On 01/01/2012 21:39, Wolfgang Schwanke wrote:
wrote
in :

No, I was just wondering if operations on the Berlin S-Bahn were
generally better or worse when Deutsche Reichsbahn was operating the
service, all politics aside.

For West Berlin where I was the answer is obviously NO! They shut down
half of the system, and what was left was in an abysmal state and train
frequency was rather low. The reasons are complicated, but well
documented:

http://berliner-unterwelten.de/the-c...und.104.1.html

In East Berlin I should think the train frequency was better and fares
were of course much lower, and all stations were always staffed - as
opposed with today when many are not. Train stock was old, handicapped
and other modern facilities were often lacking, where they are usually
present today. Oh, and station building were still used for their
original purpose, whereas nowadays many in the suburbs are rededicated
to businesses while passengers have to wait outside in the cold.


IIRC, some of the trains from the East Berlin U-Bahn wound up in revenue
service on the Pyongyang Metro.

http://www.pyongyang-metro.com/

It's the fourth picture down when you click on the photos link.