offerendum

And I guess you are right.....

linglingfool

20xx may be optimistic...

Tanya934

And when it does eventually open they will have to close it down to refurbish it to comply with the latest set of EU regulations!
It's crazy. Both the Russians and the Americans were able to launch space programs in less time and for less money than this white elephant is costing. At least Tiegel is being kept open for now.

kubrick

Warning: the TXL bus line has been shortened and does not go to Alexanderplatz anymore. The bus only goes from the airport to Hbf now.

If you stay around Alex and hope to catch the bus to the airport, you have to take the S-Bahn to Hbf and then the TXL bus from there.

There is currently a plan to reactivate the airport-Alex connection. If everything goes fine the bus will return to Alex in mid-October or early November. Sorry I couldn't find sources in English, but here it is in German:

http://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/bv.../14639056.html

scubadu

Is there actually even a "target" date on the books for BER at this point?

I'm trying to think if there is precedence for anything like this, in modern history. There have been several documented construction disasters that have occurred (Denver airport, the "tunnel" in Boston, etc.) but I really don't know if there has been a failure of this magnitude ever. It's really quite stunning...

I can't help but wonder if leveling the entire facility and starting over would be faster than trying to fix it.

Wow... just wow...

Regards

WorldLux

No. AFAIK the airport management was supposed to annonce a new date a couple of weeks ago, but deferred that announcement. Some managers of BER insist that a 2017 opening of the airport is still doable. I have my serious doubts about that.

It's full of them. Over budget and delayed public constructions seem to be the norm these days.

That's the problem with campaign goodies: You don't want to annonce a new prestige project that's too expensive and that's going to take several years to built. You end up with unrealistic low budgets and too restrictive timelines. During construction, only few actually pay attention, whether money is efficiently and correctly used (and if the billed services were effectively done in the billed quality and quantity).

In contrast to BER, the 2012 Olympics were somewhat of success. They were ahead of schedule, had spend less money than initially planned and construction was closely monitored to detect any abuses by contractors.

scubadu

Oh, I'm well aware that there have been many over budget and delayed projects (and I named a couple in my post)

What I'm saying, is can you name a bigger disaster than this? In terms of both cost overrun and time delay. I mean perhaps there is but I really cannot name one bigger than this. Can you?

Regards

WorldLux

Stuttgart 21 comes to mind. Initial budget (1995) 2.5 billion €, currently >5.8 billion €. Expected delay >3 years. There are a few fails on a smaller scale (Elb Philharmonie, Nord-Süd Stadtbahn in Cologne or the new BND headquarters in Berlin).

It's no different in France. It took over 20 years to build the motorway tunnel under Toulon. That's over 46 years from planing to building.

offerendum

An Autobahn in Germany is "in work" since nearly 50 years (http://www.wz.de/mobile/lokales/kreis-mettmann/nachrichten-aus-velbert-neviges-und-wulfrath/die-unendliche-geschichte-der-a-44-1.2028652). We have some funny people things...

Crampedin13A

I've always thought of Berlin as a bigger version of Montreal when it comes to these projects. YMX probably the biggest and costliest white elephant airport ever built and then abandoned within 30 years because no one wanted it and flights returned to YUL (Montreal's version of TXL) and for pure comedy unless you are a Canadian taxpayer look up the whole sad story of the Montreal Stade Olympique.

LondonElite

I quite liked Mirabel in the day. Big and roomy with those cool shuttle busses to take you to the aircraft. The Big O wasn't that great, mind you, and getting there to watch the Expos was no fun.

waffle

This has now happened (source in German). As of today, the TXL line has resumed service all the way between the airport and Alexanderplatz. There's also one additional bus per hour.

Mind you, it's still usually faster to take the S-Bahn between Hauptbahnhof and Alexanderplatz because the bus takes ages, but not having to change will be nice for those with kids or heavy luggage.

WorldLux

Let's wait and see whether DWC is going to be a success. Apart from a few regional flights and seasonal charters, there's basically no notable passenger traffic (410k passengers in the first half of 2016). Moreover, the project was initially to be completed by 2017. They expect DWC to be fully operational in 2027.

If DWC ultimately fails, it's going to be a bigger fail than BER or YMX.

DanielW

I can't really see DWC failing. DXB is close to capacity and one of the possible solutions is to have EK take over and have all the other airlines at DWC. It's just a matter of time (although it may be a decade or two), before DWC get better utilised anyway.

LondonElite

Whether DWC fails in the traditional sense is not relevant, as it will be supported by the state, not unlike EK (initially at least).