Berlin Transportation

I found Berlin hadicapped friendly city which meant barrier-free access and toilets accessible for wheelchairs. Surely not at all places I visited but in most.

Many department stores and shopping malls were supplied with automatic doors, large elevators and handicapped accessible lavatories.

Many but not all underground stations of U-bahn were equipped with escalators - follow the link below for more info.

WHERE TO BUY A TICKET?
There were small newstands/ticket offices signed by BVG (Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe) logo located at the entrances to U-bahn (metro/subway) stations. There were BVG ticket machines there as well.

In newstands outside the stations I usually could buy only single tickets but not for example one-day tickets.

MEANS OF TRANSPORTATION
Tickets were always valid both for U-bahn (metro/subway), and for S-bahn (city fast train), buses, trams (in former East Berlin).

FARE ZONES:
A - it's the area within the Berlin urban rail (S-Bahn) ring line;
B - the area with the city borders;
C - the area surrounding Berlin
All tourist attractions I visited were located in zone A, there were some in zone B as well, I was sure.
There were tickets for zone A+B, B+C and A+B+C available.

TICKET FARES
I bought one-day-ticket for A+B zone valid until 3 a.m. the day after cancellation. It was valid for U-bahn, S-bahn, buses and trams.

Fare for zone A + B (= within city limits):
Single fare ticket € 2,20
Short trip € 1,20
Day ticket € 5,60
7-day-ticket - transferable and valid 7 days after cancellation - € 23.40.

Your ticket for Berlin's transportation (U-bahn, S-bahn, buses and trams = street-cars) must be validated before use. Validation machines are located in tramcars and on the buses. For the urban rail (S-bahn) and the metro (U-bahn), the validation machines are located on the platmorms or at the entrance to them, not in the individual car - you must validate your your ticket before entering. DO NOT FORGET IT! I was using Berlin ticket only one day, a few times and once I was checked by two young conductors in U-bahn who caught one young lady without valid ticket.

Your ticket is valid:
- normal fare tickets: 2 hours after cancellation (marked on the ticket)
- day-tickets: until 3 a.m. the day after cancellation
- 7-day-tickets (transferable): 7 days after cancellation.

Berlin's metro lines (U-bahn) and trains (S-bahn) close between 0.30 am and 1.00 am on Sun - Thu night and start to operate back at approx. say 5.00 am. But there were a lot of night buses called in German "nachtlinie" and marked by letter N at the beginning like N6 on my picture.


Nighttime service (approx. 0.30 am - 4.30 am):
1. The S-bahn offers nighttime service only on Fridays, Saturdays before public holidays, at intervals of 30/60 min.

2. The metro (U-bahn) offers nighttime service only on Fridays, Saturdays before public holidays, at intervals of 15 min.

3. Nightime tram and bus service runs at 30-min. intervals (except less frequent N12 and N16) 7 days a week.

Itinerary of the bus line was written on each bus stop, inside each bus and on transportation map of Berlin. Number and the destionation of each scheduled bus line was always shown both at the bus stop (look at my picture) and at the front of each bus.

There was neither one main airport nor one main railway station in Berlin. You should know which of them you are going to go before booking/buying your ticket.

AIRPORTS
Tegel (TXL) - the frequent-flyer airport approx. 20 - 30 min north-west from the city centre;
Schönefeld (SXF) - the holiday airport approx. 20-35 min. southeast of the city centre;
Tempelhof (THF) - the city airport approx. 10-15 min. south of the city centre.
More: click here

TRAIN STATIONS
For the historical reasons there isn't one main railway station in Berlin. Instead there were 9 train stations ("bahnhof"):
1. Zoologischer Garten,
2. Ostbahnhof Berlin,
3. Lichtenberg,
4. Spandau,
5. Wannsee,
6. Schönefeld,
7. Charlottenburg,
8. Friedrichstraße,
9. Alexanderplatz.
The first two were centrally located. The last three were for regional trains.
All train-stations were well connected to the public transport.
Warning: whenever you go to Berlin you must know on which station to get off the train.

Tickets: click here (tickets online) or call the number below (Reservation Hotline).

European train timetable (+ booking service) by DB: click here (service available in English, French, German and Italian).


Look for DB logo on my picture. DB means Deutsche Bahn that is German Railway.

THE SYSTEM
S-bahn is a German abbrevation of "schnell Bahn" which means fast train. In real S-bahn is a system of fast city and suburban trains run by company different than U-bahn (BGV) and called S-Bahn Berlin GmbH. Fortunately tickets are the same for both systems of transportation (add buses here). In real both systems: U-bahn and S-bahn are wisely connected.

STATIONS
Each S-bahn station (S-bahn bahnhof) is marked by large, white "S" in green cicrle like on my picture. The S-bahn stations are often connected underground or overground with U-bahn stations and have the same name and entrances from a street.

LINES
There were 15 S-bahn lines marked S1, S2 etc. Like U-bahn they went underground at some parts of Berlin's centers/downtowns but in contrast to U-bahn they covered "greater Berlin" area.

Excuse, I didn't use taxis in Berlin. Public transportation was efficient, fast and less expensive. And even before 3.00 am on Sunday... morning I was able to catch U-bahn which got me close to my hotel. And I was told that taxis in Berlin were expensive. Well, with all my luggage I would take a taxi from the airport to get to my hotel in a centre (12 - 25 € depends on the airport - more: click here). Only more expensive hotels offer airport shuttle.

I saw many, very many taxi stands in Berlin. Haha, better don't try to catch a taxi by waving with your hand, 99 of 100 taxi drivers will never stop to take you esp. on places where it's not allowed. Buy/get a detailed map with taxi stands marked or just call for a taxi - follow the link below for more.