Berlin's north-south S-Bahn

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Berlin's north-south S-Bahn
Route of the Berlin North-South S-Bahn
Route number (DB) : 6002 (Tunnel Nordkopf – Nordbf)
6032 (Nordbf – Anh. Bf – Schöneberg)
6034 (Anh. Bf – Anhalter Bahn)
Course book section (DB) : 200.1, 200.2, 200.25
Route length: 5.884 km
Gauge : 1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system : 750 volts  =
Top speed: 60 km / h
Legend
Route - straight ahead
 from Gesundbrunnen
   
 to Bw Nordbahnhof (until 1984)
   
 -0.072 ⊙
   
 0.0 North Station ⊙
   
 1.2 Oranienburger Strasse ⊙
   
 Spree
BSicon tSTR.svg
   
 2.0 Friedrichstrasse light rail
Long-distance transport Regional line S3 S5 S7 S9 U6 		⊙
BSicon tSTR.svg
   
 2.6 Brandenburg Gate U55 ⊙
   
 from the main station (planning S21)
   
 3.6 Potsdamer Platz Regional line U2 ⊙
   
 according to Gleisdreieck (planning S21)
   
 from Görlitzer Bf (formerly planning)
   
 4.4 Anhalter Bahnhof ⊙
   
 Landwehr Canal
BSicon tBS2 + l.svgBSicon tBS2 + r.svg
BSicon tKRZ.svgBSicon tKRZ.svg
North-South long-distance railway
BSicon tSTRe.svgBSicon tSTRe.svg
5,584 ⊙ ⊙
BSicon STR.svgBSicon STR.svg
to Südkreuz
BSicon SBHF.svgBSicon .svg
6.1 Berlin Yorckstrasse (Grossgörschenstrasse) U7 ⊙
BSicon SHST.svgBSicon .svg
6.8 Berlin Julius-Leber-Bridge ⊙
BSicon STR.svgBSicon .svg
to Schöneberg
⊙ = coordinate link

The Berlin Nordsüd-S-Bahn (at the time the proper name of the Deutsche Reichsbahn with the contemporary amalgamation "Nordsüd") is a railway line of the Berlin S-Bahn running essentially in a tunnel under the city ​​center . It comprises the section from the junction from the Stettiner Bahn between the Humboldthain and Nordbahnhof stations via Friedrichstrasse - Anhalter Bahnhof - Yorckstrasse (Großgörschenstrasse) to Berlin-Schöneberg station and the junction from the underground Anhalter Bahnhof to the Anhalter Vorortbahn .

A second north-south route of the S-Bahn with the planning name S21 is under construction. This serves u. a. to connect to the main train station (formerly: Lehrter Bahnhof ). A link with the existing north-south S-Bahn tunnel is planned at Potsdamer Platz and Yorckstrasse .

The north-south long-distance railway line via the main station to Südkreuz runs through the Tiergarten tunnel , which went into operation in 2006 .

function

The north-south train collects the three northern suburban lines Kremmener web ( Hennigsdorf ), Berliner Nordbahnstrasse ( Oranienburg ) and Stettiner web ( Bernau ) and connects them with the three southern suburban lines Wannseebahn from Berlin-Wannsee , pickup Vorortbahn of Teltow and Dresden web from Blankenfelde . It creates a S-Bahn connection between the former long-distance train stations of Stettiner Bahnhof (since December 1, 1950: Nordbahnhof) in the north and Anhalter Bahnhof and Potsdamer Bahnhof in the south, and an additional option to change trains to the east-west tram at Friedrichstrasse station .

history

Emergence

S-Bahn train series 275 of the BVG on the ramp to Anhalter and Dresdener Bahn , 1987

After the " Great Electrification " of the Berlin city, ring and suburban railways, which was essentially completed in 1933, the need grew to link the high-performance northern and southern suburban lines with a connecting line that also included the Berlin terminal stations. Due to the tight inner-city development, only a tunnel solution could be implemented. Because of several crossing underground lines and river underpasses, narrow curve radii (up to 145 meters radius), low clearance profiles and high longitudinal inclines had to be used as planning parameters.

