After the annexation of Frankfurt, Nassau and Hesse-Kassel by Prussia in 1866, these obstacles were largely removed, so that planning for a central station was taken seriously.

The inadequacy of the situation became apparent particularly during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, when troop movements were noticeably hampered by the scattered stations.

The town council, which only got a say in 1875, also wanted the railway facilities relocated from the Anlagenring (the ring of roads and parklands on the demolished walls surrounding the inner city) to the former gallows field.

A new district with Kaiserstraße as the main axis was to be created on the area of the track fields of the Western stations that would be released from railway operations.

This option also had the great advantage that operations could be carried out largely undisturbed during the construction phase, since the new station hardly affected the old lines.

From 1880, the Bauakademie (Prussian Building Academy) held a competition involving all the major architects to design a "monument that challenged the highest artistic standards".

In 1881, the winner of this architectural competition was that of the agricultural inspector and university master builder Hermann Eggert from Strasbourg in Alsace, from among the 55 designs submitted.

[8] In order to protect the passengers from rain, the former glass surfaces were partly closed with wood, a temporary solution that remained in place for almost 60 years.

The facilities also included a supply centre for the station and the dining cars, with its own confectionery, large bakery and butcher's shop.

[12] The construction of the underground railway systems began in 1971 with the B-Tunnel of the Frankfurt U-Bahn in the central city.

The tram stop on the square in front of the station, Am Hauptbahnhof, could formerly only be reached from the escalator opened in 1978[13] on the B level.

At the same time, a two-storey air raid shelter was built to offer railway employees protection in an emergency.

From 2002 to 2006, the listed[11] roofs of the five platform halls were completely renewed during operation, taking into account heritage preservation issues.

At a height of ten meters, an assembly and transport platform was drawn in over the length of the roof for the duration of the construction work.

All work steps were integrated in the routine in such a way that the platforms were moved by one field (9.3-metre (30 ft 6 in)) per hall every two weeks.

As in Wiesbaden Hauptbahnhof, seven cubic glass and steel pavilions have replaced the previous buildings on the transverse platform.

The rental of luggage trolleys was later discontinued, and in view of the increased number of passengers, there was no longer any room for safe operation.

Planning began in 1998, and implementation at the end of 2001, of a computer-based interlocking of the SIMIS C type, the four-stage commissioning of which was completed on 27 November 2005.

Since 27 March 1986, circuit changes at the signal box had been prohibited due to age-related signs of wear, the stress on the system and the insulation of the interior wiring.

The system comprises a total of 845 control units, including 340 switches and track closures as well as 67 main signals.

Finishing in 2007, the floors and the cladding of the stairs, which had not been renewed for decades, were uniformly covered with black granite from China.

Deutsche Bahn is planning to separate long-distance and regional traffic from the direction of Mannheim, Mainz and the Cologne–Frankfurt high-speed rail line.

Almost all long-distance traffic is to be concentrated on the south side of the station, on platforms 1 to 8, and conflicts between routes are to be reduced.

[28] On 21 December 2015, Deutsche Bahn and the city of Frankfurt signed a contract to modernise the underground distribution level and to create additional access points.

[31] The upgrade of the node is one of 13 infrastructure projects of the proposed German clock-face timetable (Deutschlandtakt) that, according to the coalition agreement of the red-green-yellow federal government presented in November 2021, are to be "accelerated" and implemented "with high political priority".

Above the centre there is a decorated clock with allegories of day and night and the Deutsche Bahn logo with the word "Hauptbahnhof".

The last project, called Frankfurt 21, was to put the whole station underground, connect it with tunnels also to the east, and so avoid the disadvantages of the terminal layout.

This would be financed by selling the air rights over the area now used for tracks as building ground for a skyscraper, but this soon proved unrealistic, and the project was abandoned.

With regard to regional traffic, Frankfurt Hbf is the main hub in the RMV network, offering connections to Koblenz, Limburg, Kassel, Nidda, Stockheim, Siegen, Fulda, Gießen, Aschaffenburg, Würzburg, Mannheim, Heidelberg, Dieburg, Eberbach, Worms and Saarbrücken with fifteen regional lines calling at the main station.

[33] As being listed as "urgent need" in the Federal Infrastructure Plan 2030, government funding for the scheme was secured.