Bonn-Mehlem station

Geschichte

Bonn-Mehlem station is a through station in the Bonn district of Lannesdorf in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has three platform tracks and is located on the Left Rhine line south of Bonn Hauptbahnhof. The station also is served by buses and has parking spaces. It is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 4 station.HistoryOn 21 January 1856, the section of the Left Rhine line between Bonn and Rolandseck was opened to traffic. The station in the then independent city of Mehlem was opened at this time. Due to the incorporation of Bad Godesberg in the city of Bonn, Mehlem station was renamed Bonn Mehlem in 1971. Mehlem had been part of Bad Godesberg since 1935.A slightly recessed platform in the station served from 1949 as the location for travel and receptions of the American High Commissioner John J. McCloy and his successors to 1955 and the subsequent U.S. ambassadors. A class VT 06 railbus was continuously stationed here for this service. After 1963, the permanent stationing of trains at Bonn-Mehlem station for the American Embassy was terminated for financial reasons, but when required railbuses of classes VT 08-8 and VT 33.8 came from their base in Heidelberg, then the most important base for American troops in Germany. Once a year, possibly more often, a special train carried the U.S. ambassador via the Brunswick–Magdeburg railway through Helmstedt on the established transit route to Berlin-Lichterfelde West. The last such journey of an ambassador at Bonn-Mehlem took place on 18/19 December 1990 during the tenure of Vernon A. Walters. German reunification ended the role of Bonn-Mehlem station as a station of the American Embassy.