U55 was an
U-Bahn
Rapid transit in Germany consists of four U-Bahn systems and fourteen S-Bahn systems. The U-Bahn commonly understood to stand for Untergrundbahn (''underground railway'') are conventional rapid transit systems that run mostly underground, while ...
line in the German capital city of
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
. It connected the new
Berlin Hauptbahnhof
Berlin Hauptbahnhof () (English: Berlin Central Station) is the main railway station in Berlin, Germany. It came into full operation two days after a ceremonial opening on 26 May 2006. It is located on the site of the historic Lehrter Bahnhof, ...
, or main railway station, to an interchange with the
S-Bahn
The S-Bahn is the name of hybrid urban- suburban rail systems serving a metropolitan region in German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit systems, while smaller ones often resemble co ...
at
Brandenburger Tor
The Brandenburg Gate (german: Brandenburger Tor ) is an 18th-century neoclassical monument in Berlin, built on the orders of Prussian king Frederick William II after restoring the Orangist power by suppressing the Dutch popular unrest. One ...
. It had only three stations, did not connect to any other U-Bahn line, and was operated as a shuttle line using a single train.
The line was constructed as part of an extension of the
U5 that was subsequently postponed due to financial difficulties. As much of the work on this disconnected section of the extension had been completed, it was decided to complete the section and open it as a separate line in 2009. In 2010, construction began on the intervening section connecting Brandenburger Tor to Alexanderplatz; on 4 June 2018, U55 was closed until December 2018 to accommodate the work needed to connect it to this new phase of the project. The complete project, merging U55 and U5 into a single line, opened on 4 December 2020. Operation of the U55 ceased on 17 March 2020 in preparation for the line's incorporation into the U5 extension.
History
Origins
The unusual nature of U55 reflected Berlin's troubled finances. When the German government decided to move from
Bonn
The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...
to Berlin under the
Chancellor of Germany
The chancellor of Germany, officially the federal chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany,; often shortened to ''Bundeskanzler''/''Bundeskanzlerin'', / is the head of the federal government of Germany and the commander in chief of the Ge ...
Helmut Kohl
Helmut Josef Michael Kohl (; 3 April 1930 – 16 June 2017) was a German politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1973 to 1998. Kohl's 16-year tenure is the longes ...
, who also announced the reunification of Germany on 3 October 1990, it was decided to refurbish the area around the
Bundestag
The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Commons ...
into a modern government complex.
As part of this effort, there were plans to extend the U5 from its western terminus at
Alexanderplatz
() ( en, Alexander Square) is a large public square and transport hub in the central Mitte district of Berlin. The square is named after the Russian Tsar Alexander I, which also denotes the larger neighbourhood stretching from in the nort ...
through the city centre, past the
Brandenburg Gate
The Brandenburg Gate (german: Brandenburger Tor ) is an 18th-century neoclassical monument in Berlin, built on the orders of Prussian king Frederick William II after restoring the Orangist power by suppressing the Dutch popular unrest. One ...
and the Bundestag, to the new central train station, Berlin Hauptbahnhof. This ''Kanzlerlinie'' (Chancellor Line), so nicknamed because it passed through the government quarter, was originally planned since the
200km plan as a diagonal line through central Berlin, continuing to
Turmstraße
Turmstraße (''Tower street'') is a main street in the Berlin district of Moabit
Moabit () is an inner city locality in the borough of Mitte, Berlin, Germany. As of 2016, around 77,000 people lived in Moabit. First inhabited in 1685 and inco ...
in
Moabit
Moabit () is an inner city locality in the borough of Mitte, Berlin, Germany. As of 2016, around 77,000 people lived in Moabit. First inhabited in 1685 and incorporated into Berlin in 1861, the former industrial and working-class neighbourhood i ...
, where it would link with the
U9, and on to
Jungfernheide
Jungfernheide () is an area of forest and heathland located in Berlin in the present-day district of Charlottenburg-Nord, a locality of the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Formerly a large forested area, it was progressively reduced in s ...
, where it would connect with the
S-Bahn ring and
U7. The line was also planned to go via
Tegel Airport
Berlin Tegel "Otto Lilienthal" Airport (german: link=no, Flughafen Berlin-Tegel „Otto Lilienthal“) was the primary international airport of Berlin, the federal capital of Germany. The airport was named after aviation pioneer Otto Lilienth ...
(to be replaced by Urban Tech Republic),
Scharnweberstraße towards
Rathaus Reinckendorf
In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...
