Modern, safe, sterile and not accessible to everyone – that’s how the CDU wants to make the U-Bahn. During their closed-door meeting in Stromberg (Rhineland-Palatinate) over the past weekend, the party passed a motion stating that “the long-term goal is the development of a fully modernised, automated and closed subway system” in Berlin. In practice, this would mean the construction of access barriers at stations to allow only those holding a valid ticket to enter the station platform.
The U5, U7 and U8 are envisioned as the first lines where this new technology would be adopted. Dirk Stettner, leader of the CDU parliamentary group, says they want to “make fare evasion more difficult, reduce vandalism, and noticeably strengthen passengers’ sense of security”. In addition to increasing safety and cleanliness, the measure would serve as a first step to establishing a new ticketing method in the future, where passengers would pay per distance travelled by tapping their card in and out every time. This tap-in/tap-out scheme would also help establish a digital operations management system that would analyse passenger flows and detect situations out of the ordinary. At the same time and for the same reason, the BVG also intends to make wider use of AI-equipped cameras.
Installing turnstiles at every U-Bahn station would cost around €400 million over ten years, which is the cost of about 2km of new subway line (2-3 new stations). Implementing the changes proposed by the CDU would thus likely necessitate further ticket price increases. The proposal has previously been met with backlash from other parties, while the BVG has historically argued that structural constraints would render it practically impossible to make the Berlin U-Bahn a fully closed system.
