please empty your brain below

Berlin suffered for many years from people scratching graffiti onto the glass of the U-bahn trains, this became such a problem that often passengers were unable to see anything out of the windows which were having to be replaced at a huge cost to the city, the plastic film is the transport companies solution although how it works I have no idea, I assume this film is just removed and replaced if anyone damages it.

Back in the days when the Berlin wall was still standing you could travel on the S-Bahn to Friedrichstrasse and back again without exiting the Station, several "Duty Free" shops were located on the platforms at Friedrichstrasse for visitors to East Berlin to stock up on cheap booze and cigarettes but many West Berliners would risk getting caught just to get a bargain, its the only time ever in my life I have been subjected to a "Customs Check" on a City transport system, thankfully I had no illegal booze or Cigarettes stashed in my rucksack
The name Gleisdreieck means literally "Track triangle" and, sure enough, this interchange station was a triangular set of junctions when constructed:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/09/Gleisdreieck%2C_1901.jpg/640px-Gleisdreieck%2C_1901.jpg

My favourite U-Bain station!
Your 'base' was in the West part of the city. After walking East to Alexanderplatz, you take the U-bahn west to get back to base, yet your picture of a 'typical U-Bahn station entrance' is Magdalenenstraße, which is much further east, and the closest station to Normannenstraße.

Is this a hint that your further adventures took you to the old Stasi headquarters?

dg writes: It's certainly a hint that I made more than one train journey during my visit :)
Most of the U-Bahn network is underground, but there are some sections like the eastern section of the U1 and the northern section of the U2 which run on viaducts above the city and give a good view of the city below. Unfortunately these all have patterns all over on the windows too!

I live here and I don't know what they're for either. If it was to prevent scratching, surely a transparent film would do the job just as well.
Just in case your account sounds exaggerated to some, I recall one trip to Berlin when literally within seconds of boarding my first U-bahn train and the first journey by public transport there I was suddenly confronted with ticket checkers who had a dog with them - of a breed very much associated with Germany and sheep. Having said that I don't think I had my ticket checked again on the entire trip.

I think Sir Peter Hendy ought to be sent to Berlin to see how mild our approach is (even by SouthEastern).
What I am really looking forward to is reading about your experience on their Night Tube. You did make a U-Bahn journey at 3.00 a.m. just so you could write and tell us about it, surely?
DG; there seems to be a very good App for the Berlin underground available for an Apple smartphone. Have downloaded it to my own device in readiness for a future trip - did you consider downloading it to your own device or researched it and decided it may not have been very useful? Certainly from what I've appeared to have downloaded to my 'phone, it'll be a useful App tool to navigating around the Berlin underground.
Blimey, these Germans don't mess about, do they!! :o
I have to admit, I wince every time I read the expression 'BestMate'.

dg writes: I'm sure he does too.
Actually surprised by this. I've been to Berlin twice, used the U & S Bahn systems extensively each time and my ticket didn't get inspected at all. Maybe I was just lucky, or maybe extra Polizei were on duty to ensure good behaviour for the football?

I agree that Berlin's transport network can be a bit confusing for newcomers. It certainly doesn't help that the line diagram uses (almost) the same colours for several different lines. And I found ticket machines very temperamental - most stations I used had at least one machine out of order, or rejecting every coin I tried. On my second visit I was glad to have a Welcome Card which avoided all such problems.

Really enjoying your blogs about your trip, even though it's making me anxious to go back to Berlin again. :)
I tried to buy some fags at Friedrichstrasse to get rid of my useless Ost Marks. I was really annoyed when they said they would only accept Deutsch Marks.
My argument of, "Well if your country is a People's Paradise why won't you accept your own currency?" fell upon deaf ears.
Have they done away with the S-Bahn now and called it all U-Bahn?
As already has been mentioned, scratching was a real problem. Not only on the trains themselves, but also on the lifts and even on the windows of stations. Most stations have at least two lifts and they are generally all glass clad. London please note.. Your mobility level is still woeful in comparison to Germany's big cities.

