This new railroad station at Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe was opened in 1991 as part of the first high-speed InterCityExpress (ICE) line from Hannover to Würzburg.

Here you can get trains going north to places like Bremen, Hamburg and Berlin, or going south to Frankfurt am Main, Mannheim, Stuttgart and Munich, for example.

The station is practical and convenient but very windy, so dress up warmly if you have to change trains here in the winter. In this regard, the station at Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe reminds me of the new Guillemins station in Liège, Belgium, which is also open on all sides and thus incredibly windy in the winter.

Two ICE trains at Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe

These two ICE trains are going in different directions. The one on the right (with three white lights at the front) is arriving at Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe, and the one on the left is departing.

Dining car of a first-generation ICE train

After thirty years and several overhauls, most of these first-generation ICE trains are still in service, particularly on the north-south routes. You can spot these first-generation trains by the bulges on the roofs of their dining cars.

In the dining car of a first-generation ICE train

I still think these bulges are aesthetically pleasing (from the inside, at least), even though they were a waste of energy from the start, because of increased air resistance. None of the later generations have these bulges, and some don’t have dining cars at all, only “Bord Bistros” with one overworked attendant manning a microwave, a coffee machine and a cash register.

Tram and bus station at Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe

The tram and bus station out in front of the railroad station at Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe is also open on all four sides, so it is also cold and windy in the winter. From here there are frequent connections to all parts of the city, particularly the city center.

Kassel Main Station

Kassel’s traditional Main Station (Hauptbahnhof) is in the city center, where it was originally built in the 1850s. It always was and still is a terminal station, meaning that all the tracks end here, so the trains have to go back out the same way they came in. Local and regional trains still start and end here, but to get a long-distance train you have to go out to the new station at Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe.

Tracks for local and regional trains at Kassel main station

The inside of the main station was nicely refurbished in the 1990s, and parts of it are now used as a venue for cultural events and exhibitions, including part of the Documenta modern art exhibitions that are held in Kassel quinquennially, i.e. once every five years.

Front view of the Kassel Main Station

The Main Station in Kassel was badly damaged by aerial bombings during the Second World War. It was quickly and cheaply re-built after the war, so from the outside it looks very much like most of the other stations that were re-built in that era (like the one in Saarbrücken, for example).

My photos in this post are from 2005 and 2019. I revised the text in 2021.

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