Ostkreuz

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Ostkreuz is almost unchanged since the 1920s. This view is looking eastward along Platform D, with Platform F visible above the train.

A view of Ostkreuz from above. This view looks north along the Ringbahn, with the Stadtbahn visible on the left (west). The single line closest the camera connects the two, served by Platform A just off the left edge of the image. Platform F on the Ringbahn is centered, with the while roof. The large dark-colored tower was built to store water for steam trains previously running on these lines.

Ostkreuz (German for "East Cross") is a station on the Berlin S-bahn suburban railway, and one of the busiest in all Germany. The station is located in the former East Berlin district of Friedrichshain, now part of the borough of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg.

The station was opened with the Stadtbahn in 1882 under the name Stralau-Rummelsburg. It was given its present name in 1933. Along with Westkreuz it has long served as the interchange point between the Ringbahn that circumnavigates central Berlin and the Stadtbahn that passes east-west through it. During the division of Berlin, when links between East and West Berlin public transit were severed, Ostkreuz served as the main hub of the East Berlin S-Bahn network.

Ostkreuz is notable for its appearance: Its buildings and track layout have remained essentially unchanged since the 1920s, and its dilapidated state has earned it the nickname Rostkreuz ("Rust Cross"). A modernization of the station was proposed as early as 1937, and again during East German rule. Since German reunification plans have been made to modernize Ostkreuz from its present, partly dilapidated state, and turn it into a modern station with platforms for regional rail trains and stops for buses and the tramway, both of which pass nearby but presently do not stop directly at the station. However, so far none of these have been implemented, due to the high cost involved, as well as the need to minimize disruption to the station's 100,000 daily passengers, and the fact that the station is under historic preservation and parts of it, such as the brick Ringbahn viaduct and the western pedestrian bridge, will need to be retained. The current planning calls for a start date of mid-2007 for the renovation.

[edit] Operations

The station's six platforms are:

Platform A, is a triangular platform on the eastern end of the station lying between the curved lines connecting the Stadtbahn with the Ringbahn. The northern and southern faces of the platform handled traffic crossing from the westbound Stadtbahn onto the northern or southern Ringbahn (respectively). The northern connection was disused and eventually removed in 2006, leaving only the southern face of A in use, serving trains moving north from Treptower Park and then turning west to Warschauer Straße.

Platforms B and C were the outside platforms opposite the northern and southern faces of A (respectively), serving traffic from the Ringbahn heading eastward onto the Stadtbahn. They became dilapidated and were closed during East German rule, leaving service for westbound traffic only.

Platform D and E, the Stadtbahn platforms (each with two tracks), located at ground level, one for each of the two sets of lines that diverge east of the station. D is north of E and serves the lines that eastboand travel towards Strausberg, Wartenberg, and Ahrensfelde, and the same lines traveling westbound. E is for lines that eastbound travel towards Erkner, and the same lines traveling westbound.

Platform F is the tracks of the Ringbahn, located above.

Due to the station's archaic layout, it (along with nearby Warschauer Straße station, currently being rebuilt) retains a platform-allocation system in which trains stop at its east-west Stadtbahn platforms (D and E) according to their line number, not direction. For example, the next train to Berlin Ostbahnhof could leave from either D, E, or the tangential platform A, and moving from one of these platforms to another requires navigating steps and a pedestrian walkway. It is a common sight to see passengers waiting on the walkway until they see where the next westbound train will arrive.

The renovation plans call for the tangential platforms to be eliminated altogether, so that trains between Treptower Park and Warschauer Straße will not stop in either direction. The northern tangential line will not be restored.

The station code is BOK, with the subcodes BOK F (Ringbahn platform), BOK D (Platform D, Stadtbahn), BOK E (Platform E, toward Erkner).

[edit] Sources

Andreas Butter, Hans-Joachim Kirsche und Erich Preuß: Berlin Ostkreuz – Die Drehscheibe des S-Bahn-Verkehrs, Geramond Verlag, München, 2000, ISBN 3-932785-24-X