History UsefulNotes / BerlinUAndSBahn

* Several other countries have also taken to calling their commuter rail systems S-something and abbreviating them with an S, even though this sometimes makes limited to no sense in the target language.

->''"Einsteigen, bitte!"''
->''"Zurückbleiben, bitte!"''

* '''U3''' is known since the 1990s. The northwestern part of U10 from Weißensee to Potsdamer Platz is supposed to merge with a western stretch of the bifurcated small-profile network. In the 2023 draft, they took the existing U3 to Krumme Lanke (and Mexikoplatz and Düppel-Kleinmachnow) in the deep southwest for familiarity reasons, but as new lines aren't supposed to be built in small-profile anymore and you need a line to be in one peace, a rebuilt stub at Kurfürstendamm (now part of U1) seems more likely.

* Notable mention deserve plans for U1. The current western end at Uhlandstraße is supposed to see an extension via ICC to P+R Heerstraße in Spandau, an extended U7 (down south from Spandau City Hall) at Gatowstraße station. This revives plans for a third line into Spandau, but staying far away from its core. The eastern end at Warschauer Straße is supposed to see an extension before Frankfurter Allee station (U5) up to Antonplatz in Weißensee, crossing U0 and U3 in the most optimistic scenario.

* '''U3''' is known since the 1990s. The northwestern part of U10 from Weißensee to Potsdamer Platz is supposed to merge with a western stretch of the bifurcated small-profile network. In the 2023 draft, they took the existing U3 to Krumme Lanke (and Mexikoplatz and Düppel-Kleinmachnow) in the deep southwest for familiarity reasons, but as new lines aren't supposed to be built in small-profile anymore and you need a line to be in one peace, rebuilt the stub at Kurfürstendamm (now part of U1) seems more likely.
* '''U4''' is supposed to merge the southwesternmost part of U10 with the rebuilt (to large-profile) legacy line U4 in the former borough of Schöneberg and (via Tiergarten) with Berlin Hauptbahnhof and adjacent U11 plans in the northwest.

* '''U3'' is known since the 1990s. The northwestern part of U10 from Weißensee to Potsdamer Platz is supposed to merge with a western stretch of the bifurcated small-profile network. In the 2023 draft, they took the existing U3 to Krumme Lanke (and Mexikoplatz and Düppel-Kleinmachnow) in the deep southwest for familiarity reasons, but as new lines aren't supposed to be built in small-profile anymore and you need a line to be in one peace, rebuilt the stub at Kurfürstendamm (now part of U1) seems more likely.

There are several other cities that have rapid transit pretender systems (known as ''Stadtbahn'' in german)[[note]]Cologne/Bonn, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt am Main, Stuttgart, Hannover, Bielefeld, Dortmund, Essen, Duisburg, Bochum, also Karlsruhe from 2020[[/note]] which may look like U-Bahn and have U designations, but they're rather cheap and dirty crossbreeds of undergrounds and streetcars/trams and therefore fall under the category of light rail systems.

There are several other cities that have rapid transit pretender systems [[note]]Cologne/Bonn, Frankfurt am Main, Stuttgart, Hannover, Bielefeld, the Ruhr, also Karlsruhe from 2020[[/note]] which may look like U-Bahn and have U designations, but they're rather cheap and dirty crossbreeds of undergrounds and streetcars/trams and therefore fall under the category of light rail systems.

** The [[http://www.stadtschnellbahn-berlin.de/baureihen/br170/index.php DR 170 series]] has been called "the blue miracle" (read: shock of your life) for a reason. It's been in blue and full of technical problems. They could have been fixed and become the first post-war S-Bahn stock, but demand for it plummeted due to the boycott in the West and the repurchase of old S-Bahn trains that used to be reparations to the Soviets. A very unique kind of TheGreatPoliticsMessUp.

* TheGreatPoliticsMessUp: No city in the world has its historic legacy as thoroughly cast into concrete as Berlin has. The UsefulNotes/ColdWar got an own folder in this article for a reason.

** The southwestern section (Steglitz - Kleistpark) was deliberately planned as a DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment to the ''Wannseebahn'' serviced by the S-Bahn and therefore very vulnerable to any minor form of TheGreatPoliticsMessUp.

[[folder:Tramway/Streetcar]]The first electric streetcar in the world was run in 1881 in the Berlin suburb of Lichterfelde and the Berlin network has always been considered one of the biggest ones in world, though never the biggest of them all. Car-oriented urban planning became the big thing after the war, but the first major blow came in 1953 when the Berlin network was divided between West and East just because [[SocietyMarchesOn the West wouldn't accept women drivers in their half]] while the communist East had no qualms about at least paying lip service to female empowerment. Shortly thereafter, West Berlin decided to phase out the streetcar network in its half and the last tram line was retired in 1967.

