Berlin – In about half an hour to the Zoo train station, in about 40 minutes to Frankfurt (Oder), in just under 50 minutes to Potsdam. The east of Berlin gets a better rail connection. Approval has now been granted for the planned construction of the regional train station in Köpenick. A railway spokesman told the Berliner Zeitung on request. The first work is scheduled to begin in spring 2023, and the project is expected to be completed in July 2027. The new platform, where the trains of the regional express line RE1 are to stop, is being built next to the current S-Bahn station.
The state of Berlin and the state-owned Deutsche Bahn (DB) had been fighting over the project for years. The Senate administration campaigned early on to allow regional trains to stop in Köpenick. Not only is the city, which was independent until 1920, an important center: the train station is also considered an important hub for local transport. In addition to the trains on the S3 S-Bahn line, three tram lines and four bus lines currently have stops there. But that’s not all: After a 15-minute walk, football fans can reach the stadium at the Alte Försterei of 1. FC Union. The Senate reckoned with an average of 5,500 boarding and alighting passengers per day at the new regional train station, and even more at Union games and other events. According to earlier plans, construction work was to begin in 2013, and the new station in Köpenick was expected to be completed in 2015/16. But nothing came of it.
Third track – mainly for freight trains
For a long time, however, Deutsche Bahn feared that regional traffic would be slowed down by the additional stop. Because many national freight trains roll through Köpenick, further impairments were expected. In addition, the S-Bahn will lose passengers because passengers switch to the faster regional express trains, it said.
In October 2015, the Senate reached an agreement. The federal government, DB and the state agreed to increase capacity by building a third track between the old Köpenicker Güterbahnhof and the Stadtforst junction, where most freight trains turn onto the Berlin outer ring. In addition to two S-Bahn and two long-distance train tracks, there is already another track on the railway body, which bridges the Bahnhofstraße in the elevated position. But it is no longer used.
Up to 795 seats per train
The planning approval decision for the construction of the regional train station and the redesign of a 3.2-kilometer section of the line is dated January 27th. According to previous representations, a platform for regional traffic will be built between the continuous main tracks. It will be 220 meters long, 76 centimeters high and covered over a length of 40 meters, it said. Two flights of stairs and an elevator lead from the station’s reception building up to the regional platform. To the east, there is an underpass with stairs to the S-Bahn and regional train platforms. At least the S-Bahn platform will also have access starting west of Bahnhofstrasse.
The transport project is considered complicated. Several construction stages have to be handled in a relatively confined space. The work is made more difficult and prolonged by the fact that traffic is to be maintained. However, the passengers will not be spared closure breaks at the weekend, but sometimes also for several days during the week, it said. Both traffic on the S3 S-Bahn line, which has had to be interrupted repeatedly for construction work in recent years, and on the RE1 regional express line will be affected, according to the railway. Long-distance trains to and from Poland are temporarily diverted.
Karlshorst regional train station was closed in 2017
The RE1 line, which currently runs through Köpenick without stopping, runs every half hour every day. In mid-December 2022, Ostdeutsche Eisenbahn, or ODEG for short, will take over operations from Deutsche Bahn. Among other things, the company uses new Siemens Desiro HC multiple units. In the future, the line, part of the Elbe-Spree network, will be served every 20 minutes during peak traffic times in the capital region – with up to 795 seats per train, according to ODEG.
This regional express line used to have a stop in Karlshorst. However, the regional train station there has been out of service since December 2017. Since then, the closest RE1 stops from Köpenick have been at Ostkreuz and in Erkner.