Naples, October 8th, 2026 (The Berlin Spectator) – Berlin’s planned new tram line to the former Tegel airport site will take years longer than once hoped. The tender documents from the city’s transit operator BVG reveal the route and the stops for the first time, according to a report by the “Tagesspiegel” daily. The line is currently called M20.
It would run 7.1 kilometers (about 4.4 miles) from Jungfernheide station, where S-Bahn and U-Bahn services meet, to Kurt-Schumacher-Platz in Tegel. During peak hours, trams would come every five minutes. Ten new stops are planned.
The line is meant to serve the Urban Tech Republic, a planned research and business hub on the grounds of the former airport. Right next to it, the state intends to build 5,000 apartments in the new Schumacher Quartier. So far, neither area has suitable public transportation links.
Shared Line
From Jungfernheide, the route would follow Tegeler Weg and cross the Mörschbrücke bridge to Jakob-Kaiser-Platz. The tracks would cut through the large roundabout there, with the first stop just north of the U-Bahn station. Because the A111 freeway runs in a trench in the middle of Kurt-Schumacher-Damm, both tracks would then be laid west of the freeway. The documents say planners will examine a shared lane for buses and trams. This might require using parts of the wide sidewalk areas.
Continuing north, the line would hug the eastern edge of the Volkspark Jungfernheide park and use the General-Ganeval-Brücke bridge to reach the entrance of the Urban Tech Republic, where the next stop is planned. Two more stops would follow as the trams circle the former terminal building clockwise. Afterward, the line would head east, leave the site and pass south of the Schumacher Quartier along Kurt-Schumacher-Damm. The provisional end of the line would be a turnaround facility on Ollenhauerstraße next to the Kurt-Schumacher-Platz U-Bahn station.
BVG plans to carry out preliminary planning from April 2027 to June 2028. If the project is pursued, draft planning is to follow through the end of 2029. The approval procedure could begin in April 2030 and conclude in April 2032. The operator hopes to finish detailed planning by the end of October 2032, after which construction preparations would begin.
Another Project
Earlier plans from 2024 called for construction to start in 2028 and the first trams to roll in 2030. Frank Wolters, head of TXL Management GmbH, recently said at a press event marking the start of construction in the Schumacher Quartier that the target is now 2034. That would put the arrival of the tram about five years after the first apartments are completed. It remains uncertain whether even this schedule will hold.
Another tram project in Berlin faces similar delays. The extension of the M10 line from Turmstraße in Moabit to Jungfernheide station was once supposed to open in 2028. The approval procedure for it has not even started yet. It is now expected to begin in 2027, and according to the Senate, service could start in the early to mid-2030s.
