It is on the Saal Railway and is served by two long-distance services each day and regional trains to and from Naumburg, Saalfeld and Pößneck.

[4] On 1 March 2002, construction and financing contracts for the new ICE station was signed between Deutsche Bahn, the state of Thuringia and the city of Jena.

[6] The old station building was abandoned, at the beginning of reconstruction in 2003, as the existing island platform did not have the required 370 m length for ICE operations.

The station is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a Haltepunkte (loosely: "halt"), as it is not a rail junction and, more specifically, it has no sets of points.

As it is built on an embankment, there is limited space in the single storey building with rooms for two ticket offices for Deutsche Bahn and a bakery, which sells newspapers and other travel-related products in addition to pastries.