S-Bahn Berlin Reviews 

Wish I could rate it 0 stars. By far the worst public transport in the world. Every few weeks there's massive maintenance work or repairs. So a quarter of the line will be closed, with the promise of replacement buses, but they often don't come at all. This makes it impossible for working people who rely on this service, many of whom have already paid for it with the monthly subscription ticket.

Disgusting service, disgusting grift, Germany should be embarrassed. Imagine the 3rd largest economy in the planet having such a failure of a service. Insane.

Best connections, but worst service for them who stays in Berlin for longer time. Because after every 2 weeks they will have construction work. I don't know what they are constructing till now. And because of the regular usages there will be a lot of traffic in S bahn.

Wish i could give 0.
Live here my whole life. Every year it gets worse somehow.
Just dont under an circumstances trust the service to get you anywhere.
Just learn how to drive a bike through the city.
I feel bad that i have to pay a semesterticket as a university student. I feel like they should be paying me money for how often i have fallen for trusting this service and not making it in time for class because a 1h ride uNeXPectadLy took 2 hours and 30 minutes.

Missed flight due to their delay and they refused to offer compensation. To make things worse, I was fined for getting off accidentally in the wrong zone on the day after the missed flight, having had to cover accommodation in the city. Would never use it again and perhaps even avoid visiting Berlin altogether. There is much selfishness and lack of empathy altogether.

Awful.
Late, dirty, and somehow managing to do repairs of the same lines all the time. S2 usually is late or not working.
And I forgot - they also like to strike a lot.
I would prefer to use public transport instead of a car but am now forced to reconsider because it is getting worse and worse.

HORRIBLE

Horrible! This alone defines transport in Berlin. The S-Bahn is the king of delays and inconvenience. No air conditioning. There people transport themselves like cattle. Last minute changes. Delays and irritability among users. RESPECT 0. TIMELINESS 0. COMFORT 0. Knowing all the capitals of Europe, I can decide without a doubt that transport in Berlin is one of the WORST things used in Europe

Today we entered a train with our interrail passes in hand, considering the s bahn trains are included in the pass. Within seconds of sitting down we were approached by two men with no uniforms, wearing balenciaga black clothing and jewellery claiming to be associated with the company -- naturally we assumed they were lying. They were insanely aggressive, didn't give their names and refused our passes, then demanded we exit the train. There, they threatened to chase my friend who was attempting to leave the unsafe atmosphere they created. They claimed to have called the police as we requested but the police never came, then waved my fee but not my friend's because they claimed he was 'disrespectful'. They laughed and joked while accosting us, saying 'welcome to Berlin' and '60 euro is a lot of money'. They were the only disrespectful ones and somehow, it turned out they actually were s bahn employees. It was our first day in the city and they single-handedly ruined it. I'll be sure to report this on as many review websites as I can. S Bahn... Maybe think about at least getting your staff uniforms -- it might clear up the implication that they are scammers. Then again, that's exactly what they were, and you're worse for hiring them.

Sincerely,

Andrew

Abusive UNuniformed staff intimidated and shouted at me. He then demanded my passport and walked off with it, and I had to run after it with my luggage.
I had a valid train ticket, but as I didn't understand the ticket sold by the BVG App isn't valid for the airport (tickets are confusingly offered by zone or bundle??!..fine way to confuse and scam non-Germans ) the young man twice my size took my passport 2 hrs before I had to get on the airplane and would not give it back.
When I asked to please hold my own passport he shouted at me that I had committed a criminal offense and I could not have it back. When I tried to take his ID tag no. he started screaming for the Police to come arrest me in the airport train station. I was so traumatised and late for my plane, this incident completely ruined my trip to Berlin.
This City supported s-bahn scam is quite simply, fraudulent police action.
A rage filled young man treating a woman 20 yrs his senior like a criminal for having the wrong train ticket is unacceptable. Berlin should be ashamed.
I guess the S-bahn thinks I owe them €60 for this abuse.
Don't be fooled by the swish BVG App. The tickets do not include an explanation of which ticket goes to the airport, and the bundle tickets do not include the airport zone. This city endorsed S-bahn airport SCAM is just a trap for tourists to hand over another measly few euros under great duress before they leave, after spending money all week in the clearly, not quite democratically rehabilitated capital.

A dreadful company, with zero innovation or ability to create a product that improves uptake of their services. Stuck in the past and useless. Looking forward to their demise and being replaced by an actually useful service.

There's absolutely no security or ticket validation on the public transport (busses, tram, trains or, metro) in Berlin.
I did buy a like cityticket for 72 hours, but quickly discovered that I could just go anywhere without a ticket at all. No conductors, no places you had to check in, and no security or police.

Even the central station has no gates or security checkpoints. Meanwhile the train stations in cities like Brussels and Amsterdam sometimes are more secure than a military base.

I did not experience any delays, but I think the city needs to take action because this is both a great financial and safety risk.

We bought a ticket for multiple days, and we thought this ticket was still valid on our last (single) ride to the main station.

