Berlin Ostkreuz is a station on the 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...

 S-Bahn

Berlin S-Bahn

The Berlin S-Bahn is a rapid transit system in and around Berlin, the capital city of Germany. It consists of 15 lines and is integrated with the mostly underground U-Bahn to form the backbone of Berlin's rapid transport system...

 suburban railway, and one of the busiest in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. The station is in the former East Berlin

East Berlin

East Berlin was the name given to the eastern part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. It consisted of the Soviet sector of Berlin that was established in 1945. The American, British and French sectors became West Berlin, a part strongly associated with West Germany but a free city...

 district of Friedrichshain

Friedrichshain

Friedrichshain is a part of Berlin's borough of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, and like Kreuzberg across the river it has its own distinct character, with the result that the new double name is hardly ever used outside government administration. From its creation in 1920 until Berlin's 2001...

, now part of the borough of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg

Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg

Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg is the second borough of Berlin, formed in 2001 by merging the former East Berlin borough of Friedrichshain and the former West Berlin borough of Kreuzberg...

.

Overview

The station was opened with the Stadtbahn in 1882 under the name Stralau-Rummelsburg

Rummelsburg

Rummelsburg is a German locality in the borough of Lichtenberg, Berlin.-History:The locality was founded in 1669 and on January 30, 1889 became a rural municipality, with the name of Boxhagen-Rummelsburg...

. It was given its present name in 1933. Along with Westkreuz it has long served as the interchange point between the Ringbahn that circumnavigates central Berlin and the Stadtbahn that passes east-west through it. During the division of Berlin

Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin...

, when links between East and West Berlin

West Berlin

West Berlin was a political exclave that existed between 1949 and 1990. It comprised the western regions of Berlin, which were bordered by East Berlin and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945...

 public transit were severed, Ostkreuz served as the main hub of the East Berlin S-Bahn network.

Ostkreuz is notable for its appearance: its buildings and track layout have remained essentially unchanged since the 1920s, and its dilapidated state has earned it the nickname Rostkreuz ("Rust Cross"). A modernization of the station was proposed as early as 1937, and again during East German rule. Since German reunification

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...

, plans have been made to modernize Ostkreuz from its present, partly dilapidated state, and turn it into a modern station with platforms for regional rail trains and stops for buses and the tramway

Berlin Straßenbahn

The Berlin tram network is the main tram system in Berlin, Germany. It is one of the oldest tram networks in the world having its origins in 1865 and is operated by , which was founded in 1929. It is notable for being one of the largest tram systems; there are 22 tram lines operate across a...

, both of which pass nearby but presently do not stop directly at the station. However, so far none of these have been implemented, due to the high cost involved, as well as the need to minimize disruption to the station's 100,000 daily passengers, and the fact that the station is under historic preservation

Historic preservation

Historic preservation is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance...

 and parts of it, such as the brick Ringbahn viaduct and the western pedestrian bridge, will need to be retained. The current planning calls for a start date of mid-2007 for the renovation, although preliminary work began early in the year with the removal of several trees and some temporary structures that had been located at the site.

Operations

The station's six platforms are:

• Platform A, is a triangular platform on the eastern end of the station lying between the curved lines connecting the Stadtbahn with the Ringbahn. The northern and southern faces of the platform handled traffic crossing from the westbound Stadtbahn onto the northern or southern Ringbahn (respectively). The northern connection was disused and eventually removed in 2006, leaving only the southern face of A in use, serving trains moving north from Treptower Park
  Treptower Park
  Treptower Park is a park along the river Spree in Alt-Treptow, in the district of Treptow-Köpenick, south of central Berlin. The park is a popular place for recreation of Berliners and a tourist attraction...
  
   and then turning west to Warschauer Straße.

• Platforms B and C were the outside platforms opposite the northern and southern faces of A (respectively), serving traffic from the Ringbahn heading eastward onto the Stadtbahn. They became dilapidated and were closed during East German rule, leaving service for westbound traffic only.

• Platform D and E, the Stadtbahn platforms (each with two tracks), located at ground level, one for each of the two sets of lines that diverge east of the station. D is north of E and serves the lines that eastboand travel towards Strausberg, Wartenberg, and Ahrensfelde, and the same lines traveling westbound. E is for lines that eastbound travel towards Erkner, and the same lines traveling westbound.

• Platform F is the tracks of the Ringbahn, located above.

Due to the station's archaic layout, it (along with nearby Warschauer Straße station, currently being rebuilt) retains a platform-allocation system in which trains stop at its east-west Stadtbahn platforms (D and E) according to their line number, not direction. For example, the next train to Berlin Ostbahnhof

Berlin Ostbahnhof

Berlin Ostbahnhof is a mainline railway station in Berlin, Germany. It is in Friedrichshain, now part of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district, and has undergone several name changes in its history. It was known as Berlin Hauptbahnhof from 1987 to 1998, a name now applied to Berlin's new central station...

 could leave from either D, E, or the tangential platform A, and moving from one of these platforms to another requires navigating steps and a pedestrian walkway. It is a common sight to see passengers waiting on the walkway until they see where the next westbound train will arrive.

The renovation plans call for the tangential platforms to be eliminated altogether, so that trains between Treptower Park and Warschauer Straße will not stop in either direction. The northern tangential line will not be restored.

The station code is BOK, with the subcodes BOK F (Ringbahn platform), BOK D (Platform D, Stadtbahn), BOK E (Platform E, toward Erkner).

Sources

• Andreas Butter, Hans-Joachim Kirsche und Erich Preuß: Berlin Ostkreuz – Die Drehscheibe des S-Bahn-Verkehrs, Geramond Verlag, München, 2000, ISBN 3-932785-24-X

External links

• www.stadtschnellbahn-berlin.de - Information about Ostkreuz and reconstruction plans
• Ostkreuz rebuilding blog (in German)
• Ostkreuz guide - Photos of Ostkreuz
• Umgebungsplan - S-Bahn Berlin neighborhood map

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