DM: In future, mobility in Berlin should be safe, climate-friendly and comfortable. By what means and measures do you intend to achieve this goal, Senator?
Senator Regine Günther: In order to bring about a lasting change in the mobility mix in Germany's largest city, one means above all else is needed: staying power. After all, what is at stake here is infrastructure, the long-term transformation of a city that has been geared towards car traffic in particular for several decades. This model is reaching its limits in many respects: People stand with their cars more than they drive, the air is dirty, it is noisy, the urban area is inhospitable because it is concreted – and dangerous too. We therefore want to redistribute the available space, also by strengthening the means of transport that make a city more worth living in. This is the core of the Berlin Mobility Act, which is unique in Germany: It establishes the priority of the environmental alliance of public transport, cycling and walking for all planning – a fundamental paradigm shift.
“Step by step, we are building a safer city with new mobility”
We need the staying power for this, firstly because careful planning, participation and consideration are needed before any reconstruction of a road, a bridge, a square or an entire neighbourhood. And secondly, because it is a matter of changing everyday habits – in favour of the needs of children, the elderly, people with limited mobility and especially the poorer sections of the population who cannot afford a car but live on noisy main roads with high levels of air pollution. Our path towards a mobile city for all therefore consists of an unprecedented expansion of public transport, for which we are pushing ahead with 40 percent more tram lines, the renewal and expansion of the vehicle fleets for underground and suburban rail, the complete switch to e-buses, denser intervals and – together with Brandenburg and the railways – also decisive improvements for commuter connections by rail.
We are also expanding Berlin's long-neglected cycling infrastructure with protected cycle paths, cycle expressways, cycle lanes, green markings, new parking facilities and cycle car parks. And last but not least, we are improving the conditions for pedestrians with more attractive, direct routes, optimised traffic lights, more car-free streets and neighbourhoods and new play areas for children. Step by step, we are building a safer city with new mobility. People are at the centre of all our planning.
In September, pop-up cycle paths built during the Corona crisis hit the headlines. How do temporary cycle paths become sustainable infrastructure?
Quickly establishing cycle lanes with temporary means, i.e. using warning beacons and yellow lane markings first, was an important step in the pandemic. The aim was to quickly provide safe lanes on main roads for the growing cycle traffic. Often there are already plans for these routes to turn the temporary means into a permanent cycling lane, i.e. with permanent markings and, where necessary, specially protected. If possible, this should be done on all "pop-up" cycle lanes, and quickly. They have come to stay. Recent court decisions suggest that this plan can become a reality.
More parks, green spaces and sports and play areas are to provide healthy urban recreation areas in Berlin. What concrete plans are there for the capital city?
Berlin is already a particularly green metropolis – with many parks and forests, nature and landscape conservation areas, allotment gardens, avenues, wastelands and a number of highly creative urban gardening initiatives. However, the growing city with its increasing demand for living space and infrastructure is creating strong competition for space. And the rapid climate change ultimately presents us with the challenge of providing the city with more green spaces and infiltration areas that are robust in the face of climate change impacts such as intense heat, long dry periods and very heavy rainfall. It is therefore necessary to preserve the existing greenery, or even better: to expand it – and wherever possible to unseal the soil, to create renaturation, to green roofs and create green oases. To this end, we have provided the district authorities with considerably more resources for the maintenance of urban greenery. To this end, we have drawn up an allotment garden development plan that protects the valuable plots on land. And to this end, we have developed an ambitious charter for Berlin's urban green spaces together with the urban community, which formulates a broad consensus for strengthening urban green spaces and sets out a concrete action programme. Just recently, for example, we were able to celebrate the expansion of the Mauerpark, which is now twice as large as before – and which also contains one of the largest new sewage storage basins in Berlin in its subsoil to catch overflows caused by heavy rainfall so that they do not enter the Berlin rivers. This is climate-resilient infrastructure in a green metropolis.
The Capital Airport BER is about to be opened. The stories of various breakdowns in the construction project have been told many times. But what does the new airport actually have to offer in terms of digital and transport infrastructure?
The Corona crisis has confronted air transport as a whole with a completely new situation and unclear prospects. Rapid climate change is also forcing decisions to be made on which routes are sensible and which are not. Irrespective of the role of BER in this situation, Berlin can be glad to have ensured that the connection between the capital's airport and the metropolis is primarily based on efficient public transport. The S-Bahn will be arriving at its new destination a few days earlier.
“This is climate-resilient infrastructure in a green metropolis”
The six-track airport railway station is located directly below the Central Terminal, which means that the shortest possible routes to the regional transport platforms including the Airport Express, but also to the S-Bahn and long-distance trains are available. The existing regional transport lines RE 7 and RB 14 will be supplemented by the airport express RE 9 when the BER is put into operation, so that there will be a 15-minute interval between Berlin Hauptbahnhof and Berlin Brandenburg Airport with a journey time of around 30 minutes. The Senate Department for the Environment, Transport and Climate Protection is currently investigating to what extent an additional connection of the BER to the Berlin underground might be useful.
Berlin and Brandenburg are growing ever closer together. The joint project "i2030" also stands against this background. What exactly is it about?
The major i2030 project, which began in this legislative period, is driving forward the expansion of rail connections for commuters in the metropolitan region. The aim is to offer such an attractive service that more and more people can do without their cars and switch to Ecomobility (pedestrian traffic, bicycles and public transport). To this end, the Senate Department for the Environment, Transport and Climate Protection, together with Brandenburg, the Berlin-Brandenburg Transport Association and Deutsche Bahn, has agreed extensive plans: Up to 6 billion euros are to be invested to bring commuters – an increase from the current 300,000 to around 380,000 is expected by 2030 – reliably, in a climate-friendly and comfortable way from Brandenburg to Berlin and vice versa. To this end, the rail infrastructure for suburban and regional transport will be expanded along eight star-shaped corridors in and around the capital. This includes up to 180 kilometres of new or reactivated lines, filling in gaps, parking facilities for trains, extended platforms and a total of up to 99 converted or newly built stations. Examples include the Potsdam main railway line, the "Heidekrautbahn" and the extension of the highly sought-after western link between Spandau and Nauen. The i2030 project will thus bring Berlin and Brandenburg much closer together – it is high time for this to happen in the fourth decade after the fall of the Wall.
Senator Günther, thank you for your time.
INTERVIEW Enrico Blasnik