains running to the two outer platforms can pass over the turnouts at . Platform 4 (serving trains to Cologne) is reached over a bridge spanning the track, which has a staircase and a lift at each end.
The and platforms have canopies over a length of . An and roof spans all four tracks.
North of the platform a crossover allows a track change from the western to the eastern track. towards Frankfurt (113.0 km point), at the Lindenholzhausen crossover, it is possible to change tracks from the east to the west track. The crossovers are passable at while changing tracks. A sub-centre of the electronic interlocking system and an electric sub-station (which is also linked to the public network) have also been established in the area of the station.
Operations
The majority of trains travelling between Frankfurt (Main) Airport Long-Distance Station and Köln Messe/Deutz Station run past Limburg Süd and Montabaur stations without stopping. The trains that pass through Cologne Central Station stop in both Limburg Süd and Montabaur stations before reaching Frankfurt (Main) Airport Long-Distance Station and vice versa.
Most parts of the Cologne–Frankfurt high-speed rail line have steeper ascending and descending grades of 4%. This unique feature requires a higher power-to-weight ratio: ICE 3 with its power linear eddy current brakes is the only train type licensed to operate on this railway: no other service, such as slower regional trains, is permitted. This makes Limburg Süd the only station in Germany to be served exclusively by high speed train services.
In the 2026 timetable the following services stop at the station:
Line Route Frequency Essen – Duisburg – Köln Messe/Deutz – Montabaur – Limburg Süd – Frankfurt Airport – Frankfurt (Main) Hbf – Würzburg – Nuremberg – Munich Some trains Cologne – Cologne/Bonn Airport – Montabaur – Limburg Süd – Wiesbaden – Mainz – Mannheim – Heidelberg – Vaihingen – Stuttgart Some trains Cologne – Siegburg/Bonn – Montabaur – Limburg Süd – Frankfurt Airport – Frankfurt (Main) Hbf Every 2 hours Brussels – Aachen – Cologne – Siegburg/Bonn – Limburg Süd – Frankfurt Airport – Frankfurt (Main) Hbf Some trains, start and end of the day
Public transport
Limburg (Lahn) station in central Limburg is connected to Limburg Süd by bus and taxi service. In the beginning, a shuttle bus service between both stations was provided, and its timetable was co-ordinated with the arrivals and departures of the ICE service. However, the low demand caused the service to be stopped and replaced with several local bus lines, which offer passengers more options than the shuttle bus service.
Several long distance bus operators also stop at Limburg Süd. DeinBus, Flixbus, and OneBus offer the connections to Aachen, Bonn, Cologne-Bonn Airport, Frankfurt am Main, Heidelberg, Heilbronn, Stuttgart Airport, and Tübingen.
Despite its proximity to the district of Eschhofen, no direct road link to Eschhofen has ever been built.
Parking
On the west side of the station is a 306-space car park for short-term parking. Adjacent to the station in the east is a six-storey parking garage with 573 spaces for vehicles, 24 for bicycles, a charging station (for electric vehicles), and public toilet facilities. It was opened in 2011 after 19 months of construction. Because of the parking fees, many commuters prefer to park on the streets rather than pay to use the parking garage.
History
The planning of a Cologne–Gross-Gerau high-speed railway in the 1970s envisaged a station between Limburg and Diez on its right bank (east of the Rhine) route option. The station would have been located south of the Lahn and west of the existing station and above the Lahntal railway. Trains on the existing line from Wetzlar would have connected to services to Cologne and trains from Niederlahnstein would have connected to services towards Frankfurt. The four-track infrastructure would have had, in addition to the two central through tracks, two external platform tracks connected by scissors crossovers (with four sets of points) at each end of the station. The proposed station was assessed as having "predominantly regional importance", which justified "only a limited number of train stops".
