page_title: Berlin S-Bahn
section_title: After the construction of Berlin Wall
hierarchical_section_title: Berlin S-Bahn / History / The time of expansion / After the construction of Berlin Wall
caption_attribution_description: English: the Berlin train station AlexanderplatzDeutsch: Der Berliner Bahnhof Alexanderplatz
context_page_description: The Berlin S-Bahn is a rapid transit railway system in and around Berlin, the capital city of Germany. It has been in operation under this name since December 1930, having been previously called the special tariff area Berliner Stadt-, Ring- und Vorortbahnen. It complements the Berlin U-Bahn and is the link to many outer-Berlin areas, such as Berlin Schönefeld Airport.
  In its first decades of operation, the trains were steam-drawn; even after the electrification of large parts of the network, a number of lines remained under steam. Today, the term S-Bahn is used in Berlin only for those lines and trains with third-rail electrical power transmission and the special Berlin S-Bahn loading gauge. The third unique technical feature of the Berlin S-Bahn, the automated mechanical train control, is being phased out and replaced by a communications-based train control system specific to the Berlin S-Bahn.
  In other parts of Germany and other German-speaking countries, other trains are designated S-Bahn without those Berlin specific features. The Hamburg S-Bahn is the only other system using third-rail electrification.
context_section_description: The S-Bahn has also been operated in two separate subnets of the Deutsche Reichsbahn. In East Berlin, the S-Bahn retained a transport share of approximately 35 percent, the mode of transport with the highest passenger share. In the 1970s and 1980s the route network continued to grow. In particular, the new housing estates were connected to the grid in the northeast of the city (Marzahn and Hohenschönhausen).
  The construction of the Berlin Wall led to West Berlin calling for the unions and politicians to boycott the S-Bahn. Subsequently, passenger numbers fell.
  However, the Berlin S-Bahn strike brought the S-Bahn to the attention of the public, and aroused the desire for West Berlin to manage its section of the S-Bahn itself. In 1983 negotiations of representatives of the Senate, the SNB and the Deutsche Reichsbahn took place. In December 1983, these were concluded with Allied consent to the agreement between the Deutsche Reichsbahn and the Berlin Senate for the transfer of operating rights of the S-Bahn in the area of West Berlin. The BVG received the oldest carriages from the DR; but the BVG was eager to quickly get to modern standards for a subway. Therefore, soon new S-Bahn trains were purchased on their behalf, which are still in use on the Berlin S-Bahn network as the 480 series.
  Even before the Wall fell, there were efforts to substantial re-commissioning of the S-Bahn network in West Berlin.
caption: Alexanderplatz is an important transport hub in eastern Berlin
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