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The Berlin North-South main line (German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

: Nord-Süd-Fernbahn), also called the North-South link (Nord-Süd-Verbindung) called, is a railway line in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, which was opened in 2006. It is an electrified line that is an important component of the “mushroom concept” (Pilzkonzept) adopted for long-distance and regional rail services through the city. Its core is an approximately 3.5 km long tunnel under the Tiergarten

Großer Tiergarten

The Großer Tiergarten, simply known as Tiergarten, is an urban public park of Germany located in the middle of Berlin, completely in the homonymous locality...

 in Berlin. The tunnel section includes the underground level of the Berlin central station

Berlin Hauptbahnhof

' , is the main railway station in Berlin, Germany. It began full operation two days after a ceremonial opening on 26 May 2006. It is located on the site of the historic Lehrter Bahnhof, and until it opened as a main line station, it was a stop on the Berlin S-Bahn suburban railway temporarily...

 and the Potsdamer Platz regional station. The above-ground section of the line includes the Berlin Südkreuz station

Berlin Südkreuz

Berlin Südkreuz is a railway station in the German capital Berlin. The station was originally opened in 1898 and is an interchange station...

.

General

The line is a four-track connection between the Ringbahn (Ring line) in the north of Berlin via the Berlin Hauptbahnhof (central station) to Südkreuz and the Anhalt Railway

Anhalt Railway

The Anhalt railway , most commonly referred to as the Berlin-Halle railway , is a twin-track, electrified main line found in the German city-state of Berlin, and the states of Brandenburg and Sachsen-Anhalt...

 in the south. North of the Hauptbahnhof the line divides into two double-track lines. One of them runs east, the other west, both running on to the Ring line. The tunnel and the connecting to the northeast are entirely new lines. The connection from the tunnel to the north-west to Moabit

Moabit

Moabit is an inner city locality of Berlin. Since Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it belongs to the newly regrouped governmental borough of Mitte. Previously, from 1920 to 2001, it belonged to the borough of Tiergarten. Moabit's borders are defined by three watercourses, the Spree, the...

 follows the course of the Lehrter railway. The southern section runs above ground through the former yards of the Anhalt Railway.

Northern section

The route from Wedding junction starts at a grade-separated junction towards the southwest from the Ring line’s mainline tracks. It first crosses over the southern mainline track of the Ring line, and is rising. It then runs across a bridge, called the Überflieger (overflyer) that crosses the Berlin-Spandau navigation canal, Perleberger Straße (street), the lines of the old Lehrter railway, the freight lines serving the Hamburger

Hamburger Bahnhof

Hamburger Bahnhof is a former railway station in Berlin, Germany, on Invalidenstraße in the Moabit district opposite the Charité hospital. Today it serves as the Museum für Gegenwart , a contemporary art museum....

 and Lehrter stations

Berlin Hauptbahnhof

' , is the main railway station in Berlin, Germany. It began full operation two days after a ceremonial opening on 26 May 2006. It is located on the site of the historic Lehrter Bahnhof, and until it opened as a main line station, it was a stop on the Berlin S-Bahn suburban railway temporarily...

 and one of the tracks of the new Lehrter line. The line descends to the south and reaches the level of the tracks of the Lehrter railway at the entrance to the tunnel and then descends a ramp with a gradient of 2.5 per cent.

Tunnel

Not far beyond the tunnel entrance is the lower level of the Berlin Hauptbahnhof with its eight platforms. South of the station the line passes under the Spree

Spree

The Spree is a river that flows through the Saxony, Brandenburg and Berlin states of Germany, and in the Ústí nad Labem region of the Czech Republic...

 river. The tunnel turns southeast to Potsdamer Platz station and then back to the south. It passes under the Landwehr Canal

Landwehrkanal

The Landwehr Canal, or Landwehrkanal in German, is a long canal parallel to the Spree river in Berlin, Germany, built between 1845 and 1850 according to plans by Peter Joseph Lenné...

 and rises to the surface again near of Gleisdreieck U-Bahn station

Gleisdreieck (Berlin U-Bahn)

Gleisdreieck is a Berlin U-Bahn station located on a viaduct on the and the lines in the Kreuzberg district. The station has platforms elevated above ground level for both lines...

 on a ramp with a gradient of 3.0 per cent.

Southern section

East of the tunnel exit is the site of the disused Anhalter freight yard. The bridges on the line over Yorckstraße lie between the S-Bahn to the west and the disused bridges of the tracks to the former freight yard. Continuing south, the line runs along the former route of the Anhalter line parallel to the S-Bahn. The line has one S-Bahn and three long-distance double-sided platforms on the lower level of Südkreuz station, below the Ringbahn S-Bahn platform. After Südkreuz the line crosses the extensive facilities of the former Tempelhof marshalling yard. The former mainline of the Anhalter railway ran to the west next to the S-Bahn tracks in today's Südgelände Nature Park. The line ends at Südkreuz south end junction, more than a kilometre south of the Südkreuz platforms. The line continues as the Anhalter railway. Nearby there are preparations for the proposed grade-separated junction with the Dresden railway. Also nearby is the freight line connecting the Ring railway with the freight yard at Marienfelde.

