Where East meets West — over the last train

Press, 17 May 1984, Page 21

Where East meets West — over the last train

.Armed guards peer from the last British military train in regular service as it halts by the desolate platform at Marienborn in East Germany.

Suddenly, a chain is lifted from one of the sealed doors' and three British soldiers march out to exchange salutes with a Soviet captain, under the gaze of two Soviet army conscripts.

“Zdravstvuitye” ("greetings"), exclaim the Britons, before following the captain into a small office where a Soviet clerk scrutinises the travel documents they have brought with them. Since late 1945, through Cold War and detente, this strict military protocol has been observed almost uninterrupted as the sixcarriage "Berliner” has made the round trip from West Berlin to the East-West German border every day except Christmas. , Sometimes therejre 200 passengers in the carriages decked with British flags and pulled by an East

German locomotive. Sometimes there are just two. But there are no plans to axe the service along the 200-kilometre rail corridor.

The train plays a key role in asserting the rights of the three Western allies — Britain. France, and the United States — to transport links they have maintained with this divided city since Germany's defeat in the Second World War.

The Western allies guard their rights of access closely and say any violation by Moscow could upset the relationship between the four victorious wartime powers which control Berlin.

"Any serious interference with any means of Allied access to Berlin would be considered as a deliberate signal of Soviet disquiet in all the Western capitals,” says one British military source. Though the French and United States armed forces run military trains along [the same corridor, veteran travellers say neither has

From

quite the Berliner's flair or standard of service.

An eight-piece band from the Royal Corps of Transport, which runs the train, played to senior Allied officers over a five-course dinner in the dining car on one recent journey. Standard fare on the four-hour trip includes a full English breakfast as the train leaves Berlin and lunch as it trundles through East Germany. Meals are free to duty passengers and cost five mark's (JNZ2.7O) for non-duty travellers. The return leg from Brunswick, the West German end of the line, begins with afternoon tea and • biscuits, followed by a three-course dinner washed down with specially selected wines. “We like people’ to enjoy themselves but don’t expect them to get

PAUL HOLMES,

in West Berlin

Reuter,

paralytically drunk,” says Captain David’ Glossop, the Royal Corps of Transport Officer commanding the train.

Among his 70 or so passengers on this trip were a party of army wives on a day out to Brunswick, some American servicemen from Berlin, and a high-spirited forces hockey team. Despite the relaxed atmosphere, Captain Glossop, aged 36, from Devon, acknowledges that some first-time travellers still get “a little paranoid.”

The Berliner was out of action for 10 months during the Soviet blockade of West Berlin in 1948 and 1949. In the early 19605, when the train ran overnight, the Soviet Union insisted that its windows be blacked out and the doot£ padlocked from the outside.

And in August, 1968, grim-faced Soviet officers halted the train as Soviet forces were on their way into Czechoslovakia to put an end to its short-lived liberalisation.

The only other interruption occurred during a one-day West Berlin railworkers’ strike in 1980, but a typical run in 1984 can still evoke some of the old Cold War tension.

As the train prepares to leave Berlin’s Charlottenburg station, four Royal Engineer soldiers in combat fatigues stand by the doors, waiting to seal the carriages. By the time the train enters the corridor at Griebnitzsee, the guards are cradling submachineguns and have chained the doors shut to keep out any would-be East German fugitives. Tickets carry a printed warning to passengers not to use cameras or binoculars or to talk to any East Germans or Soviet personnel during stops. i The only exceptions to the no-

contact rule are the officer commanding the train, an aide, and an interpreter, who step down during the Berliner’s longest stop at Marienborn to present passports and travel documents.

The train carries enough rations to keep the passengers fed in case of unforeseen delay, though it is not disclosed for how long. But no-one expects an incident. "We observe all the military niceties, but they are friendly,” says Captain Glossop of the Soviet officers at Marienborn.

By tacit agreement, he adds, both sides avoid politics during their brief encounter. Instead, they chat about families, holidays, and British soccer teams. On one occasion, another officer commanding the train noticed that the Soviet clerk paid particular attention to women’s passport photographs and politely asked why.

"Have you seen Russian women?" replied the clerk.