. As this was a long-planned route, short tunnels exist at both Jungfernheide and Turmstraße to accommodate the new line. Plans were discarded as a tram was also planned to be extended west. For now, the line is only approved to terminate at the Hauptbahnhof, with the route to Jungfernheide and beyond to be built later.
Construction
On 19 January 2000, construction began on the western end of this extension. However, around that time the city council suffered a major financial crisis.
The city had accepted money from the German federal government for the construction work already finished, and by the terms of the agreement, the city would have had to return the money if there were no operating trains on the line. In 2004, the city and federal governments reached a compromise: the city would complete the short section of line that was largely complete between Berlin Hauptbahnhof and Unter den Linden S-Bahn station (renamed "Brandenburger Tor" in 2009) and run it as a single-track shuttle with a single train, without any signaling. Although transit planners projected that such a shuttle would not attract a significant ridership, the city determined that the cost of building and operating the line would be less than the cost of returning the money to the federal government.
Opening
The opening of the line between Berlin Hauptbahnhof and Brandenburger Tor was delayed owing to extreme groundwater problems at the site of the latter new station. It was finally opened on 8 August 2009.
Operation
Stations
With the opening of the U-Bahn station, the existing Unter den Linden S-Bahn station was renamed ''Brandenburger Tor'' (for the nearby Brandenburg Gate). The name "Unter den Linden" was then given to a new station further east at the junction with
Friedrichstraße
The Friedrichstraße () (lit. ''Frederick Street'') is a major culture and shopping street in central Berlin, forming the core of the Friedrichstadt neighborhood and giving the name to Berlin Friedrichstraße station. It runs from the northern pa ...
, where the U5 intersects the
U6.
The train ran every 10 minutes and, due to the low demand, there was no night service.
Rolling stock
![U55 Materialeinlassoeffnung Waggon2658 4](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/U55_Materialeinlassoeffnung_Waggon2658_4.jpg)
Because the U55 was not physically connected to the rest of the U-Bahn system, any trains being delivered to the new line had to be taken by low loaders on the street and set on track through a tunnel opening located north of Hauptbahnhof station. There was also a provisional workshop for the basic maintenance and cleaning of carriages.
Formerly, trains running on the U55 were
F79 trains. However, due to a lack of trains on other large profile U-Bahn lines, the two U55 trains were removed and placed on the U6 in April 2017. Instead, an older
D class train was renovated and placed into service until March 2020.
Linking U55 and U5
The designation of the line as U55 indicated that it was ultimately intended to become part of the U5 line. Construction of the link to enable this commenced in April 2010, and was originally expected to be completed by 2017. Construction works suffered from continued difficulties, mainly concerning high water contents in the soil; in November 2015 the opening date was postponed, with the link finally opening on 4 December 2020.
The link is in length, connecting the former U55 terminus at Brandenburger Tor with the rest of the U5 at Alexanderplatz. The link features three new U-Bahn stations at
Rotes Rathaus
The Rotes Rathaus (, ''Red City Hall'') is the town hall of Berlin, located in the Mitte district on Rathausstraße near Alexanderplatz. It is the home to the governing mayor and the government (the Senate of Berlin) of the state of Berlin. The ...
,
Museumsinsel
The Museum Island (german: Museumsinsel) is a museum complex on the northern part of the Spree Island in the historic heart of Berlin. It is one of the most visited sights of Germany's capital and one of the most important museum sites in Euro ...
and
Unter den Linden
Unter den Linden (, "under the linden trees") is a boulevard in the central Mitte district of Berlin, the capital of Germany. Running from the City Palace to Brandenburg Gate, it is named after the linden (lime in England and Ireland, not re ...
. Unter Den Linden provides an interchange with line U6, replacing the former U6 station at
Französische Straße, located a little further to the south on Friedrichstraße, which closed on 3 December 2020.
End of operations
Operations on the line ceased on March 17, 2020, until its incorporation into the new U5 line on December 4 of that year. This took place earlier than originally planned due to much lower ridership as a result of the
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
crisis.
Reopened as U5 Line
The three stations reopened as a part of U5 Line Eastern extension on 4 December 2020.
References
External links
*
Projekt U5pics from U55
{{Public transport in Berlin
Berlin U-Bahn lines
Railway lines opened in 2009
Railway lines closed in 2020
2009 establishments in Germany
2020 disestablishments in Germany