German commuter operations

In Eastern Germany, the S-Bahn systems are operated with locomotives and red bi-level cars. In Rostock, for example, Regionalexpress trains to Berlin or Hamburg and local S-Bahn services to Warnemünde can not optically differentiated.

These are the new S-Bahn cars for the Dresden line S1, from Meissen to Bad Schandau, scenically one of the most beautiful S-Bahn lines in Germany (through the Elbe valley and the Saxon Switzerland)





Is this a S-Bahn or a Regionalexpress?

Usual characteristics of a S-Bahn :
- short distance between stations
- synchronized time table with close succession of trains (every 10 minutes on most lines in Berlin, usually every 20 or 30 min)
- EMUs or electric locomotives
- high acceleration (of the trains)
- no conductor


Historically, the term "S-Bahn" is only a opposite to another famous term in German local traffic: U-Bahn. In the 1920s, when the Deutsche Reichsbahn Gesellschaft (DRG) electrified the steam operated Berlin rapid transit, they searched a new brand. First "Stadtschnellbahn" (City rapid transit) was planned, with token "SS-Bahn", but in december 1930 it was decidet to use "S-Bahn" as equivalent to "U-Bahn". After electrification, a new signal system and new trains (the famous "Stadtbahner" class 475 series, in use till 1997), the Berlin S-Bahn was in the 1930s (one of) the most modern rapid transit systems in the world.

Martin

Martin wrote: Is this a S-Bahn or a Regionalexpress?
Martin

May be a new type of train: the S-Bahn Express?

With street cars capable of running on main line tracks, all kinds of new rolling stock of which by its look is hard to distinct wheather it serves as a streetcar, metro, light rail or for heavy rail or even a mix of the aforementioned; why bother about different train types? All right as long its gets you from where you are to where you want to be.

Gijs

kato wrote: Almost all RE services in Germany are generally provided by Deutsche Bahn. If we're talking the doubledeckers as the OP said, those are all DB (in West Germany at least), and operate as RE and RB trains..

Not really, the Metronom Trains (ME) par example are also Regional Express services.

bellstbarn wrote:Kato, which two S-bahn services in Germany are not DB?
Thanks.
Joe McMahon

Karlsruhe, Saarbrücken, Kassel (called RT there), Bremen from 2010.

CarterB wrote:A EU$40 minimum, for what might have been a $2 ticket, to me, is steep. I've seen "denyers" literally dragged off the S bahn in Hamburg for trying to argue with the "Grun Polizei". Of course they were also punkers, looking more like zombies than humans.

At the moment it is 60€ I believe...

For the same money you can speed up to 30km/h over the speed limit...

NS3737 wrote:

Martin wrote: Is this a S-Bahn or a Regionalexpress?
Martin

May be a new type of train: the S-Bahn Express?

With street cars capable of running on main line tracks, all kinds of new rolling stock of which by its look is hard to distinct wheather it serves as a streetcar, metro, light rail or for heavy rail or even a mix of the aforementioned; why bother about different train types? All right as long its gets you from where you are to where you want to be.

Gijs

SE trains (for StadtExpress means CityExpress) existed in the 1990s but later they become RE or RB.

Thomas I wrote:SE trains (for StadtExpress means CityExpress) existed in the 1990s but later they become RE or RB.

They still exist to some extent, however they're usually marked as RE/RB in DB schemes (I know at least two lines in operation called "SE").

Thomas I wrote:At the moment it is 60€ I believe...

Still 40, at least with DB Regio.

Thomas I wrote:Not really, the Metronom Trains (ME) par example are also Regional Express services.

Those aren't red though, as stated.

Karlsruhe, Saarbrücken, Kassel (called RT there), Bremen from 2010.

Calling bimodal tram-trains "S-Bahn" systems can become rather ambiguous quickly. Saarbrücken is probably the one among those that best fits a S-Bahn moniker.

