You're on point with the bathrooms. The DB/S-Bahn wants to keep out homeless and poor people, that's why they have outsourced the bathrooms to another company. It has been really, really terrible in the past. Now the bathrooms are just very bad.
The BVG wants to build bathrooms in the U-Bahn stations, but BVG is moving very, very slow. They have this plan for years. Sadly, the senate is now conservative, so funds may not be approved for that until the government changes to a more progressive again.
Until then, most metro stations will remain a bathroom in itself. Yeay.
Just, as with all policies, when they want to fight off the poor, everyone looses.
Well ... there is just one facility. It's not just one toilet. That would be madness. Most German railway stations have only one "WC-Center". And I have never used the "WC-Center" in Berlin Lehrter Bahnhof (which old Berliners still prefer to call it). I usually plan my visit so I can use the toilet once I am on the actual train (train toilets are free and usually clean).
About the transfers at Potsdamer Platz ... well. Yes, the transfers between the S-Bahn and regional trains are moderately convenient (I don't find them exceptionally good; have you tried Südkreuz or Gesundbrunnen or even Hauptbahnhof/Lehrter Bahnhof?), transfer between either and the U-Bahn is a fucking nightmare. Which is because the U-Bahn station (it used to be called "Leipziger Platz" and not "Potsdamer Platz" for a reason, because that's where it is; at the next square over) and the S-Bahn station already existed when the modern Potsdamer Platz station was built.
I agree with all you say. Sorry I have missed you this time you were in Berlin (I am currently in Rostock-Warnemünde). The general lack of public toilets, especially free-to-use ones, in Berlin is a nuisance that is annoying not just visitors but locals as well.
Years (actually by now decades) ago, I was in Nuremburg on a regular basis. Nuremberg has (or used to have) free-to-use public toilets in almost every U-Bahn station. And guess what, they were usually in a terrible state, not just considering cleanliness (or total lack thereof) but also with unpleasant people accosting users. Keeping public toilets tidy and kick out unwanted "visitors" costs substantial amounts of money. I understand that and am happy to pay to use a clean, pleasant toilet. Especially if I can pay not just with coins but also contactless cards, phone or watch (which is something that many on-street public toilets in Berlin actually allow).
Sure, bathrooms are never perfectly clean. But if you don't constantly clean/maintain (and guard) them, they go from "not perfectly clean" to "total hygiene disaster area" pretty quickly. That's unfortunate, but that's how it is, in my experience.
I visit Berlin frequently and it is a great transport network but I have to disagree on the point about way finding. In my experience Germany is particularly bad at way finding and Berlin is probably the worst of any city I've ever visited (I've been there a lot so I'm sure I'm forgetting somewhere worse that I only visited once). The design of the signage is confusing and cluttered. Signs will lead you to the end of a passage and suddenly disappear with no further guidance. Transfers between S- and U-Bahn above ground can often mean blindly walking in a direction to find where you need to go or just being forced to guess. I detest the Hauptbahnhof as well. The slowest elevators, escalators that are often not working, a fairly long journey from S-Bahn right at the top to the intercity platforms right at the bottom. It also weirdly has no proper bus terminal at the front. If I can I catch my long distance train from Südkreuz to avoid going the the HBF. I think I heard murmurs about plans to rebuild the whole thing, which is overkill, but they could definitely improve it.
I absolutely love Berlin Hauptbahnhof (or Lehrter Bahnhof). While I agree that the lifts are a proper nuisance (I don't have to use them so I don't), I have in all my visits there (and I am from Berlin and have been there often) never encountered a non-functional escalator AFAIK. I do admit, I use the station rather frequently so I know my way around it, but once you do, navigating it becomes a doddle. Everything is clearly laid out, you can see where you are going (lots of open space), and yes, you have to go four levels down from the top-level platforms to the bottom-level ones, but with lots of escalators, that's not really a problem. (And even if you don't know your way around, wayfinding is decent, and lots of open space lets you see where you are going, which is a big plus).
My fear is that they will screw it up by rebuilding it, closing up all that open space and totally ruining the experience. Hopefully, copyright claims from the architect group GMP will keep that from happening. It's almost perfect the way it is (except for the lifts; those suck).
