[7] The original Dortmund station was built north of the city centre by the Cologne-Minden Railway Company (Cöln-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, CME) as part of its trunk line and opened on 15 May 1847.

In the middle one the city is shown, flanked to the left and right by a steelworker, a blast furnace worker, a brewer and a bridge builder.

During the reconstruction of the station they were removed and the put on exhibition at the Hattingen Henrichshütte (a former steel works, which is partly used as a museum of industry).

The original plan for a residential area in the form of an "oversized UFO" (80,000 square metres (860,000 sq ft) of usable space) was rejected.

On 7 October 1998 a memorandum of understanding had been signed between Deutsche Bahn, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and Westdeutsche Immobilien Bank.

[12] After the plans for the so-called "Dortmund UFO" were dropped, a new investor was found in 2001 in the form of the Portuguese investment group Sonae Imobiliaria.

[citation needed] Through plans for the reconstruction of the station have twice failed, Dortmund Hauptbahnhof suffers significantly from neglect.

At the same time it is also intended that there will be improvements to facilitate the introduction of the Rhine-Ruhr Express (a planned upgrade to North Rhine-Westphalia's Regional-Express network).

[16] [citation needed] Dortmund Hauptbahnhof is served by Thalys, Flixtrain, Deutsche Bahn Intercity-Express and Intercity services.

On match days of the Borussia Dortmund soccer club the line ends instead of the regular terminus Westfalenhallen at the Westfalenstadion station, which is only open on these occasions.