it was a cost—of—living measure introduced in 2023, initially atjust nine euros each. i do love a train — who doesn't? so i'm planning to take them to crisscross the country and get a better look at the close relationship between germans and their railways. from berlin's iconic u—bahn to the incredible hanging overhead railway of the industrial west, to the makeshift island trains of the northern coast... we've got the birds flying, the water, the light — this is stunning! i'm here to see how engineering and a bit of imagination have led to a network like no other. with almost 40,000km of track, germany's rail network is the longest in europe, which makes it the perfect

place to explore by train. but from berlin's vast central station, i'm taking an even cheaperform of transport for a spot of sightseeing. all right, we're doing it. we're crossing the tramway. aah! fabulous! oh, it's beautiful. i can see the tv tower on my left. and it's so cloudy, the tip of it is just unseen. alexanderplatz is, these days, the touristic heart of the capital. until 1989, it was the main public square in communist east berlin. so i was born in 1990, which is a year after the berlin wall came down. so, for myself and i'm sure for generations younger, there's no recollection of those news events.

so being able to be here and just get a sense of what it might have been like feels quite special. by 1989, the berlin wall had forcibly divided the city for 28 years, with the communists controlling the eastern part of the city, whilst the capitalist west controlled the rest of berlin. travel between the two was strictly controlled and, in most cases, forbidden. but i'm heading down into the u—bahn, berlin's underground rail network, which i can access with the deutschlandticket. 0k, u8 this way. ooh! now, alexanderplatz was in the east, so anybody getting on the u—bahn three stops in that direction had to wait on board until they got safely four stops down that way.

this was effectively a ghost station. they were manned, guarded — you definitelyjust could not get off. dog barks. athena kerins leads tours for a group called berlin underworlds, which explores the tunnels and passageways underneath the city. so alexanderplatz would have been a ghost station, really eerie — what would that have been like? so, for the west berliners coming through, it would have been dark, a little bit eerie. just the glowing emergency exit signs, maybe a bit of light creeping in from the tunnels itself. for the east berliners, it would've been completely different because they weren't allowed to know about this at all, because if they knew that it was coming through here, they might be tempted to try to get into the train station or the tunnels, and use them to escape. but, even before those 28 years of division, the tunnels down here harboured secrets.

athena's taking me to one of the world war ii bomb shelters built into the u—bahn network. oh, wow. welcome to our bunker. how long would they have stayed down here? as the war progressed, and especially as the americans joined the war, the americans bombed in the day, the british bombed at night. and towards the battle of berlin, when there was also street fighting, people were down here days on end. it's quite interesting, because you can hear rumbling going past. mm—hm. they get that big rumbling, passing noise all the time. would they have been aware that this bunker was here? you mean the passengers? the passengers, yeah. yeah, for sure, because this place was used primarily for people who were in the transit system and, during a bombing raid, had to come somewhere. the people in here were lucky. as we go a few stops up the u8

line, athena takes me forward in time to a later shelter — a symptom of berlin's position on the faultline of the historic tensions between east and west. welcome to pankstrasse. so this is the bunker? or there's a bunker nearby? there's actually... we're in the bunker already, because this entire station is the bunker. it was originally opened in 1977 to be a multipurpose facility. so it's both a train station, as you just saw, but also, in a 48—hour preparation period, it can be turned into an atomic fallout shelter. so this is some of our many, many, many dormitories. a big luxury here is that we actually all get our own bed, which is not standard for bunkers like this. we have several dormitories but, on top of that, about 2,000 people would have to be sleeping on the train platform itself.

oh, wow. so this is a kitchen essentially for everybody? this is not a kitchen, this is the kitchen. the kitchen. this place is going to feed 3,339 people two meals a day. thankfully, we're not eating anything too glamorous — it's mostly going to be soups, assorted soups out of the cans. in this can is actually a dehydrated, jellified soup concentrate, rather than normal soup. this is giving me sort of 1970s lab. yes — already a step above the last one, there is, in fact, a ventilation system here. so this place isn't going to protect us from a direct hit of a bomb. but in theory, if the rest of the world goes to war, this place can protect us from the radioactive fallout.

0k. while this now looks like a relic of a bygone era, the german government's recently been investigating the possibility of restoring bunkers like these for use in the future. i know, immediately following the russian invasion of ukraine, the topic came up. most of the experts in the areas of civil defence have agreed that it's not really a productive use of money. it costs an insane amount of money to even just repair the ones that they've let fall into disrepair. but i'm surfacing for some fresh air now, and back to the hauptbahnhof, the capital's modern main station, in search of trains bound for germany's industrial west.

so i've been able to use my deutschlandticket for this. but the big restriction is that you can't use it on the high—speed trains, so it'll take probably twice the amount of time to actually travel around. you do need a bit of patience for this. you can buy a more expensive ticket and travel direct, but the cut—price method means changing trains five times. so i may have missed this one... wait, it's also late! so that means that i'll be fine. add to that the uncharacteristic delays and disruption that have dogged the german railway network in recent times, you'll need to leave plenty of time to make your connections. five minutes�* delay, that means we're good, right? no, that's not ours. 0h! oh, so we have... i have missed it. we've missed it.