When we almost arrived, two little guys were checking everyone. While me and my friend had to get out with our backpacks, they asked us to show our tickets.I explained, we have to get out here, and they still were urging us to show the tickets. While we really had to get out before the train would leave.

0 empathy.

After that, they chased us, and they were mad because that we had to go.

They treated us very poorly. After they saw our tickets they treated us like criminals, acting agressively . Rather than 2 tourists who made a mistake and we were charged 60 euro each..

I am still unto this day so mad about how we were treated. You have to really be on your toes when traveling in Berlin. Because mistakes are not tolerated!

I have never experienced a more incompetent company with such low standards for their service. It is the epitome of a monopoly that just does not care about quality of service and their customers anymore. On an everyday basis it is more likely that there is a problem with the regular schedule of the trains rather than not. Of course the refunding process is made as complicated as possible but when it comes to ticket checking they employ the most ruthless and unprofessional ex-criminals to do their dirty work. I have only scratched the surface for the problems this company causes to their customers. The S Bahn Berlin is a disgrace to humanity.

I challenged a fine because their app crashed repeatedly over ten minutes, during which I took screenshots the whole time. I had to board the train in a rush to attend a visa appointment. The ticket inspector said that I could challenge the fine and that I would be let off because the app was obviously faulty. I wrote to S-Bahn the same day, on 16 August. I never received an email back to notify me of the outcome. Instead I received mail and a fine to my old address. My old address because they responded to my email by mail on 26 January, over 5 months after my email. 5 and a half months!? By the time the new tenant notified me that I had mail was today, 2 April, after which the fine has doubled with late payments.

I don't understand how in any first world country this is acceptable? I can't even contact anyone about it because their websites are down and they only provide no-reply email addresses.

Absolutely disgusting and repulsive train staff. We bought our tickets and no where did it say we had to validate them (we were visiting from England) we were accosted by 2 overweight men in tracksuits claiming to work for Bahn Berlin who pushed myself and I am currently 8 weeks pregnant. Screaming in mine and my partners faces to pay £60 euros each even though we had just bought the tickets, they didn’t even bother showing us how to validate the tickets. The people they were accosting were french, English and Russian - so clearly trying to scam money out of tourists. We eventually asked for the police to be called as that is what they were threatening us with just to try and restore some order as they were restraining us from leaving the station and under what powers they can do that I have no idea. About 15 police officers arrived and soon went down to 2 as there was no reason for their time to be wasted. One of the men kept laughing that he pushed me. Will never visit Germany again.

Our party of three purchased a ticket at the kiosk leading into the S-Bahn train. We got on the train and at the second stop, the train police asked to see the ticket. We complied and we told that we had to validate the ticket for the ride, and had us get off at the next stop. Okay, we did not validate it, so bad on us, but the actual date stamp of the ticket was about 15 minutes before they asked for the ticket. So we weren't trying to rip any one off. After a few questions and standing right next to the validation stand, which they could very easily have been gentlemen and allowed us to stamp the ticket, we were charged 60 Euros each! To say this left a bad taste about Berlin and in further stories to friends and relatives is an understatement. How easy it would have been to gain friends for life, instead of an enemy. Very poor tactics.

One of the worst and most expensive metro services in the world.

Our party of three purchased a ticket at the kiosk leading into the S-Bahn train. We got on the train and at the second stop, the train police asked to see the ticket. We complied and we told that we had to validate the ticket for the ride, and had us get off at the next stop. Okay, we did not validate it, so bad on us, but the actual date stamp of the ticket was about 15 minutes before they asked for the ticket. So we weren't trying to rip any one off. After a few questions and standing right next to the validation stand, which they could very easily have been gentlemen and allowed us to stamp the ticket, we were charged 60 Euros each! To say this left a bad taste about Berlin and in further stories to friends and relatives is an understatement. How easy it would have been to gain friends for life, instead of an enemy. Very poor tactics.

had to purchase a one way ticket to Schonefeld airport. Couldn't see on the ticket machine A B and C so purchased a B and C ticket as we were going from the centre. The stop before the airport some scruffy people came on, and it turns out they were ticket inspectors. got out tickets out to show, the guy was very intimidating and rude, and made a show that we apparently had the wrong ticket and made out in front of others that we had paid to get a cheaper ticket to try and save money. Like we would save a few cents or a euro! We;ve just had a holiday in berlin so why would be do something like that. Tried explaining it was a mistake, and we were confused buying the ticket but he wouldn't have any of it and he made us feel worried and upset. His colleage came along and talked more calmly. Had to pay a fine which ok we except, but we had actually bought a ticket, not like the beggars and muscians that come on the train without tickets, harassing people. The rudeness of these inspectors was totally out of order and it was obvious they were targeting tourists going to the airport, by getting on the stop before Schonefeld so we had no choice but to get stopped and "robbed". Also their appearance made it seem they were not legit but could be scammers

Booked my train fare yesterday from Hamburg to Amsterdam the middle of April. I did not think I received my senior discount, so sent a review. To my surprise, I had an answer today in inbox from them; stating all trains do not offer this discount. I was very impressed by the response; sometimes it is hard to communicate back/forth from USA to Europe.