The Hauptbahnhof links up all the long-distance lines with the S-Bahn and regional trains, so that changing trains has become a lot easier. For Deutsche Bahn customers, the new system is more reliable because more track capacity has been made available.

Info graphic of the mushroom concept Enlarge image: Info graphic of the mushroom concept

North-south traffic

North-south traffic is concentrated in the Tiergarten tunnel, which reduces journey times significantly, e.g. by 40 minutes on both the Berlin–Stralsund and Berlin–Leipzig lines. Long-distance trains travelling through the Tiergarten tunnel include the Hamburg-Berlin-Leipzig-Munich, Hamburg-Berlin-Dresden-Prague and Stralsund-Berlin-Erfurt services.

East-west traffic

The Tiergarten tunnel provides capacity relief to the very busy east-west line (Stadtbahn), on which the Cologne-Hanover-Berlin, Basel/Stuttgart-Frankfurt-Berlin and Berlin-Osnabrück-Amsterdam/Münster services continue to operate.

New stops

Additional long-distance and regional train stops were provided at Südkreuz and Gesundbrunnen stations and there are new regional train stops at Jungfernheide, Potsdamer Platz and Lichterfelde Ost stations. Bahnhof Zoo station has now become a regional station in order to reduce journey times on long-distance services.

More detailed information on the lines and journey times can be found in the file attachment entitled "Bahnverkehr Berlin 2006" (available in German only).

The change of timetable on 10 December 2006 may give rise to minimal changes in timings that are not reflected in the file attachment.