Yee Gan O.
Yelp
One of the most impressive things about German cities and Berlin is no exception to this, is the efficient and plentiful provision of public transport options
Berlin is criss-crossed by well signposted and organised Deutsche Bahn railway trains, U-Bahn subway trains, S-Bahn psuedo-subway trains, trams and buses. These run reliably, are clean and run on an integrated ticketing zonal fare system. You can buy tickets for journeys within or across the fare zones (A to C), either for single journeys or as a daily travel cards and these cover all modes of transport. Just remember to validate your tickets for travel at the little validation machines on the platform
The next most impressive thing about German public transport is the honesty of the travelling public. I was surprised and then shocked to find that you can just stroll onto the train platforms with passing any ticket barriersand watching travellers, people do pay for tickets. Perhaps to London's shame, I'm fairly sure that if there were no ticket barriers, a significant number of passengers would abuse the system. Some already try to do so despite the presence of ticket barriers
Ostkreuz is a major interchange for a lot of S-Bahn services located in the eastern end of town. It provides another way to get to Berlin Schoenefeld Airport via the S9 line. You just need to locate the correct platform from which your service is departing and the departure boards are quite clear
There are a few eateries but no toilet (I had to hold it a little til I got to the airport!). There are customer service agents with red hats to help customers but they weren't particularly helpful with regard to toilet facilities!
Despite this, the station was a model of German efficiency - who needs the private sector to suck out last amounts of taxpayers' subsidy if the public sector can run such an efficient transport system?