Köln Hauptbahnhof
Cologne's central railway station beside the cathedral — the fifth busiest in Germany, with around 280,000 travellers a day.
since 1859
Köln Hauptbahnhof is Cologne's central railway station, standing directly beside Cologne Cathedral. With around 280,000 travellers on an average day, it is the fifth busiest station in Germany.
At a Glance
- Type
- Central railway station of Cologne
- Location
- Beside Cologne Cathedral, on the west bank of the Rhine
- Daily traffic
- Around 280,000 travellers, the fifth busiest in Germany
- Original station
- Opened 5 December 1859 as the Centralbahnhof
- Platform hall
- Completed 1894, with a central roof spanning 64 metres
- Shopping level
- Around 70 shops and restaurants over 11,500 square metres
Age comparison
Age compared with other places in Cologne.
Trains and Connections
The station carries traffic over short and long distances, from local S-Bahn and regional trains to long-distance and cross-border lines, with night services calling as well. The Cologne–Frankfurt high-speed line, which begins in the south of the city, provides frequent connections to Frankfurt. Köln Messe/Deutz station lies about 400 metres away on the far bank of the Rhine, joined to the main station by the Hohenzollern Bridge. This railway crossing carries six tracks and has pedestrian and bicycle lanes on each side, with frequent local trains running between the two stations.
Origins
By 1850 several railway companies ran their own stations in Cologne. After debate over where to bridge the Rhine, the city agreed in 1857 to place the crossing next to the cathedral and made available land to the north, on the site of a former botanical garden and part of the old University of Cologne, which the French had suppressed in 1798. The first Centralbahnhof, designed by Hermann Otto Pflaume, opened alongside the Cathedral Bridge, combining terminating and through tracks.
Rebuilding
The station soon reached its limits. In 1883 the city council voted, by a single vote, to rebuild it on the same site. The tracks were raised by six metres, and a new entrance building by the Aachen architect Georg Frentzen followed, with its foundation stone laid in 1892. By 1894 a 255-metre tripartite platform hall stood over the tracks.
A Modern Station
After wartime damage, the present concourse with its shell-shaped roof, designed by the architects Schmitt and Schneider, was inaugurated on 23 September 1957. As the S-Bahn network grew, the station gained dedicated S-Bahn infrastructure: two further platforms (10 and 11) were added in 1975, and by 1991 separate S-Bahn tracks ran across the Hohenzollern Bridge as well. The surviving first and second class waiting rooms now house a restaurant and the Alter Wartesaal events venue, and a shopping arcade opened at the entry level in 2000.
Gallery
Map
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Address
Trankgasse 11
50667 Köln
Contact
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Sources & links
- Official website
- Official website (retrieved 2026-07-17)
- Wikidata (retrieved 2026-06-30)
- Wikipedia (retrieved 2026-06-30, rev 268179883)
Auto-generated, last verified: 2026-06-30
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