Berlin by train

Many years ago I set off from my then English home, on a summer hitch-hiking holiday, across northern Europe, but with the loose destination of Berlin. Good rides were coming thick and fast, and when I got an offer of a nice long ride with an American adventurer in a VW beetle, I stuck with him. He was bound for Copenhagen though, rather than Berlin, and turned left at Hamburg. So I changed my plans, and had an interesting exploration of southern Scandinavia instead.

I've often thought about completing that trip one day, actually making it to the fabled city this time, and last month I had my chance. I headed off from my recent winter English exile, and did a little north European exploration again, this time by fast trains.

It was Eurostar from London St Pancras to Brussels Midi/Zuid, then German ICE (Inter Continental Express) trains on to Berlin. It's a little over two hours to Brussels, even with a couple of stops along the way. Then from Brussels to Cologne in another two hours, then change trains and Cologne to Berlin in four and a half. Both the Eurostars and the ICE trains are said to travel at up to 300 km/h. The Cologne - Berlin one had a speed indicator in the cabin, which indicated up to 250 on this particular journey.


Here's a view of a French train and a German train, nose to nose in Brussels Midi station. The French one was about to head back to Paris, while I was about to board the Berlin bound German one going the other way.

The German ICE trains were comfortable and roomy. I found the Eurostar rather cramped though. Very much just another train, though it was fast and it was on time. There was a 20 minute period in a (rather too normal) railway tunnel along the way.

Being connected to England, which is always at war with various parts of the world, the British requirement of special security screening, with consequent extra check-in time, means that you have to add extra time to your journey planning. It strikes me that if they go ahead and build their next high speed train, from London to Birmingham, and save 40 minutes of journey time, they will then throw it all away if they feel the need for extra security and check-in measures on that one too!

Back to Berlin though. What a delight of a city to travel around in! You arrive at the fabulous new Hauptbahnhof, looking like a five-level ultra-modern shopping centre with concourses and train platforms

running through at all the right places - serving underground, on-ground, and elevated lines. You show up at the tourist office there. They sell you a 72 hour ticket for 27 euros, which gives you useful discounts at most of the museums and other attractions you'll be visiting, but also unlimited travel on all trains - U-bahns, S-bahns ('Stadtschnellbahns' - the older, partly elevated rapid city railway) - as well as trams and buses . Just get it stamped when you start your first journey, and then hop on and off as you like, with never another thought of price or payment procedure.

There are quite a few cities that could learn a lot on simplifying their public transport fare structures from Berlin. Sydney for instance, while priding itself on finally introducing its smartcard ticketing system (originally promised for the year 2000 Olympics), is nevertheless sticking to a ludicrously complex pricing system for it.