Germany unveils new Berlin landmark before World Cup

BERLIN, May 23 (Reuters) - Germany will take the wraps off its newest attraction on May 26 when Berlin's five-storey steel and glass central rail station is finally opened after 10 years and around 10 billion euros -- just in time for the World Cup.

An imposing 13 billion dollars landmark of superlatives that dwarfs the nearby Reichstag and Chancellery, the ''Hauptbahnhof'' that Berlin always wanted will be Europe's biggest station.

More than 1,100 trains will pass through each day and 300,000 passengers are expected to get on or off at Europe's biggest rail crossing hub, just a few metres west of the no man's land where the Berlin Wall once stood.

Destined to become a symbol of reunited Berlin and modern Germany, the massive station will also showcase the country's best in technology, engineering, infrastructure, efficiency and architecture during the soccer World Cup.

''It's a building for the next century,'' Deutsche Bahn chief executive Hartmut Mehdorn told journalists recently at the railways' headquarters in a tower 2 km south of the new station.

''It's the most beautiful station in the world,'' he said, pointing to a breathtaking view of the glass-covered hub. ''We're delighted and proud. It's built for a growing Berlin, a city on the move.'' The station's translucent tubular roof, made up of 9,117 glass panels, rises above the rest of the government quarter and its 46 metre-high (151 ft) twin towers are about 10 metres higher than the Reichstag parliament and Chancellery.

The station, which feels like an airport terminal, has 80 shops on five levels between east-west lines connecting Paris to Moscow, 12 metres above street level, and north-south lines linking Copenhagen to Athens, 15 metres under ground.

COMPLAINTS ABOUT COSTS Mehdorn, who is trying to turn the stodgy state-owned railway into an international logistics giant before a public listing, was attacked for sacrificing and degrading the famed west Berlin Zoo station for the central hub.

He has also been criticised for building what some call a mere prestige object -- the twin towers atop the glass canopy have, as yet, no tenants for 42,000 square metres of space.

The station, which is 320 metres long at the upper track level, has 15,000 square metres of floorspace. Underground, the platforms are 450 metres long.

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