It's kick off for railway wunder-bahn

BERLIN - Berlin's five-storey steel and glass central rail station will finally open on Friday after 10 years - just in time for the World Cup.

An imposing US$13 billion ($21.16 billion) landmark of superlatives that dwarfs the nearby Reichstag and Chancellery, the "Hauptbahnhof" that Berlin always wanted will be Europe's biggest station.

More than 1100 trains will pass through each day and 300,000 passengers are expected to get on or off.

"It's a building for the next century," Deutsche Bahn chief executive Hartmut Mehdorn said.

The station's translucent tubular roof, made up of 9117 glass panels, rises above the rest of the government quarter and its 46m-high twin towers are about 10m higher than the Reichstag Parliament and Chancellery.

The station has 80 shops on five levels between east-west lines connecting Paris to Moscow, 12m above street level, and north-south lines linking Copenhagen to Athens, 15m under ground.

Mehdorn, who is trying to turn the state-owned railway into an international logistics giant before a public listing, was attacked for sacrificing the famed west Berlin Zoo station and building for what some call a mere prestige object. The twin towers atop the glass canopy have, as yet, no tenants for 42,000sq m of space.

There are eight north and south-bound tracks beneath the station, and six east-west tracks that cross above the main shopping plaza and mezzanine.

- REUTERS