Railway and Regional Railway

Railway Stations

You might come to Berlin by plane, car, bus or train. If you come with the latter, there are several stations.

Hauptbahnhof (central station)

Berlin's central station opened in 2006. Since then there are to main railway lines through the city: east to west and north to south. Both cross at central station.
Despite its name the station is a little apart from  a central location. Situated north to the chancellors office, at Invalidenstraße it can be best reached by S-Bahn (urban railway), as some of the main lines pass the station.
There are also several bus lines with a stop there, the most important one is the TXL line which ends at Tegel airport.
A subway station will be opened in 2009. 

Ostbahnhof (east station)

Ostbahnhof was the main station of Eastern Berlin before the wall fell and ist still an important train stop. Several train routes start and end there, as there is an engine facility near by.

Spandau

Spandau station is located in the north-west of Berlin. It is not very close to he city center but the next station if your hotel is in the Spandau district.

Gesundbrunnen

This station in Berlin-Wedding is crossed by the north-south lines. Several S-Bahn-lines and a subway line pass the station, which is only some minutes away from the city center.

Südkreuz

Südkreuz is a larger station for trains leaving Berlin to the south. It is situaded at the souther part of the S-Bahn circle line.

Regional Railway

If you want to explore Berlin's surrounding area and get out of the city on one of the regional railway lines would be a good idea. This way you can get to Potsdam much faster than by S-Bahn and you can reach all larger town in Brandenburg (the district around Berlin) and even further away. On weekends there are special group offers you can use.

The red double decker regional trains stop at a lot of points in the city.
Those are (most important ones) on the north-south lines: Gesundbrunnen, Hauptbahnhof, Potsdamer Platz, Südkreuz, Lichterfelde Ost.
On the east-west lines: Erkner, Ostbahnhof, Alexanderplatz, Friedrichstraße, Hauptbahnhof, Zoologischer Garten, Charlottenburg (not all), Wannsee, Spandau.

More information

Tickets, routes and more: Bahn.de (official website)