Stuttgart Hbf (Stuttgart)

Stuttgart Hbf is currently a terminal station, but on completion the long distance ICE and IC trains to/from Stuttgart will use new underground platforms/gleis - meaning that long distance trains passing through the city will no longer have to reverse direction.

The new underground platforms/tracks will also be linked to the Stuttgart-Ulm high speed line that is currently also under construction.

Due to the building work Stuttgart Hbf is currently a station of two parts.

(1) The main station building still houses the ticket hall, left luggage lockers and the access to the S-Bahn and U-Bahn trains and the Reisezentrum reservation desk.

(2) A temporary, secondary concourse has been constructed by the gleis (platforms/tracks), that the long distance and Regio trains depart from.
Allow a minimum of 5 mins to walk from the temporary concourse to the facilities in the main station building.

However, if you will be connecting between these trains, you can wait on the new temporary concourse.

If you want to use the left luggage lockers, don’t follow the signs pointing towards them on the main concourse.
Instead take the escalators one level down towards the U-Bahn station, the left luggage lockers will then be to the right.
Follow the signs on the main concourse and you will have to carry your bag(s) down a flight of stairs.

The heart of the city is a 10-15min walk from Stuttgart Hbf but public transport access between the hauptbahnhof and the city centre is being compromised by the Stuttgart 21 building works.

Rathaus is the closest U-Bahn stop to the main square in the heart of the city, the Stuttgarter Weihnachtsmart, but there are currently no trams* operating between Stuttgart Hbf and Rathaus - for the time being the closest stop to the heart of the city is Charlottenplatz.

*In most German cities the U-Bahn denotes an underground metro/subway system, but in Stuttgart its U-Bahn is its tram network.

Connecting to the U-Bahn

In the city centre trams use underground tunnels, so at Stuttgart Hbf the tram/U-bahn stops are at lower level part of the station.

When you reach the main concourse (from the temporary passageway that leads from the gleis/platforms/tracks used by the long distance trains), there are escalators that lead down to the U-Bahn at both ends of the concourse.

If you will be connecting to the U-Bahn, use the map (on the link above) to work out which line and U-Bahn stop you’ll be heading to before arriving at Stuttgart Hbf.

There are two sets of platforms in the tram station at Stuttgart Hbf that serve different lines, so knowing which line you need to head for can eliminate some of the confusion.

To buy a U-Bahn ticket at a machine, you need to enter a code number for the stop at which you will be alighting.
There is a list of all stops and their respective numbers by the ticket machine.
Hence the need to work out which specific stop you will be heading to, before buying a ticket.

When planning a trip, finding convenient accommodation can be trickier than working out which train to take.
Hence ShowMeTheJourney has partnered with the innovative accommodation portal, Stay 22, to offer three options for discovering your optimum accommodation:

1: Use the map above to see which hotel rooms and Vrbo rentals, with easy access to Stuttgart Hbf station are available.

2: Or see what's available with Stay 22's accommodation partners; which include, Expedia, Hotels.com and Trivago - by clicking the large button below.
Stay 22 will 'shuffle' the booking services so that you can be automatically directed to its partner that currently has the optimum availability at this location.

Stuttgart is linked by direct train at least every other hour to most German cities - though a notable exception for the time being, is that connections are required in Karlsruhe when travelling between Stuttgart and locations in south-west Germany, including Baden-Baden, Freiburg (Breisgau) and Offenburg.

Stuttgart has international direct trains to and from: Bologna*, Budapest*, Firenze/Florence*, Genova/Genoa*, Graz, Klagenfurt, Innsbruck, La Spezia*, Linz, Ljubljana*, Milano*, Paris, Roma/Rome*, Salzburg, Villach (connect for Ljubljana and Zagreb) Wien/Vienna, Zagreb* and Zurich.
*= only by overnight train

Stuttgart is served by following rail services; note that many destinations are served by multiple routes:
Not all station calls have been included in these summaries.

