Dresden Mitte (centre) station is a regional station in central Dresden. The station, which was opened in 1897 as Wettiner Straße, is located on the connecting line between Dresden Hauptbahnhof and Dresden-Neustadt station. It has been proposed as the location of a new Dresden central train station several times. Train services are operated by DB Regio Nordost, DB Regio Südost, and Vogtlandbahn. Location The Dresden Mitte station is located close to Dresden's Old Town about 500 metres west of the Dresden Zwinger on the border between the districts of Wilsdruffer Vorstadt and Friedrichstadt. In the immediate vicinity are the Internationales Congress Center Dresden, the former cigarette factory Yenidze, the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber (college of music) in the former Wettiner Gymnasium (school) and the Ostragehege, which contains the Messe Dresden (exhibition ground) and various sports facilities. The planned new venue for the Staatsoperette Dresden (Dresden State Operetta) is also located near the station on the site of the former central power plant. History History and construction The original railway construction in Dresden followed no master plan. Rather, each private railway company built its own station as a terminus of its long-distance operations, so that there were four different poorly-linked long-distance stations in Dresden in 1875. In addition, the many level crossings created major traffic problems. By the late 1880s, all railways to Dresden had been nationalised and it was decided to fundamentally restructure the Dresden railway node. Under the leadership of building manager Otto Klette, it was agreed that this would involve the creation of a new central train station, but for a long time a consensus could not be reached on the site. After the Elbe flood in March 1845, the inspector of surveys Karl Pressler had suggested the relocation of the Weißeritz near Cotta so that the former riverbed could be used for a Dresden central station. This plan was taken up and the former riverbed was used for a connection line between the Dresden railway stations, but instead of a central station, a simple station for suburban services was built in the area of Wettiner Straße. The new main station (Hauptbahnhof) was instead built on the site of the former Bohemian station, due on the one hand to its proximity to Prager Straße, which became the most important shopping street of Dresden in the last quarter of the 19th century, and on the other