showed that significant trade had been carried out for centuries in the area of today's station. The construction of the station began with a groundbreaking ceremony on 24 September 2001. The station building was completed on 12 July 2002. 9000 sq m of earth was excavated for the station building and 2,000 cubic metres of concrete or reinforced concrete were poured. On 1 August 2002, the station was opened for operations along with the new line. More than 2,000 people, including the premier of Hesse, Roland Koch, watched the arrival of the first ICE 3, which arrived six minutes ahead of schedule in Limburg in the early morning of 1 August 2002. From the commissioning of the new line, two class 218 locomotives were stationed at the station, ready to tow broken-down trains on the new line. These were removed in 2010/2011. South Limburg was one of three intermediate stations between Cologne and Frankfurt Airport that was served by every third train. The station building was completed in November 2003. Passenger Traffic and Economic Benefit The passenger traffic had gradually increased since its opening in 2002. The robust increase of 32 per cent from 2003 to 2005 assured that Limburg Süd would remain utilised after an operational review in 2007. The daily passenger count has remained stable between 2,500 and 2,700 ever since. A survey done in 2004 showed 96 per cent of passengers boarding the trains between 5 and 9 o'clock in the morning were commuters. The majority of passengers are commuting to Frankfurt am Main (about 1,000 km each way). A 2010 study by the University of Hamburg and the London School of Economics and Political Science showed the small economic growth of 2.7 per cent from 2002 to 2006 in the surrounding area of Limburg Süd and Montabaur stations. Criticism Limburg Süd and Montabaur stations were subjected to heavy criticism from the beginning. The criticism is due to: high construction cost; smaller population served (34,000 and 12,500 respectively); potential insufficient number of passengers to support the operational cost; close proximity of both stations (20 kilometres apart); lack of commercial sites nearby. Montabaur station is the result of political blackmail by Rhineland-Palainate who demanded a station be built in Montabaur before approving the process of building a new high speed railway. Notes External links Railway stations in Hesse Railway stations in Germany opened in 2002 Buildings and structures