There is talk of it, yes. Whether it will actually happen -- who knows? Deutsche Bahn think that the station is barely coping with the 300,000 passengers it sees everyday now, and they want to increase that substantially. (They do have a point there, I have to admit.) This and other stations on the Stadtbahn are now so crowded that boarding and unboarding of passengers is now affecting punctuality because of crowding.
I don’t necessarily agree with everything you said but definitely about the buses - it’s weird that they just use the crappy loop across the street when everything else is pretty decent
I have taken buses from there quite a few times ... yeah the stops are bit cramped but I don't think it's a big problem TBH. The cheapest way for me to get home from there: take the 120 and transfer to the 220.
I just came back from Berlin and I must say, I didn't find the on-time performance to be any good. Metros 7 minutes late? Seriously Berlin? Buses were almost always late, sometimes cancelled. I didn't use trams, but they seemed to be very deprioritized, often running in mixed traffic even on roads where separate lanes for cars and trams would fit. It also occured to me that no prioritisation on traffic lights is present as the trams were constantly stopping on minor intersections and crosswalks.
The Berlin tram network is, generally, quite old. That's why there are quite a lot of places where there is no separate right-of-way. We are working on it. We know it sucks.
As a person from Prague, I can feel the pain of it. At least a lot of East Berlin's street Are quite wide, so with political will separate lanes are probably possible on a lot of places. Are there any plans for better signal priority?
You're on point with the bathrooms. The DB/S-Bahn wants to keep out homeless and poor people, that's why they have outsourced the bathrooms to another company. It has been really, really terrible in the past. Now the bathrooms are just very bad.
The BVG wants to build bathrooms in the U-Bahn stations, but BVG is moving very, very slow. They have this plan for years. Sadly, the senate is now conservative, so funds may not be approved for that until the government changes to a more progressive again.
Until then, most metro stations will remain a bathroom in itself. Yeay.
Just, as with all policies, when they want to fight off the poor, everyone looses.
It’s not even just the private company - AFAIK there’s only one bathroom in the HBF, which seems crazy given its size!
Well ... there is just one facility. It's not just one toilet. That would be madness. Most German railway stations have only one "WC-Center". And I have never used the "WC-Center" in Berlin Lehrter Bahnhof (which old Berliners still prefer to call it). I usually plan my visit so I can use the toilet once I am on the actual train (train toilets are free and usually clean).
About the transfers at Potsdamer Platz ... well. Yes, the transfers between the S-Bahn and regional trains are moderately convenient (I don't find them exceptionally good; have you tried Südkreuz or Gesundbrunnen or even Hauptbahnhof/Lehrter Bahnhof?), transfer between either and the U-Bahn is a fucking nightmare. Which is because the U-Bahn station (it used to be called "Leipziger Platz" and not "Potsdamer Platz" for a reason, because that's where it is; at the next square over) and the S-Bahn station already existed when the modern Potsdamer Platz station was built.
The location of the U-Bahn station is certainly stretching using the same name . . .
I agree with all you say. Sorry I have missed you this time you were in Berlin (I am currently in Rostock-Warnemünde). The general lack of public toilets, especially free-to-use ones, in Berlin is a nuisance that is annoying not just visitors but locals as well.
Years (actually by now decades) ago, I was in Nuremburg on a regular basis. Nuremberg has (or used to have) free-to-use public toilets in almost every U-Bahn station. And guess what, they were usually in a terrible state, not just considering cleanliness (or total lack thereof) but also with unpleasant people accosting users. Keeping public toilets tidy and kick out unwanted "visitors" costs substantial amounts of money. I understand that and am happy to pay to use a clean, pleasant toilet. Especially if I can pay not just with coins but also contactless cards, phone or watch (which is something that many on-street public toilets in Berlin actually allow).
The thing is bathrooms being bathrooms they are never perfectly clean, better to let people use them I figure. Especially in a major public facility.
Sure, bathrooms are never perfectly clean. But if you don't constantly clean/maintain (and guard) them, they go from "not perfectly clean" to "total hygiene disaster area" pretty quickly. That's unfortunate, but that's how it is, in my experience.
