Pforzheim Hauptbahnhof

The first Pforzheim station was opened on the 3 July 1861 on the Karlsruhe–Mühlacker railway by the Grand Duchy of Baden State Railway (Großherzoglich Badische Staatseisenbahnen). With the opening of the Enz Valley Railway (Enztalbahn) to Wildbad (11 June 1868) and the Nagold Valley Railway (Nagoldtalbahn) to Horb (1 June 1874), Pforzheim developed into an interchange station with considerable traffic. Both lines were operated by the Royal Württemberg State Railways (Königlich Württembergischen Staats-Eisenbahnen) and they received their own platform tracks to the west of the station. The station building was built in 1861 in the neoclassical style and consisted of a long, single-storey central building with two-story wings at right-angles at each end. It was destroyed on 23 February 1945 during the bombing of Pforzheim. New building of 1958 The new station building was opened in June 1958. The architect was Helmuth Conradi (1903–1973), In the main hall there is a large wall relief by Josef Karl Huber, The building has been described as "one of the finest and most modern station building of Deutsche Bundesbahn" and has been listed as a cultural monument of the post-war period since 1989. In a second construction phase, starting in October 2015, the platforms on the tracks 1, 2/3, 4/5 and 103/104 The work was due to be completed in spring 2017. The conversion cost €7.3 million, of which the city of Pforzheim funded €1.8 m. West of the main station, Abellio Rail Baden-Württemberg plans to build a depot with sidings between the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2019. ==Rail services ==

As a station on the east–west route from Paris via Straßburg, Karlsruhe, Stuttgart and Munich to Vienna, Pforzheim was a stop for the Orient-Express in 1883. The spa of Wildbad at the end of the Enz Valley Railway was a significant destination for through coach connections for decades and the attachment and detachment of coaches to/from the trains of the Enz Valley Railway were made partly in Pforzheim. The last through coach connection to Wildbad were discontinued in 1995. The Nagold Valley Railway was served predominantly by regional services; between 1952 and 1964 an express train operated from Frankfurt running via Pforzheim and Horb to Konstanz. Pforzheim Hauptbahnhof lost importance from 1991 for long-distance traffic with the opening of the Mannheim–Stuttgart high-speed railway for long-distance trains between Karlsruhe and Stuttgart, which made it possible to bypass Pforzheim using a connecting curve at Bruchsal. The loss of long-distance connections is strongly criticised locally. In the 2017/2018 timetable, long-distance traffic at the station is limited to services on Intercity line 61, which run every two hours between Nuremberg and Karlsruhe. The station is also served by several regional services operated at regular intervals, including an Interregio-Express/ Regional-Express line, a Regionalbahn line and two Karlsruhe Stadtbahn lines. Long distance Regional services File:Bahnhofshalle Pforzheim Hbf.JPG|Entrance hall File:Pforzheim Hauptbahnhof, Gleis 104.jpg|Regio-Shuttle at bay platform 104 File:Stadtbahn car at Pforzheim - geo.hlipp.de - 4599.jpg|Albtal-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft Stadtbahn set in Pforzheimer Hauptbahnhof ==References==