Europe's Biggest Railway Station to Open for World Cup

It took eight years to build, cost €700m (£480m) and dominates the heart of Europe's most vibrant architectural capital. On May 26 Berlin's main railway station will open just days before the World Cup begins in Germany.

Covered by an arching glass hall, the Hauptbahnhof is a bravura statement of Germany's confidence in itself and in its public buildings. The junction is Europe's largest and links the north and south of the city with the east and west for the first time. Tens of thousands of England fans are likely to arrive here in the event that England make it to the World Cup final on July 9.

"The decision to go ahead with it was taken 13 or 14 years ago in the euphoria of German reunification," Gabriele Schlott, a spokeswoman for Die Bahn, Germany's state-owned railway, said.

The station, over five levels, has been built on what was once a no-man's land between former communist East and West Berlin, and the Spree river. The Berlin Wall and British checkpoint were next door. These days, though, the Hauptbahnhof's only neighbour is Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel, whose washing machine-shaped office, the federal chancellery building, is opposite the southern entrance.

Inter-city trains will no longer stop at Berlin's Zoologischer Garten station, a change that has sparked residents' complaints. But Mrs Schlott said: "The platforms at Zoo were not big enough."

More than 300,000 passengers a day will use the new station, with trains departing every 90 seconds. Eight other Berlin tube and rail stations will open too, in a project costing up to €10bn.

Not everyone is happy, though. German MPs yesterday began discussing whether to sell off part or all of the railway network. Wolfgang Keoll, a protester, said: "It's been a disaster in your country, we don't want that. We want the railway to stay in public ownership."