German and French Transit in 1994 (2)

Berlin

We spent three days in Berlin, during which I had one day mostly to myself for riding around and taking pictures. That day, the historic S-Bahn train, maintained by a group of volunteers, happened to be operating, so I first spent some time riding it. I spent the rest of the day mostly in the eastern part of the city, whose tram (streetcar) routes were mostly preserved by the East German regime, unlike the western part whose trams disappeared in the late 1960s.

[picture] The historic S-Bahn train at Bahnhof Zoologischer Garten.

[picture] The historic S-Bahn train at (I think) Ostkreuz.

[picture] Interior of the historic S-Bahn train.

[picture] A regular S-Bahn train at Charlottenburg.

[picture] Looking down from the television tower (Fernsehturm) in the center of Berlin, we can see an S-Bahn train heading west from the Jannowitzbrücke station alongside the Spree river.

[picture] Underneath a bridge is an old steam locomotive. Unfortunately I don't remember exactly where I took this picture, except that I think it was in the northern part of former East Berlin.

[picture] The platform of the U-Bahn station at Eberswalder Straße.

[picture] A tram turns from Schönauser Allee onto Eberswalder Straße, underneath the elevated U-Bahn station.

[picture] At the end of the line on tram route 50 in Buchholz in northern Berlin.

[picture] The Hellersdorf U-Bahn station opened in July 1989, just a few months before the Berlin Wall opened. It's on a ground-level extension of route U5 into the northeastern part of Berlin, which was developed with large apartment blocks during the last decade of the German Democratic Republic.

[picture] A route 23 tram stops at Landsberger Allee / Weißenseer Weg.

[picture] A double-decker bus at Bahnof Zoologischer Garten.

[picture] A double-decker bus with all-over advertising for Gorbatschow vodka passes in front of the Brandenburg Gate. I did a double-take when I saw this, thinking of Mikhail Gorbachev, the head of the Soviet Union when the Berlin Wall (which ran right through this location) collapsed. Only later did I find out that Gorbatschow is a long established business in Berlin, founded by a refugee from the Russian Revolution of 1917.

Potsdam

[picture] Berlin's neighboring city of Potsdam has its own tram system which is operated separately from Berlin's system but is also part of the Verkehrsverbund Berlin-Brandenburg which coordinates fares and schedules in the region.

A Transit Buff's Tour of Germany and France in 1994 (Part 2)

Berlin

Potsdam

A Transit Buff's Tour of Germany
and France in 1994 (Part 2)