The BVG uses 'transparent films' to stop most of it on station windows, lifts and trains. Those in use at stations have a wavy line design with line numbers, those on trains have a Brandenburg Gate symbol. But I've heard these are soon to be changed. An anomaly is that train sets on the U55 - the line that actually serves Brandeburg Gate station, don't have them at all.
A shameful namedrop from me.. I have Berlin line albums and borough albums with captions in english on my flickr photostream.

e.g. https://www.flickr.com/photos/isarsteve/sets/72157625750708505 (U-Bahn Linie U2 in Berlin)

All albums https://www.flickr.com/photos/isarsteve/albums

The photo link above of Gleisdreieck shows the original junction situation there. Trains from the East and West ran into Potsdamer Platz. There was a serious accident in 1909 after a collision and the junction was rebuilt with a station in 1924 in conjunction with the relief line (2nd line) to Nollendorfplatz.
Chris,

The U-Bahn and S-Bahn are two different things. Both are present in Berlin.

The U-Bahn is the Untergrundbahn and akin to the London Underground.

People argue as to whether the S-Bahn is the Schnell Bahn (fast railway) or Stadt Bahn (town/city railway). We do not really have an exact equivalent but Thameslink is close and Crossrail will be closer. Note that there is no actual requirement for the S-Bahn to go underground - but it often does.
The RER/Metro split in Paris is a good analogy to the S/U-bahnen. Glasgow's Argyle Line and "Subway" is another.

As well as Thameslink, London's Metropolitan Line and possibly the Overground are a bit like an S- bahn.
London's Overground lines are exactly what the S-Bahn is. Former company and national railway suburban lines.

The S definitely stands for Schnellbahn and a green S was first used in Berlin in 1932, at Halensee Station I think.

The usage of the term Stadtbahn is not easy. In Berlin, Stadtbahn means the whole East-West railway from Westkreuz to Ostkreuz. In parts of former West Germany, the term is used for trams that run underground.
Slightly surprised you found the U Bahn confusing to use. Apart from the usual "which way do I go" issue for any new visitor in any city I can't recall having any issue in Berlin. I was lucky enough to go before the wall came down and to go through a checkpoint and experience East Germany. I think I even saw the armed guards on the ghost U Bahn stations.

I was also lucky to go back a couple more times as things were easing together as Germany reunified so I've got lots of photos of unrebuilt bits of S Bahn, ancient East Berlin trams and even more ancient trams out of the standalone lines out East. I've certainly got photos on Flickr of the abandoned bit of U Bahn at Bulowstrasse which is now closed again for works (as you encountered).

One day the photos will all get scanned to rekindle fond memories of a great city. At some point I must go back to see how much it's changed since my last visit a few years ago.
Did you visit Wittenbergplatz U-Bahn station to see the famous LT roundel?
Thanks for the info folks, and there was me always thinking it was Stadtbahn! I could have sworn Friedrichstrasse was S-Bahn as well, tempus fugit....
I was also lucky enough to travel from Berlin to Braunschweg (sp) on the British Military Train as well, quite an experience that!
Chris

just to make it clear.. the S-Bahn (Schnellbahn) traverses the Stadtbahn West to East, mostly on a viaduct, from Charlottenburg (Westkreuz) to Ostbahnhof via Friedrichstraße, which also happens to be served by the 1930s built North-South (Nordsüdbahn) underground S-Bahn.

The inner central area is also circled by the Ringbahn, the name for the Dog's head shaped S-Bahn line, now S41 clockwise and S42 anti.clockwise.

The Dog's Head: https://www.flickr.com/photos/isarsteve/8509836360/in/album-72157607423916272/
After I postedthe previous comment, I noticed this diagram on wikipedia.
It clearly shows the three constituent parts of the central area S-Bahn:

Stadtbahn: 1882 West to East (on viaduct)

Nordsüdbahn 1930s North to South (tunnel) 1930s version of Crossrail, Connecting the suburban lines into Stettiner, Anhalter & Potsdamer Stations across the centre of the city.

Ringbahn 1870s Circle around the centre (regular railway with embankments and cuttings).

Also shown is the new second Nordsüdtunnel - now under construction.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nord-S%C3%BCd-Tunnel#/media/File:Nord-S%C3%BCd-S-Bahn_Berlin.svg

Vielen dank Isar. Ich verstehe jetz.
Actually, nobody really knows whether S-Bahn means Schnellbahn, Stadtbahn or Stadtschnellbahn.










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