local transport | Berlin S-Bahn less bad than in 2025

Despite the aging fleet, the S-Bahn is more reliable this year than in the past three years. Photo: dpa/Michael Brandt The Berlin S-Bahn delivered a more stable performance in the first ten months of the current year than in the same period last year. On average, from January to October in 2026, 94.3 percent of trips were on time or less than four minutes late. In the same period in 2025, this was only the case for 92.9 percent of trains.

“After last year we had to report that we had become worse in all dimensions, this year we can report that we have become significantly better in all dimensions,” says S-Bahn boss Heiko Büttner, commenting on the interim results. The DB canteen at Nordbahnhof, where the passenger consultation day organized by the Berlin passenger association Igeb takes place on Thursday, is well filled with over 100 interested people.

“What troubles us is weather extremes.”

The number of train cancellations has also developed positively. From January to October 2026, 3.82 percent of all train kilometers were canceled. In the same period last year, this rate was 5.14 percent.

»In the end, that's not where we really want to be. We want to be even better,” says Heiko Büttner. “But it is actually currently the best value in a national comparison.” He compares the Berlin S-Bahn with the other S-Bahn networks. Most recently, overall punctuality was better in 2022 at 95.1 percent.

This is rather sad news for the housekeepers of a possible future red-green-red coalition. The S-Bahn could no longer achieve the punctuality rate of 96 percent agreed in the transport contract for 2026, even if 100 percent of all trains ran on time in November and December. But the record repayments of 53 million euros for poor performance from 2025 are unlikely to be achieved in the current year.

Things went particularly badly in January, February and June of the current year. “What troubles us is weather extremes,” says Büttner. "You can also clearly see that at the beginning of the year with the long cold temperatures, but also in June, when it was particularly hot, the failures increase significantly."

In January almost six percent of all train kilometers were canceled, in June it was 5.5 percent. In terms of delays, June was the lowest point of the year with only 92 percent of trains being on time. In January and February, 92.6 and 92.8 percent of all trips were delayed by less than four minutes.

Roughly speaking, around a third of the failures are due to the Berlin S-Bahn as the train operator. Another third is caused by problems with the track and signaling infrastructure under the responsibility of DB Infrago. The rest are external influences from emergency medical and police operations or, increasingly, from people in or on the track.

For his area, Büttner mainly blames the increasing age of the existing 480 and 481 model series. The total 1,130 cars were built between 1990 and 2004.

The “Longevity II” program will start at the beginning of 2027 for the 1,000-car 481 series, in which increasingly fault-prone cabling and electronic components will be replaced. The last vehicles have to last until 2037. The successor series should then be delivered completely. The necessary transport contract for the light rail and north-south lines was finally signed this summer after years of legal tug-of-war.

The remaining vehicles in the 480 series will be scrapped in the early 2030s. For a long time it was unclear whether they would last that long. However, some of the cars, which are now 32 to 36 years old, are likely to go the way of old iron earlier.

Contrary to fears in advance, the commissioning of the S15 between the main station and Gesundbrunnen on June 15, 2026 did not contribute to a deterioration in the quality of operation. 97.4 percent of all trips are on time, just under two percent of all trips are canceled - the highest value of all lines.

The reason for concern was that the line shares part of the route with the notoriously unstable Ringbahn lines S41 and S42. In particular, the emptying of trains on the ring platform in Gesundbrunnen and the signaling when entering the turning track were identified as potential obstacles.

S-Bahn boss Büttner reports that DB Infrago had installed an additional signal in Gesundbrunnen in advance so that the continuous ring railway tracks are blocked for as short a time as possible during turning maneuvers. Instead of the less powerful trains of the 481 series, vehicles of the latest type 483/484 are now used. The steep ramps between the Ringbahn line and the tunnel station at the main station had proven to be problematic under certain circumstances.

“So far it’s been really stable,” says Heiko Büttner about the S15. “The 13,000 travelers on weekdays are also definitely worth mentioning.” He is “personally a bit hesitant” about whether “such a stubby railway” is in demand. The closure of the light rail system for long-distance and regional transport, which will continue until the timetable change in mid-December, is likely to contribute to the passenger response.

With the timetable change on December 13th, the S-Bahn is thinning out its services for rush-hour traffic. The amplifier trains on S1 and S5 should only run half as often as before. Instead of the scheduled five-minute frequency, trains will run alternately every five and ten minutes on the sections. This is due to the additional vehicles in the workshop for the longevity program.

In return, the S1 amplifier trips are no longer limited to the route between Zehlendorf and Potsdamer Platz. In the future you will continue through the north-south tunnel to the north station. The S-Bahn hopes this will provide more stability on the tunnel lines. Trains ending at Potsdamer Platz block the continuous track, which is not the case at Nordbahnhof.

A long-standing demand from the Igeb passenger association should actually be implemented at the end of 2027, as Heiko Büttner confirms: S1 and S2 will swap their northern branches. The S1 then goes to Bernau, the S2 to Oranienburg.

There are several reasons for this. The long single-track section on the line to Bernau is very prone to delays. The delays can be compensated for better on the double-track line to Wannsee than on the single-track line to Blankenfelde. In addition, the S2 will have a direct connection to an S-Bahn workshop at the new Oranienburg terminus.

So far, trains from the S2 heading south have regularly mutated at Potsdamer Platz into the S1 heading towards Wannsee in order to reach the workshop there. Passengers must change to a replacement train that is available. The maneuver causes delays and can be eliminated once the branches are replaced. S-Bahn Berlin GmbH had also campaigned for this in the past. But for a long time the state of Berlin refused to purchase such a solution.

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