Erkelenz station

Erkelenz station on the Aachen–Mönchengladbach railway is in the town of Erkelenz in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has been classified by Deutsche Bahn since January 2011 as a category 4 station.^[1] The station is served by the Wupper-Express and the Rhein-Niers-Bahn.

Erkelenz
Station building, 2007
General information
Location	Konrad-Adenauer-Platz 1, Erkelenz, NRW Germany
Coordinates	51°4′36.2″N 6°19′16.8″E
Line	Aachen–Mönchengladbach
Platforms	2
Construction
Accessible	Yes
Other information
Station code	1643[1]
DS100 code	KERZ[2]
IBNR	8001839
Category	4[1]
Fare zone	AVV: 140[3] VRS: 3490 (AVV transitional tariff)[4]
Website	www.bahnhof.de
History
Opened	12 November 1852[5]
Services
Preceding station DB Fernverkehr Following station Geilenkirchen towards Aachen Hbf ICE 10 Rheydt Hbf One-way operation ICE 14 Rheydt Hbf towards Berlin Ostbahnhof Preceding station DB Regio NRW Following station Hückelhoven-Baal towards Aachen Hbf RB 33 Herrath towards Essen-Steele Preceding station National Express Germany Following station Hückelhoven-Baal towards Aachen Hbf RE 4 (Wupper-Express) Rheydt Hbf towards Dortmund Hbf
Location

It consists of a simple station building from the 1950s with two platforms. Close to the station there are a park and ride lot and transfer facilities to express, regional and city buses.

While freight has declined in importance at Erkelenz station with the relocation of heavy traffic from rail to road in the 1980s, passenger traffic has developed to such an extent that the station today is the most important stop between Aachen and Moenchengladbach, based on entry and exit numbers. From 1992 to 2001, Erkelenz station was an InterRegio stop on the route towards eastern Germany (Aachen–Chemnitz). With the conversion of the railway line to electronic interlocking operation in November 2007, the crossovers were taken out, so the station is now regarded operationally as a halt, and the new German Ks-Signal system of signalling was installed. The former third platform track was taken out of use during the remodelling so that trains can no longer overtake at the station. Later, the third track was completely dismantled.

Rail services

The following services stop at the station:^[6]

Line	Line name	Route
RE 4	Wupper-Express	Aachen – Herzogenrath – Geilenkirchen – Erkelenz – Mönchengladbach – Düsseldorf – Wuppertal – Hagen – Dortmund
RB 33	Rhein-Niers-Bahn	Aachen Hbf – Herzogenrath – Übach-Palenberg – Geilenkirchen – Hückelhoven-Baal – Erkelenz – Rheydt – Mönchengladbach Hbf – Viersen – Krefeld – Rheinhausen – Duisburg – Mülheim – Essen

• 
  Entrance building and bus station
• 
  Platforms
• 
  Ticket office
• 
  Station hall