Should Berlin get a better developed subway network? If the BUND has its way, no. There is talk of “megalomania”.
The Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz (BUND) in Berlin has opposed the idea of expanding Berlin’s subway network. “The vision of the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe to more than double the Berlin subway network to 318 kilometers is one thing above all: the complete misjudgment of the transport policy necessities in the city,” said BUND state manager Tilmann Heuser on Sunday. He spoke of “megalomania.”
“In view of the escalating climate crisis, the capital’s tram network must be expanded,” he said. “Only with the tram can Berlin achieve an area-wide improvement in local transport comparatively quickly.”
Berlin: “Subways are high-performance means of transport”
Subways are high-performance means of transport that are justified in corridors that are in high demand. “They are almost completely covered in Berlin,” says Heuser. The greater Berlin area – including the S-Bahn – has a metro network of almost 500 kilometers. “Even today, in an international comparison, this is a high value.”
Heuser referred to reports in the “Berliner Morgenpost” (Saturday) and other media, according to which the BVG drew the vision of a radical expansion of the subway in an internal paper for the ongoing coalition negotiations between the CDU and SPD. According to this, 171 kilometers of subway lines could be built step by step, as well as additional tram and express bus lines. Proposed is the extension of all subway lines and a new ring line, wrote the “Tagesspiegel”, citing the document.
Heuser fears that considerations for more subway routes could hinder or stop expansion plans for the tram. “And that, even though the realization of the subway dreams is completely unrealistic in view of the costs alone.” He calculated: “Roughly speaking, the construction of the 171 kilometers of new subway lines should not cost less than 35 billion euros based on current prices. That is more money than Berlin wants to use for the expansion and modernization of the entire local transport network by 2035. From that Money could be used to build up to 1,700 kilometers of new tram lines.”
