5 Top Tips for the Berlin U-Bahn: An Idiot’s Guide

#Germany #Berlin #Travel

I confess: I’m a bit clueless when it comes to getting around. For one, I have zero spatial awareness and, secondly, a tendency to overthink things—both of which can leave me feeling a bit bewildered in unknown territory. Luckily, as Hilary Bradt of Bradt Travel Guides once assured me, all the best travel writers “have a terrible sense of direction”. I’ll buy that.

I’ve just returned from one of my favourite cities, Berlin, where I had a decent go at negotiating its great public transport system. And for the folks out there who might be as clueless as me, I've whipped up a really, really basic ‘Top Tips’ guide to the U-Bahn, which is Berlin’s Underground (subway) train system.

If you see a big blue ‘U’ Sign on the street, head down the stairs (or elevator), and make friends with a mustard-yellow train, congrats: you’ve found yourself in one of Berlin’s 173 U-Bahn stations! Here are 5 quick tips to get you around less haplessly more successfully:

1. Buy a ticket

Sounds obvious, right? Well, if you’re from London or other cities where there are clear Underground entry and exit barriers, you might be surprised to find that none exist in Berlin. Berlin’s public transportation system seems to work on the simple, refreshing, and delightful idea that people will do the right thing. It’s strange not to see a bottleneck of people at barriers fishing about in handbags and pockets—and even stranger not to be one of them—but once you get used to it, it’s clearly quicker. However, don’t even think about not buying a ticket; plain clothes inspectors are reported to be on the beat, and will issue pretty hefty spot fines for those who break the law.

Knowing which ticket to buy—especially as a tourist—can be a bit confusing. I did some online searching, and came across the most helpful info on the S-Bahn (overground train network) site. As it is part of the Verkehrsverbund Berlin-Brandenburg (VBB) network, which includes the S-bahn, U-Bahn, tram, bus, and ferry, most tickets you buy will be valid for all of these modes of transport. Handy. Another useful site is the BVG, which operates the U-Bahn. You need to know which zone (A,B or C) you’re going to travel in, and this is clearly marked on the network map.

You can buy tickets from the U-Bahn station itself, or at various sales outlets throughout the city. There’s a slightly bewildering array of short, long, and multiple-journey tickets. For unlimited use or longer stays, you could consider buying one of several ‘tourist’ cards (which include entry to museums, plus other discounts) or just go for the transport-only tickets (I bought a 7-day ticket for €30, which also allows you take another person with you for free, at selected times). I would recommend looking at the above websites in advance to figure out what best suits your needs and budget.

Above: ticket machines inside the U-Bahn and S-Bahn in multiple languages.

Locals and residents often use the BVG Fahrinfo Plus App, which allows them to buy and store tickets on a mobile phone. Some also have monthly and annual subscription tickets. However, I don’t think there is any way to ‘pay as you go’ i.e. have a card (real or virtual), load it up with money, and use the prepaid credit to make journeys—for example, like the Oyster Card in London.

2. Validate your ticket (and other laws)

Once you’ve bought your ticket, it’s not enough simply to carry it around with you; you must validate it. To do so, put your ticket in this machine, where it will be stamped with a date and time:

Check the validity. The 7-day card is valid from the first day you validate it, to the 7th consecutive day at midnight. So, if you buy a ticket on a Saturday at 4pm, it’s valid until the following Friday at midnight. I got a bit confused by this, and the pedant in me felt a bit cheated out of a few hours…

There are various other rules to follow, although I observed each of the following being broken at least once:

3. Push the door button (hard)

The U-bahn lines are numbered and coloured, and the line maps are pretty easy to read. You need to know the end destination of your train, and take the one travelling in that direction. What stumped me was how to get onto the train (yep). The doors don’t open automatically, and perhaps I need to eat more spinach but you need to press the 'open' button reasonably hard. On the flip side, it's German-built, so you're unlikely to break it. General rule of thumb: stand behind a local person and do what they do. Train door opening mechanisms throughout the world are another blog I’ll eventually get round to writing.

4. Look around

You’ll often find a transportation network map on the train carriage ceiling. You’ll also find computer screens (at least, on the brown line) that will tell you your next stop. You might get a bit of daily news and politics to digest. Along with art and music. And some cute dogs to drool over. As a solo female traveller I felt very safe, but then I didn’t travel late at night and kept a watchful eye on my belongings—as I would do anywhere.

5. Know your exits

Once you step off the train, you’ll usually turn either right or left and head towards an exit (Ausgang) at each end of the platform. At each of these exits, again you will probably go right or left, and up the stairs, to a different side of the road above. These are very helpfully signposted on the platforms as road names and cross streets, so it’s worth knowing in advance which exits you’ll need to take. If you use Google Maps to plan your journey, it will tell you.

When you enter or leave the station, make sure you don’t get run over by a cyclist, because in Berlin the cycle lanes are on the pavement, and can run adjacent to U-Bahn entrances. Oh, and also because the cyclists are a bit crazy.

There are so many (literal and metaphorical) layers to the Underground and its inhabitants—but I’ll leave the poetic stuff for another time. I hope my Top Tips will help you navigate the system at least a tiny bit more confidently, if not quite like a true local. If things go awry, most of the officials and general public speak English and are super kind and helpful. And if worse comes to absolute worst, there’s always Uber.