Bahnhof Köln/Bonn Flughafen
Germany's third airport with an ICE link: a tunnel station under a vaulted glass roof, its four tracks lying up to 18 metres deep.
Before the railway arrived, the airport could only be reached by road: around 1996, roughly 90 percent of air passengers came by car, supplemented by express buses to the centres of Cologne and Bonn. The station was meant to change that and connect the airport directly to the rail network.
At a Glance
- Type
- Airport station, built as a tunnel station
- Location
- Cologne, Grengel district in the Porz borough
- Opened
- June 2004
- Dimensions
- about 420 metres long, 40 metres wide
- Tracks
- four tracks at two island platforms, up to 18 metres below ground level
- Services
- Intercity-Express, S-Bahn and regional trains
- Design
- architectural firm Murphy/Jahn
Although Cologne/Bonn Airport station has a large glass roof, it is officially classed as a tunnel station – which is why smoking is prohibited there. A fully enclosed tunnel was originally planned.
Connection to the ICE Network
After Frankfurt and Düsseldorf, Cologne/Bonn became the third airport in Germany to be linked to the ICE network. Leipzig/Halle Airport station is not permanently connected in this way. The station was built as part of the Cologne–Rhine/Main high-speed line and belongs to the roughly 15-kilometre airport loop. Some ICE trains terminate here, using a double crossover at the northern end of the station.
A Glass Roof Instead of a Closed Tube
The competition design originally envisaged a closed tunnel. What was built instead is a vaulted glass roof over platforms between exposed-concrete walls. Deutsche Bahn nevertheless classifies the station as a tunnel station, which is why smoking is prohibited there. Above it lies the passage between the two terminals, spanned by a steel-and-glass roof 36 metres wide and 156 metres long, weighing 540 tonnes.
Routes to the Terminals
Escalators and lifts connect the platforms with the underground level of Terminal 2. A glass staircase in the middle serves for changing between platforms and leads to an emergency exit. Since June 2007, a two-storey steel-and-glass link building at the southern end has connected to check-in area B in Terminal 1. Previously, there was only a temporary exit next to the access road.
Origins and Funding
The federal government proposed the connection on 20 December 1989. It also goes back to the 1994 Berlin/Bonn Act, which promised the Bonn region compensation for the relocation of parliament and parts of the government to Berlin. Traffic forecasts expected that in future one in three air passengers would arrive by rail. The federal government, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and Flughafen Köln/Bonn GmbH bore the construction costs of the station.
Good to Know
So that different trains can stop at level boarding height, the platform edges are 76 centimetres above the top of the rail on the outer tracks and 96 centimetres on the lowered inner tracks. The station signs alternate between “Köln/Bonn Flughafen” and “Köln/Bonn Airport.”
Timeline
- 20. Dezember 1989Federal government proposes airport rail link in decision for right-bank high-speed line
- 26. April 1994Berlin/Bonn Act provides compensation for the Bonn region
- 2002Planned construction costs of the station: 58.3 million euros
- Juni 2004Opening of Cologne/Bonn Airport station
- Juni 2007Connecting building to check-in area B in Terminal 1 completed
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Sources & links
- Official website
- Official website (retrieved 2026-10-28)
- Wikidata (retrieved 2026-10-28)
- Wikipedia (retrieved 2026-10-28, rev 271216374)
Auto-generated, last verified: 2026-10-28
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