In GDR times it was the most important long-distance train station in East Berlin. After reunification, the Lichtenberg S-Bahn station became less and less important.
Long-distance traffic no longer stops here and only a few regional lines. The number of passengers is 85,000 per day (330,000 at the main station). Now there are plans in the district to turn the traditional station into a kind of mini-ZOB and at the same time to establish it as a hub for night trains.
“We want to make the station more attractive again as a location,” says Lichtenberg’s FDP Vice President Marcel Otto (31) to the BZ. On the one hand, the demand for bus trips is increasing, but many people in eastern districts such as Lichtenberg and Marzahn-Hellersdorf have very long journeys, for example to the ZOB in Westend.
“An expansion of the station would create an attractive transfer point for commuters and tourists in the inner-city area if Flixbuses and Flixtrains stopped there,” says the FDP Lichtenberg’s BVV application.
The station is also to be established as a so-called night train hub. “The demand for traveling by night train is increasing again because it is a comfortable and environmentally friendly alternative to car journeys and air travel,” says Marcel Otto.
“Lichtenberg station certainly has sufficient capacity to handle night train traffic.” In order to implement the mini-ZOB plan, extensive conversion work would be necessary on the station forecourt.
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According to the idea of the FDP, one could also build a bicycle parking garage and sufficient charging stations for electric cars. The night train application was accepted by the BVV on Thursday.
The transport committee is still deliberating on the mini-ZOB plans. After that, talks between the district and the BVG (which operates the central bus station in Westend) and Deutsche Bahn about the time frame and investment volume are to be started