Dachau station () is a station in the Bavarian town of Dachau on the Munich S-Bahn network. It is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 3 station and it has five platform tracks. It is served daily by about 190 trains operated by Deutsche Bahn, including 150 S-Bahn trains. Dachau station is on the Munich–Treuchtlingen railway and is the beginning of the Dachau–Altomünster railway.
Dachau Stadt (town) station is on the Dachau–Altomünster Railway.
Location
Dachau station is located southeast of the town of Dachau. The station building is located to the west of the tracks and has the address of Bahnhofplatz 1. Frühlingstraße runs to the west of the station, while Langhammerstraße runs west from the Bahnhofplatz (station forecourt). To the east of the tracks is Obere Moosschwaigestraße where there is a park-and-ride area. Schleißheimer Straße passes under the tracks to the north of the station. Augustenfelder Straße runs through an underpass to the south of the station. There is a bus station in the station forecourt.
History
Dachau station was opened on 14 November 1867, together with the Munich–Treuchtlingen railway. Facilities available by then included a turntable, a level junction, a goods shed (equipped with a loading track), an entrance building and a watering point. In the following years, the railway received continuous upgrades. Additional tracks were built around Dachau station in 1884, and the station building was upgraded twice, in 1887 and 1895.
The branch from Dachau to Markt Indersdorf, which is also known as the Ludwig-Thoma-Bahn (after the author Ludwig Thoma), was opened on 8 July 1912. This branch line was extended to Altomünster on 18 December 1913, and a new station closer to Dachau town center opened on the branch. To distinguish between the two stations, Dachau station was renamed (in German) from Bahnhof Dachau to Dachau Bahnhof. This change indicates that Dachau station is the main line station serving the town, but not in it.
The main line from Munich to Dachau was electrified in 1939, but further electrification to Ingolstadt was delayed by the outbreak of World War II and was not completed until 1960. In 1972, Dachau station was rebuilt again with two new platforms, in preparation for S-Bahn operations, which commenced on 28 May 1972. The S-Bahn line, numbered S2, operates between Petershausen and Munich, with Dachau being an important intermediate station.
General freight operations ended in 1976 and the handling of all other freight was abandoned in 1980. In 1998, the station and forecourt were significantly restructured.
The Dachau–Altomünster railway was integrated into Munich S-Bahn in 1995. At that time, diesel railcars were used, and the railway operated under a separate entity called "Line A". Its electrification was delayed several times, but was eventually finished in 2014. Since then, some S2 services have been diverted onto the Altomünster branch.
Conversion for the Nuremberg–Ingolstadt–Munich high-speed line
In the spring of 2000, construction began on the upgraded line (Ausbaustrecke) between Ingolstadt and Munich as part of the Nuremberg–Ingolstadt–Munich high-speed line. The Petershausen–Munich line was upgraded for operations at 200 km/h and new tracks are laid for the S-Bahn. On 21 April 2003, the upgrade of the Petershausen–Dachau section was completed, including a third track for line S 2. On 11 December 2005, the upgrade of the Dachau–München-Obermenzing section was completed and the two additional tracks for the S-Bahn were opened, which made possible the operation of S-Bahn services between Munich and Dachau at 10-minute intervals. Dachau station was fundamentally redesigned and received new platforms and improved accessibility.