Construction began in 1934, the Humboldthain - Unter den Linden section was opened on July 27, 1936. The southern section ( Potsdamer Platz -) Anhalter Bahnhof - Großgörschenstrasse (- Schöneberg ) could only be opened to traffic on October 9, 1939, the section Anhalter Bahnhof - Yorckstrasse (- Papestrasse) only on November 5, 1939. When the southern section was built delays. The cause was u. a. Planning changes, difficult subsoil conditions at Potsdamer Platz ( marl layer ) and a building pit collapse on August 20, 1935 near the Brandenburg Gate in front of the Palais Blücher (US embassy), in which 19 workers were killed. In addition to the three northern and southern suburban lines, the Südringpitzkehre should also be introduced into the underground Potsdamer Platz S-Bahn station . This was not done because of the plans to reorganize the imperial capital. Instead, preliminary work (tunnel stumps) was created for a branch at the Anhalter Bahnhof for the planned underground east-west S-Bahn to Görlitz station and four tunnel stumps south of the Landwehr Canal to convert the entire north-south S-Bahn into a planned S-Bahn station Head Hornstrasse.

“Heuboden” sweeping system north of Potsdamer Platz station

Furthermore, a double-track branching line was built north of Potsdamer Platz up to about the level of the Brandenburg Gate, which was initially intended to serve as a turning and parking facility for the Südringpitzkehre , and in a later construction phase was to be extended to the North Station via the stations Reichstag , Stadtkreuz and Gauhaus ( Reichstag and Gauhaus to develop the Great Hall as part of the planned world capital Germania ). This facility is used today as a storage facility ("hayloft"). It is planned to use this extension as part of the S21 to the new Berlin Central Station and on to the Nordring. With the beginning of the Second World War, apart from the preliminary work mentioned, no further work was done.

The total costs amounted to 170 million Reichsmarks (adjusted for purchasing power in today's currency around 730 million euros). 1.8 million m³ of earth was moved and 440,000 m³ of concrete and 40,000 t of steel were used.

Demolition

During the Battle of Berlin on May 2, 1945 at 7:55 a.m., a few hours before General Weidling gave orders to stop the fighting, the tunnel ceiling under the Landwehr Canal was blown up by the SS . As a result, the entire tunnel was flooded and with it, via a connecting passage at Friedrichstrasse station, large parts of the subway network (see: History of the Berlin subway ). The underground facilities of the neighboring BASA bunker were also flooded.

It is controversial whether people drowned during this flooding. Probably the corpses found and recovered between 80 and 130 later were victims of fighting during the last days of the war, who died in the tunnel before the flooding. In the last days of the war, the tunnel stations were filled with S-Bahn trains and used as emergency hospitals.

It is not clear who blasted the tunnel and who ordered it. Very good knowledge of the location and construction was required for the actual blasting. One theory suggests that the demolition could be in connection with Hitler's " Nero order ", which was carried out by members of the SS . Witnesses report that there was water in parts of the tunnel in the last days of April, but at this point in time it was only groundwater that entered the tunnel at the points that were caused by bombs or construction defects (including the broken floor near the tunnel) Unter den Linden) were damaged.

In the films Rotation , The Final Act and Liberation (Part 5) explosions and flooding were shown.

Repair

Damage to the Spree underpass, 1946

Because of the power failure caused by the fighting, the groundwater could not be pumped out. The repair work began in 1945. The Wannsee railway trains first had to be taken to the above-ground Potsdam Ringbahnhof. From June 2, 1946, there was a shuttle service between Anhalter Bahnhof and Friedrichstrasse, from July 27, 1946 the Wannseebahn trains went back into the tunnel, and from August 15, the S-Bahn trains from Lichterfelde Süd too. The damage to the Spree underpass also turned out to be considerable. Despite the severe destruction and insufficient resources and building materials, the tunnel could be used continuously on November 15, 1947 (planned operation from the following day).

Division and reunification of Berlin

S-Bahn train of the BVG series 275 on the ramp at the Nordbahnhof, 1987
Left and middle tunnel mouth at the Nordbahnhof with a class 480 train leaving , 1997

With the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, all S-Bahn and U-Bahn stations below East Berlin were closed to traffic, with the exception of the Friedrichstrasse station used as a border crossing point (see: " Tränenpalast "). The trains, which could now only be used from West Berlin , ran from Anhalter Bahnhof to Friedrichstrasse and on to Humboldthain without stopping. When the Deutsche Reichsbahn handed over the S-Bahn operations in West Berlin to the Senate on the night of January 8th to 9th, 1984, the Senate transferred operations to the Berlin Transport Company (BVG). The BVG initially only used the southern section of the tunnel to Anhalter Bahnhof and began operations through the entire north-south S-Bahn tunnel in May 1984. After the fall of the Berlin Wall , all " ghost stations " could be reopened until 1992 :

