<p><b>Bonn-Mehlem station</b> is a through station in the <a href="/pages/w/104126036289134">Bonn</a> district of Lannesdorf in the German state of <a href="/pages/w/108380809186391">North Rhine-Westphalia</a>. It has three platform tracks and is located on the <a href="/pages/w/231889823500161">Left Rhine line</a> south of <a href="/pages/w/139629186054776">Bonn Hauptbahnhof</a>. The station also is served by buses and has parking spaces. It is classified by <a href="/pages/w/112918588721315">Deutsche Bahn</a> as a <a href="/pages/w/143896985625492">category 4 station</a>.</p><h2>History</h2><p>On 21 January 1856, the section of the Left Rhine line between <a href="/pages/w/139629186054776">Bonn</a> and <a href="/pages/w/123724151005289">Rolandseck</a> was opened to traffic. The station in the then independent city of Mehlem was opened at this time. Due to the incorporation of <a href="/pages/w/113084738705120">Bad Godesberg</a> in the city of Bonn, Mehlem station was renamed Bonn Mehlem in 1971. Mehlem had been part of Bad Godesberg since 1935.</p><p>A slightly recessed platform in the station served from 1949 as the location for travel and receptions of the American <a href="/pages/w/132282716807086">High Commissioner</a> <a href="/pages/w/103208166399112"> John J. McCloy</a> and his successors to 1955 and the subsequent <a href="/pages/w/109161312437216">U.S. ambassadors</a>. A <a href="/pages/w/143153612364081">class VT 06</a> <a href="/pages/w/136638043023861">railbus</a> was continuously stationed here for this service. After 1963, the permanent stationing of trains at Bonn-Mehlem station for the American Embassy was terminated for financial reasons, but when required railbuses of classes VT 08-8 and VT 33.8 came from their base in <a href="/pages/w/132277976809847">Heidelberg</a>, then the most important base for American troops in Germany. Once a year, possibly more often, a special train carried the U.S. ambassador via the <a href="/pages/w/144706745542900">Brunswick–Magdeburg railway</a> through <a href="/pages/w/109406242419024">Helmstedt</a> on the established transit route to <a href="/pages/w/138155042880214">Berlin-Lichterfelde West</a>. The last such journey of an ambassador at Bonn-Mehlem took place on 18/19 December 1990 during the tenure of <a href="/pages/w/103210056399710">Vernon A. Walters</a>. <a href="/pages/w/114766685206619">German reunification</a> ended the role of Bonn-Mehlem station as a station of the American Embassy.</p>