Bahnhof Köln Süd

The Bonn-Cölner Eisenbahn, opened in 1844, initially ended at Cöln-Pantaleon station, which was then on the edge of the city. With the Centralbahnhof came a new route in 1859, which ran around the city along the inner side of the Inner Fortification Belt. When the Centralbahnhof was rebuilt from 1889, the approach lines were also raised by several meters. Because Cologne's growth had by then put the tracks in the middle of the city, the stations Köln Süd and Köln West were built at the same time. From 1898 to 1986, Köln Süd gave access to the directly adjacent Köln Barbarossaplatz station, at times a four-track terminus of the Vorgebirgsbahn. It has since been largely built over; the Barbarossaplatz stop on light rail line 18 lies farther north.

Commuters from the south use the station, as do those heading out toward Bonn or the Eifel; thanks to the adjacent nightlife district around Zülpicher Straße, it is busy almost all day. Tracks 1 and 4 serve traffic to and from Köln Hbf and Bonn, while tracks 2 and 3 serve mainly as passing tracks for regional services and for non-passenger runs. With the timetable change in December 2015, additional peak-hour RB 48 trains toward Wuppertal-Oberbarmen began using track 3, where they are overtaken as scheduled. Platform 3/4, used mainly by arriving passengers, has only three shelters, while platform 1/2 is roughly one-third covered. Train destination displays are found at tracks 1 and 4, ticket machines on both platforms, and platform 1/2 also has a vending machine for cold drinks and sweets.