  • 0July 2, 1990: Oranienburger Strasse
  • 0September 1, 1990: Nordbahnhof, Unter den Linden
  • December 22, 1990: Bornholmer Strasse
  • 0March 1, 1992: Potsdamer Platz and reopening of the entire tunnel after renovation

1990s

The first comprehensive repairs since 1945 began in partial sections in January 1991, but in mid-1991 it was converted into a full closure due to heavy dust development. The Reichsbahn had almost all of the material in the tunnel replaced, and the walls cleaned and coated. This also removed the last damage caused by the tunnel flooding. The construction of the new long-distance railway tunnel to the main train station and the associated electromagnetic influences from the contact line made it necessary to install a new, powerful signaling system with an electronic interlocking . There were Ks signals installed, however, due to the limited space in the tunnel no conventional Ks signal umbrellas, but consisting of additional indicators with Lichtleitoptiken and LED tunnel signals which can be fitted as needed and for the classical check-in procedure by the platform supervision necessary additional signals Zp 8 ( Close doors) and Zp 9 (exit). However, the dispatch signals are no longer used since train dispatch by the train driver (ZAT) in the tunnel . The work was carried out from July 2005 to May 2006. Since then, there has also been track changing operation on the tunnel routes . The north-south S-Bahn was the last route in the Berlin S-Bahn network with the automatic route block of type AB 37 and Sv signals with shutter relays.

Train control devices

Up until the spring of 2015, the tunnel was equipped with mechanical travel locks . During the renovation up to May 2015, the ZBS system was installed and put into operation on May 4, 2015.

specification

In order to even be able to realize the tunnel construction in the densely built-up city center, exceptions to the then applicable railway building and operating regulations were necessary. According to the dimensions of the S-Bahn cars used at the time, the following exceptions were made in the planning phase:

  • smallest track radius: 150 meters (on platforms: 400 meters)
  • greatest pitch: 33 per thousand
  • maximum speed: 48 km / h (structural: 60 km / h)
  • highest lateral acceleration: 0.4 m / s²
  • maximum vehicle height: 3.80 meters

In fact, the smallest curve radius currently used on the north-south S-Bahn is only 145 meters, located in the southern exit of the Potsdamer Platz S-Bahn station from platform 2 in the direction of Anhalter Bahnhof . For the planned introduction of the south ring tracks from and to tracks 2 and 3, a radius of only 140 meters is planned.

For safe driving it is important to use a suitable wheel tire profile. After the reconditioning of the vehicles it had taken over, the BVG had to complain about several derailments in the north-south S-Bahn tunnel because it initially provided the wheelsets with the profile used by the Bundesbahn instead of continuing to use that of the Reichsbahn.

The north-south S-Bahn has a restricted special clearance profile with a height of 3.83 meters above the top of the rails and a width of 3.43 meters. The clearance profile is u. a. limited in height, which is why the vehicles of the ET 169 - which ran on other Berlin S-Bahn lines until 1962 - were not permitted in the tunnel due to their greater height and car body length and the vehicles of the Oranienburg ( ET 168 ) type were only made tunnel-compatible through conversion had to be (including moving the Wendler fans to the outside). The limitation of car height and length still influences the procurement of vehicles for the entire Berlin S-Bahn network, so constructions from other cities cannot be used for the Berlin direct current S-Bahn system.

Railway stations and tunnel entrances

Potsdamer Platz S-Bahn station

(Coming from the Stettiner Bahn and Berliner Nordbahn and their common station Gesundbrunnen )

Southwest tunnel entrance ( Wannseebahn )
South-east tunnel entrance ( Anhalter Vorortbahn )

South of the Anhalter Bahnhof, the tunnel branches off into the Wannseebahn (S1) and the Lichterfeld suburban line (parallel to the Anhalter Bahn , S25, S26), and the Dresden Railway branches off in Priesterweg (S2). The routes come back to the surface separately:

The next train stations at Yorckstraße and Yorckstraße (Großgörschenstraße) are already on separate railway lines several hundred meters apart.

Richard Brademann is the architect of most of the stations on the North-South S-Bahn . In detail these are: Bornholmer Strasse, Humboldthain, Oranienburger Strasse (Brademann's first S-Bahn underground station), Unter den Linden, Potsdamer Platz and Anhalter Bahnhof. The Szczecin S-Bahn station comes from Liège; Friedrichstrasse by Hane. Because the railway was considered a modern means of transport at the time of National Socialism , the architects were able to approach the officially frowned upon New Objectivity of early modernism at the stations . Except for details (mosaic of the national emblem in the northern distribution hall of the Potsdamer Platz S-Bahn station with the exit to the New Reich Chancellery ), the stations do not show any typical National Socialist architecture .

