The Fils Valley Railway, running via Geislingen, Göppingen and Plochingen to Stuttgart, is a double-track and electrified main line, used for domestic and international long-distance traffic at a maximum speed of 160 km/h.

Long-distance services also run from Ulm on the electrified and double-track main line via Günzburg to Augsburg, which has a maximum speed of 200 km/h (124 mph).

Because this option would have meant that the extension of the line to Friedrichshafen would have run through Bavarian territory, the Württemberg engineers instead planned a railway station aligned north–south at its current location to the west of the city.

In the race against Bavaria and Baden to complete the first rail connection to Lake Constance, Württemberg began building the Southern Railway to Friedrichshafen via Biberach, with major work beginning in the summer of 1847.

Because of possible landslides on Kuhberg (hill), just before Ulm station, the Danube was moved and the Southern Railway was built on reclaimed land on the old river bed.

The station building, which was designed by the architect Ludwig Friedrich Gaab in a style combining gothic revival and neoclassical elements, was opened in December 1850.

On 17 May 1856, the connection through Ulm was opened to international trade, allowing the transportation of wood, grain, tobacco, cement, bricks and coal for the steam engines by rail.

On 12 October 1862, the Iller Valley Railway was opened from Neu-Ulm to Memmingen with four trains running daily and it was extended to Kempten on 1 June 1863.

Part of the fortress wall built in the Middle Ages was demolished at the end of 1866 to give the station direct access to the city centre.

On 25 June 1875 the first trial run operated over the newly constructed Brenz Railway from Aalen via Heidenheim to Ulm and it was opened on 5 January 1876.

On 24 January 1877, the footbridge that crossed the station and connected it to the Zum Russischen Hof hotel was completed; its construction had started in July 1875.

On 25 September 1902, Württemberg King Wilhelm II granted the State Railway the right to expropriate the required land, so construction of the marshalling yard could begin in 1903.

From July 1930, the D 208 express made the fastest train run in Württemberg, taking 78 minutes over the 104 kilometre route from Ulm to Friedrichshafen.

On 14 April 1939, under an order issued by the Ministry of Transport in 1936, the Bahnhofsmission was replaced by the station services of the National Socialist Women's League.

From 1945 to 1959, as a result of its location as the last town before the border between the American and French occupation zones and being a major transportation hub, Ulm was the main place in Southern Germany for storing rolling stock.

Extension work on the north wing of the station building, which had been abandoned in 1964, was resumed in September 1969, but, it was stopped again due to financial problems on 7 May 1971.

Work began on 18 August 1971 to enlarge the station building to increase the number of beds in the Bundesbahn hotel for the 1972 Summer Olympics held in Munich.

In September 1971, the construction work on the northern part of the entrance building resumed again following complaints by the railway workers' union and the north wing was completed in February 1973.

From May 1986, Deutsche Bundesbahn planned to relocate the central bus station underground and redevelop the space vacated with an office complex.

On 18 August 1971, the upgrade of the station building began in order to increase the number of beds of the Deutsche Bundesbahn Hotel for the 1972 Summer Olympics held in Munich.

In September 1971, the construction on the northern part of the entrance building resumed because of complaints from the railway workers' union and in February 1973, the north wing was completed with offices and a canteen.

[8] In May 1978, Deutsche Bundesbahn opened a tourist office in the entrance building and on 22 October 1992,[30] it put a computerised departure board with a split-flap display into operation in the station.

As a replacement, the Balkan Express was established from Strasbourg to Constantinople on 15 January 1916, but this was shortened in June 1917, due to weak demand, to the Munich–Constantinople route and thus no longer served Ulm.

In December 1985, a portion of the TEE Rheingold that had run from Amsterdam to Munich and Salzburg via Aalen and Donauwörth since May 1982 was rerouted via Ulm, but on 30 May 1987, it was abolished.

On 2 June 1991, Deutsche Bundesbahn introduced the Intercity-Express into traffic, with the hourly Intercity route from Hamburg-Altona via Hannover, Frankfurt and Stuttgart to Munich replaced by the new ICE trains.

In the next few years, the entire station area, the surrounding streets and neighbourhoods are to be completely redesigned and rebuilt in a project known as Citybahnhof Ulm.

[51] On 18 January 2012, the Federal Railway Authority asked the Tübingen region to conduct an additional consultation process on further changes to the plans.

Deutsche Bahn justified the omission of the fifth platform with operational improvements as a result of the concentration of all train parking in a new vehicle maintenance facility and sidings.

The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure doubted whether the platform could actually be eliminated if long-term service improvements (including the planned Danube-Iller Regional S-Bahn) were to be implemented.

[54] The reconstruction of the north end of the station, for around €38m, was awarded to a consortium of the companies Geiger and Schüle Bau (Ulm), Matthäus Schmid Bauunternehmen (Baltringen) and Kurt Motz Tiefbau (Illertissen).