Berlin's new train station: The last piece in the jigsaw

[Kellanved]

Anyone who knew Berlin in the 1990s remembers it as very much a work in progress. Riding the light railway from Zoo Station in the west to Alexanderplatz in the east, passengers looked out onto a bleak landscape of wasteland and building sites, the skyline dominated by a dense forest of cranes.

Since then, the panorama has improved as architectural set-pieces of Potsdamer Platz's skyscrapers, the hyper-modern Chancellery and the rebuilt Reichstag have been completed.

Now the last piece of the urban jigsaw is almost in place, as the gigantic new Hauptbahnhof (main train station), Berlin's last great post-reunification construction project, nears completion.

...
The Hauptbahnhof, also known by its former name of Lehrter Bahnhof (Lehrter Station), is due to open on May 28, just in time for the FIFA World Cup's June 9 kick-off. This transport cathedral, as its architect Meinhard von Gerkan has dubbed it, will be Europe's largest-ever rail hub.

Every day 300,000 passengers and visitors are expected to pass through, with the daily timetable including 160 long-distance trains, 310 regional trains, and 800 metropolitan trains. For the first time in Berlin's history, rail passengers from all four directions will be able to arrive at the same station.
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http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?subchannel_id=26&story_id=26858

Sadly the station is finished ahead of the tracks; the north-south axis will take more time to be completed, as will the subway connection. Still, it is a major improvement.

[marmar]

1. There was a fascinating documentary about it...

on the Discovery Channel. It will surely be an improvement over the extra-chaotic Zoo Bahnhof.