Dorsten station

Dorsten
Through station
Entrance building in 2010
Location	Vestische Allee 14, Dorsten, North Rhine-Westphalia Germany
Coordinates	51°39′31″N 6°58′13″E / 51.65861°N 6.97028°E / 51.65861; 6.97028Coordinates: 51°39′31″N 6°58′13″E / 51.65861°N 6.97028°E / 51.65861; 6.97028
Line(s)	Duisburg–Quakenbrück (23.2 km) Bismarck–Winterswijk (18.9 km)
Platforms	4
Other information
Station code	1284
DS100 code	EDRN
IBNR	8006709
Category	4
Website	www.bahnhof.de
History
Opened	1 July 1879
Traffic
Passengers	< 5000 (2006)
Services
Preceding station   NordWestBahn   Following station Hervest-Dorsten toward Borken RE 14 Der Borkener Bottrop-Feldhausen toward Essen Hbf Terminus RB 43 Emschertal-Bahn Bottrop-Feldhausen toward Dortmund Hbf Terminus RB 44 Der Dorstener Bottrop-Feldhausen toward Oberhausen Hbf Hervest-Dorsten toward Coesfeld (Westf) RB 45 Der Coesfelder Terminus

Dorsten station is the central station in the town of Dorsten in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located east of the town centre and the line is orientated north-south.

The station was built in 1879 as a joint station of the Rhenish Railway and the Dutch Westphalian Railway. The Gelsenkirchen-Bismarck–Winterswijk railway of the Dutch Westphalian Railway was built to supply the textile industry of the Achterhoek region around Winterswijk with coal, but it was also used extensively in the opposite direction to bring food into the growing Ruhr district. The station building, built on an island between the tracks of the Duisburg–Quakenbrück railway (opened on 1 July 1879) on the west and the Gelsenkirchen-Bismarck–Winterswijk line (opened on 13 June 1880) on the eastern side, is now largely in its original condition.

Until the nationalisation of both railways in 1882, transfers between the two lines were carried out via a bay platform south of the building. Later a connection protected by signals and four marshalling tracks between the through tracks to the east and the west was built, along with a turntable with a diameter of 13 metres and a three-road roundhouse. The tracks for handling freight were extended considerably to the south and a new hump was built in 1912.

During the Ruhr Uprising in 1920, the bridges over the Lippe were attacked with explosives and made impassable and Dorsten was for several weeks the end of the line from the Ruhr. Similarly, Hervest station was the end of the line from the north. In 1923, Belgian troops occupied Dorsten station during the Occupation of the Ruhr and used it as a customs station on the border with Münsterland, which was not occupied.

In the 1930s, 26 pairs of passenger trains and about 40 freight trains ran through Dorsten each day.