Underground

We’re heading towards the future with the new U5 – ecological, accessible, and right through the centre. With three new stations between Alexanderplatz and Brandenburger Tor, the line now runs from Berlin’s Central Station through Friedrichshain and on to Hönow. The biggest vehicle procurement programme in the BVG’s history is also ensuring a better underground for Berlin. Over the next few years, we will be investing some three billion euros in upgrading and growing our fleet. Our depot infrastructure and employee numbers will grow along with it. Now and in the future, the underground is the backbone of Berlin’s transport network. But how did it all start? Or rather, who started it? It was Werner Siemens, who back in 1879 began work on an electrically operated elevated railway on Berlin’s streets. A section of line from Stralauer Tor to Potsdamer Platz opened on 15 February 1902. By 1913, the network had expanded to cover a length of 37.8 kilometres, 27 of which were in tunnels. At 2.30 metres, the carriages on the historic first four lines U1 to U4 were the same width as the trams of the time. It was not until the 1920s that bigger and taller wide gauge trains (2.65 metres wide by 3.40 metres tall) were used on the lines U5 to U9. While 42.5 kilometres were added to the network in the Weimar Republic, further expansion was out of the question during the second world war. Construction resumed in earnest once all the war damage had been repaired in 1953, and the underground network grew steadily during the Cold War, especially in West Berlin. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the separate underground systems were reunited, and the “ghost stations,” which had been closed for over 25 years, were reopened. Today, nine underground lines connect 174 stations over a length of 155.5 kilometres in Germany’s biggest public transport network of this type.

Tram

Berlin’s better off with the tram. As an extremely eco-friendly mode of transport, it is responsible for just one seventh of a car’s emissions in the city. Most of the world’s major cities are therefore working hard to expand their tram networks. And this form of rail transport also has a rosy future in the German capital. As well as a long history. A horse-drawn tram, running between Brandenburger Tor and Charlottenburg, began the success story of Berlin’s trams back in 1865. Electrically operated vehicles were first used in 1881, and all Berlin tram routes were electrified by 1902. They have been operated by the BVG since 1929. After the second world war, the authorities in West Berlin decided to dismantle the tram network; the last tram, on route 55, completed its run in 1967. The authorities in the east of the city, however, chose to expand the network and upgrade its rolling stock. It was the obvious choice: one kilometre of underground engineering cost as much as 20 kilometres of tram infrastructure. After Germany was reunified, the Berlin Senate drew up an action plan for Berlin’s trams that guaranteed their preservation and further expansion. Not without reason: trams are fast, convenient, and safe. They also relieve the city of additional pollution and never get caught in a traffic jam. With 300 kilometres of tracks, Berlin’s tram network is the third largest in the world – its 22 routes pick up and deposit passengers at over 800 stops.

Bus

Bus route 300, which runs right through the city from Warschauer Straße to Potsdamer Platz, is a clear sign of our commitment to the environment: on Berlin’s bus lanes, the future is 100% climate-neutral. The capital is aiming to run only electric buses by 2030. This will mean nothing less than a complete transformation of Germany’s biggest bus fleet. The BVG operates a total of over 1,400 double-decker and single-decker buses of various designs, 1,300 of which are its own and more than 100 are run by subcontractors. The most common double-decker at present is the six-wheeler MAN A 39. The 416 vehicles were purchased between 2005 and 2010 and can carry around 110 passengers, with 55 seats on the popular upper deck. The history of Germany’s biggest city bus network goes back a long way. Berlin already had buses in 1847, initially horse-drawn carriages from the “Concessionierte Berlin Omnibus-Compagnie” (“Licensed Berlin Omnibus Company”). By 1875, 14 million people were using these buses every year. The horse-drawn buses were gradually replaced by motor buses from 1905, and passengers numbers continued to rise. Today, 466 million passengers a year reach their destinations safely by bus.