Status: 05.07.2021 9:05 p.m.
Deutsche Bahn started construction of the new Altona long-distance train station on Monday. The 550 million euro project on Diebsteich is intended to clear the Altona tracks for residential construction, but is controversial.
Seven years ago it was still considered a model project for station optimization and urban development. In the area of the old train station alone, 138,000 square meters will be free – that’s the size of almost 20 soccer fields. 1,900 new apartments and a park are to be built there.
Bahn promises: More trains, more punctuality
At the groundbreaking ceremony: Mayor Peter Tschentscher, Rail Board Member Ronald Pofalla and the Parliamentary State Secretary in the Ministry of Transport, Enak Ferlemann.
The previous Diebsteich S-Bahn station will become a through station through the construction of six long-distance and two S-Bahn tracks. When it is finished, 380 more trains should be able to stop there thanks to additional points and signals. With the plan, Deutsche Bahn is also pursuing its goal of connecting the largest German cities every half hour by 2030. In addition, the trains should be more punctual because they can pass the new through station faster than the current terminus. Rail Infrastructure Board Member Ronald Pofalla spoke of an “important piece of the puzzle for the German clock”.
“The relocation of the Altona station has an impact far beyond Hamburg,” said the Parliamentary State Secretary in the Ministry of Transport, Enak Ferlemann. “It brings improvements for rail travelers all over Germany.”
Altona S-Bahn station remains
The Altona underground S-Bahn station is to remain at the old location, and a new and more efficient bus station is to be built. At the new station, under the direction of the city, space for hotels and offices is to be created with two buildings 58 and 76 meters high, plus a parking garage for 300 cars and 600 bicycles. “The new train station is a modern and representative symbol of modern urban development and climate-friendly rail transport in the west of Hamburg,” said Mayor Peter Tschentscher. The car train system, which is at home in Altona, will also be relocated in parallel to the Elbgaustraße S-Bahn station in the Eidelstedt district.
AUDIO: Start of construction of the long-distance train station Diebsteich (1 min)
When the contract for the Diebsteich project was signed in the town hall, shortly before Christmas 2014, the decision-makers at the time, Mayor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and railway boss Rüdiger Grube, joked. Hamburg paid just 39 million euros for 13 hectares in a prime location.
The new train station should be ready in 2027
But then the administrative court stopped the poor planning of the railway. The new long-distance train station Diebsteich will not be finished until 2027 – four years later than announced. It should cost around 50 percent more. There is also resistance. The old Altona train station is more central, believes the Prellbock Altona initiative and speaks of a “non-sustainable project based on plans from the 1990s” that “only serves property speculators and the concrete mafia”. On Monday they invited to an “alternative groundbreaking ceremony for the modernization of the current Altona station”. The Pro Bahn passenger association misses a coherent overall concept of how conceivable extensions of the rail network should be linked to the new station.
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