 Welcome back to RM Transit. One of my favorite cities I've ever visited is Berlin, and more than any other city I've talked about on Explained, I think Berlin's transit is underappreciated. With a subway network with nearly 200 stops and a suburban rail network that adds more than 150 more, Berlin is teeming with high-quality transit. And that's not even getting into the impressive tram network or further express rail regional services that wind through the historic and futuristic structures and infrastructure that carry the city's transit. There are certain cities anyone who wants to learn about transit should have a good grass bond, and Berlin is one of them, along with others like Tokyo, London, and New York. So in this video we're going to take a look across the U-Bahn and S-Bahn networks in Berlin, and we're going to see what makes Berlin just so special. If you're not already, consider supporting the channel on Patreon or via YouTube memberships to help me bring the world more explanations of our greatest transit networks. I've got to start off today's video with my usual disclaimers, what I can and can't cover. Today's video will go over the U-Bahn and S-Bahn, as I mentioned earlier, though Berlin does have an extensive tram network as well, especially in its eastern areas. At some point I'll have to do a Paris Metro and RER Explained and the Berlin Trams Explained. Oh, and a huge thank you to Sasha from Photo Tour Berlin for all the fun facts that only a local would know. With that out of the way, let's get a feel for Berlin. This is Berlin, and this is the S-Bahn Ring. You don't need to know too much about it besides that it's a good way of defining the city centre versus other areas of the city. Here's Berlin's rather infamous Berlin-Brandenburg Airport, which sat complete but not an operation for years. Within Berlin proper, we have the Helpanhof, the central station, as well as the Stadtbahn, an elevated rail viaduct that winds through the city, cutting it in two. Here is the German Parliament and the Brandenburg Gate, and here is Alexanderplatz, likely Berlin's most popular public space in the shadow of the iconic TV tower. Now, from here on out, I'm going to describe the U-Bahn, the S-Bahn, and the interesting and unique features of the Berlin rail system that stand out to me. Let's get into it. The U-Bahn network consists of a total of nine lines with 175 stations, and has a rather unique play out that has some lines in fairly orderly directions and some snaking all over the place. First, the East-West lines. U-1, as it's known, has 13 stations over roughly 9km of track, running roughly East-West through the city south of the centre. U-3 is going to be next up, because much of it is actually interlined with U-1, though this is the only substantial track sharing on the U-Bahn network. U-3 has a total of 24 stations over 19km of track, running alongside U-1 from the east until the U-3 diverges to the southwest at Wittenbergplatz, from where it continues deep into the suburbs and rural areas. As it turns out, there is even a food producing farm served by the U-3, which is quite unusual. U-5 is the next major East-West line in the city. It starts at Berlin-Helpenhof, at its western end, before continuing east through the centre of the city. The line diverges to the south of a major zoo east of the S-Bahn Ring, before turning back northeast and travelling into the suburbs above ground, as the East German government, who built this portion of the line, did not have tons of money to spend. U-5 has a total of 26 stops on 22km of track. As it turns out, U-5 received the last major expansion on the U-Bahn network, in the form of new tracks connecting from Alexanderplatz to this station at the Brandenburg Gate, which was the eastern terminus of a short 3-stop U-55 line which connected to the central station. U-5 was also the first fully accessible line on the U-Bahn network, and is completely disconnected from the rest of the system. Next, the North-South lines. U-4 is the shortest line on the U-Bahn network, running approximately north-south in the southwestern quadrant of the city, with just 5 stops on about 2.5km of track, open back in the early 20th century and never modified since. U-4 is entirely underground. U-6 starts northwest of the city, and turns south after entering the S-Bahn Ring, to run almost directly through the centre, before continuing back across the ring into the suburbs south of the city. U-8 also starts northwest of the city, and operates parallel to U-6, but to its east, particularly in the city centre where the line diverges even further east to pass through Alexanderplatz. The line also terminates further north than U-6, and is completely underground. U-9, like U-6 and U-8, operates north-south, but in a more general north-east to southwest direction. The line starts at an interchange point with U-8, and continues southwest, before turning south roughly after crossing the S-Bahn Ring. The line was constructed during the