Wanne-Eickel Hauptbahnhof is a railway station in the former city of Wanne-Eickel, now part of Herne in western Germany.

Quick Facts General information, Location ...

Wanne-Eickel Hauptbahnhof
Through station
The station building
General information
Location	Heinz-Rühmann-Platz 1, Herne, North Rhine-Westphalia Germany
Coordinates	51°31′53″N 7°9′57″E
Owned by	Deutsche Bahn
Operated by	DB Netz DB Station&Service
Line(s)	Wanne-Eickel–Hamburg Dortmund–Duisburg Duisburg-Ruhrort–Dortmund Bochum–Gelsenkirchen
Platforms	8
Train operators	DB Regio NRW eurobahn NordWestBahn
Connections	Trams in Bochum/Gelsenkirchen: 306
Other information
Station code	6533[1]
DS100 code	EWAN[2][page needed]
IBNR	8000192
Category	3[1]
Fare zone	VRR: 272[3]
Website	www.bahnhof.de
History
Opened	1856 (freight yard) 1864 (passenger station)
Services
Preceding station DB Fernverkehr Following station Gelsenkirchen Hbf towards Klagenfurt Hbf IC 32 IC 2012/2013 only Recklinghausen Hbf towards Münster Hbf Gelsenkirchen Hbf towards Köln Hbf IC 35 Recklinghausen Hbf towards Norddeich Mole Preceding station DB Regio NRW Following station Gelsenkirchen Hbf towards Düsseldorf Hbf RE 2 Recklinghausen Hbf towards Osnabrück Hbf Gelsenkirchen Hbf towards Mönchengladbach Hbf RE 42 Recklinghausen Süd towards Münster Hbf Gelsenkirchen Hbf towards Duisburg Hbf RB 32 Herne towards Dortmund Hbf Gelsenkirchen-Zoo towards Dorsten RB 43 Preceding station Eurobahn Following station Gelsenkirchen Hbf towards Düsseldorf Hbf RE 3 Herne towards Hamm (Westf) Hbf Preceding station VIAS Following station Gelsenkirchen Hbf Terminus RB 46 Bochum-Riemke towards Bochum Hbf Preceding station Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn Following station Gelsenkirchen Hbf towards Essen Hbf S2 Herne towards Dortmund Hbf
Location
Wanne-Eickel Hauptbahnhof Location in North Rhine-Westphalia Show map of North Rhine-Westphalia Wanne-Eickel Hauptbahnhof Location in Germany Show map of Germany Wanne-Eickel Hauptbahnhof Location in Europe Show map of Europe

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The station grew out of the Pluto-Thies freight yard, opened in 1856 on the Duisburg–Dortmund line section of the Cologne-Minden Railway Company's trunk line, which was opened in 1847. In 1864, a halt was opened there for passengers. In 1867 a new freight yard was opened, which was initially called Pluto, but changed to Wanne (literally “basin”, a description of the landscape) in 1869, because the surrounding villages could not agree on a name for the yard. The station's name was reflected in 1875 when the villages of Eickel, Bicker, Crange, Holsterhausen and Röhlinghausen were merged under the name of Amt Wanne.^[4]

With the opening of the line to Münster on 1 January 1870, Wanne station became a railway junction. In 1913 the station building and the track work were rebuilt and extended.

After the formation of the city of Wanne-Eickel in 1926, the station was renamed Wanne-Eickel Hauptbahnhof. It became the largest marshalling yard in the central Ruhr area and the only station in the Ruhr that included all four forms of rail operations: in addition to its role as a marshalling yard, it was the home depot for over 300 locomotives along with associated rolling stock, a freight yard and a passenger station.

Wanne-Eickel Hauptbahnhof is a station of major traffic importance as a crossroads on the east-west Dortmund–Duisburg line and the north-south Münster–Essen line, which among other things, is the beginning of the Rollbahn (rolling railway) to Hamburg. In addition, the station is located on the Emscher Valley Railway (Dortmund–Wanne-Eickel–Dorsten) and the Bochum–Gelsenkirchen Railway (also known as the Glückauf-Bahn— a reference to Glück auf, the traditional German miners greeting). Part of the old marshalling yard still operates with shunting from west to east over a hump, but other freight operations are closed.

Following the merger of the cities of Herne and Wanne-Eickel in 1975 the name of the station remained as Wanne–Eickel Hauptbahnhof, although it is the largest station in the city of Herne on its current boundaries. In 2003, Deutsche Bahn planned to rename it Herne-Wanne or Herne Hauptbahnhof. However, these plans met with considerable resistance in the Wanne area, as well as from local politicians in Herne.