BERLIN | Public Transport

[Darryl]

Thanks you guys for the comments/suggestions!

[AlexNL]

Berlin S-Bahn train fleet restoration makes progress
Wednesday, May 09, 2012

The long-suffering passengers of the Berlin S-Bahn, who have been plagued by years of train disruption and cancellation caused by poor train maintenance, can at last look forward to a more reliable service and the restoration of the full timetable. "We have cleaned up the S-Bahn company, we have created new structures, and we have overhauled the technology," says Dr Rüdiger Grube, CEO of German Rail (DB), the parent company of S-Bahn Berlin. "It was right to turn over every stone and not to lose heart to solve the problems permanently. Our passengers will benefit from the result."

In December S-Bahn Berlin completed the replacement of 4000 wheelsets on its trains, and in February finished a project to modify more than 2500 traction motors which will protect them against low temperatures and moisture. A new automatic method of replenishing sand boxes has been developed in cooperation with manufacturers.

This month, the need to conduct extensive manual tests on class 481 trains came to an end, and modification of class 480 trains is now underway. S-Bahn Berlin spent Euros 106.7m on maintenance in 2011, and on May 4 Grube launched a Euros 15m project to reopen Friedrichsfelde workshops, which is due to be completed in 2016.

Increased train availability will enable S-Bahn Berlin to reintroduce services on Line S85 linking Waidmannslust and Grunau on June 4. However, the planned extension of lines S9 and S45 to the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport on June 3 has been postponed due to the announcement yesterday that the opening of the airport has been delayed until "after the summer holiday period" due to problems commissioning fire detection equipment.

Source: International Rail Journal

[Baron Hirsch]

The S-Bahn still has the problem of lack of engineers, leading to some train cancellations. Also pressure groups claim that by 2017, when some of the mid-age S-Bahn are supposed to be scrapped, another lack of trains will arise if the municipality does not put out a tender for new wagons now. Finally, the municipality will actually put up operations of part of the S-Bahn network for tender. Critics had demanded such a step after the bad performance of the state-owned DB-subcompany S-Bahn in recent years. However, while it is fairly common for smaller companies to oeprate regional lines, the Berlin S-Bahn network and density of trains is far too much for any other existing company to handle except DB. Splitting the network into several sections is probably the only way any other bidder stands a chance, but it will make for even more of an operation mess in my humble opinion.

[XIX]

Hi I have a question about U-Bahn network, when the city was still splitted in Berlin West and Berlin East.



In this map I noticed that the stations passing under East Berlin area were closed, excepted of Friedrichstraße, it is correct or this map is wrong? And if was in this way, why that station was open since it passed under East Berlin Area?

[Wilhem275]

Friedrichstraße was used by Westerns as an interchange to the S-Bahn trains running on the western part of the Stadtbahn (not depicted on that map). The road accesses to the U-Bahnhof were sealed off; the only possible connection was to the western tracks in the S-Bahnhof.

Despite lying in East Berlin territory, the Lehrter Bhf - Friedrichstr. part of the Stadtbahn was actually part of the West Berlin rail services, Friedrichstr. being the frontier station. The track layout was different from today's one: 4 tracks were dedicated to S-Bahn (each couple being separated from the other) and 2 tracks to those few main railway services crossing the frontier.

[XIX]

Thank you

[nr23Derek]

Originally Posted by Wilhem275

Friedrichstraße was used by Westerns as an interchange to the S-Bahn trains running on the western part of the Stadtbahn (not depicted on that map). The road accesses to the U-Bahnhof were sealed off; the only possible connection was to the western tracks in the S-Bahnhof.

Despite lying in East Berlin territory, the Lehrter Bhf - Friedrichstr. part of the Stadtbahn was actually part of the West Berlin rail services, Friedrichstr. being the frontier station. The track layout was different from today's one: 4 tracks were dedicated to S-Bahn (each couple being separated from the other) and 2 tracks to those few main railway services crossing the frontier.

It should also be pointed out that Friedrichstr was a point of entry to East Berlin (at least for foreigners like me, not sure about Germans), So you could take the u and s -bahn into the east.

Derek

[Baron Hirsch]

Yes, West German were allowed to pass the border coming from the U-Bahn or the S-Bahn that coming from the West ended there. In fact it was the main border crossing by rail. Also, there was a kiosk on the U-Bahn plattform selling alcohol for Deutsch Mark that was open all night. You could go there, buy booze and return to the American or British occupied sector without border or customs control.

[GEwinnen]

A train of the Berlin S-Bahn derailed a few hours ago, 6 people were injured:

Video:

http://www.sueddeutsche.de/panorama/...tzte-1.1446346

[Wilhem275]

Oh, my poor 481s again

[Kolothos]

I was recently in Berlin, made very good use of the S-Bahn! Great system.

[trainrover]

[trainrover]

[vandiss]

Originally Posted by Azia

will there be an expand line to falkensee in 2015 ?

Latest update I know is that the Berlin Senate wants to extend the S-bahn to Falkensee (Transport Plan 2017).

However, the Brandenburg government don't want to fund their part of the project meaning in the first instance the line would run as far as the Berlin/Brandenburg border (Albrechtshof).

Link