page_title: Berlin–Görlitz railway
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Berlin–Görlitz railway / History
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Der alte Bahnhof Görlitz von der Sattigstraße gesehen
context_page_description: The Berlin–Görlitz railway is a main line railway in the German states of Berlin, Brandenburg and Saxony, which was originally built and operated by the Berlin-Görlitz Railway Company. The line runs through Lusatia from Berlin via Cottbus to Görlitz. It is one of the oldest lines in Germany, opened in 1866 and 1867.
  It was nationalised in 1882 and became part of Prussian state railways. In 1920, it became part of German national railways along with the rest of the Prussian state railways.
context_section_description: The line was built by the "railway king" Bethel Henry Strousberg as general contractor and opened in 1866 and 1867 for passenger and freight transport. In 1882 it was nationalised by Prussia and became part of the Prussian state railways. 
  In 1896, Ausstellung ("exhibition") station was established at kilometre 2.7. It had five tracks, including three bay platform tracks, at four platforms. It was built especially for carrying the public to and from the Great Industrial Exposition of Berlin and closed after the end of the exposition.
  On 7 August 1905, there an error by a dispatcher, leading to two trains crashing head-on between Spremberg and Schleife causing the death of 19 people and seriously injuring 40 others.
  Around 1906, the entire railway line of the Görlitzer Bahn was raised in the Berlin area to remove level crossings. As part of this work, additional tracks were laid in Berlin between the Stadtbahn and Ringbahn and Grünau to cope with heavy suburban traffic. The stations in the Berlin city area received additional platforms on these suburban tracks, the platforms in Zeuthen (1897, formerly Hankels Ablage) and Eichwalde (1898) were relocated to the suburban tracks. In 1929, these lines were electrified with side-contact third rail and later became part of the Berlin S-Bahn network. In 1951, the S-Bahn tracks were extended to Königs Wusterhausen.
  One of the two railway tracks was dismantled after 1945 to provide reparations. The gradual replacement of the second track began from 1970, but the vast majority of the line over a length of 112.9 km between Lübbenau and Görlitz is still single-track.
  In 1952, Görlitz station in Berlin was closed for passenger traffic, although freight traffic continued to operate there until 1986. In 1988, the mainline tracks from Berlin Grünau Cross to Lübbenau were electrified with overhead catenary on the 15 kV 16.7 AC system and, in 1989, the catenary was extended to Cottbus.
  In February 2010, the double-track, electrified eastern connection of the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) gained planning approval and was completed just a year later. It connects with the Görlitz railway over a single-track northern and a single-track southern connecting curve at level junctions between Eichwalde and Grünau. The old freight track to the tank farm at Berlin-Schönefeld Airport South (Kerosinbahn, "jet fuel"—not "kerosene"—railway), which began at Grünau station, was taken out of service at the end of March 2011 and subsequently dismantled. Since then, operations to the tank farm and the BER concrete plant have been carried out on the new tracks from the eastern connection; the siding branches off west of the A 113 and is electrified to the transfer yard.
  By a decision of 23 July 2012, the Federal Railway Authority declared a 4.5 hectares (11 acres) area, in the district of Treptow-Köpenick, located between track-kilometre 0.9 and 2.2, to be free of rail operations. This is the section between Landwehr Canal and the Ringbahn area, including the former south curve.
caption: The old entrance building in Görlitz
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