After the political change , the stations were renovated taking into account monument protection aspects, but important details were no longer faithfully restored: The typical S-Bahn signs on the pylon, designed by Richard Brademann, nowhere correspond to the original. The closest is the S-Bahn signs from Anhalter Bahnhof (although instead of the cast body with a luminous snake in the form of the S-Bahn “S” there is only a backlit pane of glass today). When renovating the Anhalter S-Bahn station, the BVG (on behalf of the Senate Building Department) leaned on the earlier appearance of the station and built enamelled sheet metal plates on the walls. However, in contrast to the original (white opaque glass plates ), the light reflections are completely different, and instead of white, inconspicuous joints, the gaps between the plates create a black grid. Opaque glass plates were installed in Potsdamer Platz station and other mistakes were made: The Tannenberg Fraktur font differs from the original for the station lettering, and the letters on the platform side walls are glued on raised instead of burned flat into the glass plates. The real template can be seen in the Berlin S-Bahn Museum. There is also lettering in the Helvetica font used by DB at the time . When the regional train station was built, the western part of the transport hall was cut off between the surface and the platforms. Other modern fixtures also destroyed the original spatial effect.

The station Unter den Linden was on August 8, 2009 in connection with the opening of the subway line U55 and the construction of a Umsteigebahnhofs to metro line U6 in Brandenburg Gate renamed.

Since the beginning of 2017, there have been 260 large-format photos with Berlin motifs in the tunnel stations that refer to the respective station or its surroundings.

See also

literature

  • M. Grabski: The construction of the Berlin north-south S-Bahn / The northern part: Stettiner Bahnhof - Unter den Linden station . In: " Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung ", vol. 58 (1938), pp. 503-528. Digitized
  • M. Grabski: The construction of the Berlin north-south S-Bahn / The middle part: Unter den Linden station - Potsdamer Platz station . In: "Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung", vol. 59 (1939), pp. 581–597. Digitized
  • M. Grabski: The construction of the Berlin north-south S-Bahn / The southern part: Saarlandstrasse - Anhalter Bahnhof - tunnel outlets . In: “Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung”, vol. 60 (1940), pp. 57–77. Digitized
  • IGEB Passenger Association / Berlin S-Bahn Museum: Signal -Special Issue North-South Railway - From the ghost tunnel to the City S-Bahn . GVE-Verlag, Berlin 1992.
  • Karen Meyer: The flooding of the Berlin S-Bahn tunnel in the last days of the war . Berlin Art Office Kreuzberg, Berlin 1992.
  • Michael Braun: North-South S-Bahn Berlin - 75 years of underground railways . Editor: Berliner S-Bahn Museum, GVE-Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-89218-112-5 online reading samples .
  • Wolfgang Kiebert: 75 years ago: Collapse during the construction of the north-south S-Bahn / expert on the causes of the accident in the tunnel construction near the Brandenburg Gate . In: Verkehrsgeschichtliche Blätter , Volume 37, Issue 4 (July / August 2010), pp. 89–97.

Web links

Commons : Nord-Süd-Tunnel (Berlin)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The accident was dealt with in Dischinger: The causes of the collapse of the excavation pit for the Berlin North-South S-Bahn in Hermann Göring Strasse . In: Der Bauingenieur , vol. 18, 1937, p. 107.
  2. ^ Alfred Gottwaldt: Dorpmüller's Reichsbahn. The era of the Reich Minister of Transport Julius Dorpmüller . Freiburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-88255-726-8 , p. 101 f.
  3. ^ Michael Braun: Nordsüd-S-Bahn Berlin ... , p. 158
  4. ^ Michael Braun: North-South S-Bahn Berlin . GVE, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-89218-112-5 , pp. 188 .
  5. ^ Michael Braun: North-South S-Bahn Berlin . GVE, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-89218-112-5 , pp. 198 .
  6. ↑ Report chaos after signal box defect . In: " Eisenbahn-Revue International ", issue 3/2006, ISSN  1421-2811 , p. 106.
  7. ↑ Customer magazine point 3 , May 7, 2015
  8. ↑ Michael Braun: Nordsüd-S-Bahn Berlin ..., p. 14 f.
  9. ^ Michael Braun: Nordsüd-S-Bahn Berlin ..., p. 102
  10. ↑ News in brief - S-Bahn . In: Berliner Verkehrsblätter . No. 4 , 2017, p. 76 .