I visit Berlin frequently and it is a great transport network but I have to disagree on the point about way finding. In my experience Germany is particularly bad at way finding and Berlin is probably the worst of any city I've ever visited (I've been there a lot so I'm sure I'm forgetting somewhere worse that I only visited once). The design of the signage is confusing and cluttered. Signs will lead you to the end of a passage and suddenly disappear with no further guidance. Transfers between S- and U-Bahn above ground can often mean blindly walking in a direction to find where you need to go or just being forced to guess. I detest the Hauptbahnhof as well. The slowest elevators, escalators that are often not working, a fairly long journey from S-Bahn right at the top to the intercity platforms right at the bottom. It also weirdly has no proper bus terminal at the front. If I can I catch my long distance train from Südkreuz to avoid going the the HBF. I think I heard murmurs about plans to rebuild the whole thing, which is overkill, but they could definitely improve it.
I absolutely love Berlin Hauptbahnhof (or Lehrter Bahnhof). While I agree that the lifts are a proper nuisance (I don't have to use them so I don't), I have in all my visits there (and I am from Berlin and have been there often) never encountered a non-functional escalator AFAIK. I do admit, I use the station rather frequently so I know my way around it, but once you do, navigating it becomes a doddle. Everything is clearly laid out, you can see where you are going (lots of open space), and yes, you have to go four levels down from the top-level platforms to the bottom-level ones, but with lots of escalators, that's not really a problem. (And even if you don't know your way around, wayfinding is decent, and lots of open space lets you see where you are going, which is a big plus).
My fear is that they will screw it up by rebuilding it, closing up all that open space and totally ruining the experience. Hopefully, copyright claims from the architect group GMP will keep that from happening. It's almost perfect the way it is (except for the lifts; those suck).
Are they actually rebuilding?!
There is talk of it, yes. Whether it will actually happen -- who knows? Deutsche Bahn think that the station is barely coping with the 300,000 passengers it sees everyday now, and they want to increase that substantially. (They do have a point there, I have to admit.) This and other stations on the Stadtbahn are now so crowded that boarding and unboarding of passengers is now affecting punctuality because of crowding.
I don’t necessarily agree with everything you said but definitely about the buses - it’s weird that they just use the crappy loop across the street when everything else is pretty decent
I have taken buses from there quite a few times ... yeah the stops are bit cramped but I don't think it's a big problem TBH. The cheapest way for me to get home from there: take the 120 and transfer to the 220.
Its less that and the lack of weather protection, its just weird when you have the glass castle across the street!
Yes, weather protection would be nice. The tram stops are much nicer.
Woooohuuuu Berlin ! We’re number one! No you can even go to prison… in a Tram! Take that Zürich!
Great points btw!!!
Haha, thank you!
Can you make a post or video on how to improve Toronto's streetcar network? On second thought, this will probably be a whole series!
I am doing a video on this in the new year, stay tuned! It will take the form of "learning from Berlin"
Oh cool, I am excited for that!
I just came back from Berlin and I must say, I didn't find the on-time performance to be any good. Metros 7 minutes late? Seriously Berlin? Buses were almost always late, sometimes cancelled. I didn't use trams, but they seemed to be very deprioritized, often running in mixed traffic even on roads where separate lanes for cars and trams would fit. It also occured to me that no prioritisation on traffic lights is present as the trams were constantly stopping on minor intersections and crosswalks.
The Berlin tram network is, generally, quite old. That's why there are quite a lot of places where there is no separate right-of-way. We are working on it. We know it sucks.
As a person from Prague, I can feel the pain of it. At least a lot of East Berlin's street Are quite wide, so with political will separate lanes are probably possible on a lot of places. Are there any plans for better signal priority?
Signal priority for trams has already been implemented at almost every (applicable) traffic light in Berlin, but needs constant readjustment. Therefore, this is a continuous process. (Summarizing from https://www.berlin.de/sen/uvk/mobilitaet-und-verkehr/verkehrsmanagement/ampeln-und-co/busse-und-strassenbahnen/ .)