service. Occasionally a train with minor defects or awaiting a later departure will wait at the mostly unused second platform track. Stations History Following are the opening dates of the individual pieces of infrastructure. 28 January 1984: Plärrer ↔ Schweinau 27 September 1986: Schweinau ↔ Röthenbach 23 September 1988: Plärrer ↔ Hauptbahnhof 24 September 1990: Hauptbahnhof ↔ Rathenauplatz 29 September 1993: Rathenauplatz ↔ Schoppershof 27 January 1996: Schoppershof ↔ Herrnhütte 27 November 1999: Herrnhütte ↔ Flughafen Later phases of construction and conversion to automatic operation As the construction of U2 neared its end, debates intensified about whether to expand the U-Bahn network further - and if so where - and what to do about the tramway network. At the time of the decision to build the subway, it was planned to shut down the tramway as U-Bahn lines were opened. Initially this was largely uncontroversial, but as tram stations were being shut down years ahead of subway construction - or even without any subway station anywhere nearby even planned - discontent started to rise. Furthermore, the municipal finances, which had been healthy in the 1960s when the decision to build the subway was taken, were becoming increasingly strained and thus a fully fledged three- or even four-line network seemed to be decades away if it was ever going to happen. In consequence this would mean that subway extension beyond a certain point would almost certainly "shrink" the tram system to an unsustainable size but connecting every neighborhood that had heretofore had tram service to the U-Bahn seemed out of the question as well. Furthermore the SPD who had held the mayorality since free elections resumed after World War II (with the exception of former SPD mayor Uhrschlechter running as an independent for a few years) lost the 1996 mayoral election, putting a CSU candidate into that office for the first time in history. With political winds now changed, a compromise decision had to be found and the aforementioned budget crunch had to be taken into account. The U2 was finished with a connection to the airport (then slowly but surely coming into its own as a hub for Air Berlin's winter season touristic operations), but to cut costs it was built single track only. Furthermore, the airport (owned half by the city and half by the state of Bavaria) took over part of the cost of the subway extension serving