History

In 1882 the Stadtbahn was opened crossing central Berlin east to west. Plans since the beginning of the 20th century for a similar line from north to south for a long time came to nothing. The North-South tunnel built in the 1930s through the city centre only serves the S-Bahn.

After the reunification of Germany

German reunification

German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...

 and Berlin in 1990, a north-south line for mainline trains through Berlin was discussed. The use of the Stadtbahn for mainline trains meant that many connections required a devious route and in addition the limit of its capacity was expected to be reached soon. Among the various options discussed and then adopted was the so-called mushroom concept (German: Pilzkonzept), which provided for a partially underground north-south route, which crossed the Stadtbahn at the Hauptbahnhof.

In April 1992, the mushroom concept was added to the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan. Its core would be a new eight kilometre-long route through the city with a 3.5 km long tunnel. Construction began on 13 October 1995. In 2001, reconstruction began on the Papestraße S-Bahn station, creating the new Südkreuz station. In 2002, construction began on the southern section of the above ground line, originally planned to be opened in 2002. After a series of delays, including flooding in 1997, the track, tunnels and Hauptbahnhof was finally inaugurated on 27 May 2006 and put into scheduled operation a day later.

Compared to the original schedule, the project scope has been reduced. A link to the trunk line towards Potsdam was not built. Instead only some structural preparations for a connection in the southern part of the tunnel were built. Similarly, the connection of the Dresden Railway to Berlin has still not been rebuilt. The Südkreuz station was originally opened with only two of its three long-distance platforms. The third platform was not connected to the network until late 2007 to provide additional capacity during traffic disruptions.

Rail services

The route is open only for passenger trains, freight is not allowed. The terms of access require the use of a retention toilet system and the use of eddy current brakes is not permitted on the line. Diesel trains can only run on the line in an emergency (such as towing a wrecked train).

The train service has not changed substantially since the opening of the line in 2006, apart from the fact that the Hamburg

Hamburg Hauptbahnhof

is the Hauptbahnhof for the German city of Hamburg. It was opened in 1906 to replace 4 terminal stations. Hamburg Hauptbahnhof is operated by DB Station&Service...

–Leipzig

Leipzig Hauptbahnhof

is, at 83,460 m², Europe's largest railway station when measured by floor area. It has 24 platforms housed in six iron trainsheds; a multi-level concourse with towering stone arches; and a 293 metre-long facade...

–Munich Intercity-Express (ICE) line has since 2008 usually divided in Berlin, so that instead of a continuous service there has been a Hamburg–Südkreuz train and a Gesundbrunnen–Munich train on the line.

The following table shows the services of long-distance and regional lines, which run on the north-south main line (2009): services run from Spandau on the Lehrter line to the meeting of the two lines at the northern end of the Hauptbahnhof and from Gesundbrunnen on the Wedding branch to the north-south mainline. All trains go via Berlin Hauptbahnhof; almost all continue to Südkreuz.

