Getting around Berlin
Berlin reads most easily as a ring, an east-west viaduct and nine U-Bahn lines, with the airport express reaching the Hauptbahnhof in 23 minutes and the trams working the east.
- Airport
- FEX to the Hauptbahnhof in 23 minutes
- Network
- 9 U-Bahn lines and 22 tram lines
- After dark
- from Sunday to Thursday nights
Berlin has no single centre, so its transport is built around a ring and two crossings. The S-Bahn Ringbahn circles the inner city, the Stadtbahn viaduct runs east to west through the Hauptbahnhof, and nine U-Bahn lines fill in between. From BER you take either the FEX airport express, which reaches the Hauptbahnhof in 23 minutes, or an S-Bahn every 20 minutes, and either way the ticket is the ABC single at €5.
The express or the S-Bahn
The fast FEX airport express leaves from the underground station beneath Terminal 1 and calls at Südkreuz and Potsdamer Platz before the Hauptbahnhof, which it reaches in 23 minutes. Südkreuz is 14 minutes away and Potsdamer Platz 19, and trains run roughly every 15 minutes between 4:00 and 0:30. The ticket is the ABC single at €5. The U-Bahn does not reach the airport at all, because the U7 stops at Rudow, short of the Brandenburg border.
The slower options are the S-Bahn lines S9 and S85, each every 20 minutes, with the S85 running through Ostkreuz, and the regional trains: the hourly RE20 to the Hauptbahnhof and the RB22 between Potsdam and the airport. If you are staying east of the centre the S-Bahn through Ostkreuz is the natural choice, and if you are heading for Mitte or the government quarter you take the express.
FEX express
- FEX to Hauptbahnhof
- 23 min
- Ticket
- ABC single €5
- Departures
- every 15 min, 4:00 to 0:30
- S9 and S85
- every 20 min
Private transfer
- a driver meets you at arrivals
- booked ahead, late flights too
- costs more than public transport
The map in four pieces
The U-Bahn has 9 lines and 175 stations over about 156 kilometres, with trains every 4 to 5 minutes by day. The S-Bahn is the skeleton of the city. Its Ringbahn is a 37.5-kilometre loop that the S41 and S42 run in opposite directions in about an hour, and its Stadtbahn is a long elevated viaduct from Ostbahnhof past the Hauptbahnhof to Charlottenburg.
Read it like this: the S-Bahn crosses the city and rings it, the U-Bahn goes under the districts and to the sights, and the trams cover the east. The interchanges that matter are Alexanderplatz, Friedrichstraße and Zoologischer Garten. At Mehringdamm the U6 and U7 share one station, so you change lines across the platform.
Hauptbahnhof and the new S15
The U5 runs under the Hauptbahnhof, the Stadtbahn S-Bahn above it, and since 15 June 2026 a provisional platform serves the new S15, which runs every 10 minutes by day to Wedding and Gesundbrunnen. The U5 goes from the Hauptbahnhof through Brandenburger Tor to Alexanderplatz and on through Friedrichshain. That stretch to the Hauptbahnhof only opened in December 2020, so older guidebooks do not know it. If you arrive by train and your first stop is the Brandenburg Gate or Alexanderplatz, look for the U5.
The east of the city
Berlin has 22 tram lines, and nine of them are MetroTram lines marked with an M, which run around the clock. The network lies mostly in the former East, because West Berlin replaced its trams with buses during the division. The tram is therefore the natural way around the east, alongside the S-Bahn and U-Bahn, and the M10 runs along Bernauer Strasse past Mauerpark.
Tickets, briefly
The BVG app sells single, 24-hour and 4-trip tickets and takes Apple Pay, Google Pay, SEPA direct debit, PayPal or a card, though you must register first. Every price, the day-pass break-even, the Deutschlandticket and the fine are on the budget page. The one rule that belongs here is that the whole city is zone AB, while BER and Potsdam need ABC.
After midnight
From Sunday to Thursday nights the night buses N1 to N9 take the place of the U-Bahn from about 0:30 to 4:30, while the MetroTram lines keep going. On Friday and Saturday nights the night buses come every 15 to 20 minutes, and on a weeknight a realistic wait is about an hour. If you land before midnight, you'll want to know that the express runs every 15 minutes only until 0:30.
Where to next
Berlin in 3 days
→Government, museums and the Wall in three days that don't overlap — with a Reichstag dome that costs nothing and one €24 ticket for all of Museum Island.
Leipzig · 150 km
→The city where 1989 began what Berlin finished
How well does Berlin suit you?
→Six questions: a score for this place and others like it.
Nomadinho scores out of 100, the same ones behind “Where to go”.
If you like Berlin
Three places with the closest scores, from any country.
Before you go
Short answers to what people ask most before setting out.
How do I get from BER airport to central Berlin?
By the FEX airport express, which reaches the Hauptbahnhof in 23 minutes, or by the S9 or S85 every 20 minutes; all of them take the ABC single at €5.
Does the Berlin U-Bahn run all night?
From Sunday to Thursday nights, night buses N1 to N9 replace it, and the MetroTram lines run around the clock. On Friday and Saturday nights the buses do not replace the U-Bahn, but look up the line you need on the BVG night map.
Does the U-Bahn go to the airport?
No. The U7 stops at Rudow, so you reach the airport by the express, the S-Bahn, a regional train or a bus.
Ready for Berlin?
Front row for the next trip
Leave your email and we'll let you know when a new destination or story goes up.