Friday, March 27
Kai Wegner has intervened in his own party’s traffic administration plans, who are skeptical about extending the U7 connection in Spandau. He reacted by stating, “Better transport connections in the suburbs of Berlin are very important to the Senate and also to me.”
He has made clear his support for extending not only the U7 to neighbourhoods outside Berlin’s centre but also the U8 in the direction of Märkisches Viertel or Mexikoplatz. In terms of the U7, Wegner has said, “further investigations are now required”.
Wegner’s stance aligns more closely with the SPD, who have criticised the CDU’s reluctance to extend Berlin U-Bahn. State Secretary of Transport Andreas Kraus (CDU) announced on Wednesday in the Transport Committee that the U7 should not be extended beyond the Spandau Rathaus station due to excessive costs.
Transport Senator Ute Bonde (CDU) has also stated, “We are facing financial challenges, we have infrastructural and operational constraints.” She added, “the construction of a subway with a view to profitability leads to challenges”.
Not extending the U-Bahn connections means that large settlements like Heerstraße Nord remain without a subway connection. SPD faction leader Raed Saleh warned that the Senate would not approve of such a decision in the local transport plan, which it appears, from Kai Wegner’s stance, is exactly what’s happened.
