Erkrath station is a through station in the town of Erkrath in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has two platform tracks and it is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 5 station.[1]

Erkrath station
Through station
Beginning of the climb to Hochdahl
General information
Location	Morper Allee 1, Erkrath, North Rhine-Westphalia Germany
Coordinates	51°13′13″N 6°54′11″E
Line(s)	Düsseldorf–Elberfeld (KBS 450.8)
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	1646[1]
DS100 code	KER[2]
IBNR	8001841
Category	5[1]
Fare zone	VRR: 640[3] VRS: 1640 (VRR transitional tariff)[4]
Website	www.bahnhof.de
History
Opened	20 December 1838 [5]
Services
Preceding station Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn Following station Düsseldorf-Gerresheim towards Mönchengladbach Hbf S8 Hochdahl towards Hagen Hbf Düsseldorf-Gerresheim towards Langenfeld S68 Hochdahl towards Wuppertal-Vohwinkel
Location
Erkrath station Location within North Rhine-Westphalia

History

The station was opened along with the Düsseldorf–Elberfeld railway from Düsseldorf to Erkrath by the Düsseldorf-Elberfeld Railway Company on 20 December 1838.[6] The line between Erkrath and Hochdahl has a gradient of 3.33% and rises 82 m in about 2.5 km. For more than one hundred years, this was the steepest main line in Europe. For many years trains had to be hauled by cable, originally driven by a stationary steam engine. A few months later haulage by cable attached to a stationary steam engine was changed to haulage by cable attached via pulleys to a locomotive running downhill on an additional track. With the duplication of the remainder of the line in 1865, the steep section of line became three-track, until the electrification of the line in 1963. The third track was rebuilt in 1985, as part of the additional third track built for the planned S-Bahn line. In 1926, cable haulage on the incline was replaced by bank engines.

Services

The station is served by the Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn lines S 8 between Mönchengladbach and Wuppertal-Oberbarmen or Hagen every 20 minutes and several S 68 services between Wuppertal-Vohwinkel and Langenfeld in the peak hour.[7]

It is also served by four bus routes operated by Rheinbahn: O5 (every 20–60 minutes), O6 (20), 734 (60) and 743 (60).

References