 The station was opened along with the Düsseldorf–Elberfeld railway from Düsseldorf to Erkrath by the Düsseldorf-Elberfeld Railway Company on 20 December 1838.The line between Erkrath and Hochdahl has a gradient of 3.33% and rises 82 m in about 2.5 km.For more than one hundred years, this was the steepest main line in Europe.