it's also quite fiddly to buy. you need to subscribe to a deutschlandticket, which means a monthly direct debit. door beeps. so, if you're only here for a couple of weeks, you need to remember to cancel that as soon as your trips over. otherwise, you continue paying after you've headed home. my next stop is in the west of the country, not far from the industrial giants that have made this part of the world such an economic force. so this is wuppertal — it's sandwiched between the two powerhouses of cologne and dortmund. it's much smaller in comparison, but it does have one thing going for it that's made it world—famous — and it's right there! the schwebebahn is a suspended monorail. the carriages hang from a track about 12

metres above the streets and rivers of wuppertal. 0h, hello! hello! nice to meet you. i'm meeting inga canters, who grew up riding the schwebebahn, and even got married on it back in 2006. it was built in 1893—11, but only in 1901, it was ready. and then you could go from one town to the other. that's over 120 years that this has been standing here. yes. what do you think was the impression of the residents when they first saw this? they were impressed, ithink, said... "what is this? " yes! yeah! excited. yeah. they feared it, because they thought that satan could come and take them away,

or something like that. they didn't want the schwebebahn. ok, it's coming — we're getting on? yes, 0k. 0h, where shall we sit? shall we stand? i kind of want to feel it... yes, yeah. . . move. hold on. 0h, hold on? yes! it's going to move a lot? ok, you hold on to this one. whoa! it does feel like it's sort of hovering, levitating. yes. a little bit bumpy, but it's ok, it's pretty smooth. and so what are some of your memories being on here? it was very funny. my grandma, she came to wuppertalfor the first time in 1953. she stood at the street and looked up, and said, "how can you come into the schwebebahn?" because she couldn't see that there was the platform? yes. well, do you think it represents to the people here? i think they like it,

because it's the only in the world, but i think they like to go from one place to the other in a short time. i think about 85,000 people a day, they take it. given all that history, it's a bit of a surprise there's been no proper museum to the schwebebahn. but, just as i arrive, all that's about to change. tomorrow, the schwebodrom opens, and i'm here to meet its managing director, thomas helbig, as he makes the final few preparations. come in. hello, tom! how are you doing? fine. woo! it's great that you're coming here. thank you, i'm excited! it's looking good. do you have anything left that you need to do today, before tomorrow? we have to clean up a little bit, but we are, to 95% to 98%, we are ready. and it's great that you're coming here to our schwebebahn experience. emeline, please enter the first room. 0oh! it's our projection world. and here, we tell

the story of mobility — why it was necessary to build the schwebebahn. because the population increased massively in the middle of the 19th century, and industrialisation came. as well as the projection, there are reminders of what the carriages looked like through the ages... and then, of course, this is like... 0oh, bouncy! ..but you can't lean back. ..a lego diorama of wuppertal, but la piece de resistance is at the end. emeline, let's just enter the carriage number 11. here, you see it's still — you can still open the windows, for example. just put them on. 0oh! make them link. the brain, really... yeah, after five seconds, you are in the world of 1929, and you really think you are making a left or right turn. a lot of people thought that it is against god, it's too speedy, that it's too much metal over the river,

that it looks ugly, all the people who didn't have the vision that this would change the mobility in the valley completely. the next day, and the grand opening attracts quite a crowd. all: zwei, eins, cut! they sing in german. how was that for you? how are you feeling? oh, it was very emotional, and i'm really happy that it's now opened. it's. . . it's great. all of your hard work. yes. aww, i can feel the emotion! yes, i think people will come here, and then they will see what a history wuppertal has to tell, and what a lovely town it is. and they will go back to their

hometown and they will tell, "well, we had a really good day in wuppertal." they sing in german. i'm using the deutschlandticket to head north now, out of germany's cities and to its coast. horn blares. in the summer, the trains up here get busy with beach—lovers, but the sunshine and crowds have thinned a little by the time i arrive. oh, wow, ok — very, very windy. and this is schleswig—holstein, in the northwest of germany. any further north, and i'll be

arriving in denmark. from here, i'm heading out over the wadden sea. but it's not a boat i'll be taking. this is amazing. fabulous! pleasure to meet you! hello! emeline! hello. so this is the lorenbahn? yeah. the lorenbahn trains service the hallig islands, which are cut off from the mainland by flooding up to 50 times a year. people living here use their little trains to get around. each family has its own wagon — or lore — and every one is unique. claudia nommensen has offered to give me a ride on hers. you have to be very physically fit to do this, don't you? oh, she's changing the rails across! right. we've got the birds flying,

the water, the light — this is stunning! so, claudia, when did the lorenbahn start?

