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Home - City Guide - Berlin - Rail | ||
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Rail Deutsche Bahn (German Railways), the national service provider, has ticket and information offices at Schonefeld airport (tel: (030) 2972 9528; fax: (030) 2972 9654; website: www.bahn.de), opening hours: Mon-Fri 0530-2100, Sat 0600-1800 and Sun 0830-2000 and at Berlin Zoological Garten (tel: (030) 2974 9277; fax: (030) 2974 9161), opening hours: daily 0445-2300). Rail services are comprehensive and efficient and include high-speed InterCityExpress (ICE) trains. Telephone rail enquiries are available in Berlin (tel: (1805) 996 633 (DM0.24 per minute) Construction is underway on Lehrter Bahnhof, a massive new station just to the north of the Reichstag, which will link the main north-south and east-west lines when completed in 2003. Until then, the busiest station in Berlin will continue to be Bahnhof Berlin Zoologischer Garten (or, simply, 'Bahnhof Zoo'), located in the western centre of the city. Facilities include a travel centre (daily 0600-2200), tourist information, post office, bank, restaurant, buffet, cafÉ, shops, florist, newsagents and left-luggage. Bahnhof Zoo is located at Hardenbergplatz 11 (tel: (030) 2974 9277; fax (030) 2974 9161). The other major mainline stations are Bahnhof Lichtenberg and Ostbahnhof in East Berlin. Some mainline services also stop at Bahnhof Spandau to the west, Bahnhof Wannsee in the southwest and Schönefeld in the southeast. Rail services: Berlin is connected by the InterCityExpress (ICE) network, with super-fast trains to Hanover (journey time - 1 hour 45 minutes) and Frankfurt am Main (journey time - 3 hours 30 minutes). ICE trains also go to Hamburg, but at present their running time is no faster than the other services (journey time - 2 hours 20 minutes) and cost more. An expanding web of high speed trains serve destinations across Western Europe with tickets available in the UK from Rail Europe (www.raileurope.co.uk). Supplements are payable on ICE, IC and EC trains. Transport to the city: The main stations are all located on the S-Bahn spine that arches from west to east across the city. Connections to the U-Bahn network and north-south S-Bahn lines are available either directly or via a short journey on the main east-west line. A number of buses are available outside the main stations. |