GERMANY: Funding has been agreed to study the economic feasibility of a proposed extension of Berlin U-Bahn Line U7 south from Rudow to Berlin Brandenburg Airport.
The study is to be funded by stakeholders including the Länder of Berlin and Brandenburg, local authorities and the airport operator.
The aim is to produce a cost:benefit analysis which would be needed to apply for federal funding for the project.
‘In principle, this subway extension will benefit the entire capital region as a further connection to the airport’, said Dr Manja Schreiner, Berlin’s Senator for Transport, Climate Protection & the Environment, on July 17. ’Numerous new development areas in the Schönefeld municipality in Brandenburg would benefit immensely from improved public transport’, she added.
Mayor of Schönefeld Christian Hentschel said the neighbourhood ‘is a commuter municipality; we currently have almost 20 000 inhabitants, but 17 000 people commute into the municipality. Around 70 000 jobs are expected in the airport area. The airport will soon be flying at full capacity again. As a consequence, this means that we expect tens of thousands of passengers a day at Rudow U-Bahn station who want to board the bus there, many of them in the direction of Schönefeld. This traffic cannot be handled by bus, which means that individual vehicle traffic will increase significantly.
‘But we have to get people out of cars. This is the only way we can avert the traffic chaos that we fear here.’