but there's a catch — as a tourist, you're not really supposed to use it, unless you're staying over on the island. did someone show you how to do this? luckily for me, claudia runs a bed—and—breakfast. claudia speaks in german. mmm, cauliflower! do you feel that it's a shame that people can't come to use it, unless they come and stay here? in german: would you want to have more tourists coming?

the lorenbahn wasn't actually built for the residents to get around. it belongs to — and is run by — germany's state department for coastal defence. wow! well, this is definitely a lot bigger than claudia's. nice. how do you...? how does it start? here, you can give power. can i try? yes. wow, claudia did not let me do any of this! ok. then, you have to accelerate. oh, so the wheel

is the accelerator? yes. did you have to learn to write this for the job?— engineer fabian luecht agreed to show me their work. and he is picking me up on his lore. so there's times where all of this is flooded? yes. the climate change makes that the flood grows up, every year, three to five

millimetres a year, and we have a change in the time slot of the floods. the flood stays a longer time. fabian�*s team has a job on its hands notjust to defend this land, but also to keep the lorenbahn above the encroaching seas. there, you can see the old railway. before we built up the new railway, you can't drive there because everything is under water. ok, so originally, that was the railway down there and, in the last couple of years, you've raised it? yes. in a country better known for its cars and autobahns, people's affection here for their trains has been a real eye—opener. all: ..eins, cut! now, germans are known for their engineering, but what has surprised me is seeing some of their creativity and flair.

engineering — and a bit of imagination — have led to a network like no other. and if the deutschlandticket brings more people here to see it for themselves, that can only be a good thing. fabian, los geht�*s! hello there. many parts of the uk had some lengthy spells of sunshine on friday, but there were a few showers around. the remain of some of this shower cloud in wolverhampton gave this fine end to the day,

a fine sunset, and the majority of the shower cloud through friday afternoon was associated with a stripe of cloud you can see right here. this was actually an old cold front. the significance of that is colder air is behind it. and as we go through the next few hours, that will be pushing in across much of the uk. milder air recirculating around our area of high pressure into northern ireland and western scotland. so it's here through the weekend that we will see the nation's highest temperatures. now on to the next few hours, we're looking at that colder air arriving, a lot of dry weather, a lot of clear skies. and that means it's a recipe for things turning pretty cold. and heading into the first part of saturday morning, we start off with a frost, even some patches of frost, i think, across rural areas of southern england. the lowest temperatures probably down to about —3 celsius or so into rural areas of northern england and scotland. for saturday, where we get this colder air moving in, for most, it's a glorious start to the day with clear, blue, sunny skies. a bit of cloud coming in to eastern areas of norfolk and suffolk and maybe a bit of cloud developing through the day elsewhere. some splashes of rain possible for the far north of scotland,

but otherwise it's dry. the highest temperatures likely in northern ireland. we could see a 17 celsius here in the very warmest spots. for sunday, generally, there's going to be a bit more cloud across parts of scotland, thick enough for some splashes of light rain, fleeting rain, really, a few showers coming in across east anglia and southeast england, where we'll continue to have quite a chilly wind. could be even warmer for northern ireland if we were to get 19 celsius, well, that would be northern ireland's highest temperature of the year. so we'll be monitoring that carefully through the weekend. on into next week, high pressure stays to the west of the uk, and we continue to see this feed of cloud coming down the north sea. if anything, the cloud getting a bit more extensive, a bit thicker, and that means there's more likelihood of seeing some patches of drizzle across northern and eastern scotland and some eastern areas of england as well. the best of the sunshine, probably parts of north west england, wales, south west england, northern ireland might still do ok, and western parts of scotland, where the sunshine comes out, it shouldn't feel too bad. but if you're in the east where it's going to be quite cloudy with that wind coming

in off the north sea, it will probably feel quite chilly. temperatures picking up a little later next week.

live from washington, this is a bbc news special report on the war in ukraine. ukrainian troops on the front lines are facing severe ammunition shortages as they try to hold back russian advances. we are less than a day away from a vote in the us house of representatives, with billions of dollars of funding for ukraine hanging in the balance. and president zelensky prepares to mark his fifth year in office, as the third year of russia's invasion rages on.

hello, i'm carl nasman. welcome to a special programme on the war in ukraine. let's start here in washington — all eyes will be on capitol hill this weekend, as a foreign aid package for ukraine will finally make it onto the house floor. lawmakers are expected to vote saturday on that bill, along with several others, including humanitarian assistance for israel and taiwan. republican speaker of the house mikejohnson had blocked ukrainian aid for months, and while it still faces resistance from some members of his own party, the bill is expected to pass. let's take a look at what's in that aid package for kyiv total aid to ukraine amounts to an estimated $61 billion, with $23 billion, or about a third of that money, used to replenish us weapons and ammunition stockpiles. $13.4 billion will go directly to ukraine to purchase weapons from the us, $15.8 billion will be given in security assistance.