city's division, with a fair amount of redundancy, and this makes less sense with the city reunified. Finally, the lines which cannot decide if they are north-south or east-west. U-2 starts west of the city, and continues east-southeast until it arrives south of the centre, where it then turns north to cut through before turning east and then north again to pass through Alexanderplatz and continue north of the city. U-7 is the last line in the network, and is also the longest. The line starts west of Berlin, turns south to cross into the S-Bahn Ring at its western end, then following the Ring south and then east through the city, before exiting the Ring at its south-east side, and continuing south. U-7 is entirely underground. The U-Bahn has a number of interchange points, owing to its grid and all over-the-place lines. These include almost every other station on U-1, Nolendorfplatz, and Alexanderplatz in particular. Now, you're probably curious where the U-Bahn network is going next, and I have good news and bad news. The good news is that there are plans for expansion, the bad news is that they are extremely slow moving. Probably in part because Berlin's existing network still has a lot of capacity, and headways are often relatively low for a subway system. Much like some of the other older metro networks we've talked about, like London and New York, the Berlin U-Bahn is not currently expanding in any significant way. There are some minor proposals which exist, but they mainly consist of short, low-cost extensions, such as taking the U-1 to the major east-cross station, and continuing U-3 south to the S-Bahn. Larger plans do exist, such as creating a branch of U-6 to serve the redeveloped lands currently taken up by the now decommissioned Tegel Airport, but these are not currently being developed. There's also some discussion of extending U-7 to Berlin-Brandenburg even if it's probably not necessary. Now, you may have noticed that some lines and services feel a bit odd, like the U-55 line which exists, which was just floating without any other connections, but this is because Berlin has a second high-quality network in the form of the S-Bahn, which we'll talk about after a brief message from today's sponsor, Surfshark. 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Right now, Surfshark is offering our viewers an incredible deal, so why not check it out before you drop hundreds or even thousands on a plane ticket and connect to servers on the other side of the world right now? Get Surfshark VPN at surfshark.deals-rm-transit and enter promo code RMTransit for 83% off and 3 extra months for free. Now, back to our regular content. Now, the first thing to get out of the way is that the S-Bond is not really a metro, it's an S-Bond, and so it ends up looking quite different in some ways and similar in others. For example, the S-Bond is mostly about ground, travels further distances between stations and has great crossings. But at the same time, it uses high quality metro-like trains, third rail power, and has fairly high frequencies. From a topology point of view, while the U-Bond, like most metros, is primarily based around discrete lines, the S-Bond being larger in scope has numerous suburban lines serving several core sections of track in and around the city center. We'll highlight those first before discussing individual services. I already discussed two of these sections of track, which are the S-Bond Ring, better known as the Ring-Bond, which I discussed in my Loop Lines video. The Ring-Bond basically always has at least four tracks, with two generally given to the S-Bond and the others used for other services. There are numerous flyovers and fly-unders which connect it to lines which cross it and which allow the S-Bond tracks to move from one side of the corridor to the other as needed. Next is the Stot-Bond, which is a mostly four-track elevated corridor which passes through the center of Berlin east-west, connecting with the Ring-Bond at cross stations on both sides. As with the Ring-Bond, two tracks on the Stot-Bond are dedicated to S-Bond services, with various other services operating on the other tracks. On both the Stot-Bond and Ring-Bond, there are many S-Bond stations and far fewer for regular trains, which operate on the second set of tracks, such as Regional Express, Intercity and EuroCity services. The final major piece of infrastructure is the North-South tunnel, which serves North-South S-Bond services. There's a second tunnel which runs through Berlin-Helpenhof that serves longer distance services. The tunnel intersects the Stot-Bond at Friedrichstrasse and diverges at the southern end to cross the Ring-Bond in two different locations. At the north end of the S-Bond tunnel, the connecting tracks to the S-Bond lines to the north do not simply cross the Ring-Bond, but run parallel for a section and then turn north. Looking at the services to the city's north, the S-25 service operates from the community of Hennigsdorf, south to the Ring-Bond