METRO / BUS / TRAM
METRO / BUS / TRAM
METRO/BUS/TRAM – Berlin has the largest underground metro system in Germany (U-Bahn), consisting of nine (9) lines, covering 170 stations (run by BVG – Berlin’s main public transit company). There’s also the 15-line S-Bahn, which is run by S-Bahn Berlin GmbH, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn) and extends beyond the Berlin city limits and goes into Brandenburg state (including Potsdam). A large portion of the S-Bahn trains travel above ground. These train lines, along with the local buses (whose network has 150 routes) and tram lines (which has 21 lines – mostly in former East Berlin) operate on an integrated three-zone system. “Zone A” covers central Berlin, “Zone B” extends out to the edge of the suburbs and “Zone C” stretches into Brandenburg.
A basic single ticket is the €2.60 Normaltarif (zones A and B). Unless one is going to Potsdam or Flughafen Schönefeld, few visitors are likely to travel beyond zone B. For visitors, this makes using public transportation in Berlin a virtual flat-fare system.
BVG has a map of Berlin’s train, bus and trams on its website: www.bvg.de