Berlin – The marketing experts at Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) have once again become creative. “The BVG is now on the scientific track”: This is how the state company is promoting the new tram route, which will be opened to passenger traffic this Saturday in southeast Berlin.
The outgoing Transport Senator Regine Günther (Greens), Treptow-Köpenick’s District Mayor Oliver Igel (SPD) and other guests will open the new road in the morning in the science city of Adlershof. The 2.7 kilometer long route, which leads from the previous terminal in Karl-Ziegler-Straße over the Groß-Berliner Damm to Schönweide, opens up many new direct connections. The Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation Germany (BUND) is also pleased that the Berlin tram network is continuing to grow. An important aspect seems like a “real satire” to him, said Martin Schlegel, who is responsible for traffic in the Berlin regional association.
With research facilities, innovative companies and university institutes, the science city Adlershof is undoubtedly a promising location, said Schlegel. “But it just doesn’t fit that the trams are stopped at the traffic lights on the new line,” said the traffic expert.
The tram takes longer than the bus
Those turning left do not have a separate traffic light phase, confirmed Hartmut Gröschke, who, as a member of the board of the Berlin heritage preservation association, knows his way around the tram. “If the tram were allowed to run at the same time as the traffic flowing in parallel, people turning off could stand on the tracks before they pass the opposite lane,” says Gröschke. This could lead to accidents. “That’s why there is a separate phase for the tram in which individual traffic is red. If this were registered and clocked in on time, there should be no delays. “
But a priority is not recognizable, according to the passenger association IGEB. The result: long additional downtimes. On the new tram route, travelers are on the road longer than on the 163 bus, which was previously on the Groß-Berliner Damm. As reported, the difference can be up to four minutes.
Senate: Travel times can still change in practice
Jan Thomsen, spokesman for Transport Senator Regine Günther (Greens), does not deny this. But there is an important reason: traffic safety. “The entire Groß-Berliner Damm has been rebuilt. In this context, four new traffic lights were built and three were expanded on the route from Sterndamm to Johannisthal Landscape Park, which bus 163 also traveled, ”explained Thomsen. He emphasized that the travel time could still change. Because the timetable with which the BVG is now starting the race on the new tram route is “calculated conservatively”. “In practice, it will be shown whether and how much you can still get out, be it via traffic lights, be it via traffic management,” said the spokesman for the authorities.
In all discussions, the improvements that this new line brings should not fall behind, he warned. “That a tram belongs here, with all the advantages in terms of capacity, frequency, reliability and network connection, and that the bus would have been overwhelmed in the future, I certainly don’t need to explain,” said Thomsen. Jens Wieseke from the Passenger Association praised the fact that the tracks were laid before the gaps in the development to the left and right of the Groß-Berliner Damm are closed. First the infrastructure, then new commercial locations, offices and apartments: “That is basically correct.”
BUND sees a violation of the Berlin Mobility Act
The entire length of the new line will be used by two tram lines. The M17 from Falkenberg goes via Schöneweide to the Adlershof S-Bahn station. The 61 runs Monday to Friday from Schöneweide via the Adlershof S-Bahn station to Rahnsdorf. The 63 from Mahlsdorf and Köpenick will be extended to the Johannisthal Landscape Park. The 163 bus to BER Airport no longer runs over the Groß-Berliner Damm, but is given a new route between Schöneweide and the Adlershof S-Bahn station.
The current traffic lights contradict the Berlin Mobility Act, which is supposed to increase the quality of local transport, said Martin Schlegel from BUND. In Paragraph 26, Paragraph 5, priority is given to motorized private transport. Schlegel no longer sees opportunities to file a lawsuit due to a lack of legal standing, but he hopes that a better solution will be found under a new Transport Senator. In principle, it would have been possible to design the traffic light switching better and to give the tram a green wave, according to the BUND employee. Outside the city center, the tram could show that it can be fast. Route openings are an opportunity to draw attention to this mode of transport. Berlin should seize this opportunity.
.