GERMANY: Final planning approval has been granted for a 2·1 km extension of Berlin tram route M10 from the Hauptbahnhof to Turmstraße U-Bahn station on Line U9.
According to the Berlin Senate’s transport department, construction is expected to get underway this year for opening in the first half of 2023. Total cost of the project is put at €29m.
Starting from the current turning loop in Invalidenstraße and Lüneberger Straße, the extension would run westwards along Alt-Moabit through the capital’s Mitte district, turning north up Rathenower Strasse and then west along Turmstraße. The line would largely be laid on a segregated alignment, serving four accessible stops.
M10 services would run through from Warschauer Straße to Turmstraße every 5 min at peak times or 10 min off-peak. The route would serve the densely populated residential areas in the Europacity urban development zone, and the extension is expected to be used by around 16 000 passengers/day.
‘The new tram connection will bring East and West even closer together, and make it much easier to travel to the main station by public transport’, said Regine Günther, Senator for the Environment, Transport & Climate Protection. She added that planning was already underway for a further 4 km extension to the S-Bahn interchange at Jüngfernheide at an estimated cost of €53·7m.
