S3 is a line on the

Berlin S-Bahn The Berlin S-Bahn () is a rapid transit railway system that services the reigon in and around Berlin, the capital city of Germany. It has been in operation under the name since December 1930, having been previously called the special tariff are ...

. It operates from Erkner to

Spandau Spandau () is the westernmost of the 12 boroughs of Berlin, boroughs () of Berlin, situated at the confluence (geography), confluence of the Havel and Spree (river), Spree rivers and extending along the western bank of the Havel. It is the smalle ...

. For most of its existence since becoming a numbered route in 1984, the S3's line has been coloured blue. S3 originally was shortened to Ostbahnhof from 2003 to 2009 while awaiting renovation works. To compensate for the diminished throughput on the Stadtbahn, the (formerly Erkner ↔ Ostbahnhof) was extended westwards to

. Then, it was temporarily shortened again to Ostkreuz.

Service history

The S3 was created along with the S1 and S2 on 9 January 1984, when the

Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe The (German: 'Berlin Transport Company') is the main public transport company of Berlin, the capital city of Germany. It manages the city's (underground), trams in Berlin, tram, bus transport in Berlin, bus, replacement services (EV) and fe ...

(BVG) took over the S-Bahn network from the East German

Deutsche Reichsbahn The ''Deutsche Reichsbahn'' (), also known as the German National Railway, the German State Railway, German Reich Railway, and the German Imperial Railway, was the Weimar Republic, German national Rail transport, railway system created after th ...

(DR) in

West Berlin West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...

: the S3 initially ran between Friedrichstraße and

Charlottenburg Charlottenburg () is a Boroughs and localities of Berlin, locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Established as a German town law, town in 1705 and named after Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, Queen consort of Kingdom ...

, before being extended south-westwards to Wannsee on 1 May 1984. Due to the

reunification of Germany German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the German Democratic Republic and the integration of i ...

, the S3 briefly became a four-coloured line on 1 July 1990, absorbing the DR S-Bahn services formerly terminating at Friedrichstraße to (orange), (yellow), (green), and Flughafen Berlin Schönefeld (sky blue, now BER Airport – Terminal 5). On 2 June 1991, the S3 was broken-up into the following lines:

References

{{Public transport in Berlin Berlin S-Bahn lines