Kusel station

Kusel
Terminus (since 1970), through station (1936–1970), terminus (1868–1936)
Kusel station including staff in 1902
Location	Bahnhofstr. 65, Kusel, Rhineland-Palatinate Germany
Coordinates	49°32′18″N 7°24′37″E / 49.5382°N 7.4102°E / 49.5382; 7.4102Coordinates: 49°32′18″N 7°24′37″E / 49.5382°N 7.4102°E / 49.5382; 7.4102
Line(s)	Landstuhl–Kusel (4.5) Türkismühle–Kusel (32.6 km) (closed)
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	3476
DS100 code	SKUS
IBNR	8003481
Category	6
Website	www.bahnhof.de
History
Opened	22 September 1868

Kusel station is the station of the town of Kusel in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It was opened on 22 September 1868 as the terminus of the Landstuhl–Kusel railway. It is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 6 station. The station is located in the network area of the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar (Rhine-Neckar Transport Association, VRN) and it is in fare zone 770. The address of the station is Bahnhofstraße 65.

With the completion of the Türkismühle–Kusel railway in November 1936, it became a through station. After the local through traffic had disappeared in the 1950s, the section between Kusel and Schwarzerden was shut down in 1970 and subsequently dismantled, making Kusel station a terminus again.

The station is located on the eastern approach to the city. In the immediate vicinity there is a department store and the silo of a rural credit union (Raiffeisen). It has a public telephone, a parking area, a bus stop and a barrier-free entrance.

The Kusel–Landstuhl railway comes from the east and follows the Kuselbach (brook) from Altenglan. From the Rammelsbach station it rises at a gradient of 1:133. From 1936 to 1970, it continued directly on to the link to Türkismühle, but through passenger services ended in 1951. The former line crossed the Kuselbach (brook) immediately after leaving the station and proceeded along its left (north) bank.

The first attempts to have a railway built through the western North Palatine Uplands towards Kusel go back to 1856. During the construction of the Rhine-Nahe Railway (Rhein-Nahe Eisenbahn), a route was proposed by the Bavarian Palatinate, which would have run from near Boos on the Nahe along the Glan via Lauterecken and Altenglan, then along the Kuselbach via the small town of Kusel to Sankt Wendel or along the Oster to Neunkirchen. The argument for this option was based on the fact that it would have been shorter and cheaper than a line along the Nahe. For tactical reasons, Prussia initially pretended to be receptive to these plans, as at the same the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg blocked the route proposed through its exclave of Birkenfeld. Oldenburg finally gave in and accepted the line as originally proposed by Prussia. Moreover, the latter benefitted as a line along the Nahe would run mainly within its own territory.