Würzburg Hauptbahnhof is a railway station for the city of Würzburg in the German state of Bavaria. It was opened in 1864 to the north of the inner city as a replacement for the former Ludwigsbahnhof (Ludwig's station) in the city centre, the capacity of which had been exhausted by the dramatic increase of rail traffic. Even today, Würzburg station is one of the major stations in Bavaria, since it lies at the intersection of several heavily used rail corridors. In particular, the routes in the north–south direction from Hamburg and Bremen to Munich as well as in west–east direction from the Rhine-Ruhr and Rhine-Main to Nuremberg and Vienna. Apart from Aschaffenburg Hauptbahnhof, Würzburg is the only station in Lower Franconia to be served by Intercity-Express services. With its combination of rail, tram and bus services, the station is the main hub for public transport in the city and the district of Würzburg. History The city of Würzburg was the capital of the Grand Duchy of Würzburg under Ferdinand III until 1814. It was then part of the territories in Franconia that were granted to the Kingdom of Bavaria by the Congress of Vienna in compensation for the loss of the Tyrol and that part of Palatinate that was east of the Rhine to Baden. Because of its remoteness within Bavaria, Würzburg was not connected by the Ludwig South-North Railway, which crossed the entire kingdom. At the urging of the Bavarian parliament, the city was connected to the railway network by the second state railway, the Ludwig Western Railway only a few years later. Construction work began in 1852 and the 43 kilometre-long third stage from Schweinfurt to Würzburg (now part of the Bamberg–Rottendorf railway) of the 206 km-long line was opened on 1 June 1854. In the fourth and final stage, the line was opened to the Bavarian border in Kahl am Main via Gemünden am Main and Aschaffenburg on 1 October 1854 (now part of the Main–Spessart railway). The first station of 1852: the Ludwig station The first Würzburg station was named the Ludwigsbahnhof (Ludwig station) after King Ludwig I. At the request of the Ministry of War, the station was built inside the city walls, despite the higher land acquisition costs, at the exact location of the Mainfranken Theater today. This however meant, due to the already dense development, that it was possible to build only a