and then over to the S-Bond tunnel which it runs through. The service continues south through the Southern Cross station, but no, not that Southern Cross, and then diverges west onto a branch. The S-26 starts east of the S-25 before merging with it and continuing along with it for the rest of the route south to Telto, and I might note the southern branch like a fair amount of the outer S-Bond network is partially single-tracked, but the line still manages all day 10-minute headway service, showing that with a schedule you can do a lot even with single-track. Stay tuned for a video on a country that knows a lot about that in the future. The S-2 starts at Bernal to the northeast of the city before traveling southwest to meet the S-25 and S-26, whose names are as such because they are variants of the S-2 route. This is a common typology. Once south of the city, the S-2 diverges from the S-25 and S-26 to head south, southeast. The S-1 route operates along the same tracks as the S-26 north of the city, but extends roughly 20 kilometers further north. To the south of the city, the S-1 diverges onto the western branch of the S-Bond tunnel tracks, intersecting the Ring-Bond west of the south cross station. The line then continues to the city southwest. The routes to the city's east include the S-3, S-5, S-7, and S-75. S-7 and S-75 are arguably the most central S-Bond branches, traveling north from the east cross station to serve close-in suburbs. Both lines cross into the central areas of Berlin via the Stadtbahn, though S-75 turns back at Warshauer Strasse. S-7 continues across the city through the west cross station and then southwest through an almost 10 kilometer section of track through dense forest, before shooting out the other side and running along with the S-1 for a short period before terminating at Potsdam-Helpenhof. Line S-5 starts roughly 35 kilometers northeast of Berlin and travels into the city mostly independently, only joining the S-7 and S-75 a few stations east of the east cross station, and then continuing to run all the way to the west cross station where it returns back east. S-3 starts roughly 25 kilometers east south east of the station and travels the whole distance to the east cross station by itself. Before crossing the Stadtbahn and continuing west of the city past the massive station at the Olympic Stadium, which features many platforms for special event services, before terminating at Spandau, also the western term is of use 7. Another major series of services to mention are those to the southeast of the ring. The longest of these is S-46, which travels northwest from roughly 30 kilometers out of Berlin and then turns west approaching the Ringbahn to enter on the southern side of the ring, and travel around it all the way west beyond west cross to west end station. The S-8 starts slightly northwest of S-46 and runs along with it, until diverging north to enter the ring on the eastern side, and run around it until exiting the ring at its north alongside S-2, which it runs together with until Blankenburg, where it splits off to the west, serving some rural and low density areas before meeting with the S-1 and running parallel to it for two stops. S-85 operates entirely as a shortened version of the S-8. The S-47 is the shortest line on the S-Bahn system, traveling from another close and suburban area east of the southeastern trunk onto the southern side of the Ringbahn. To meet U-8 at its southern terminus. The last two services I've yet to talk about are the S-9 and S-45. Both start at a new station at Berlin-Brandenburg Airport before continuing west and then northeast to the southeastern trunk. The S-45 follows S-46 but terminates at the south cross station. S-9 travels to the Stotbahn via the Ringbahn and tracks which allow it to bypass the east cross station before traveling all the way to Spandau with the S-3. Oh, and I've left the best for last, the S-41 and S-42 Ring services. The S-41 travels clockwise around the Ringbahn while the S-42 operates counterclockwise. Better yet, the travel time between the major stations to the north, south, east, and west is a consistent 15 minutes each. Major S-Bahn interchanges include West Cross, Schöneberg, South Cross, and East Cross Station, which is one of my favorite stations in the world from a functional perspective. With an immense number of services passing through it and a major renovation and reconstruction project which ran late into the 2010s. Well, major interchanged points between the S-Bahn and U-Bahn include Potsdamer Platz, Brandenburgertor, Friedrichstraße, the Zoo Station, the Helpenhof, Alexanderplatz, Janowitzbruck, Warschauerstraße, Schönhäuserallee, Gesundbrunnen, Wedding, Westhofen, Jungfernheide, Heidelbergerplatz, Bundesplatz, Innsbruckerplatz, Tempelhof, Hermannstraße, Neukohen, and Frankfurterallee. Now, thanks to the fact that the S-Bahn ring and Cross City routes all have several overlapping services, these all have metro-like frequency all day long, even