The idea of recomissioning 60-year-old carriages will no doubt get train-spotters drooling, but there’s a pragmatic reason why the trains are coming back. Berlin has a desperate shortage of rolling stock. City transit body BVG (Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe) wants to avoid the costs of buying more engines and reckons it can renovate and re-kit three of the old trains for just €1.9 million — a snip compared to what three entirely new trains would cost. Three trains won’t make a whole lot of difference across an entire city, of course, which is why the refitted wagons will be confined to a single line. This is arguably the smartest part of the plan. By running on Berlin’s Line U55 from spring 2017, the 1950s trains should attract tourists to what could be Berlin’s biggest transit white elephant.
Line U55, you see, is arguably the transit equivalent of nail varnish. It looks pretty good, but beyond that it doesn’t serve much of a practical function. With just three stops, the mini-line links Berlin’s main railway station with Germany’s parliament and the Brandenburg Gate, a journey that can be managed in 10 to 15 minutes of brisk walking. [...]
In 2020, the U55 should finally be extended as promised to Alexanderplatz, after which new trains will probably be introduced. Between next spring and then, the U55 and its sexagenarian trains will offer an intriguing glimpse of transit past.
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