Berlin's U-Bahn Extension and A100 Motorway Hit Milestones This Week — But Delays Loom

Berlin's transport senate confirmed Thursday that tunnelling work on the U5 extension toward Weißensee will begin procurement in the third quarter of 2026, roughly six months behind the schedule announced last November. At the same time, the federal government signed off on the next 3.2-kilometre segment of the A100 motorway — the so-called 17th Bauabschnitt — pushing the project past the Treptower Park interchange and deeper into Neukölln, a stretch that has drawn sustained opposition from residents and climate groups since planning documents were first published in 2021.

The timing matters. Berlin's coalition under Governing Mayor Kai Wegner has staked part of its credibility on delivering visible infrastructure progress before the 2026 autumn budget cycle. With construction costs across Germany running roughly 18 percent above 2022 levels, according to the Federal Statistical Office's most recent building-cost index, every week of delay compounds the financial exposure. The BVG — Berlin's public transport operator — has separately warned the senate that its own capital investment programme for 2027 depends on clarity over which projects are actually breaking ground this year.

The U5 procurement announcement is the more locally charged of the two. The planned route would eventually connect Alexanderplatz to Weißensee via Prenzlauer Berg, threading through some of the city's densest residential streets. The Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe submitted revised environmental impact documentation to Senatsverwaltung für Mobilität in late May, correcting omissions flagged by the Mitte district office. That correction process ate most of the six-month delay. BVG expects to award the tunnelling contract no earlier than the second quarter of 2027, with construction start pushed to 2028 at the earliest — meaning the line will not open before the mid-2030s under even optimistic projections.

The A100 Fight Returns to Neukölln

The motorway extension is a different kind of fight. The 17th Bauabschnitt will demolish around 200 dwellings in the Rixdorf area of Neukölln, according to calculations published by the campaign group Bündnis A100 stoppen, which has been tracking the project since 2010. The federal transport ministry's approval this week clears the last major legal hurdle before construction tenders can be issued, though the ministry's own timeline suggests physical demolitions are unlikely before late 2027.

Local council members in Neukölln voted 23 to 9 on Wednesday to formally request a mediation process with the federal Fernstraßen-Bundesamt, the agency now responsible for federal motorway construction following the controversial 2021 transfer of those responsibilities from the states. The vote is symbolic — the district has no veto — but it signals the political pressure the senate will face as demolition notices eventually go out.

Separately, BVG reported this week that tram line M10 carried a record 94,000 passenger journeys on a single day in June, during the heatwave that hit Berlin on June 21st. The figure, cited in an internal BVG operational bulletin seen by The Daily Berlin, underscores how much pressure the existing network is already absorbing while expansion projects remain years from completion. The M10 runs from Hauptbahnhof through Mitte to Warschauer Straße, and BVG has been lobbying for an extension toward Hermannplatz in Neukölln for several years without a confirmed funding decision.

What Comes Next

The senate's Mobilität committee meets again on July 15th, when the BVG's revised capital plan is scheduled for presentation. That session will be the first real test of whether the governing coalition can align its housing and transport agendas — the A100's path through Neukölln destroys housing stock in a borough where the average rental listing already sits above 14 euros per square metre for a standard two-room flat, according to IMV Berlin's June market report.

For commuters, the practical upshot is simple: the U5 toward Weißensee and the tram extension to Hermannplatz are both years away. Anyone travelling that corridor should expect the M13 and the existing bus network to remain under strain through the decade. BVG confirmed it will run supplementary bus capacity on routes 200 and 245 through the summer, but no additional rolling stock arrives before 2028 under current procurement contracts.