ave you ever thought about a railroad station being like a big department store? I mean what if - when you boarded the elevator to go to "Home Furnishings," or Electrical Appliances on the 2nd or 3rd floor - you instead heard announcements about trains going north, south, west and east - and all on a different level? ? This scenario is so unusual that the thought probably never entered your mind but, strange as it may sound, there is a railroad station in Europe that does exactly that. The city is Berlin, Germany, and the station is the new five (yes five!) level Hauptbahnhof or Berlin Central Station. There is no other train station under construction, and on such a gigantic scale, as this one, anywhere in Europe.

As a train aficionado I'd gone there several years ago to see the first steps in the building of a train station for the 21st century and beyond - and it would begin to take shape in an area that was a desolate wasteland between East and West Berlin. The fact was that Berlin was one of the most heavily (and most frequently) bombed cities in WW2 Europe and, at war's end as the clean up began, there were a lot of open spaces. In early 2008 I was there to see the progress of the past few years.

Next to the Swiss, I've always thought that Germany has one of the best railroad systems in Europe -- especially their superb ICE, or Inter City Express trains that I've ridden many times during my trips to Germany. Their speed is often in excess of 200 mph, and their accommodations and level of service, are all superb. As but one example, travel between Berlin and Hamburg in 1990 took 4 hours and 3 minutes. The same journey today is only 90 minutes.

With the advent of German reunification in 1989, there evolved an urgent need for an expanded and updated rail system in what had previously been East Germany. Another key component was to make Berlin the center rail hub where passengers could arrive, leave and connect on both domestic and international trains as easy and as "simplified" as possible. This new, superbly modern station does all of that - and a whole lot more! The North South routes are domestic, and the East West lines are international. Connecting, arriving, leaving and getting to where you want to go in Berlin, is now easier, simpler and faster than ever before. Making all this a reality was one of the biggest construction jobs ever, not only in Germany but in all of Europe.

Here's an idea of what big means for Berlin's Central Train Station. Current results show there are 300,000 passengers a day; 110,000 who are either arriving, leaving or changing trains; equally incredible, trains traveling in all directions leave and depart at an amazing interval of 90 seconds; approximately 220 long distance trains arrive each day; 324 regional trains, and over 600 S-Bahn local trains every day; 310 trains, plus over 600 trains move in an East/West direction, and 234 in a North/South direction; it has over 900 parking spaces for automobiles; there are four platforms with eight tracks serving the North-South lines, that are next to the underground and S-Bahn stations; 54 escalators are dotted around the huge complex, 43 elevators and five magnificent staircases; plus over 9,000 sprinklers for fire protection, and at night the station looks even more spectacular as 9,000 lights illuminate its striking appearance; the station itself occupies 750,000 square feet of space and the cost of this gigantic project was $850 million, with a building time of 10 years. There are over 80 different shops from upscale hair salons; travel agencies; car rentals; clothing stores, plus wonderful places to eat and dine. It was opened by German chancellor Angela Merkel on May 26th 2006.

Kirsten Schmidt, director of PR for the city of Berlin in North America, comments. "This beautiful and architecturally stunning station now makes it possible to get connections to destinations all over Europe, and there are always wide choices of departures. I always urge people to get tickets through Rail Europe. Another great fact about its location is that you can reach some of Berlin's top tourist attractions - such as the nearby Reichstag, Brandenburg Gate and the Memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe, all of which are only a very short walk from the station." Schmidt noted that US visitors to the city had increased considerably, and that Americans can find some of the lowest hotel rates in Europe. "In 2008," she says, "the average room rate in a Berlin four or five star hotel was around 138 Euros a night, compared to similar rooms in London at 345 or Paris at 329 Euros."

For lots of fascinating information about Berlin and the superb ICE trains, click on Google and type in "German ICE trains information," and for the station itself, just type in "New Berlin train station." Other worthwhile websites are www.visitBerlin.de and www.cometogermany.com.