Germersheim station is a junction station in the town of Germersheim in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Deutsche Bahn classifies it as a category 5 station and it has four platform tracks. The station is located in the network of the Karlsruher Verkehrsverbund (Karlsruhe Transport Association, KVV) and belongs to fare zone 575. Since 1996, Germersheim has also been part of the area where the tickets of the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar (Rhine-Neckar Transport Association, VRN) are accepted at a transitional rate. The address of the station is Bahnhofstraße 13.
The station was opened on 14 March 1864 as the terminus of the first section of the branch line from Schifferstadt to Speyer. On 16 May 1872, it became the eastern terminus of a line from Landau. The line from Schifferstadt was extended to Wörth on 25 July 1876. On 15 May of the following year, the Bruhrain Railway from Bruchsal was extended from Rheinsheim across the Rhine to Germersheim. The line to Landau was gradually phased out in the 1980s. Since 2006 the station has been part of the Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn and since 2010 also part of the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn. The original entrance building is under heritage protection.
Location
The station is located on the northern outskirts of Germersheim. Part of the track layout is in the municipality of Lingenfeld. District road 31 runs to Lingenfeld to the west and parallel to the tracks and the street of Am Alten Bahnhof runs to the east.
Railway lines
The Schifferstadt–Wörth railway comes from the north-north-west. South of the station, it takes a large arc around the town. The Bruhrain Railway (Bruhrainbahn) follows it first to the south, then runs on a higher embankment and runs over an approximately semicircular course to cross the state border between Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate in the form of Rhine. The now disused route to Landau followed the route to Schifferstadt to the north and branched off to the west just before Lingenfeld station, passing through the built-up area of Lingenfeld municipality.
History
Railway initiatives around Germersheim and opening
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. The facilities required for a station for Germersheim was also the subject of the debate. 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.
Subsequently, a branch of this line was planned, which was primarily intended for the transport of coal to neighbouring Baden. In this context, the town of Germersheim advocated a railway line from Landau through its territory to Bruchsal. These efforts were in competition with the planned Winden–Karlsruhe railway. For this reason, Germersheim mobilised to prevent the latter project going ahead and even sent a deputation to the German Confederation in Frankfurt. The Palatinate administration turned down the Germersheim approach, so the line from Winden to Karlsruhe was built starting in 1862.
Instead, it was decided to extend the Schifferstadt–Speyer railway, which opened in 1847 with the Ludwig Railway, to Germersheim. This line was opened on 14 March 1864. The old entrance building was built at this time. Due to the fact that Germersheim was a fortified town, the station had to be built as a lightweight construction on trusses.