Overview
- Officials marked the opening with a special ride on Thursday, and the Flughafen-Express will run every 15 minutes from Sunday, cutting the Hauptbahnhof–BER trip to about 23 minutes.
- The build added two electrified mainline tracks over 16 kilometers alongside the S-Bahn, enabling up to 160 km/h in Berlin and 200 km/h beyond the state border.
- The project cost roughly €1.1 billion, financed by Deutsche Bahn, the federal government and the states.
- Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder used the opening to call for faster planning and construction, as the federal coalition moved on an Infrastructure Future law that would ease approvals such as electrification without a full environmental review.
- The overall programme continues through about 2028, when further upgrades are expected to raise speeds and deliver additional travel-time reductions on the Berlin–Dresden route.