U5 (Berlin U-Bahn)
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U5 is a line on the Berlin U-Bahn.
It runs from Alexanderplatz in Mitte eastwards through Friedrichshain, Lichtenberg and Friedrichsfelde, surfaces in Biesdorf to pass Kaulsdorf and Hellersdorf above ground and finally reaches city limits at Hönow. The U5 was the only line actively extended by the East German authorities at the time when Berlin was divided by the Wall.
U5 is also the only line in the network that connects to other lines at only at one point (Alexanderplatz). There have long been plans to extend the line westward to Berlin Hauptbahnhof. The temporary line U55, currently under construction and expected to open in August 2009, is the first stage in realizing this, with further construction on the connecting segment from Alexanderplatz to Unter den Linden scheduled to start in 2010.
[edit] History
Plans from the pre-WWI-era for a rapid transit underneath Große Frankfurter Straße, the present-day Karl-Marx-Allee were not carried out until in 1927 construction started. The first section between Alexanderplatz and Friedrichsfelde was inaugurated on December 21, 1930.
Not until 1969 the East Berlin government started the extension of the line, though at first only one new station was built: Tierpark, to serve the eponymous zoo nearby. The extension opened on June 6, 1973. The last continuation to the developing areas in the boroughs of Marzahn and Hellersdorf went into service on July 1, 1988 (Elsterwerdaer Platz) and July 1, 1989 (Hönow).
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