Singen (Hohentwiel) station

Singen (Hohentwiel) station is an important regional railway junction and interchange station in the town of Singen in the south of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. Three railways now meet there, but in the past five railways connected to it. The station is served by InterCity trains on the Stuttgart–Zurich route.

Name
Deutsche Bahn officially call the station Singen (Hohentwiel), in reference to the Hohentwiel, the Hausberg of Singen, to distinguish it from Singen (Thür) located in Singen part of the town of Stadtilm, Thuringia. Because of its size and its significance for the district of Konstanz, the station is sometimes referred to as  Singen Hauptbahnhof (lit. 'Singen mainstation') locally. In addition, the abbreviations Singen (Hohentw), Singen (Htw) and just Singen are used.

Railway lines
Singen is near the starting point of the Immendingen–Horb and Horb–Stuttgart line (Gäu Railway, Gäubahn) to Stuttgart Hbf. On this line, the city is a stop for InterCity services between Stuttgart, Singen, Schaffhausen and Zurich HB. In addition, trains on the Black Forest Railway (Badische Schwarzwaldbahn), connecting Singen Offenburg and Konstanz stop in Singen. The High Rhine Railway (Hochrheinbahn) provides connections to Waldshut and Basel Bad Bf towards west and to Radolfzell and Konstanz towards east. Singen is also the terminus of the Etzwilen–Singen railway line, which is a heritage railway since 2007.

History
Singen owes its development from a farming village into industrial town primarily to its role as a railway junction. The railway reached the village for the first time in 1863, when the Upper Rhine Railway was completed from Basel to Konstanz (Constance). Ten years later, the Black Forest Railway was completed from Offenburg to Konstanz, connecting with the Upper Rhine Railway in Singen. The Etzwilen–Singen railway to Switzerland completed the main lines connecting with Singen.

Large Swiss companies established their German branch factories in Singen, not least because of its good rail connection. The factory workers were now brought to work in Singen in great numbers by train. A local commuter railway, the Randen Railway (Randenbahn), was built in 1912, but it was closed in 1966.

The railway used to be one of the largest employers in Singen. The first station building was soon replaced by a more solid building, which still stands today with small changes. The goods yard, which formerly stood on the other side of the tracks with sidings connecting directly from the factories, soon became too small. Therefore, a new freight yard was built in 1927.

The section of the High Rhine Railway between Schaffhausen and Singen was electrified in 1989.



ICE trainsets 403 015 and 403 515 (ICE 3, class 403) were given the name of Singen (Hohentwiel) in Singen station on 7 June 2008.

Customs
Singen is, for customs purposes, a border station for passengers arriving from Switzerland using direct services without intermediate stops. Customs checks may be performed in the station or on board trains by German officials. Systematic passport controls were abolished when Switzerland joined the Schengen Area in 2008.

Operations
Singen (Hohentwiel) has been part of the Verkehrsverbund Hegau-Bodensee (Hegau-Bodensee Transport Association, VHB) since its inception in 1996.

Long-distance services


Singen station is served by Intercity services at hourly intervals from Stuttgart via Singen and Schaffhausen to Zürich. Every two hours, it is served by Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) services hauled by Taurus locomotives of the Österreichische Bundesbahnen (ÖBB). In the other hour, it is served by Deutsche Bahn InterCity 2 services. From this there is a connection in Singen to an IC to Zurich, which also runs with SBB cars. Individual IC 2 services run from Singen to Konstanz instead of Zürich.

Furthermore, on weekends two pairs of Inter City services, operating as the Bodensee (Lake Constance), connect Konstanz with Dortmund and Emden.

A pair of IC services called Schwarzwald ("Black Forest") was operated from Hamburg to Konstanz, replacing one of the hourly cycle of regional services, until its discontinuation in December 2014 and it was then replaced by another regional train between Offenburg and Konstanz.

Regional services


In regional transport, Interregio-Express and Regional-Express services stop in Singen, giving through connections to Karlsruhe, Stuttgart, Basel, Konstanz and Ulm via Friedrichshafen.

The S6 of the Bodensee S-Bahn connects Singen to, among other places, Engen as well as Radolfzell, Konstanz and other municipalities on Lake Constance. This service was previously operated as the Seehas, named after a mythical "lake hare".

The S62 (nicknamed Rhyhas) of Schaffhausen S-Bahn links Singen with Schaffhausen. A connecting service runs from Schaffhausen to Jestetten.

(as of 2022)

Defunct and heritage railway lines
Formerly the Randen railway Randenbahn) ran from Singen to Beuren-Büßlingen. Most of this railway line is now dismantled.

The Etzwilen–Singen railway (Etzwilerbahn) ran via Rielasingen to Etzwilen in Switzerland. Since 2007, the latter is a heritage railway operated by heritage trains and draisines.

Freight traffic
Freight is handled at a container terminal in the industrial area, which provides connections to Italy.