Line	Route	Cycle (min)	Remarks
ICE28	Hamburg Hamburg -History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...  – Berlin Spandau – Berlin Südkreuz Berlin Südkreuz Berlin Südkreuz is a railway station in the German capital Berlin. The station was originally opened in 1898 and is an interchange station...	60
ICE28	Berlin Gesundbrunnen – Berlin Südkreuz – Leipzig Leipzig Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...  – Munich Munich Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...	60	Some trains run Hamburg–Berlin–Munich
IC27	Hamburg – Berlin-Spandau/Berlin-Gesundbrunnen – Berlin Südkreuz – Dresden Dresden Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....  – Prague Prague Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...  (–Vienna Vienna Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre... /Budapest Budapest Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter... )	ca. 120
IC51	Binz Binz Binz is the largest seaside resort on the German island of Rügen. It is situated between the Prorer Wiek and the Schmachter See in the south-east of the island. To the north of Binz stretches the Schmale Heide , a tongue of land which joins the Muttland region of Rügen to the Jasmund peninsula...  – Berlin-Gesundbrunnen – Berlin Südkreuz – Halle (Saale) – Erfurt Erfurt Erfurt is the capital city of Thuringia and the main city nearest to the geographical centre of Germany, located 100 km SW of Leipzig, 150 km N of Nuremberg and 180 km SE of Hannover. Erfurt Airport can be reached by plane via Munich. It lies in the southern part of the Thuringian...  (–Ruhrgebiet)	ca. 120
RE3	Stralsund Stralsund - Main sights :* The Brick Gothic historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.* The heart of the old town is the Old Market Square , with the Gothic Town Hall . Behind the town hall stands the imposing Nikolaikirche , built in 1270-1360... /Schwedt – Berlin-Gesundbrunnen – Berlin-Südkreuz – Wünsdorf-Waldstadt – (Elsterwerda Elsterwerda Elsterwerda is a town in the Elbe-Elster district, in southwestern Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated on the river Schwarze Elster, 48 km northwest of Dresden, and 11 km southeast of Bad Liebenwerda.-External links:... )	60
RE4	(Wismar Wismar Wismar , is a small port and Hanseatic League town in northern Germany on the Baltic Sea, in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern,about 45 km due east of Lübeck, and 30 km due north of Schwerin. Its natural harbour, located in the Bay of Wismar is well-protected by a promontory. The... ) – Wittenberge Wittenberge Wittenberge is a town of twenty thousand people on the lower Elbe in the district of Prignitz , Brandenburg, Germany.-History:...  – Berlin-Spandau – Berlin Südkreuz – Ludwigsfelde Ludwigsfelde -Location:The town is located south of Berlin in the district Teltow-Fläming on the plateau of Teltow. In earlier times, it was part of the district Zossen.-Parts of the town:Since 1997/2003 the following villages are part of the city:*Ahrensdorf...  – Luckenwalde Luckenwalde Luckenwalde is the capital of the Teltow-Fläming district in the German state of Brandenburg. It is situated on the Nuthe river north of the Fläming Heath, at the eastern rim of the Nuthe-Nieplitz Nature Park, about south of Berlin...	60
RE5	Rostock Rostock Rostock -Early history:In the 11th century Polabian Slavs founded a settlement at the Warnow river called Roztoc ; the name Rostock is derived from that designation. The Danish king Valdemar I set the town aflame in 1161.Afterwards the place was settled by German traders... /Stralsund – Neustrelitz Neustrelitz Neustrelitz is a town in the Mecklenburgische Seenplatte district in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is situated on the shore of the Zierker See in the Mecklenburg Lake District. From 1738 until 1918 it was the capital of the duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz...  – Berlin-Gesundbrunnen – Berlin-Südkreuz – Jüterbog Jüterbog Jüterbog is a historic town in north-eastern Germany, located in the Teltow-Fläming district of Brandenburg. It is located on the Nuthe river at the northern slope of the Fläming hill range, about southwest of Berlin.-History:...  – Falkenberg/Elster Falkenberg/Elster Falkenberg is a town in the Elbe-Elster district, in southwestern Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated near the river Schwarze Elster, 16 km east of Torgau, and 13 km northwest of Bad Liebenwerda.-History:... /Lutherstadt Wittenberg	60

In addition, there are a number of less regular services. These include the InterConnex Berlin-Gesundbrunnen–Leipzig service, running twice a day. The night train runs between Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 and Berlin-Südkreuz. A number of additional Intercity

Intercity (Deutsche Bahn)

Intercity is the second-highest train classification in Germany, after the ICE. Intercity services are loco-hauled express services, usually over long-distances. There are Intercity routes throughout Germany, and routes generally operate with a two-hour frequency, with multiple routes giving a more...

 (IC) trains run at the weekend towards Hanover and Cologne as well as to Frankfurt am Main

Frankfurt (Main) Hauptbahnhof

is the central station for Frankfurt am Main. In terms of railway traffic, it is the busiest railway station in Germany. With about 350,000 passengers per day the station is the second most frequented railway station in Germany and one of the most frequented in Europe.- Proto-history :In the late...

 use the route. Most of the ICE and IC trains run on these routes, on the other hand, use the Stadtbahn. Deutsche Bahn

Deutsche Bahn

Deutsche Bahn AG is the German national railway company, a private joint stock company . Headquartered in Berlin, it came into existence in 1994 as the successor to the former state railways of Germany, the Deutsche Bundesbahn of West Germany and the Deutsche Reichsbahn of East Germany...

 has made relatively little use of the capacity of the four-track line. Initially it was planned to run ICE trains from Frankfurt to Südkreuz. Those plans came to nothing, however, because there were no equivalent for the maintenance of trains to the Rummelsburg yard that was available for trains on the Stadtbahn that would not require additional expenditure.

Given the lack of an S-Bahn connection to Berlin Hauptbahnhof in the north-south direction, there was a proposal to use the spare capacity of the north-south mainline for the S-Bahn. However, it has now been agreed to build a new S-Bahn line from the northern Ring Bahn to Hauptbahnhof, extending it eventually to Potsdamer Platz.