Rülzheim station

Rülzheim
Through station
Former Rülzheim station building
Location	Bahnhofstraße 6, Rülzheim, Rhineland-Palatinate Germany
Coordinates	49°09′34″N 8°17′16″E / 49.159469°N 8.287642°E / 49.159469; 8.287642Coordinates: 49°09′34″N 8°17′16″E / 49.159469°N 8.287642°E / 49.159469; 8.287642
Line(s)	Schifferstadt–Wörth (36.2 km (new halt))
Platforms	2
Construction
Architectural style	Neoclassical, Romanesque Revival
Other information
Station code	5429
DS100 code	RRZH
IBNR	8005217
Category	6
Website	www.bahnhof.de
History
Opened	25 June 1876 (old station) 12 December 2010 (new halt)
Closed	12 December 2010 (old station)

Rülzheim station is a station in the town of Rülzheim in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The original station was opened on 25 July 1876 with the commissioning of the Germersheim–Wörth section of Schifferstadt–Wörth railway. The address of the old entrance building, which is heritage listed, is Bahnhofstraße 6.

In the course of the integration of the Germersheim–Wörth section of the line into the network of the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn, it was replaced by a halt (Haltepunkt) called Rülzheim Bahnhof some 300 metres further north. Deutsche Bahn classifies the halt as a category 6 station and it has two platform tracks. It is located on the network of the Karlsruher Verkehrsverbund (Karlsruhe Transport Association, KVV) and belongs to fare zone 575. Since 2001, the station has also been part of the area where the fares of the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar (Rhine-Neckar Transport Association, VRN) are accepted at a transitional rate.

The former station was on the northern edge of the built-up area of Rülzheim. The local Bahnhofstraße (station street), runs parallel to and to the east of the tracks, which run in this section from northeast to southwest; it also forms part of the route of state road 493. To the west and north, agricultural land abuts the station. The railway itself comes from the north and passes through the municipality in an elongated S-curve, in the middle of which both the former station and the modern halt are located. The latter is about 300 metres further north-east directly next to state road 540 to Bellheim.

Originally the administration of the Circle of the Rhine (Rheinkreis), which was part of Bavaria, planned that its first railway line would be first in the north-south direction from Rheinschanze via Lauterbourg to Strasbourg, which would compete with the Mannheim–Basel railway proposed by Baden. However, instead it was decided to build the Palatine Ludwig Railway (Pfälzische Ludwigsbahn, Ludwigshafen–Bexbach), which was opened in the period from 1847 to 1849. In the meantime, discussions took place as to whether a line from Neustadt via Landau to Wissembourg or a line along the Rhine via Speyer, Germersheim and Wörth was more urgent and desirable. Since the military preferred a route on the edge of the Palatinate Forest (Pfälzerwald), this was built in the form of the Maximilian Railway between Neustadt and Wissembourg.