Face value: New ways to run a railroad

摘要

From the top of his skyscraper on Berlin's Potsdamer Plata, Hartmut Mehdorn likes to train his binoculars on another vast edifice a kilometre away. This is Berlin's new Hauptbahnhof, or central station, a huge glass-clad railway hub, 14 years in the making, that will link all intercity and regional trains from east, west, north and south. It has to be finished by May 26th when Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, will preside over a grand opening-just weeks before the start of the 2006 World Cup, which Germany is hosting. The world's football fans will use the services of Deutsche Bahn, Europe's biggest railway, to travel between the 12 cities that are staging matches.