Homburg (Saar) Hauptbahnhof

Homburg (Saar) Hauptbahnhof
Through station
File:Homburg Hbf Panorama.jpg Panorama of station building and track
Location	Homburg (Saar), Saarland Germany
Coordinates
Line(s)	Palatine Ludwig Railway (KBS 670) Homburg–Neunkirchen (KBS 683) Glan Valley Railway, closed Blies Valley Railway, closed
Platforms	7
Other information
Station code	2892
DS100 code	SHO
Category	3
Website	www.bahnhof.de
Traffic
Passengers	6,500 per day

Homburg (Saar) Hauptbahnhof is a railway station in the town of Homburg in the German state of Saarland. It is a through station with four platforms and seven platform tracks and is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a station of category 3. It is located at the junction of the Homburg–Neunkirchen line and the Mannheim–Saarbrücken line (Palatine Ludwig Railway). It has been the western terminus of line S1 of the Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn since 2006.

Location

The station divides the town into two halves, separating Homburg-Mitte and Homburg-Erbach. It is about 700 metres away from the town centre. In front of the station area is the ZOB bus station, from which both regional and local buses operate.

History

On 1 July 1848, the line between Kaiserslautern and Homburg was opened. Nine years later, on 7 May 1857, the Blies Valley Railway was opened to Zweibrücken. The Homburg–Rohrbach line, now part of the mainline between Mannheim and Saarbrücken, opened to traffic on 1 January 1904. The electrification of the railway station to Homburg was inaugurated on 8 March 1960. 31 years later, on 6 March 1991, the first EuroCity service, the EC 56: Goethe, stopped in Homburg. A few days later, on 22 March 1991, the first InterCity (IC), the IC 26 stopped here. In the summer and autumn of 1991 the tracks were adapted for the operation of Intercity-Express trains, so that in January 1992, the first ICE (Type 1) ran to Homburg. In the following years, the station and the environment was modernised, including by the installation of electronic noticeboards for outgoing train and bus connections, lifts on all tracks and electronic noticeboards on platforms. Covered bicycle parking was also provided. Various platforms have been upgraded, including platform 1 as the normal platform for Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn services. In 2008, the modernisation of platforms 7 and 8 was completed.

Services

File:Bahnhofshalle homburg.jpg

Homburg station hall

Long distance

Several services each day, classified as InterCity (IC), EuroCity (EC) or Intercity-Express (ICE) services, connect Homburg directly with Frankfurt am Main, Kassel, Dresden, Stuttgart, Munich, Salzburg and Graz. The ICE services on the Frankfurt–Paris route have not stopped here since December 2007.

Line	Route	Frequency
ICE 50	Saarbrücken – Homburg (Saar) – Kaiserslautern – Mannheim – Frankfurt (Main) – Erfurt – Leipzig – Dresden	One pair a day
IC/EC 62	Saarbrücken – Homburg (Saar) – Kaiserslautern – Mannheim – Stuttgart – Ulm – Augsburg – München – Salzburg	Occasional services
IC 50	Saarbrücken – Homburg (Saar) – Kaiserslautern – Mannheim – Darmstadt – Frankfurt (Main)	Occasional services

Rapid transit and regional transportation

Line	Route	Frequency
RE 7	Trier – Saarlouis – Saarbrücken – Homburg (Saar) – Kaiserslautern – Ludwigshafen (Rhein) – Mannheim	Occasional services
RE 60	Saarbrücken – St. Ingbert – Homburg (Saar) – Kaiserslautern	Hourly
RB 71	Homburg (Saar) – St. Ingbert – Saarbrücken – Saarlouis – Merzig – Saarburg – Trier	Hourly
RB 74	Illingen (Saar) – Neunkirchen – Homburg (Saar)	Half-hourly
RB 76	Saarbrücken – Wemmetsweiler – Neunkirchen (Saar) – Homburg (Saar)	Occasional services
S 1	Homburg (Saar) – Kaiserslautern – Neustadt (Weinstraße) – Ludwigshafen (Rhein) – Mannheim – Heidelberg – Eberbach – Mosbach (Baden) – (Osterburken)	Hourly

Freight

Besides passenger services, eight tracks are allocated for freight operations. Two of the town’s three industrial areas are connected by sidings. There is also a siding on the line to Bexbach connecting to the site of the former army depot in Homburg.

Facilities

The Deutsche Bahn travel centre is open daily. The station buildings have ticket machines, public telephones, lockers, toilets (including for the disabled), a bistro-cafe, a station bookshop, a restaurant, a photo booth and a shop.