Just as the West, the East also had plans for new stretches of U-Bahn, the only difference is that the East couldn't afford it. The easternmost part of line F (Alexanderplatz - Weißensee) was scheduled to be built in the early 1970s and the GDR actually did precautions when it remodeled Alexanderplatz in the late 1960s, but eventually came to the conclusion that the country lacked the money to make it reality. This was also the death knell to a housing project in Karow which is beyond Weißensee and other sites promised easier to realize accessibility.

* '''U5''' via Turmstraße and Jungfernheide to Tegel Airport - officially still planned, unlikely to happen before Tegel Airport closes, currently not a priority.
* '''U7''' to the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport - would link Neukölln to the airport on a more direct route than the S-Bahn and expand the U-Bahn outside the city boundaries for the first time since Hönow (U5) was annexed; downsides are the sparse population in Schönefeld (necessitating a few kilometers of subway through areas where few people live) and the lack of any preparatory works under the new airport terminal.
* '''U8''' to Märkisches Viertel - only a short stretch would be needed and Märkische Viertel was built in such a way as to allow easy subway construction. However, the last few stations of U8 are little used as it runs in parallel to the S-Bahn due to being planned in the 1980s and getting built anyway. An extension of the tram from Pankow is often discussed as a potential alternative.

It is pretty obvious that Berlin cannot afford to build more than a few stations at a time and likely not on more than one line at once. However, aside from the under construction U5 extension which was called for by federal law, there are few extensions that are eminently better than others at first sight and the governing (elected 2016) red-red-green coalition has said they won't move forward on any proposed expansions before 2021. The tram and S-Bahn are different stories and extensions are either underway or planned for the foreseeable future. That said, here are some of the extensions that are repeated every time the debate comes up:

Just as the West, the East also had plans for new stretches of U-Bahn, the only difference is that the East couldn't afford it. The easternmost part of line F (Alexanderplatz - Weißensee) was scheduled to be built in the early 1970s and the GDR actually did precautions when it remodeled Alexanderplatz in the late 1960s, but eventually came to the conclusion that the country lacked the money to make it reality. This was also the death kneel to a housing project in Karow which is beyond Weißensee and other sites promised easier to realize accessibility.

Rail traffic plummeted as the old capital of Prussia and the Reich became a torso of its former self and as formerly centrally located termini became part of a frontier over night, they either became undemanded, undesired or both. The result was that all the termini in Berlin were laid off by 1952. The vital post-war stations were concentrated along the ''Stadtbahn'', of course: In West Berlin, Zoo Station became the ''de facto'' main station, whereas in East Berlin there was the East Station to fulfil said role until eventually being outperformed by Berlin Lichtenberg Station that's even further to the east. [[note]]After reconstruction, East Station was renamed into ''Hauptbahnhof'' ("Main Station") in 1987, [[{{Irony}} even if the description had fit so much better to Lichtenberg.]][[/note]]

In the East however, the S-Bahn became the backbone of public transport together with one and a half remaining U-Bahn lines and the tram/streetcar (which wasn't axed as it was in West Berlin until 1967 due to economic problems, even if so desired). The highest priority were housing projects and whatever kind of transport were to be used to access them was decided on the fly. In the case of Wartenberg and Ahrensfelde, S-Bahn was expanded, in the case of Hellersdorf, the line E (modern U5) of the U-Bahn was expanded with a generous overground section, like an ersatz S-Bahn. And all of them got tram access as well.

But just as the West, the East also had plans for new stretches of U-Bahn, the only difference is that the East couldn't afford it. The easternmost part of line F (Alexanderplatz - Weißensee) was scheduled to be built in the early 1970s and the GDR actually did precautions when it remodeled Alexanderplatz in the late 1960s, but eventually came to the conclusion that the country lacked the money to make it reality.

Another brainchild of the GDR was a new U-Bahn line that current urban planning has designated as a line ''U11'' along Mollstraße and Landsberger Straße. The GDR also wanted to reactivate lines C and D on its East Berlin stretches, cutting off their West Berlin ends from each other, but then the GDR died years before any efforts could come into fruition.

