The high-traffic station with six platform tracks is a transfer point between long-distance passenger services—Intercity-Express (ICE), Intercity (IC) and EuroCity (EC)—and regional services (S-Bahn, Regionalbahn and Regional-Express).

It also provides connections to the inner city by the public transport services operated by the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe: buses and U-Bahn line U7 at the adjacent Rathaus Spandau station.

The station building was built between 1996 and 1998, while rail railway operations continued, to the design of the architectural bureau of Gerkan, Marg and Partners.

It has a striking vaulted roof of glass that completely covers the platforms over a length of 432 metres (1,417 ft) in the style of classic railway architecture.

The platforms were on an embankment and below the tracks at the ends of the platforms there were entrance halls connecting to Galenstraße and also to the intersection of Staakener Straße and Seegefelder Straße, where a subway led to the station of the East Havelland District Railways (Osthavelländische Kreisbahnen).

The busy flow of commuters between Berlin, Spandau, and towns in the East Havelland at the station compared to the current modest regional service is hard to imagine today.

It was intended that Spandau West would be a terminus for only a few years as an extension to Wustermark or Falkensee and Nauen was always planned.

Unneeded infrastructure was exposed to the ravages of time, maintenance was rare as services on the lines were increasingly thinned out.

The S-Bahn's low point was reached when the West Berlin-based employees of Deutsche Reichsbahn went on strike from 17 September 1980.

Deutsche Reichsbahn did not address the demands of the employees and almost all S-Bahn services in the western part of the city were closed.

The fall of the Berlin Wall and the completion of negotiations with an agreement on the route in June 1990, gave further impetus to planning.

It was also proposed to resume S-Bahn services over the Spandau Suburban Line with the option of an extension to the west.

Objections of the passenger associations during the planning approval process achieved a better design for access to the S-Bahn platform.

Trains are only allowed to reverse at the platform if either the scheduled stay does not take longer than six minutes or it would use less capacity than to move to a siding.

[7] The station is served by several Intercity-Express, Intercity and regional services operated by Deutsche Bahn, as well as lines S3 and S9 of the Berlin S-Bahn.

The coalition agreement included a commitment to develop plans to extend the S-Bahn line "from Spandau station to the west to Falkensee".