if frequencies often fall off to 10 or 20 minutes further into the suburbs, which still isn't bad. As you can see, Berlin's rail networks are immensely well connected, which seriously helps their usefulness and the number of viable trips which can be made on public transport. Now, like the U-Bahn network, the S-Bahn is not seeing much expansion these days, and that's probably to some degree because it's already quite extensive. That said, a second north-south tunnel is being constructed for the system, which is being built in two stages. The first, nearly complete stage, connects the Northern Ringbahn in both directions to the Helpenhof, parallel to the mainline rail tunnel. Phase 2 of the project envisions an extension south to Potstemmerplatz, which already has room for additional tunnel connection, which could allow the two southern branches of the existing north-south S-Bahn tunnel to connect to the two northern branches. The second phase has not started construction yet. In addition to this, plans over the next decade or so call for the reactivation of a portion of the Siemensbahn, as well as mostly short extensions to the south, southwest, west, northwest, and north. Now, let's look at the trains that move people through Berlin. Something which stands out to me are the incredibly progressive modern designs used on the system, with large windows. Also, rather uniquely, Berlin has tended to order the same train designs over longer periods of time, often decades. With newer models being referred to as belonging to newer series. You'll also notice many train designs feature printing on the windows, often of the Brandedburg Gate. This is to discourage graffiti. Much like many systems, the Berlin Eubahn is divided into two parts, with a narrow train division and a wide train division. That said, all trains in Berlin are fairly narrow and run on standard gauge tracks. The narrow division consists of the U1, U2, U3, and U4, which were the earliest lines constructed on the system. The narrow trains are 2.3 meters wide and use a top contact third rail with 750 volt DC power. Models on the narrow lines include the A3 model, some sets dating all the way back to the 1960s. These have three doors per side and were mostly manufactured by companies absorbed into Siemens and Alstom. There is also the G model, which features two doors per car per side and features incredibly short, roughly 10 meter long cars manufactured by a company which was rolled into AdTrans and later Bombardier and then later Alstom. The G model trains came in married pairs. Some G model trains were actually sent to North Korea for use on the Pyongyang Metro and some even ended up being used to pole mainline freight trains. The HK model was manufactured by Bombardier. Despite the cars being shorter than those used on the Chicago L or Scarborough RT and Skytrain, they still feature three doors on each side of each car. It's also worth noting the large windows present on the car doors. The HK series come in fully interconnected four-car sets. The last model is the IK model, which has been manufactured by Stotler over the last number of years. These trains look even more modern than the HK and also come in four-car interconnected sets. The IK also feature a more modern interior with digital wayfinding and, like all the narrow models on the Yuban, use longitudinal seating. The wide train lines on the Yuban are U5 through U9, though the wide trains are only 2.65 meters wide, which would still be seen as narrow in most places of the world. They also use bottom contact third rail, but in this case it's negatively charged. The oldest in-service model is the F, which are married paired sets of 60 meter cars with three doors per side per car, which were manufactured by companies, which mostly ended up being acquired by Siemens and Alston again. These trains also feature some transverse seating. The H model is the wider variant of the HK, seen on the narrow train network, but with full walkthrough six-car sets. The final model operating on the wide train portion of the network is the IK. Yes, the same IK model seen on the narrow network. Very uniquely, some of the IK trains have been ordered with semi-permanent gap-filling plates attached to them, and modified bogies with spacers to increase the floor height, allowing them to operate as eight-car sets on the wide lines. Moving over to the S-Bond trains, we can note that they also operate on standard gauge tracks and with bottom contact third rail with 750 volt DC power. S-Bond trains are also even wider at 3.1 meters. Given most stations are above ground, trains as long as eight cars are operated. The oldest model of S-Bond train in operation is the Class 480, and these were manufactured by Siemens and companies which became Daimler and Bombardier, and then later Alston. These cars feature three doors per side and a very unique front fascia. The second oldest model in the fleet is the Class 485, originally used in East Germany as the Class 270. These trains