with regard to a few functionally-related trifles. The departure platforms could only be accessed through an entrance hall, which contained a ticket office, baggage acceptance facilities and restaurants. In contrast, the arrival platforms were freely accessible and bigger to cope better with the surge of traffic when trains arrived. From the outset, a connecting track joined the freight yard of the Silesian station with the approach tracks of the Leipzig station. There it connected with a turntable. Operationally, however, this connection was unsatisfactory because only individual carriages could be transferred. A few years after the opening of the station, this connection was replaced by a connecting curve that did not involve a turntable and was located a few metres to the north. The Marienbrücke, finished in 1852, enabled the connection of the railway tracks in the old town (Altstädt). The tracks running from the Silesian and Leipzig stations joined in front of the bridgehead. Apart from measures to modernise their operations, the grounds of the Silesian station then remained unchanged until the construction of the Dresden-Neustadt station. Planning The original railway installations in Dresden were based on no overall concept. Rather, each private railway company had its own station as the terminus of its main line, so by 1875 there were four different and poorly linked long-distance stations in Dresden. In addition, the many level crossings were creating significant traffic problems by the late 1880s when all the railway companies serving Dresden had been nationalised. It was decided to implement a profound transformation of the Dresden railway node under the auspices of Otto Klette, the commissioner of works (Baurat). This transformation included the merger of the Leipziger and Silesian stations. The Silesian Station was chosen as the site for the new Neustadt station. This required a change in route of the last few kilometres of the Leipzig-Dresden railway so that it was realigned on the modern route from Dresden-Pieschen. Construction and opening Construction began in the spring of 1898. A temporary station had already been opened on the forecourt on 1 May 1898 to handle the traffic towards Görlitz during the construction period. Although intended only for a limited period, it was equipped with a pedestrian and baggage tunnel. The Dresden-Neustadt passenger station was opened at 5:00 AM on 1 March 1901. An express freight train from Görlitz was the first train to pass through the new complex and was