Lüdenscheid station

Brügge (Westf)
Terminus
Former station building (demolished in 2009)
Location	Lüdenscheid, North Rhine-Westphalia Germany
Coordinates	51°13′14″N 7°37′44″E / 51.22054°N 7.6289°E / 51.22054; 7.6289Coordinates: 51°13′14″N 7°37′44″E / 51.22054°N 7.6289°E / 51.22054; 7.6289
Line(s)	Brügge–Lüdenscheid (KBS 434)
Platforms	1
Other information
Station code	3828
DS100 code	ELS
Category	6
Website	www.bahnhof.de
History
Opened	6 September 1874

Lüdenscheid station is the terminus of a single-track branch line from Brügge to Lüdenscheid in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It branches in Brügge from the Hagen–Dieringhausen railway. It is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 6 station.

The station is on the edge of the centre of the district town of Lüdenscheid. The only platform extends up to Bahnhofstrasse (station street) and is at ground level. Central Lüdenscheid is easily accessible within a few minutes. Around the station the Lüdenscheid suburb of Grünewald also extends to the north and west and Knapp extends to the south.

The railway line between Brügge (Westfalen) station and Lüdenscheid station opened in 1880 by the Prussian state railways. Five years later, the metre-gauge Altena District Railway (Kreis Altenaer Eisenbahn, KAE) was opened, which had its station near the state station. Even today, there is a narrow road in Lüdenscheid that follows the route of the Altena District Railway from the current Altenaer Straße to the Lüdenscheid station of the KAE. Lüdenscheid had 20,000 inhabitants in 1894 and, according to archive reports, it was the most industrialised city in Germany in 1895. Thus, traffic at Lüdenscheid station had been increasing rapidly and has been further enhanced by freight traffic fed by the KAE.

In 1963, a concept of the urban management of Lüdenscheid was presented in which the current Sauerfelder Straße would be rebuilt on 2 levels and the Brügge–Lüdenscheid railway would be placed underground running from Lüdenscheid station at a grade of only one percent. The railway line would then have terminated at a second underground station in the central transport hub of Sauerfeld in central Lüdenscheid. In addition, 500 parking spaces would have been built below the square in front of the current town hall. At the time this project was considered to be a utopian idea, but it was rejected.

The formerly important station building of Lüdenscheid station, which had been built in 1960, was demolished in 2009. Located in this building there was a ticket office, a restaurant and a waiting room. In place of the old station building a four-storey building has been built with a driving school, a newsagent, a taxi company, a bakery and toilets. This will offer rail passengers an attractive waiting room. On 27 July 2012, a report appeared in the Lüdenscheider Nachrichten that a new building will be completed in 2013 with a DB service centre, waiting room and toilets for passengers. In addition, there will be apartments for students at the local university and commercial space such as for medical services.