Anyone who is visiting Miniloft, and indeed, the area around Miniloft, will surely have noticed the huge amount of work-in-progress to finally connect Nordbahnhof and Hauptbahnhof.
It’s a sort of reunification in public transport if you will. The Berlin wall cut through the tram lines on Invaliden Strasse just before they arrived at what is now Hauptbahnhof. Meanwhile in the West, most of the tram lines were replaced with buses, as the network of carriage-cars was considered outdated and could be bettered by bus and U-Bahn.
Recently, the main connecting road – Invalidenstraße – has been taken apart, and tram tracks added. The road has been widened, and the pavements raised. As the tracks have gone down, we know the project is nearer to completion, which is expected to function come summer 2015. The result will be an easier way to arrive at Miniloft from Hauptbahnhof, which will be just a few tram stops away on the M8/M10 line, with stops planned for Invalidenpark and the Naturkundenmuseum. Elsewhere, there are ideas to continue extending these lines westward, finally allowing Berlin’s tram network to come full circle. Until then, all the construction work is a fascinating, daily reminder that Berlin is changing – and looking towards the future, by embracing aspects of its past.
Copyright: Theo Griffin