''' ''Lehrter Bahnhof'' becomes ''Berlin Hauptbahnhof'' '''

''' The ''Kanzler-U-Bahn (Chancellor Subway)'' '''

The extension of the U5 from Alexanderplatz to Berlin Central Station via the historic centre of Berlin is currently undergoing and supposed to be finished by 2020. A short stretch has already been opened between Central Station and Brandenburg Gate as an isolated stub called ''U55'', because the city would have had to pay back money to the federal government if they hadn't opened some kind of service within a certain time limit.

''' ''Berlin At Day And Night:'' The Ascence Of CaptainErsatz'''

''' ''A Modern Disaster Area:'' Chaos In The S-Bahn '''

* '''U5''': Color brown. A small stub line in Charlottenburg labeled AIII was shortly the line 5, but was closed in 1970 and the number 5 was reserved for the line E in East Berlin that was built in 1930 from Alexanderplatz to Friedrichsfelde. It got a minor extension to Tierpark (East Berlin Zoo) in 1973 and a major extension into new housing projects in 1988/89. Currenctly, the middle section of an extension from Alexanderplatz to Berlin Central Station are underway. Theoretically, it should one day be continued to what is now Tegel Airport, but as said airport has been closed for BER Airport in Schönefeld and as Berlin is bankrupt, it will likely remain theory.
* ''U55'': Opened in 2009, the U55 is an isolated stub of the U5 shuttling between Central Station and Brandenburg Gate. An alibi service in order to not pay back federal grants. Work to connect U55 to U5 (and getting rid of the U55 name afterwards) is underway. The current rolling stock of U55 had to be lowered in from above through a hole specifically left for that purpose as there is no rail connection to any other part of the network. The stations have also been used to shoot some movies before service started, among them Film/AeonFlux.

** '''S9''': Westkreuz - Warschauer Straße - Treptower Park - Schönefeld Airport

** '''S9''': Pankow - Ostkreuz - Schönefeld Airport

* '''''S6''''': There's an idea to connect the northern S21 with the Görlitzer Bahn through a new trunk line in Kreuzberg planned in the 1920s as an U-Bahn and in the 1930s as the '''Ost-West-S-Bahn''', making for a direct connection from Gartenfeld at a rejuvenated '''Siemensbahn''' in the northwest to the Berlin Brandenburg Airport in the southeast. There would be five new stations between Potsdamer Platz and Plänterwald all offering interchanges.

In the very end, the East Berlin line E (modern U5) was intended to receive a Western sister to access Tegel Airport[[note]]The stress is on '''the very end''' after anything else, it's been shelved indefinitely due to Tegel Airport's planned closure after the opening of the new Berlin Brandenburg International Airport ([[DevelopmentHell first scheduled for 2011, no date in sight as of 2016]]) and may only gain new traction after redevelopment of the airport site.[[/note]] and these were one day supposed to be merged into one big east-west line if political circumstances changed.[[note]]As they [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp actually did]] and made the "merger" getting done first even if it's DevelopmentHell all in itself too.[[/note]] Before that, a line U10 (formerly F) along the ''Wannseebahn'' was scheduled to be built from 1985 onwards, but quickly dropped when control of the Western S-Bahn was finally handed over. The reasons for this were, as usual, complicated.

* '''U5''': Color brown. A small stub line in Charlottenburg labeled AIII was shortly the line 5, but was closed in 1970 and the number 5 was reserved for the line E in East Berlin that was built in 1930 from Alexanderplatz to Friedrichsfelde. It got a minor extension to Tierpark (East Berlin Zoo) in 1973 and a major extension into new housing projects in 1988/89. Currenctly, the middle section of an extension from Alexanderplatz to Berlin Central Station are underway. Theoretically, it should one day be continued to what is now Tegel Airport, but as said airport was originally planned to be closed if and when Berlin Brandenburg International Airport[[note]]originally scheduled to open in 2011, still not anywhere near opening as of 2017[[/note]] in Schönefeld opens and as Berlin is bankrupt, it will likely remain theory.

** Rudow as the line's southeastern terminus is not all that far from Schönefeld Airport (and there is already a bus linking the two points) and the [[DevelopmentHell planned]] Berlin Brandenburg Airport would have its main terminal just a kilometer from there, so you can make a great case for extending the line there. The actual underground railroad station that sees passenger-free maintaining traffic to prevent mold from growing is for the S-Bahn, lines S9 and S45 to be exact. Extending line U7 was rejected for only benefiting the borough of Neukölln where the U7 runs. However, in the course of the keep-Tegel-open referendum (which passed but is non-binding) renewed talks of extending U7 to Schönefeld and perhaps further to the new airport came up. A problem with such an extension would be how construction and operating costs are partitioned between Berlin and the neighboring municipality Schönefeld in Landkreis Dahme-Spreewald (LDS for short and on car plates), Brandenburg. A similar problem was also the reason why parts of Honöw became incorporated into Berlin upon reunification.

