Hamburg Central Station

Hamburg Hauptbahnhof
Hbf
Aerial view of Hamburg Hauptbahnhof
Location	Hachmannplatz 16, 20099 Hamburg Hamburg-Mitte, Hamburg Germany
Coordinates	53°33′10″N 10°00′23″E / 53.55278°N 10.00639°E / 53.55278; 10.00639Coordinates: 53°33′10″N 10°00′23″E / 53.55278°N 10.00639°E / 53.55278; 10.00639
Line(s)	Berlin–Hamburg Railway Hanover–Hamburg railway Wanne-Eickel–Hamburg railway Lower Elbe Railway Lübeck–Hamburg railway Hamburg-Altona link line
Platforms	8 main line 4 S-Bahn 8 U-Bahn (6 in usage)
Other information
Station code	2514
DS100 code	AH
Category	1
Website	www.bahnhof.de
History
Opened	1906
Electrified	1907 (S-Bahn only) 1965 (long distance connections)
Traffic
Passengers	480,000 daily
Location
Hamburg Hauptbahnhof Location within Hamburg Show map of Hamburg Hamburg Hauptbahnhof Location within Hamburg Show map of Germany

Hauptbahnhof Süd
Location	Hamburg, Germany
Operated by	Hamburger Hochbahn AG
Line(s)	U1 U3
Platforms	2 island platforms
Tracks	2
Construction
Disabled access	Yes
History
Opened	1912

Hauptbahnhof Nord
Location	Hamburg, Germany
Operated by	Hamburger Hochbahn AG
Line(s)	U2 U4
Platforms	2 island platforms
Tracks	2
Construction
Disabled access	Yes
History
Opened	1968

Hamburg Hauptbahnhof (abbrev. Hamburg Hbf or Hambg Hbf) is the main railway station for the German city of Hamburg and is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 1 railway station. It was opened in 1906 to replace 4 terminal stations. Hamburg Hauptbahnhof is operated by DB Station&Service AG. With an average of 480,000 passengers a day, the railway station is the busiest in Germany and after the Gare du Nord in Paris, the second busiest in Europe.

The station is a through station with island platforms and is a major transportation hub, connecting long distance trains, like some Intercity-Express lines, to the underground rail network of the Hamburg U-Bahn and S-Bahn. It is situated in the city centre, in the Hamburg-Mitte borough. A part of the building is a shopping centre.

Before today's central station was opened, Hamburg had several smaller stations located around the city centre. The first railway line (between Hamburg and Bergedorf) was opened on 5 May 1842, coincidentally the same day that the "great fire" (der große Brand) ruined most of the historic city centre. The stations were as follows (each of them only a few hundred metres away from the others):

Temporary railway lines connecting the stations were built partly on squares and streets. When it was decided to build a common station for all lines, a competition was arranged in 1900. Built between 1902-1906, the Hamburg Hauptbahnhof was designed by the architects Heinrich Reinhardt and Georg Süßenguth, modeled after the Galerie des machines of the World's Fair of 1889 in Paris, by Louis Béroud. The German emperor William II declared the first draft to be "simply horrible", but the second draft was eventually constructed. The emperor personally changed the Art Nouveau style elements to Neo-Renaissance, giving the station a fortification-like character. The station was opened for visitors on 4 December 1906, the first train arrived the next day, and scheduled trains started on 6 December 1906.