Cologne/Bonn Airport station

Cologne/Bonn Airport Köln/Bonn Flughafen
Through station
General information
Location	Waldstraße 247 51147 Köln[1] Porz, North Rhine-Westphalia Germany
Coordinates	50°52′44″N 7°7′10″E
Owned by	Deutsche Bahn
Operated by	DB Netz DB Station&Service
Line(s)	Cologne Airport loop
Platforms	2 island platforms
Tracks	4
Construction
Structure type	underground
Other information
Station code	4762
DS100 code	KFKB[2]
Category	3[3]
Fare zone	VRS: 2100[4]
Website	www.bahnhof.de
History
Opened	12 June 2004
Services
Preceding station DB Fernverkehr Following station Köln Messe/Deutz towards Berlin Gesundbrunnen ICE 10 select trains only Terminus Köln Hbf Terminus ICE 45 Montabaur towards Stuttgart Hbf or Frankfurt (Main) Hbf Preceding station DB Regio NRW Following station Köln Messe/Deutz towards Mönchengladbach Hbf RB 27 Troisdorf towards Koblenz Hbf Preceding station National Express Germany Following station Köln Messe/Deutz towards Minden (Westfalen) RE 6 (Rhein-Weser-Express) Terminus Preceding station Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn Following station Köln-Frankfurter Straße towards Düren S13 Porz-Wahn towards Troisdorf S19 Porz-Wahn towards Au (Sieg)
Location Cologne/Bonn Airport Location within North Rhine-Westphalia

Cologne/Bonn Airport S-Bahn service
Köln Hansaring Köln Hbf Hohenzollern Bridge Köln Messe/Deutz Köln Trimbornstraße Köln Frankfurter Straße Köln Airport-Businesspark Köln Steinstraße Cologne/Bonn Airport Porz (Rhein) Porz-Wahn Spich Troisdorf Siegburg/Bonn

Terminal 2 with glass roof of the station hall

ICE 2 in station

Track plan of the airport loop with its connections to the high-speed line

Cologne/Bonn Airport station (German: Bahnhof Köln/Bonn Flughafen) is a station at Cologne Bonn Airport in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It was built as part of the Cologne–Frankfurt high-speed rail line and opened in June 2004 on the approximately 15-kilometre-long (9.3 mi) Cologne Airport loop line. It is served by Intercity-Express (ICE), Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn and regional services.^[5]

The Cologne Bonn airport was the third German airport to have a connection to the ICE network after Frankfurt Airport and Düsseldorf Airport.

The approximately 420 m (1,380 ft)-long and 40 m (130 ft)-wide underground station is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 3 station.^[3] The four platform tracks are located 18 m (59 ft) below the surface.^[6]

In 2002, the projected construction cost of the station stood at €58.3 million.^[7] It was funded by the federal government, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Cologne Bonn Airport. In total, the federal government contributed approximately €255 million to the construction costs of the airport loop and station.^[8]

Infrastructure

The station has two island platforms, each bordered by two tracks, between concrete walls under an arched glass roof. A large glass-walled staircase in the middle of the platforms is provided for transfer passengers to change platforms and leads to one of the emergency exits. Escalators and lifts from the platform lead to the basement of terminal 2. The difference in height between rail and platform edge on the outer tracks is 76 cm (30 in). The central tracks are laid a little lower, so that their platforms are 96 cm (38 in) high above the rail. The high S-Bahn sets stop at the low platforms, which cannot be avoided for operational reasons.

The two island platforms are 405 m (1,329 ft) long^[9] and 9.4 m (31 ft) wide.^[7]

Crossovers at the north end of the station allow trains to change tracks between the two main platform tracks, allowing ICE services from the north to terminate and reverse, but there are no crossovers at the south end.

The station, which is located in the area between the two airport terminals, is spanned over a length of 156 m (512 ft) with a 36 m (118 ft)-wide steel and glass roof.^[6][10] The 540 tonne roof covers an area of 6,100 square metres (66,000 sq ft).^[11]

In June 2007, a two-story connecting building was built at the southern end of the station as a check-in area for Terminal 1 B; this has a steel and glass facade with an area of 1,400 m² (15,000 sq ft). There was previously only a temporary exit next to the access road. Two escalators and a lift were built as part of the construction.^[12]

The platforms have alternating signs: Köln/Bonn Flughafen and Köln/Bonn Airport.

