Berlin S-Bahn S7 Ride - Ostbahnhof to Hauptbahnhof | Germany | 19/11/24

Riding the S7 from Berlin Ostbahnhof to Berlin Hauptbahnhof. Germany, 19/11/24

Berlin Ostbahnhof (German for Berlin East railway station) is a main line railway station in Berlin, Germany. It is located in the Friedrichshain quarter, now part of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough, and has undergone several name changes in its history. It was known as Berlin Hauptbahnhof from 1987 to 1998, a name now applied to Berlin's new central station at the former Lehrter station. Alongside Berlin Zoologischer Garten station it was one of the city's two main stations; however, it has declined in significance since the opening of the new Hauptbahnhof on 26 May 2006, and many mainline trains have been re-routed on the North–South mainline through the new Tiergarten tunnel, bypassing Ostbahnhof.


Berlin Hauptbahnhof (English: Berlin Central Station) is the main railway station in Berlin, Germany. It came into full operation two days after a ceremonial opening on 26 May 2006. It is located on the site of the historic Lehrter Bahnhof, and on the Berlin S-Bahn suburban railway. The station is owned by DB InfraGO, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn AG, and is classified as a Category 1 station, one of 21[12] in Germany and four in Berlin, the others being Berlin Gesundbrunnen, Berlin Südkreuz and Berlin Ostbahnhof.

Lehrter Bahnhof (Lehrte Station) opened in 1871 as the terminus of the railway linking Berlin with Lehrte, near Hanover, which later became Germany's most important east–west main line. In 1882, with the completion of the Stadtbahn (City Railway, Berlin's four-track central elevated railway line, which carries both local and main line services), just north of the station, a smaller interchange station called Lehrter Stadtbahnhof was opened to provide connections with the new line. This station later became part of the Berlin S-Bahn. In 1884, after the closure of nearby Hamburger Bahnhof (Hamburg Station), Lehrter Bahnhof became the terminus for trains to and from Hamburg.

Following heavy damage during World War II, limited services to the main station were resumed, but then suspended in 1951. In 1957, with the railways to West Berlin under the control of East Germany, Lehrter Bahnhof was demolished, but Lehrter Stadtbahnhof remained as a stop on the S-Bahn. In 1987, it was extensively renovated to commemorate Berlin's 750th anniversary. After German reunification, it was decided to improve Berlin's railway network by constructing a new north–south main line, to supplement the east-west Stadtbahn. Lehrter Stadtbahnhof was considered to be the logical location for a new central station.


S7 is a line on the Berlin S-Bahn. It operates from Ahrensfelde to Potsdam over:

the Wriezen Railway, completed on 1 May 1898 and electrified to Marzahn in 1976, to Mehrower Allee in 1980 and to Ahrensfelde in 1982,
a section of the Outer ring, completed in the early 1940s as part of the Outer freight ring and electrified in 1976,
a section of the Prussian Eastern line, opened on 1 October 1866 and electrified on 6 November 1928,
the Stadtbahn, opened on 7 February 1882 and electrified on 11 June 1928,
a section of the Berlin-Blankenheim line, opened west of Grunewald in 1879 and further east in 1882 and electrified in 1928 and
a section of the Berlin-Potsdam-Magdeburg line, opened in 1838 and electrified in 1928.

Service history
The S7 was created on 2 June 1991, replacing the Red route of the East Berlin S-Bahn between Alexanderplatz and Ahrensfelde, with the western terminus extended to Friedrichstraße.