yard. The locomotive depot became one of the largest in East Germany with about 500 employees. About 5,000 freight wagons left Falkenberg each day in the 1970s and 1980s. The station was also important for national defence. Freight tracks were temporarily provided with platforms for travelling Soviet soldiers so that they could use the washing facilities. A new restaurant building was opened for Mitropa in 1972. The first electrically powered passenger train reached Falkenberg from the direction of Wittenberg on 27 September 1986 and the electrification went into operation towards Riesa on 13 December 1986. Electrification was extended towards Ruhland in October 1987. The other three main railway branches towards Jüterbog,Torgau and Finsterwalde were electrified in 1989. The importance of the station for freight fell substantially after 1990 due to the decline in industrial production in the region and the modal shift to road transport. The fleet in the depot was increasingly reduced after 1991 and the Wittenberg depot was closed in 1994. In 1998, the depot’s work was transferred to the Leipzig-Engelsdorf depot and a little later the station was converted into a purely passenger operation without responsibility for any rollingstock. In 2010 and 2011, the passenger platforms were built in the upper part of the station and the railway facilities were transformed. The former Mitropa building was completely rebuilt. The upper railway yard was taken over in 2011 by BLG AutoRail, which uses it as a "hub for car transportation by rail". Environment The town of Falkenberg has been decisively shaped by the railways. In the first years, the station of Falkenberg was only a minor station as the town had developed very little at this time. Immediately prior to the construction of the railway, Falkenberg had 350 inhabitants, while it had 405 at the time of the opening of the east-west line. With the construction of the east–west line and the later line from Wittenberg to Kohlfurt Falkenberg, it became a railway junction and the village grew considerably. A number of railway workers settled in the city. The area between the railway station and the old town centre was gradually built up. The post office was opened next to the entrance building in 1888. At the end of the 19th century, the expanding railway tracks were more and more of a hindrance to road traffic. An overpass was built over the tracks in 1896 to replace the