The underground station Breslauer Platz/Hbf next to the main station ("Hbf" is the abbreviation for "Hauptbahnhof", the German word for "main station") in Cologne seen on 3 December 2006. For the construction of the new underground line through the city centre, which branches off at the main station, the station has to be reconstructed completely to become a junction station with three platform tracks. This is the end of the so called Ursula-Tunnel (named after it's godmother Ursula Schramma, the wife of the mayor of Cologne), which will lead trains coming from the new line into the station. It was drilled between 11 July and 9 September 2006 by the tunneling machine "Carmen" and is 260 metres long, ending at the Kurt-Hackenberg-Platz south of the main station, where five tunnels (two single-tracked ones coming from Breslauer Platz, two single-tracked ones from Bonner Wall in the south, and an already existing double tracked tunnel coming from Dom/Hbf) will meet in an underground building. Note the sign above the tunnel entrance with the words "Glück auf" (the traditional salute of the miners expressing the hope always to return to the surface safely) and the date 22 June 2006 (the day of the tunnel christening), and the cabinet with a figurine of the Holy Barbara (the patron saint of the miners) further right. The startup of the new underground line is planned for 2010.

Digital photo by Christoph Schmitz (christoph.schmitz2@post.rwth-aachen.de)