Great honor for a subway station that hardly anyone uses
Created: 04/08/2022 14:41
By: Martin Henning
The Heumarkt station in Cologne as a Deutsche Post special stamp in the “U-Bahn stations” series.
Value: 85 cents.
© Seelbach/KVB (photo) / Jennifer Dengler (motif)
The Heumarkt subway station in Cologne is planned as an important hub.
While not many trains stop there yet, the station has now been immortalized on a postage stamp.
Cologne - "A wish of the people of Cologne has come true!": This is how the KVB announces the special stamp for the Heumarkt.
The stamp has been on sale since August 4th and is available in every post office in Cologne and in the online shop.
The KVB stirs powerful advertising drum for their stop.
Sure, being immortalized with a stamp by Deutsche Post adds a little prestige.
The city might also like it because it distracts from the actual problem, at least in the short term, as 24RHEIN reports.
Information on the postage stamp Heumarkt Cologne
Series:
"U-Bahn stations"
Design of postage stamps & first day cancellation:
Jennifer Dengler, Bonn
Motive:
Seelbach/KVB
Text:
Deutscher Philatelie Service, Wermsdorf
Value:
85 cents
KVB station Heumarkt in Cologne: time-consuming expansion completely in vain?
The Heumarkt stop is the largest and deepest station on the route of the planned north-south urban railway.
The underground part, consisting of two levels, opened in 2013.
Cost point: 90 million euros.
The city itself bears ten percent of this. The huge complex still makes quite an impression today.
The KVB itself describes the building as an "underground cathedral" and "an architectural masterpiece".
KVB line 5 is now running on the lower level, according to the plan, the east-west connections of KVB line 1, KVB line 7 and KVB line 9 should eventually run on the level above.
But whether that will ever happen is completely open.
The Heumarkt underground station has now made it onto a postage stamp.
© S. Ziese/Imago
Cologne: Heumarkt underground station important for KVB – but when?
The Heumarkt plays an important role for both the north-south urban railway and the east-west axis.
The city of Cologne is planning to redesign the so-called east-west axis, the traffic area between the Deutzer Bridge, Cologne city center and the Melaten cemetery.
The Heumarkt also belongs to this area.
In order to be able to offer more local public transport, the railway network is being modernized.
It is still unclear whether this expansion will take place above ground or underground.
At the time the Heumarkt underground station was being planned, the city farsightedly assumed that one day the east-west axis would also be laid underground.
Only: That has not happened so far.
The Greens, as the strongest parliamentary group in the council, are against a subway on the east-west axis.
If the underground expansion of the east-west axis actually bursts and everything stays the same as before, the city would be left with a giant structure costing 90 million euros - which only serves to get a handful of people to get off line 5 there.
The situation is similar with the north-south urban railway project: Only when the route between Heumarkt and Severinstraße is in operation will more people use the Heumarkt underground station.
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KVB: North-South Stadtbahn in Cologne - not yet from Heumarkt
The Heumarkt would not only be an important junction for the east-west axis, but also plays a central role in the north-south urban railway.
According to the plan, this should run via Breslauer Platz, Heumarkt and Chlodwigplatz to the end of Bonner Straße.
But the collapse of the Cologne City Archives in 2009 caused delays in the implementation of the project.
The site of the collapse is between the Heumarkt and Severinstrasse stops, at Waidmarkt level.
To date, the route of the north-south urban railway between Heumarkt and Severinstraße has not been completed - and has therefore been interrupted.
KVB line 17 is also part of the north-south railway project and has been affected by the city archive collapse.
So far, the 17 only runs on a shortened route between Sürth and Severinstraße and is hardly used.
The complete completion of line 17 from Sürther Bahnhof to Heumarkt is planned for 2025 at the earliest.
The east-west axis decides the purpose of the Heumarkt subway station
The KVB is an outsider in the unfortunate story written by the city and politics.
Public transport has no choice but to wait.
The CDU and the Greens, who decide in the Council on the final solution for the East-West axis, have set up an accompanying committee and are playing for time.
A decision should not be made until mid-2023.
(mah)
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