Railway · Germany

How much did Berlin U5–U55 connection cost to build?

Berlin's U5–U55 gap closure built 2.2 kilometres of new tunnel from Alexanderplatz to Brandenburger Tor, joining the existing U5 to the U55 shuttle that already reached Hauptbahnhof. Construction of the new section began in 2012; trains started running through on 4 December 2020. Its three new stations are Rotes Rathaus, Unter den Linden and Museumsinsel, the last of which opened to passengers on 9 July 2021. Berlin's 2011 construction plan put the gap section at €433.196 million, and a revised 2013 calculation raised that estimate to €525 million. The operator said at opening that the eventual cost would differ from the revised figure by only a few percent, but an exact audited outturn for the 2.2-kilometre gap was not established. A later state report gives about €840.84 million for the broader Alexanderplatz–Hauptbahnhof extension, which also covers the earlier U55 section and must not be treated as the cost of this gap alone.