Railway station (Station Haarlem) description and photos - Netherlands: Haarlem (Topic)

Station Haarlem description and photos - Netherlands: Haarlem. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photographs and a map showing the nearest significant objects. The name in English is Station Haarlem.

Photo and description

In September 1839, the Amsterdam-Haarlem railway was inaugurated - the first part of the oldest railway in the Netherlands, connecting Amsterdam and Rotterdam by 1847.

The first of a very modest size and built of wood, Haarlem's station was located on Oude Weg near the famous West Gate outside the city. The gauge of the first Dutch railway was 1945 mm. But by 1865 it was narrowed to 1435 mm, in accordance with the standard European gauge adopted by that time (for the first time such a width was proposed by engineer George Stephensen during the construction of the Liverpool-Manchester railway line, and today about 60% of the world's railways track width is 1435 mm).

From the very beginning, the railway in the Netherlands has become very popular, completely displacing inland water transport running along the trekwart canals. It is not surprising that the station on Oude Weg turned out to be too small and could not cope with the large passenger traffic, and therefore, it was decided to build a new station in the northern part of the city, where, in fact, the central station of Haarlem is located today. The new station was built already in 1842, and a railway workshop was opened on Oude Weg in 1844, which eventually became one of the largest in the Netherlands.

The impressive Art Nouveau building of the railway station in Haarlem, which you see today, it was built in 1906-1908 by the Dutch architect Dirk Margadant.

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Topic: Railway station (Station Haarlem) description and photos - Netherlands: Haarlem.