History

The link to the airport was proposed as part the Federal Cabinet's decision on 20 December 1989 to build the new high-speed line on the eastern side of the Rhine.^[13]

It also benefitted from the Berlin-Bonn Act of 26 April 1994, which compensated the Bonn region for the relocation of the parliament and parts of the federal government to Berlin. The operator of the airport hoped that the construction of the station, which would strengthen connection between transport modes, would stimulate growth, including of the number of passengers using the airport. Originally, the station, as set out in the design competition, was to be built in a covered tunnel, but instead it was built with a large glass roof. Nevertheless, it is an underground station and is also referred to as such by Deutsche Bahn. So smoking is banned as in other underground stations in Germany.

Planning

The building was designed by the architectural firm Murphy/Jahn, which had already designed terminal 2.

With the opening of the Cologne-Frankfurt high-speed railway, two ICE and three S-Bahn trains could run each hour in each direction through the station.^[14] According to the estimates of 1995, about 30 percent of passengers would in future travel to the airport by train.^[15]

Construction

The station was constructed in three sections. In the middle section the construction workers encountered during excavation lignite and gravel that could be used directly as a building material, saving construction costs.^[16]

After the two ends of the station were created during the reconstruction of the airport in the autumn of 2001, the station building was intended to be an aesthetically-sophisticated centre piece.^[17] On 29 January 2002, Norbert Rüther, Ernst Schwanhold, Hartmut Mehdorn and Angelika Mertens performed its groundbreaking ceremony.^[6][18] It was opened on 12 June 2004 in the presence of German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.

A connecting structure between the station and Terminal 1 was built from May 2006 to June 2007. Deutsche Bahn owns this building, which cost €6 million. It was also designed by the Murphy/Jahn architecture firm.

The construction of the station was the final component of a comprehensive concept for the airport, Terminal 2000, costing more than €500 million. The catchment area of the airport was increased with the new station to more than 20 million people.^[16]

Operations

The number of daily ICE trains was reduced from eight to six pairs of trains in 2007 as a result of low demand.^[19]

S-Bahn connections

The construction of the airport loop was, for the most part, financed by funds under the Berlin–Bonn Act, especially to improve connections from the Bonn/Rhine-Sieg region to the airport. Currently only Cologne and—Troisdorf in the Rhein-Sieg district—have direct connections to the airport via lines S13 and S19 of the S-Bahn, providing a service every 20 minutes on week days. There is an hourly service to the airport station via Regional-Express line RE 6 (the Rhein-Weser-Express) to Minden and the Regionalbahn RB 27 (the Rhein-Erft-Bahn) along the East Rhine Railway (Cologne–Troisdorf–Bonn-Beuel). Frequent connections are not possible, since the line carries dense freight traffic. A new track (in parts two) are planned to be built along the line from Troisdorf to Bonn-Oberkassel so that services on line S 13 can be extended from Horrem via Cologne Hauptbahnhof, the airport and Troisdorf to Oberkassel. It is planned that another service would run via Bad Honnef to Linz am Rhein.^[20] No decision has yet been taken to extend line S 13.

Rail services

The following rail services stop at Cologne/Bonn Airport station:

Line	Route	Frequency
ICE 10	Berlin Gesundbrunnen – Berlin Hbf – Hannover Hbf – Bielefeld Hbf – Hamm (Westf) – Dortmund Hbf – Duisburg Hbf – Düsseldorf Hbf (– Köln Messe/Deutz – Cologne/Bonn Airport)	Individual services
ICE 41	(Dortmund Hbf –) Essen Hbf – Duisburg Hbf – Düsseldorf Hbf – Köln Messe/Deutz (– Cologne/Bonn Airport) – Frankfurt Airport – Frankfurt (Main) Hbf – Würzburg Hbf – Nuremberg Hbf – Munich Hbf	Individual services
ICE 45	Cologne Hbf – Cologne/Bonn Airport – Montabaur – Limburg Süd – Wiesbaden Hbf – Mainz – Darmstadt – Mannheim – Heidelberg – Stuttgart	Individual services
ICE 49	(Dortmund – Hagen – Wuppertal – Solingen –) Cologne Hbf – Cologne/Bonn Airport – Siegburg/Bonn – Montabaur – Limburg Süd – Frankfurt Airport – Frankfurt (Main) Hbf	Individual services
RE 6	Minden – Herford – Bielefeld – Hamm – Dortmund – Essen – Duisburg – Düsseldorf Airport – Düsseldorf Hbf – Neuss – Cologne  Hbf – Cologne/Bonn Airport	Hourly
RB 27	Mönchengladbach Hbf – Cologne Hbf – Köln Messe/Deutz – Cologne/Bonn Airport – Troisdorf – Bonn-Beuel – Königswinter – Neuwied – Koblenz-Ehrenbreitstein – Koblenz Hbf	Hourly
S13/S19	Düren – Horrem – Cologne  Hbf – Köln Messe/Deutz – Cologne/Bonn Airport – Troisdorf – (Hennef – Herchen – Au (Sieg))	Every 20 minutes

