This story is a little about trains, and also a little in praise of Berlin’s Central Station. Unlike many old, and dare I say beautiful, historic Central Stations around the world, this station was only opened in 2006. It is built on the site of an earlier station (from 1871) which, like much of Berlin, was severely damaged in WWII. In some ways, it feels a little more like a modern airport terminal than many older stations.
Our first sighting of Berlin Hauptbahnhof (Hbf) was from a moving bus! Impressed, I was already looking forward to using it the next day to catch our train to Dresden.
Berlin Hbf serves three systems. The upper level has three island platforms with six tracks for the S-Bahn (the suburban above ground system), while the lower level has four platforms (8 tracks) for main line trains, and a further platform (2 tracks) for the U-Bahn (underground).
We arrived with plenty of time to catch our Intercity train to Dresden, which proved fortuitous, if frustrating. Our travel itinerary showed we were provided with booked seats, when in fact, all we had was return tickets (no reserved seats). Having plenty of time, we went to the booking office to reserve seats, only to discover that the train was fully booked (we learnt that it was a long weekend coming up)! We could catch the train and risk standing for 2 hours 15 minutes, but that had no appeal for my octogenarian companion. Best solution – reserve seats on the next train, two hours later. With more than two hours to fill in, we checked our bags at left luggage, and set off to explore.
Choosing to go to Kurfurstendam for a couple of hours, we were able to experience the above ground platforms, and catch the S-Bahn train. We did not have long to wait.
On our return to Berlin Hbf, we reclaimed our luggage, descended to the lower level, and we were soon on our way to Dresden. Below the Intercity train to Dresden and beyond pulls into Track 1.
After our enjoyable visit to Dresden, we made the return journey, this time with seats pre-booked. We arrived at Dresden Hbf with ample time before our train, scheduled for 9:04 am. The departures board greeted us with a disturbing message – the train, coming from Prague (or further east) was to be more than 60 minutes late! Plenty of time for coffee and croissants in the very pleasant station cafe!
Once we moved to the designated platform, we heard further announcements which mentioned our destination, Berlin. We befriended a couple of people, who had a better understanding of German than we had, and their news was not good. The train would now be 90 minutes late. At subsequent announcements, we learnt that the next train to Berlin would be the train scheduled for 11:04. Indeed, our 9:04 train may never arrive, but if it did, it was now expected to miss Berlin altogether. We never established whether an entire Inter City train was lost somewhere in the Czech Republic!
In the left picture above, we watch forlornly for the missing train to arrive. In the right picture above is the German locomotive, which was to replace the (presumably Czech) locomotive and take over hauling the train for the next part of the journey.
It was while I had an hour to fill in that I first discovered this very helpful sign on German train platforms. Each train through the station is listed by departure time, train number, destination and a schematic to represent its approximate position at the platform. Green represents second class carriages, red buffet and yellow first class. Once we knew about this, we never had any panic about last minute racing along the platform to find our designated carriage. Very sensible and very helpful!
My apologies for the reflections on this picture!
Needless to say, we boarded the 11:04 train, and fortunately found a couple of spare seats.
The final twist to this tale is that we went to the buffet carriage for lunch on both journeys, to and from Dresden. The trips were thee days apart, and both times we were not on the train we expected. The same charming Czech lass was served us on both trips.
Footnote: We could not fault the staff or service of Berlin Hbf (the station) or Deutsche Bahn AG (the trains). Our frustration at Berlin was entirely caused by a breakdown in communication of the package detail that we received from the travel agency.