• to/from Mannheim - Frankfurt Flughafen - Köln Hbf - Dusseldorf or Wuppertal - Dortmund - Bremen - Hamburg (by ICE train every other hour)
• to/from Mannheim - Frankfurt Flughafen - Köln Messe/Deutz - Dusseldorf - Dortmund (by ICE train every other hour)
• to/from Heidelberg - Mannheim - Mainz - Koblenz - Bonn - Köln Hbf - and beyond (by ICE train or IC train every other hour)
• to/from Mannheim - Frankfurt Flughafen - Frankfurt (Main) Hbf) - Hannover - Hamburg (by ICE train every other hour)
• to/from Mannheim - Frankfurt (Main) Hbf) - Erfurt - Leipzig - Halle(Saale) - Berlin (by ICE train every other hour)
• to/from Mannheim - Frankfurt (Main) Hbf) (by ICE train or EC train every other hour)
• to/fromNürnberg - Bamberg - Jena Paradies - Leipzig (by IC train every other hour)
• to/from Heilbronn - Wurzburg (by RE train hourly)

From July 16th until December 15th

Between these dates the closure of the railway between Mannheim and both Frankfurt Flughagen / Airport and Frankfurt (Main) Hbf is impacting on the routes taken by ICE trains travelling between Stuttgart and cities to the north.

In summary the key changes are:

• to/from Mannheim - Frankfurt Flughafen - Köln Hbf - Dusseldorf or Wuppertal - Dortmund - Bremen - Hamburg (by ICE train every other hour) = from July 16th to August 12th becomes to Mannheim - Mainz - Koblenz - Bonn - Köln Hbf - Dortmund - Bremen - Hamburg
• to/from Mannheim - Frankfurt Flughafen - Köln Hbf - Dusseldorf or Wuppertal - Dortmund - Bremen - Hamburg (by ICE train every other hour) = from August 13th to December 14th becomes to Heidelberg - Darmstadt ↔ Frankfurt Flughafen - Siegburg/Bonn - Köln Hbf - Dortmund - Bremen - Hamburg
• to/from Mannheim - Frankfurt Flughafen - Köln Messe/Deutz - Dusseldorf - Dortmund becomes to Mannheim - Mainz - Wiesbaden - Köln Messe / Deutz - Dusseldorf
  -to/from Mannheim - Frankfurt (Main) Hbf) - Erfurt - Halle(Saale) - Berlin becomes to Mannheim - Mainz - Frankfurt(Main) Hbf - Fulda - Kassel - Hannover - Hamburg
• to/from Mannheim - Frankfurt Flughafen - Frankfurt (Main) Hbf) - Hannover - Hamburg becomes to Darmstadt - Frankfurt(Main) Hbf - Fulda - Kassel - Braunschweig - Wolfsburg - Berlin

• to/from Ulm - Augsburg - München / Munich (by ICE train, 2 x trains per hour; with 2 x trains per day continuing on to Innsbruck)
• to/from Ulm - Augsburg - München / Munich - Salzburg (by EC or ICE train every other hour; 3 x trains per day continue on Bad Gastein - Spittal - Villach - Klagenfurt; 2 x trains per day continue on to Radstat - Leoben - Graz)
• to/from Rottweil - Singen - Schaffhausen - Zurich (by IC train every other hour)
• to/from Friedrichshafen - Lindau - Bregenz - Feldkirch - Landeck-Zams - Innsbruck - Salzburg - Wien / Vienna (by 1 x Railjet train per day)
  Overnight trains:
• to/from Wien / Vienna - Budapest by EuroNight train
• to/from Lesce-Bled - Ljubljana - Zagreb by EuroNight train
• to/from Udine - Venezia Mestre - Venezia / Venice S. Lucia by Nightjet train
• to/from Bologna - Firenze / Florence - Roma / Rome by Nightjet train
• to/from Milano (Rogoredo) - Genova / Genoa - La Spezia by Nightjet train

• to/from Karlsruhe (by ICE train or EC train every other hour)
• to/from Karlsruhe - Strasbourg - Paris (by TGV train or ICE train; Monday to Saturday = 4 x trains per day; Sunday = 3 x trains)