Word: berliner
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...delighted to see that 1989 was the subject of your recent issue, but I was disappointed that Poland's role in bringing about the end of communism in Central and Eastern Europe was almost completely ignored [June 29]. The fall of the Berlin Wall, albeit a very striking and photogenic event, had an entire article devoted to it, whereas the event that made it possible, the June 4 election in Poland, was only very briefly mentioned. The start of it all was the work of the Solidarity trade union, which by 1989 had been operating for a decade...
...first time in its 85-year history, Berlin's S-Bahn system has slashed services after most of its trains were pulled off the tracks for safety checks. Now only one-third of the 600 S-Bahn trains are running, and 19 stations, including the one at Berlin's Schönefeld airport, are affected by the engineering works. Since July 20, more than a million commuters have been facing long lines and severe delays. Many have had to come up with alternative travel plans and take underground trains, trams, buses, even bicycles - anything to get them from...
...Deutsche Bahn should have made these fixes years ago. They accuse the rail operator of cutting corners to save money, putting the safety of its passengers and employees at risk. "We warned a long time ago, as far back as 2003, that there were faults on the wheels of Berlin's S-Bahn trains," says Oliver Kaufhold, a spokesman for the German rail union Transnet. "When a third of the city's engineering depots have been shut down and they've cut back staff numbers, it's obvious something will crack one day." (See pictures of Barack Obama visiting Berlin...
...Berlin's creaking urban rail network is just another in a series of problems facing the city. Over the past year, there has been a spate of car burnings in the capital, teachers have written public letters to the authorities complaining about the poor standards at city schools, and youth violence has been on the rise. And the city council is struggling for money after running up new debts this year to the tune of $1.3 billion, bringing its debt total to $85 billion...
...that, the current trouble on the tracks threatens to hit tourism - the idea of navigating Berlin without using its rail network could prove too much for some of the tens of thousands of visitors the city expects over the summer, keeping them and their holiday cash away. And the p.r. nightmare promises to get only worse when Berlin hosts the World Athletics Championships from Aug. 15 to Aug. 23. If everything goes to plan, S-Bahn will have some more trains up and running by Aug. 9 - but services won't return to normal until December. Many Berliners, including...