On 12 November 1879, the Royal Westphalian Railway Company opened the Horst–Osterfeld section of its Welver-Sterkrade line, but failed to build a station in Bottrop.

[4] On 1 May 1905 the Prussian state railways opened the Oberhausen-Osterfeld Süd–Hamm railway, which runs parallel to the Westphalian route from Osterfeld Süd to the east for about four kilometres to the current Bottrop Hauptbahnhof and then swings to the north.

Finally between 1927 and 1936 it was renamed Bottrop Hauptbahnhof, following the opening on 1 July 1922 of a new connecting line to the Mülheim-Heißen–Oberhausen-Osterfeld Nord railway.

[5] After the Second World War, the "Westphalian line" from Bottrop was not restored to operation and was partly dismantled.

A new normal through station was built nearly half a kilometre to the west between Bahnhofstrasse and Essener Straße.