Offenbach Main Station: Upgrade!

Offenbach’s main railway station was once a prestigious and exquisitely designed gateway to the city. Over the years, however, it has lost its central importance and attractiveness. With the expansion of the S-Bahn at the end of the 1990s, the main station lost its key position in local and long-distance transportation to the stations in Hanau and Frankfurt. Today, Offenbach’s main station is in a largely neglected state. However, with the increasing importance of environmentally friendly mobility, especially in rail and bus transportation, it is facing new challenges and opportunities. In future, it will have to assume an important linking function alongside the Offenbach-Marktplatz and Offenbach-Ost S-Bahn stations. It is no longer just a question of handling trains, but of developing the station into a multimodal mobility platform. This means seamless use of mobility services by combining rail transport with walking and cycling, buses, cabs and various sharing services. The focus of the seminar was not only on the building itself, but also on the area surrounding the station. This included the central bus station (ZOB), the car-sharing services and the cab rank. Particular emphasis was placed on the link with pedestrian and cycle traffic, including the pedestrian and cycle tunnel and the Bismarckstraße underpass.