Frankfurt East station

Frankfurt (Main) East station Frankfurt Ostbahnhof or Bahnhof Frankfurt (Main) Ost U
Through station
East Station entrance building
Location	Danziger Platz 6, Frankfurt, Hesse Germany
Coordinates	50°06′46″N 8°42′29″E / 50.11278°N 8.70806°E / 50.11278; 8.70806Coordinates: 50°06′46″N 8°42′29″E / 50.11278°N 8.70806°E / 50.11278; 8.70806
Line(s)	Frankfurt–Hanau (KBS 640)
Platforms	3 main line 2 U-Bahn
Construction
Architect	Karl Radlbeck
Other information
Station code	1852
DS100 code	FFO
IBNR	8002039
Category	5
Website	www.bahnhof.de
History
Opened	10 March 1913

Frankfurt (Main) East station (German: Bahnhof Frankfurt (Main) Ost or Frankfurt Ostbahnhof) serves regional rail services in the Ostend district of Frankfurt, Germany. Its container terminal is one of the two remaining freight yards in the city (the other is Industriepark Höchst), after the much larger Frankfurt central freight yard (Hauptgüterbahnhof) was closed. The freight yard of Frankfurt's eastern river port also lies to the east.

Until the opening of the East station, trains coming from Hanau finished their journeys at a terminal station between the streets of Röderbergweg, Zobelstraße and Hanauer Landstraße, south of the zoo. It was opened on 10 September 1848 by the Frankfurt-Hanau Railway as Hanau Station (Hanauer Bahnhof). The line and station were taken over by the Hessian Ludwig Railway in 1872, which was taken over by Prussian state railways in 1897.

Today's East station was officially opened by the Prussian state railways on 10 March 1913. Freight operations, however, began only on 1 April and passenger services in May 1913. The original station building of 1914 with its huge hall was burnt in World War II and 60% destroyed. A temporary station was opened to serve its 10,000 daily commuters and freight trains.

In 1961, a sober purpose-built station in the style of the 1960s was built using the corridors and basements of the old buildings. Its design by Karl Radlbeck ignored the grand design of the previous station and replaced it with a rectangular building, with a large boxy roof adorned only with an illuminated DB sign and a clock (both of which are no longer attached to the building). This building has now become dilapidated.

On 29 May 1999, the station on U-Bahn line U6 was opened. This is a short branch from Zoo station off the Ostend branch of U-Bahn line C, which is operated as line U7. The underground station is in partly under Danziger Platz and partly under the main line station, south of the station building. The axis of the U-Bahn station crosses the main line station; a long-planned extension would pass under the Frankfurt-Hanau line and run east of it along Hanauer Landstraße. Originally the station platform was only 75 metres long, instead of the normal 105 metres in the Frankfurt U-Bahn, allowing the operation of trains with a maximum of three carriages. In 2001 construction began for the extension of the platforms to 105 metres, which was completed on 26 April 2007, allowing the unrestricted use of four-car trains. At the same time a new pedestrian link was built and a new Ostbahnhof/Honsellstrasse station was opened for trams and buses.