* '''U7''' to the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport, currently stuck in DevelopmentHell - would link Neukölln to the airport on a more direct route than the S-Bahn and expand the U-Bahn outside the city boundaries for the first time since Hönow (U5) was annexed; downsides are the sparse population in Schönefeld (necessitating a few kilometers of subway through areas where few people live) and the lack of any preparatory works under the new airport terminal.

* Transit planner note: Using lighter vehicles [[TropesAreNotBad enables running lines even on-street in the suburbs, which is a rather good way to make transit more accessible]], but obviously won't work if high capacity is needed. This is why such lines are often "bundled" together in dedicated tunnels in the central parts of these systems.

** Until 1978, a northwestern extension through Charlottenburg via Adenauerplatz (western end of the Ku'damm) to Richard-Wagner-Platz (near Charlottenburg City Hall) was constructed. Up to here, the route follows plans for a new circle line of the U-Bahn envisioned in the Albert Speer's Germania plans, a circle line for the U-Bahn inside the circle line of the S-Bahn which made the purpose of the line 7 fully clear: Providing an alternative to the S-Bahn.

[[folder:Tramway/Streetcar]]The first electric streetcar in the world was run in 1881 in the Berlin suburb of Lichterfelde and the Berlin network has always been considered one of the biggest ones in world, though never the biggest of them all. Car-oriented urban planning became the big thing after the war, but the first major blow came in 1953 when the Berlin network was divided between West and East just because [[SocietyMarchesOn the West wouldn't accept women drivers in their half]] while the communist East had no qualms about at least paying lip service to female empowerment.

Shortly thereafter, West Berlin decided to phase out the streetcar network in its half and the last tram line was retired in 1967.

When reunification came along, car-oriented urban planning already had experienced a major backlash and what happened now was a tram reconquista. The first and major extension into former West Berlin was built from Prenzlauer Berg via Gesundbrunnen into Wedding, all quite populous and accessing five rapid transit lines on the way. The second "western" extension was a relatively short but useful line along Bernauer Straße, a street in former West Berlin running parallel to the northern boundary of East Berlin precinct Mitte (Centre) and therefore directly on the western side of the wall. The third extension was the much delayed extension of trams along Invalidenstraße to Berlin Hauptbahnhof, which finally opened in late summer 2015 and significantly improved the ease of getting to other parts of the city from the station. The red-red-green coalition government (leftist/center-left) in office since 2016 has committed to further tram extensions at the expense of any further U-Bahn construction much to the chagrin of the CDU FDP [=AfD=] opposition which considers U-Bahn extensions vastly preferable to trams.

* ''U12'': The U12 is an episodic auxillary line that served as a festival and night line in 1993-2003 and gets reactivated whenever central portions of either U1 or U2 are broken to lower the number of transfer for normally not transfering passenger from two transfers to merely one. It actually matches the course of the line 1 from 1961 to 1993, fusing BI and AI, the latter now again part of the U2, the original line A.

* '''U3''': Color lime green. Running all the way from Wittenbergplatz into the deep southwest of Berlin, the former lines AII and BII ran along the course that is now served by the U3. After unbundling, it's been internally dubbed as AII and also got the line number 2 after 1966, supposed to be merged with the line A in East Berlin one day, therefore following chronological order both in all of Berlin and West Berlin alone. After the central section of the modern U2 was rebuilt in 1993 and several lines were recombined, what is now the U3 became part of the U1. From 2005 on, Wittenbergplatz-Krumme Lanke became the U3. Besides serving many posh boroughs of Berlin, it also accesses the Free University of Berlin, one of the three Berlin university besides the old Humboldt University and the Technological University. From May 2018 on, line U3 will be extended to Warschauer Straße and run the same course as the U1 did in 1993-2005.

In the East however, the S-Bahn became the backbone of public transport together with what remained of the U-Bahn and the tram/streetcar (which wasn't axed as it was in West Berlin until 1967 due to economic problems, even if so desired). The highest priority were housing projects and whatever kind of transport were to be used to access them was decided on the fly. In the case of Wartenberg and Ahrensfelde, S-Bahn was expanded, in the case of Hellersdorf, the line E (modern U5) of the U-Bahn was expanded with a generous overground section, like an ersatz S-Bahn. And all of them got tram access as well.