Television viewers are to get a close-up look at one of Europe's largest-ever rail hub which is soon to open.

The new main rail station being built in Berlin is the subject of a TV programme at 22.00 on Monday 13 March 2006 on the subscription-only National Geographic channel.

The centre of Berlin has been rebuilt over the past 10 years, following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

The enormous new main station (Hauptbahnhof) is expected to open on May 28, just in time for football's World Cup tournament which starts on 9 June.

Architect Meinhard von Gerkan calls the Hauptbahnhof a transport cathedral, with twin glass towers and 321-metre-long glass tunnel covering the east-west tracks.

Every day 300,000 passengers and visitors are expected to pass through, with the daily timetable including 160 long-distance trains, 310 regional trains, and 800 metropolitan trains.

For the first time, rail passengers from all four directions will be able to arrive at the same station.

The original Lehrter Station with its French neo-Renaissance architecture was a "palace among stations". Opened in 1871, it linked Berlin with Lehrte, near Hanover.

The station was badly damaged in the second world war and its ruins were demolished in 1958.

The adjoining light rail station, Lehrter Stadtbahnof was one of the great borders of the Cold War, being the final West stop in the divided city. The next station was Friedrichstrasse in East Berlin.

The railway "cathedral" will also have a large shopping centre over three levels.

Germany's strict opening hours laws do not apply to train stations, so shops will be able to stay open late and on Sundays.

The station's two towers will however not be ready until 2007.

The station has taken 10 years to build instead of the three originally projected and has cost £500million.

Long-distance trains will no longer stop at Zoo station which was the focal point of West Berlin.

A BBC DVD called Caught on a Train about a young man and an old Viennese woman on the Ostende to Vienna night train in
1980 is available. Mostly filmed on the train itself, which of course doesn't run any more, the film – written by Stephen Poliakoff – is a "fascinating historical record as well as a good play". BBC DVD 17964.


Information from Railfuture member Jim Walker with background information from www.expatica.com