This week, we are taking a look at one of the most famous and at the same time most complex buildings in the Hanseatic city: Hamburg Central Station.
With over 500,000 passengers a day, it is one of the busiest train stations in Europe - and is therefore also a central part of the route network in The Bus DLC - Hamburg City.

In the simulation, the bus routes run along the Steintorwall and Steintordamm - i.e. directly alongside the main station.
The bus stops are located directly at the pedestrian exits to the platforms, which makes for a particularly realistic transfer scenario.
Even though many of the platform details are not directly visible from above, it was important to us to recreate them true to the original in order to make the atmosphere of the location tangible.

As always, the images shown are from a development phase that has not yet been finalized.
The overhead line is currently still being reworked, as are the platform areas, which will later be supplemented with suitable decorations and other objects.
In the finished game, regional trains, Metronom trains and even a few long-distance trains will be seen there alongside suburban trains - some of which will be visible from the street, making them a real eye-catcher in the cityscape.

A look at the history of the main station shows how deeply rooted this transportation hub is in urban life:
The station was opened in 1906 and replaced several smaller terminus stations.
The imposing steel and glass hall construction was an architectural masterpiece in its day - and remains so to this day.
The track layout is characterized by its central location: connections branch out from here in all directions - from the city centre to the suburbs, from northern Germany to the south.

This networking is also noticeable in the simulation. The area around the main station represents a kind of heart of the route, both in terms of passenger flows and from a transport planning perspective.
The digital implementation is correspondingly complex - with a particular focus on the street space, the traffic mix and the characteristic surroundings.

The replication of the track areas and the central station is one of the larger implementations in the Hamburg City-Map.
We already have an entry about the central station in the developer diary, which is linked below.

Our goal is to create the most vivid, detailed image of Hamburg Central Station possible - a place that millions know and that you can experience in a completely new way in The Bus.

As always, we welcome your questions and suggestions at:
TheBus@halycon.info

See you next time - and have fun on your virtual commute through Hamburg!

Your Halycon Media Development