Mühlacker station

Geschichte

Mühlacker station is in the town of Mühlacker in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is at the junction of the Karlsruhe–Mühlacker line and the Western Railway. With its five platform tracks, it is the largest station in Enz district. It is served by InterCity, regional and Karlsruhe Stadtbahn services.HistoryIn the 1840s the Württemberg government decided to build a rail link to the Rhine Valley Railway to connect to Mannheim and the nearby industry. Baden, however, was more interested in connecting Pforzheim to its rail network. After years of negotiations between the Kingdom of Württemberg and the Grand Duchy of Baden, an agreement was reached on the route of the Western Railway on 4 December 1850.The line branched from the Northern Railway in Bietigheim, running for 23 km until it reached a point between Weilern Eckenweiher Hof and Mühlacker. A station was built there, which would later be the end of a line from Pforzheim. Both settlements were to the south of the town of Dürrmenz. Experts of both countries criticized the route of the line because it prevented the important town of Vaihingen having a well-located station. Baden criticized the location of an important frontier station at a secluded farmhouse. On 1 October 1853 the Royal Württemberg State Railways (Königlich Württembergischen Staats-Eisenbahnen, KWSt.E.) opened the Western Railway. Unusually for Germany, the new station was named after the locality of Mühlacker, not after the community that it was part of.