Good progress is being made with the north-south tunnel in Berlin. Due to open in 2006, the line forms the central element in the city’s ’mushroom concept’ that will see east-west and north-south main lines meet at a central interchange at Lehrter (RG 9.02 p525).
The southern portal near Gleisdreieck U-Bahn station is now complete (left), and four tracks meet here, two forming the Anhalter Railway from Halle and Leipzig via Bitterfeld, and two from Dresden via Elsterwerde and Zossen. The four tracks run to Papestrasse and continue north to Potsdamer Platz and Lehrter, now known as Berlin Hauptbahnhof (below). Beyond Lehrter the route splits into two again, with two tracks for trains heading west towards Spandau and two for northbound trains via Gesundbrunnen.
