Feldkirch railway station () serves the city of Feldkirch, in the Feldkirch district of the Austrian federal state of Vorarlberg. Opened in 1872, it forms the junction between the Vorarlberg railway and the Feldkirch–Buchs railway. The station is owned and operated by the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB). Location Feldkirch railway station is situated in Bahnhofplatz, in the northern Feldkirch district of Levis, between the Ardetzenberg and the Känzele. History The station was opened on 1 July 1872, together with the rest of the Vorarlberg railway. The original station building was repeatedly extended from 1884, as the Arlberg railway transformed Feldkirch into an international transport hub. In the 1960s, the original station building was torn down. In early 1969, the new building was put into operation. Between 1999 and 2001, the station was renovated and rebuilt again, as part of the ÖBB-Bahnhofsinitiative. The renovation work included replacement of the platforms, the pedestrian underpass and the station building. In 2010, in a survey conducted by the Verkehrsclub Österreich (VCÖ), the station was nominated by the interviewed passengers as the sixth most beautiful railway station in Austria. Services Feldkirch is one of Vorarlberg's major railway stations. It also serves as a loading station for the motorail train from Feldkirch to Vienna, Graz and Villach. Additionally, Feldkirch is the border station of the line to Buchs; it is the only Austrian border station adjacent to the Principality of Liechtenstein. Customs Feldkirch station is, for customs purposes, a border station for passengers arriving from Liechtenstein and Switzerland. As such, checks may be performed in the station by Austrian customs officials. Systematic passport controls were reduced when Switzerland joined the Schengen Area in 2008 and later scrapped when Liechtenstein joined in 2011. Notable visitors James Joyce Irish writer James Joyce paid a visit to Feldkirch in 1932 to see his friend Eugene Jolas. During the visit, he said to Jolas, "Over there, on those tracks, the fate of Ulysses was decided in 1915." Since Bloomsday 1994, the quote has been displayed in German translation in the station concourse. Joyce had travelled through Feldkirch by train in 1915. Due to World War I, he had been considered an "enemy alien" in his then home town of Trieste, which, at that time, was part of Austria-Hungary. Thanks to influential friends, he had obtained permission to leave Austria-Hungary, with his partner Nora Barnacle and their two shared children, and