the germania plan of the nazis envisioned a comprehensive upgrading of the line. the train was to be extended to strausberg or rüdersdorf south of the line. another pair of long-distance tracks would have been built as far as the berlin city limits at mahlsdorf. since the eastern railway was a strategically important route on the basis of its orientation, work continued on this project despite the outbreak of the second world war. in 1944, the predominantly suburban single-track line to strausberg was put into operation, but services continued to be operated with steam trains. electrical operations commenced in 1947-1948 in four stages. the s-bahn route was later extended on a newly built branch line to strausberg nord.