S-Bahn systems in Germany:

- Berlin (urban-only; using EMUs)
- Hamburg (urban-only; using EMUs)
- Munich (urban; using EMUs)

- Hannover (metropolitan; using EMUs)
- Stuttgart (metropolitan; using EMUs)
- Rhein-Main (metropolitan; using EMUs)
- Nuremberg (metropolitan; using single-deck trains, moving to EMUs)
- Dresden (metropolitan; using doubledecker trains)
- Rostock (metropolitan; using doubledecker trains and DMUs)
- Leipzig-Halle (metropolitan; using doubledecker trains, moving to EMUs)

- Rhein-Neckar (regional; using EMUs)
- Rhein-Ruhr (regional; using single-deck trains and EMUs)

Magdeburg with its single line doesn't really count
"Metropolitan" in the above meaning connecting between a city that the network is centered on and it's surrounding urban sprawl, with a few other cities sometimes mixed in.

kato wrote: They still exist to some extent, however they're usually marked as RE/RB in DB schemes (I know at least two lines in operation called "SE").

The RMV (Regional public transport authority for the region around Frankfurt/Main) has SE lines, but the trains on thes lines are named RE or RB by the DB...

kato wrote:

Thomas I wrote:At the moment it is 60€ I believe...

Still 40, at least with DB Regio.

Dont forget the Bearbeitungsgebühr (Handling charge).

Calling bimodal tram-trains "S-Bahn" systems can become rather ambiguous quickly.

Thats your opinion. Fact is: Karlsruhe uses the same white and green S symbol as all the other S-Bahn systems in Germany.
And outside the city limits of Karlsruhe the trains are heavy rail by law and not trams/light rail.

S-Bahn systems in Germany:
- Berlin (urban-only; using EMUs)
- Hamburg (urban-only; using EMUs)
- Munich (urban; using EMUs)

Booth Munich and Hamburg are metropolitan. Hamburgs S-Bahn goes as far as Stade (about 50km/30 miles) and the Munich network is comparable to the networks of Stuttgart, Frankfurt or Hannover.

- Hannover (metropolitan; using EMUs)
- Stuttgart (metropolitan; using EMUs)
- Rhein-Main (metropolitan; using EMUs)
- Nuremberg (metropolitan; using single-deck trains, moving to EMUs)
- Dresden (metropolitan; using doubledecker trains)
- Rostock (metropolitan; using doubledecker trains and DMUs)
- Leipzig-Halle (metropolitan; using doubledecker trains, moving to EMUs)

- Rhein-Neckar (regional; using EMUs)
- Rhein-Ruhr (regional; using single-deck trains and EMUs)

- Rhein-Sieg (regional; using single-deck trains and EMUs) and connected to the Rhein-Ruhr network.

Magdeburg with its single line doesn't really count
"Metropolitan" in the above meaning connecting between a city that the network is centered on and it's surrounding urban sprawl, with a few other cities sometimes mixed in.

bellstbarn wrote:Thankfully, we have someone on this board from Germany, and I hope he responds. From my very limited knowledge, one problem is that S-bahn is an amorphic term; it means different things in different cities. Now, I made at least three trips on the Munich S-bahn in 1997. Between the airport and downtown, there was no ticket check. On a round trip to Freising, at one station three or four agents in non-descript clothing (mufti) entered the coach. When the doors closed, they displayed their badges and checked tickets. I did about 40 km on the Stuttgart S-bahn, and was never checked.

A few years ago I had an InterRail ticket and rode on the S-bahn in Berlin at least as far as Potsdam. I was never checked and wasn't sure whether my ticket covered it. I suspect it didn't, so I am glad no-one looked.

Thomas I wrote:The RMV (Regional public transport authority for the region around Frankfurt/Main) has SE lines, but the trains on thes lines are named RE or RB by the DB...

Because DB has removed them from their portfolio (a couple years ago). However, RMV keeps ordering SE lines from DB and other companies (such as VIAS).