After the completion of the route selection process, Federal Cabinet decided on 20 December 1989 that the line would be built on the route of the high-speed line along the A3, as built. It also agreed to the building of a station at Limburg. An option running through the Rhine Valley was now finally off the table. In the same way that the state of Rhineland-Palatinate demanded a station at Montabaur, the state of Hesse demanded a station on its territory. In an agreement of March 1990 the premiers of the two states as well as the federal transport minister noted that there was consensus that "a stop was required in the Limburg area". (thesis)
Discussion of options
As part of the coordination between the federal government and the two states three options were tested in Limburg: The establishment of a station in Limburg, along with a station in Montabaur. The additional station in Montabaur would compensate for the lack of a connection to the Lahntal railway, which would not be possible in this option and was mainly required by the state of Hesse and corporations in the Limburg/Gießen area. Instead, the area of Koblenz would access Montabaur station by car (Dernbach interchange and Montabaur exit). Montabaur station also offered the possibility of a connection to the Lower Westerwald Railway to Siershahn. The cost of this option in 1991 was estimated to be 30 million Deutschmark (DM). The establishment of a station in Limburg-Eschhofen was also discussed. Passengers would have to overcome a height difference of about between the Lahntal railway and the new line to change trains. The town of Limburg saw this option as the best way to link to the town's road network and promote urban development. The costs were estimated at DM 90 million (1991 prices). The establishment of a station between Diez and Limburg, west of the above two options, which would have bypassed the easterly city of Limburg, was also examined. A link between the Lahntal railway and the new line would have been short. The then Deutsche Bundesbahn saw disadvantages in the necessary construction of a viaduct over the Lahn and greater landscape fragmentation as a result of separation from the route of Autobahn 3 (A3). The cost of this option was estimated at about DM 65 million. This option was discarded not least due to the resulting fragmentation of the Diersteiner Aue (Dierstein floodplain) and the need to cross large deposits of limestone would have made it difficult to prevent the contamination of potable water.
The board of Deutsche Bundesbahn selected the first option for the high-speed line on 8 March 1991. The selection of the current location meant a comparatively small expenditure at the cost of a missing link to the transport network and a secluded position; it also necessitated the construction of the Limburg tunnel through a water protection zone. The station would be built at a green-field location about southeast of the city centre and close to the A 3. The traffic forecast assumed that 90 percent of rail passengers would use cars to reach or leave the station, connecting with ICEs.
Before the decision about the Rhine route in the Federal Cabinet, the then premier of Rhineland-Palatinate, Carl-Ludwig Wagner 1989 called for a so-called option S in an interview in July. This envisaged a right bank route taking a sharp curve from Dernbach through a tunnel and a bridge over the Rhine to Koblenz before taking another sharp curve back over another Rhine crossing to a purely right bank route to Frankfurt. The estimated additional costs of this option were DM 1.3 to 2.8 billion (about €0.7 to 1.4 billion). The Federal Transport Minister, Friedrich Zimmermann spoke of a "provincial farce" and suggested, as a compromise, the establishment of a high-speed station in Limburg to provide a connection with Koblenz. In addition to the establishment of the station, the compromise proposal provided for a package of other railway infrastructure in Rhineland-Palatinate. The then Deutsche Bundesbahn initially accepted the route via Limburg and Vilich in order to prevent further delays to the project.
Planning
The regional planning approval process of the Giessen region was commenced for the section in January 1991 and completed in July 1994. Thus the position of the station in Limburg was established. (four-sided brochure with status of December 1994) The Eschhofen variation, which provided for an eastern curve around the city, was introduced into the planning approval process. The station was part of zoning section 31.3, which stretched from the Limburg tunnel to the town limits. At the end of 1994, the facility was designed with five tracks. The planning approval was issued on 25 June 1997. It was based on a design by the Berlin architects Weinkamm.
As planned in 1995, Limburg Süd and Montabaur would be among five stations on the new Cologne–Rhine/Main line.
Deutsche Bahn, the town of Limburg and the State of Hesse ran a competition for the design of the station and its environment in 1997. In early 1997, the jury chose from 35 proposals received a "flying carpet" design from the Düsseldorf architecture office of Schuster. The name "flying carpet" referred to a bridge that would be built over the tracks, appearing from the distance to float. The jury praised the design as creative and economically convincing. The design was modified in some respects before the start of construction.
On 13 July 1998, Limburg council agreed to fund DM 1.5 million of the planned construction costs of DM 36 million (€18 million). This was linked to two conditions: the future of the station must be guaranteed in the long term and Limburg would become part of the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund (Rhine-Main Transport Association, RMV). The actual design of the station and its associated costs had still not been finalised, but it was expected to cost DM 36 million.
The construction and financing agreement for Limburg Süd station was signed in mid-2000 by representatives of Deutsche Bahn, the state of Hesse and the city of Limburg. It was planned that one train per hour in each direction would stop at the station; at other times trains would stop every two-hours. In addition, it was intended to allow the tickets of the RMV to be used on the trains.
On 31 January 2001, representatives of Deutsche Bahn and the mayor of the town of Limburg, Martin Richard, signed a contract for the development of the area surrounding the station. It regulated the exchange of land and changes to land use planning in this area.