BVG | Very dirty yellow on the Berlin subway

I know what's been going on for you in the last few weeks - a U7 train on Monday. Photo: Nicolas Šustr »Do not wash. Test vehicle!” This is one of those typical comments that passers-by make about particularly dirty cars on the side of the road. Public transport users could now also do this on many Berlin subway cars. At least when you are traveling on the subway lines U6 to U9.

In fact, you can also see writing written with fingers in the dirt. You can also see where a sticky drink hit the train - because that's where dust and dirt stick particularly well. Some panes are so dirty that handprints can be seen through the milky veil as peepholes.

The reason for the very dirty yellow in which many trains on four subway lines appear is due to the Britz-Süd workshop. Dismantling of the automatic train washing system began at the beginning of July. She had reached the end of her lifespan.

The new system will probably not be installed in the existing hall until November, according to the BVG in response to a request from “nd”. “The necessary work was carried out in the summer months, when experience shows that the trains are not as dirty as in winter,” the state company continued.

“We take criticism of the appearance of individual vehicles seriously and apologize to the passengers.”

Normally, every subway car in the Berlin network is cleaned from the outside about every 14 days. Apparently this deadline cannot be met, although the BVG states that it has “increased the number of staff for external cleaning in parallel”. Manual cleaning with scrubbers is significantly more time-consuming than automatic cleaning.

"Especially if - as is currently the case - there is a high number of graffiti graffiti at the same time, it may happen that the 'normal' exterior cleaning cannot take place as frequently as usual," explain the Berlin public transport company.

However, an expert on the Berlin subway wonders in the local transport portal bahninfo-forum.de why the procedure was not followed when a replacement hall was built in the Machandelweg workshop at the Olympia-Stadion subway station. During the construction period from the end of 2009 to 2013, "one of the two old washing portals was not scrapped, but was initially built outside next to the signal box." He explains that the trains were pulled through for washing with the battery-powered locomotive. He suspects “a lack of money and staff” to be the cause.

Three fingers in the mud Photo: Nicolas Šustr In the current situation, such an approach is not an alternative for the BVG. “Setting up a temporary washing portal is very complex due to the high environmental and licensing requirements,” replies the company.

The BVG is also aware that there is a problem. “We take criticism of the appearance of individual vehicles seriously and apologize to the passengers,” says the transport company. We are “working diligently to be able to offer our passengers the best possible cleaning of vehicles even during the renovation phase.”

However, there is no doubt that only "the new system will once again provide the necessary capacity for regular and sustainable exterior cleaning of the vehicles."

The tender text on the requirements for the new car wash from 2025 suggests a high-end product. What was required was “a 10-brush gantry car wash system, consisting of 2 tandem gantry systems, automatic vehicle recognition using RFID, control and operating terminals, remote diagnostics unit, water treatment technology.”

Perhaps it would be a nice gesture to offer passengers rides to the car wash after the new facility was inaugurated to show that the love of the BVG does not always have to be a dirty affair.

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