were manufactured by a company which was absorbed into Alston. Unlike other models used on the S-Bond and U-Bond, these cars feature four doors per side. Probably the most iconic model on the S-Bond network is the Class 481, which returned to a more conventional three-door per side layout and were manufactured by Bombardier, again with an iconic front fascia that is curved and resembles a mask. These also feature doors with uniquely shaped windows reminiscent of the H-Model U-Bond cars. Trains come in four-car interconnected sets. The final and newest model on the Berlin S-Bond network is the Class 483, which requires no introduction as they're my favorite train model in the world. The layout of the Class 483 is similar to the 481, but the trains feature a more angular design with contrasting doors to help visibility for those with limited sight. They're being manufactured by a consortium of Statler and Siemens. Now one of my favorite parts of any explained video is the unique facts and features section, so let's take a quick look. The S and U-Bond logos are basically standardized across the German-speaking world, and I find that very cool. It's also useful to you traveling from one place to another. More widespread wayfinding standardization, please. As part of Berlin's division by the Berlin Wall, the entire rail network of Berlin was operated differently, with some lines being completely severed. This included trains running through stations on the other side of the city, patrolled by armed soldiers without stopping, and interchanges located entirely on the other side of the border. David Frankel has a great video that goes into more detail about this. When the U-55 line was disconnected from the rest of U-5, it had to receive its rolling stock by way of a shaft and a lift crane, not unlike the Waterloo and City line of the London Underground. Berlin is one of those places internationally that does not feature yellow platform edges, as seen in most places in North America. And despite being a very high quality system, in some senses the signaling in the network is actually somewhat dated. The system doesn't have as much pressure to upgrade this though, as it doesn't need to operate extremely high frequencies to serve current demand. The S-Bond on the other hand does have extremely high-end signaling. The system doesn't have platform screen doors, unlike the Paris Metro or London Underground. Much like other legacy systems, the networks are not fully accessible, but unlike, say, the New York subway, it is a priority, and a number of smart measures are being taken to accelerate this transition. Unlike many systems in the world, in Berlin there are no fairgates. Proof of payment is the name of the game, and this can massively simplify station designs. Station designs in Berlin are also generally less awe-inspiring compared to some other systems. I'd say they are more functional, and that's probably in part because the rail network has not grown a ton in recent years. That said, a number of major stations on the stop-on are quite the size to behold. The traditional architecture of some of the network's older stations and elevated infrastructure on lines like U1 is very beautiful, and the newly opened stations on the U5 are also lovely. Berlin's network is a lot bigger than it probably needs to be, and there is lots of infrastructure which has been abandoned, modified, or is just laying in wait for future use, such as those track connections on the new North's Health S-Bond tunnel at Potsdamer Platz, something other cities could certainly learn from when building new structures around rail lines. This is in large part because historical projections had Berlin being much larger, with the city's division as well as the aftermath of the world wars seriously changing the course of the city's fate. At the same time, much of the infrastructure is above ground. Of course, large portions of the U-Bond are subterranean, but a significant amount of the suburban lines are on the surface. And of course, that is the case for almost the entire S-Bond, which shows you don't need to go underground much to create an amazing system. And Berlin's network operates more than most, with 24-hour weekend service along much of the rail lines. This is helped by the somewhat low frequencies during other periods allowing for more maintenance and upkeep than might be possible in other systems. If you're wondering why it is that the infrastructure often follows weird axi in the city, the whole region has been developed in a very rail-centric way, with development following the S-Bond and regional express lines further out into the suburbs, in the shape of a star. Perhaps the nerdiest fact is just that Berlin has some incredible rail junctions, from the one at the New East Cross station to the north of the ring, the amount of railways in the city boggles the mind. So if that, we have Berlin. Let me know something you learned in the comments down below, and stay tuned for more explained.