in 1938 a new bridge was built, while rail and tram traffic continued, only motor vehicles were diverted. This at first resolved the traffic problems. Deutsche Reichsbahn and the Municipality of Kassel developed plans to remodel Wilhelmshöhe station as the main station of Kassel from 1942 to 1944. The concept was not dissimilar to the project that was implemented 40 years later, but the Second World War prevented its execution. During World War II, the station and its entrance buildings were severely damaged, but the road bridge that crosses it remained largely unscathed. However, it collapsed in 1946, when a freight train with tank cars loaded with gasoline had a hot box fire while standing there. The heat was so great that the bridge's steel beams lost their strength and the structure collapsed. The station building, which had been severely damaged in the war was rebuilt in simplified forms and received a storage area built as an extension in the style of the 1950s. Long-distance station Options discussions The planning status report of the Hanover–Würzburg high-speed railway in September 1971 provided for a station at Wilhelmshöhe. The planning status report of the preliminary route (Vortrassierung) of 1972/1973 foresaw a 6.4 kilometre-long tunnel running under Kassel. The tunnel would have run between Vellmar-Obervellmar and Kassel-Wehlheiden. Extensions to the north (Hanover) both via a direct route (via Holzminden) and via Göttingen were discussed. These two possible routes converged in Vellmar-Obervellmar (at kilometer 125 for the Holzminden option or at kilometer 144.3 for the Göttingen option). The route would have briefly run east parallel to the existing line from the southern tunnel portal and the lines would have been connected there. As part of the planning of the new line, four options for the route through Kassel were examined from 1972: (option II is not explained in the specified source) option I foresaw a route via Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe station; option III provided for a line running continuously to the east of the city centre of Kassel, with a new station in Kassel-Bettenhausen; option IV would have followed part of options I from the south to Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe station and would then have run east to Kassel Hauptbahnhof. Trains would have left the urban area to the north-west after reversing in the station; option IVg provided for a north–south axis through Kassel, that would run underground below the city with an underground station at Kassel Hauptbahnhof.