Fotoeins Fotografie

location bifurcation, place vs. home

Posts tagged ‘S-Bahn Berlin’

Berlin: S-Bahn S15 on the way, soon.

Above: Berlin S-Bahn S15 icon, from Wikimedia, by users F84 (original) and Minoa (rework).

For me, living memories of countless times in Berlin since 2002 include public transport with her U-Bahn and S-Bahn trains and routes. Like many, I never want that S-Bahn three-tone door-closing signal to go away, but that only comes with the older Baureihe 481-482 vehicles used for the trains, which will go away with the requirement to comply with European Union regulations.

On my first visit in 2002, I immediately asked: why isn’t there a U-Bahn connection or an S-Bahn connection with the shiny Berlin central train station? The U5 finally answered the first question in 2020, whereas the S-Bahn connection is coming up in 2026. The S-Bahn line provisionally labelled S15 is part of the larger long-term S21 project to connect the north and south parts of the S-Bahn Ring with the central station, and helping to alleviate traffic along the existing north-south S1-S2 route. In late-2025, news came out with a scheduled opening: on 28 March 2026, the S15 will open for public service between Gesundbrunnen and Hauptbahnhof via Wedding, although I’m unsure why the latest map update doesn’t mark S15 service between Westhafen and Hauptbahnhof; see below.

Announcement items in German: RBB24 — Entwicklungsstadt.

In this coming summer of 2026, I’m looking forward to seeing how this works out.

( Click here for images )

25T08 Berlin’s big bounty

E07, B02.

In a city of 4 million, what is there in Berlin I haven’t already visited or discovered? I had intuitively guessed after my 1st visit in 2002 that Berlin would present herself as a grand lifelong project. It’s true. So, the real question is: what are her myths and secrets?

Here’s a glimpse of my to-do/ask list :

  • Bauhaus in Bernau, just outside Berlin to the northeast
  • Peter Behrens
  • What’s new (& showing) at C/O Berlin and at the Museum for Photography
  • Albert Einstein
  • Margot Friedländer
  • Alfred Grenander
  • Humboldt brothers: Wilhelm & Alexander
  • Potsdam’s grandeur, just outside Berlin to the southwest
  • Railway lines: Friedhofsbahn; Siemensbahn, to be reactivated as new S-Bahn S6
  • Karl Friedrich Schinkel
  • Franz Schwechten
  • Max Skladanowsky

Poor but sexy. Plain but complicated. Over 2 decades have passed since my 1st visit, but the sight of the glass and steel monument to trains and the sound of the three-tone closing-doors signal on the city’s S-Bahn are quintessential to identifying how I feel and remember this city.

( I spent the afternoon gazing and absorbing contemporary 20th- and 21st-century art at the former Hamburger Bahnhof, near Berlin’s central station. What I saw and experienced there is for another time. )

Hamburger Bahnhof Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart / Hamburger Bahnhof National Gallery of Contemporary Art.
Berlin Hauptbahnhof (central station): north plaza at Europaplatz.
Berlin Hauptbahnhof (central station), facing north to Europaplatz.
38-sec audio, southbound S-Bahn S2 train at Gesundbrunnen station. The older rolling stock (series 481 and 482) has the much beloved three-tone door-closing signal, which occurs at 19-seconds. “… (S2) nach Lichtenrade … S2 … zurück bleiben bitte …”

I made all images and audio above with an iPhone15 on 15 May 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

My Berlin: Bornholmer Strasse, first through the Wall

By today’s appearance, it’s easy to overlook the bridge at Bornholmer Strasse (also known as Bösebrücke) as an historic landmark. On the night of 9 November 1989, the Berlin Wall opened here first, at the Bornholmer Strasse bridge border-crossing between East Berlin and West Berlin.

( Click here for images and more )