See also

• Rail transport in Germany
• Railway stations in Germany

References

1. "Köln/Bonn Flughafen". Deutsche Bahn. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
2. Eisenbahnatlas Deutschland (German railway atlas) (2009/2010 ed.). Schweers + Wall. 2009. ISBN 978-3-89494-139-0.
3. "Stationspreisliste 2025" [Station price list 2025] (PDF) (in German). DB Station&Service. 28 November 2024. Retrieved 5 December 2024.
4. "VRS-Gemeinschaftstarif" (PDF) (in German). Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Sieg. 20 April 2020. p. 202. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 June 2020. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
5. "Flughafen Köln/Bonn: Künftig ICE- und S-Bahn-Anschluß". Eisenbahntechnische Rundschau (in German). 48 (12): 859. 1999.
6. "Das Projekt Neubaustrecke Köln–Rhein/Main". Eisenbahn JOURNAL: Tempo 300 – Die Neubaustrecke Köln–Frankfurt (special edition 3) (in German). Eisenbahn Journal. 2002. pp. 34–63. ISBN 3-89610-095-5.
7. DBBauProjekt GmbH, ed. (February 2002). "Baubeginn ICE-Bahnhof Flughafen Köln/Bonn". Zum Thema (in German) (1). Darmstadt: Hestra: 8.
8. "Reply by the Federal Government to minor question by deputies Winfried Hermann, Dr. Anton Hofreiter, Peter Hettlich, and other members of the BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN party – printed matter 16/7104" (PDF; 69 kB) (in German). Deutscher Bundestag. 29 November 2007. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
9. "Platform information" (in German). Deutsche Bahn. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
10. "Flughafen-Bahnhof ist eröffnet" (Press release) (in German). Cologne Bonn Airport. 12 June 2004.
11. "Inbetriebnahme der Flughafenschleife Köln/Bonn". Eisenbahn-Revue International Deutschland-Ausgabe (in German) (7). Eisenbahn-Revue International: 330 f. 2004. ISSN 1421-2811.
12. "Zweite Verbindung zwischen Bahnhof und Terminal wird gebaut" (Press release) (in German). Cologne Bonn Airport. 5 May 2006.
13. "Das Planungsstadium". Eisenbahn JOURNAL: Tempo 300 – Die Neubaustrecke Köln–Frankfurt (special edition 3) (in German). Eisenbahn Journal. 2002. pp. 12–17. ISBN 3-89610-095-5.
14. Bahnhöfe der Zukunft an den neuen Hochgeschwindigkeitsstrecken (in German). Cologne: Stadtplanungsamt der Stadt Köln. c. 1998. p. 23.
15. DBBauProjekt GmbH, ed. (December 1995). "Vom Reißbrett zur Realität". Zum Thema (in German) (1 (special)). Darmstadt: Hestra: 10–13.
16. Die neue StartBahn (in German). Cologne: DB ProjektBau. 2004. (brochure, 16 A4 pages, with status of 1 June 2004)
17. Klaus Dickhut (2001). "Schienenanbindung des Flughafens Köln/Bonn". Eisenbahntechnische Rundschau (in German). 50 (10): 594–601.
18. "Spatenstich für den neuen ICE-Flughafen-Bahnhof". Eisenbahntechnische Rundschau (in German). 51 (3): 99. 2002.
19. "Elektrischer Betrieb bei der Deutschen Bahn im Jahre 2007". Elektrische Bahnen (in German). 106 (1–2): 16. 2008.
20. Rolf Kleinfeld (4 April 2012). "Bahnsteige für Vilich : Stadtbahnhaltestelle wird behindertengerecht umgebaut". General-Anzeiger (in German). Retrieved 27 June 2013.