fastest train, stopping at the station in 1960 was a Trans-Europe Express, the Helvetia, which reached a top speed of 140 km/h. The number of tickets sold at the railway station stood at 1.35559 million (plus 29,491 in Zähringen and 11,745 in Herder), roughly the same level as at the turn of the century and in 1935. Sales were declining as they were throughout the area of the DB Railway division in Karlsruhe. In the summer of 1960 on working days, Sundays and holidays, 163 passenger trains ran on the Rhine Valley Railway (49 intercity-express and long-distance express routes, 25 semi-fast trains), 36 on the Breisach Railway (10 multiple units) and 48 on the Höllentalbahn (12 semi-fast trains). On 26 September 1971, the winter section of the 1971/1972 timetable came into force and Freiburg became part of the Intercity age: the station was on line 4 from Basel to Hamburg-Altona from the beginning to the former IC network of the Deutsche Bundesbahn. With the inauguration of the Stadtbahn bridge south of the station building the tram network was also expanded in 1983. The neighbouring Wiwilí Bridge was no longer adequate for the traffic. Previously, trams also ran on Bismarckallee in front of the main entrance. All tracks are accessible from the new bridge. On each platform there are lifts and platforms 1 and 2/3, which are used by Intercity-Express services, are also equipped with escalators. They were upgraded by 27 September 1992, when the first Intercity-Express was scheduled to stop at the station on its way to Switzerland. Construction of a new station building After the failed plans for the Bahnhofsplatte project and for the congress centre, the decision to build the Freiburg Concert Hall in 1988 restarted progress in the station area. Steigenberger Hotels, then a subsidiary of Deutsche Bundesbahn, decided to build a new InterCity Hotel at the station. This expanded in 1990 into planning for the full redevelopment of the entire area. Deutsche Bundesbahn, which was organised as a government agency, found itself unable to fund the necessary investment and therefore invited proposals from investors to be judged by the architect and town planner Albert Speer, Jr. There were nine proposals from seven investors. The winner was the Waldkirch architectural firm of Harter und Kanzler, with the Bilfinger Berger construction company as an investor. After consideration of various aspects of the plans by the public and the