Dachau Station - History

History

Dachau station was opened on 14 November 1867 together with the Munich–Ingolstadt railway. The station had a turntable, a level junction and a goods shed equipped with a loading track. An entrance building and a watering point were also built. On 12 April 1870, the line from Munich to Ingolstadt was extended to Treuchtlingen as the Altmühl Railway. Additional tracks were built in the station area in 1884 and the station building was upgraded in 1887. The line from Munich to Ingolstadt and Treuchtlingen was duplicated in 1891 and the station building was again upgraded in 1895. On 8 July 1912, the Dachau branch from Dachau to Markt Indersdorf was opened; this is also known as the Ludwig-Thoma-Bahn, after the author Ludwig Thoma. This branch line was extended to Altomünster on 18 December 1913. At the same time the Dachau station was renamed in German from Bahnhof Dachau to Dachau Bahnhof (this word order in Bavaria indicates a main line station that serves the town but is not in it) because the Dachau branch had a new station in the town of Dachau. Electrification of the Munich-Dachau line was completed in 1939. The electrification of the remainder of the line to Ingolstadt was delayed by the outbreak of World War II and could not be completed until 1960. In 1972, Dachau station was rebuilt with two new platforms in preparation for the start of S-Bahn operations. Finally, on 28 May 1972, the Munich S-Bahn went into operation with the Petershausen–Dachau–Munich route being served by line S2. General freight operations ended in 1976 and the handling of all other freight was abandoned in 1980. In 1995, the Dachau–Altomünster railway was integrated as S-Bahn line A of the Munich S-Bahn network. However, the line was still not electrified, so diesel railcars are used. In 1998, the station and forecourt were significantly restructured.