BERLIN RAIL HUB
Berlin Hauptbahnhof is the largest crossing station in Europe: ICEs run Hamburg in under two hours and Munich in under four, night trains reach Brussels and Stockholm, and the Dresden line keeps the airport honest.
Opened in 2006 on the Lehrter Bahnhof site, the Hauptbahnhof crosses the east–west Stadtbahn viaduct with deep north–south tunnels — about 300,000 travellers a day across five levels, with S-Bahn, U-Bahn (U5), trams and the Moabit bus grid attached. From its upper platforms the ICEs fan out: Hamburg in one hour forty-five, Leipzig in just over an hour, Dresden around two, Hanover ninety minutes, Cologne and Frankfurt about four, and the Sprinters to Munich in three hours fifty. Ostbahnhof, Südkreuz and Gesundbrunnen share the load; Spandau catches the western ICEs.
The European book reads: Prague about four and a half hours (hourly pair-pattern), Warsaw six, Amsterdam six and a half direct, and Zurich via the south corridor. The ÖBB Nightjet revival made Berlin a sleeper capital again — Brussels three times a week, Vienna and Zurich nightly, plus the Snälltåget seasonal service to Stockholm. Domestic pricing is dynamic: a Sparpreis booked weeks out undercuts the bus on every corridor over 200 kilometres, and the Deutschlandticket covers all regional trains for €58 a month — the bargain for anyone stringing Berlin, Potsdam and the Baltic resorts.
THE TIO READ
Berlin is the one German city where the train wins every domestic argument. Hamburg under two hours makes the Elbe a day trip; the Munich Sprinter beats the plane door-to-door. Reserve a seat in summer — the ICEs to the Baltic sell out their Platzkarten, not their tickets.
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