Herne station was opened in the inner city of Herne in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia in 1847 together with the Cologne-Minden trunk line. It was located between the village of Herne, which had about 1,000 inhabitants, and the moated castle of Schloss Strünkede and was south of the current station on Von-der-Heydt-Strasse. It soon had a connection to the more southerly city of Bochum, which until 14 years later did not have its own station. For this reason the station was called Herne-Bochum until 1855.