Berlin S-Bahn S7 Ride - Hauptbahnhof to Zoologischer Garten | Germany | 19/11/24

Riding the S7 from Berlin Hauptbahnhof to Zoologischer Garten. Germany, 19/11/24

Berlin Hauptbahnhof (English: Berlin Central Station) is the main railway station in Berlin, Germany. It came into full operation two days after a ceremonial opening on 26 May 2006. It is located on the site of the historic Lehrter Bahnhof, and on the Berlin S-Bahn suburban railway. The station is owned by DB InfraGO, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn AG, and is classified as a Category 1 station, one of 21[12] in Germany and four in Berlin, the others being Berlin Gesundbrunnen, Berlin Südkreuz and Berlin Ostbahnhof.

Lehrter Bahnhof (Lehrte Station) opened in 1871 as the terminus of the railway linking Berlin with Lehrte, near Hanover, which later became Germany's most important east–west main line. In 1882, with the completion of the Stadtbahn (City Railway, Berlin's four-track central elevated railway line, which carries both local and main line services), just north of the station, a smaller interchange station called Lehrter Stadtbahnhof was opened to provide connections with the new line. This station later became part of the Berlin S-Bahn. In 1884, after the closure of nearby Hamburger Bahnhof (Hamburg Station), Lehrter Bahnhof became the terminus for trains to and from Hamburg.

Following heavy damage during World War II, limited services to the main station were resumed, but then suspended in 1951. In 1957, with the railways to West Berlin under the control of East Germany, Lehrter Bahnhof was demolished, but Lehrter Stadtbahnhof remained as a stop on the S-Bahn. In 1987, it was extensively renovated to commemorate Berlin's 750th anniversary. After German reunification, it was decided to improve Berlin's railway network by constructing a new north–south main line, to supplement the east-west Stadtbahn. Lehrter Stadtbahnhof was considered to be the logical location for a new central station.


Berlin Zoologischer Garten station (German: Bahnhof Berlin Zoologischer Garten, colloquially Bahnhof Zoo, German: [ˈbaːnˌhoːf ˈt͡soː] ) is a railway station in Berlin, Germany. It is located on the Berlin Stadtbahn railway line in the Charlottenburg district, adjacent to the Berlin Zoo.

During the division of the city, the station was the central transport facility of West Berlin, and thereafter for the western central area of reunified Berlin until the opening of Berlin Hauptbahnhof in 2006. It is also an interchange with the U-Bahn and the S-Bahn, which uses the Stadtbahn viaduct along with RegionalExpress and RegionalBahn trains.

Overview
The station building overlooks the Hardenbergplatz square, Berlin's largest city bus terminal and night bus service centre, named after Prussian prime minister Karl August von Hardenberg (1750–1822). It is also used by long-distance buses/coaches; however, Berlin's central intercity bus terminal, the Zentraler Omnibusbahnhof Berlin (ZOB), is located on Messedamm in Westend, not far from the Funkturm.

Zoologischer Garten is also a Berlin U-Bahn station and S-Bahn station, serving U-Bahn lines U2 and U9, and S-Bahn lines S3, S5, S7, and S9.


S7 is a line on the Berlin S-Bahn. It operates from Ahrensfelde to Potsdam over:

the Wriezen Railway, completed on 1 May 1898 and electrified to Marzahn in 1976, to Mehrower Allee in 1980 and to Ahrensfelde in 1982,
a section of the Outer ring, completed in the early 1940s as part of the Outer freight ring and electrified in 1976,
a section of the Prussian Eastern line, opened on 1 October 1866 and electrified on 6 November 1928,
the Stadtbahn, opened on 7 February 1882 and electrified on 11 June 1928,
a section of the Berlin-Blankenheim line, opened west of Grunewald in 1879 and further east in 1882 and electrified in 1928 and
a section of the Berlin-Potsdam-Magdeburg line, opened in 1838 and electrified in 1928.

Service history
The S7 was created on 2 June 1991, replacing the Red route of the East Berlin S-Bahn between Alexanderplatz and Ahrensfelde, with the western terminus extended to Friedrichstraße.