The distinction is most easily made when there are two systems such as New York's subway and the LIRR and Metro-North, Paris ' RER and Métro, London's Overground and the tube lines of the Underground, Barcelona's Metro and Rodalies, S-Bahn and U-Bahn systems in Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich or Vienna, the JR lines and the Metro in Tokyo.

Nearly all larger metropolitan areas are served by S-Bahn, U-Bahn, Strassenbahn and / or bus networks

Relatively few cities have a full-fledged underground U-Bahn system, and S-Bahn ( suburban commuter railway ) systems are far more common.

In some cities the distinction between U-Bahn and S-Bahn systems is blurred, for instance some S-Bahn systems run underground, have frequencies similar to U-Bahn, and form part of the same integrated transport network.

New U-Bahn and S-Bahn lines were planned to run directly beneath almost the whole length of the axis, and the city's entire underground network reoriented to gravitate towards this new hub ( at least one tunnel section, around 220 metres in length, was actually constructed and still exists today, buried some 20 metres beneath the Tiergarten, despite having never seen a train ).

The U-Bahn and S-Bahn were partially operational again from 2 June 1946, fully from 16 November 1947 ( although repairs were not completed until May 1948 ) and trams by 1952.

Below ground, the U-Bahn section through Potsdamer Platz had closed entirely ; although the S-Bahn line itself remained open, it suffered from a quirk of geography in that it briefly passed through East German territory en route from one part of West Berlin to another.

After major refurbishment, the S-Bahn line and station reopened on 1 March 1992, followed by the U-Bahn on 13 November 1993.

* The London Underground ( which is treated as heavy rail, unlike German U-Bahn ) has many parts that function like an S-Bahn, the Metropolitan and District lines, with their full-sized trains and their long length are especially S-Bahn like.

The central square in Mitte is Alexanderplatz with the prominent Fernsehturm ( TV tower ), Germany's highest building, and the large railway station with connections to many subway ( U-Bahn ), tramway ( Straßenbahn ), city trains ( S-Bahn ) and buses.

Unlike the U-Bahn, the S-Bahn crosses the Berlin city and state border into the surrounding state of Brandenburg, e. g. to Potsdam.

The S-Bahn is operated by S-Bahn Berlin GmbH, a subsidiary of the Deutsche Bahn, whilst the U-Bahn is run by BVG, the main public transit company for the city of Berlin.

Close to the U-Bahn station Rathaus Spandau is the Berlin-Spandau railway station of the Berlin S-Bahn line S75 and the Deutsche Bahn for regional and intercity transport.

Berlin Jungfernheide is a railway station located at Charlottenburg-Nord, in the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district of Berlin, served by the S-Bahn lines and, the U-Bahn line and Regional-Express trains of the Deutsche Bahn.

This situation was intensified by the building of the U-Bahn line, which was essentially a parallel service to the S-Bahn to Spandau.

It was not until 2002 that the Ringbahn was operated again in its entirety and Jungfernheide enjoyed a status as an important interchange between S-Bahn and U-Bahn, owing to its being served by direct trains from the majority of Berlin's central districts.

A special case involved the Friedrichstraße train station in East Berlin, which one could reach from West Berlin by U-Bahn, S-Bahn or long-distance train.

S-Bahn, U-Bahn and tram lines ( topographical map )

The O-Bahn – from the Latin omnibus (" for all people ") and the German bahn ( railway, as in S-Bahn and U-Bahn ) – was conceived by Daimler-Benz to enable buses to avoid traffic congestion by sharing tram tunnels in the German city of Essen.

The S-Bahn, however, is the only means of transport from Vienna to the airport on which the standard integrated tickets for the Vienna region are valid ( those also allow further travelling by underground, bus or tram, which the CAT tickets don't ).

The town can be reached by Dresdner Verkehrsbetriebe tram route 4 or by Dresden S-Bahn line S1, which serves four stations in Radebeul.

With the exception of the line from Wuppertal to Remscheid ( and continuing to Solingen and operated as the RB 47 ) and the Prince William Railway to Essen ( now S-Bahn line S 9 ), all of the branch lines connecting to main line in the city of Wuppertal are now closed.

Zug is a terminal station of the Zürich S-Bahn on the lines S9 and S21.

The Swiss Federal Railways use many multiple units, mainly on regional lines ( S-Bahn ).

* S: S-Bahn / RER ( Commuter train ): same as Regio, but organized as a network around the major cities, with several lines and generally more frequent service.

* Glasgow's SPT Rail network fits the model of an S-Bahn, with a large network of differentiated lines, with frequent services, and purpose-built lines under the city centre.

The main part of Merseyrail ( the Northern and Wirral lines ), is a textbook S-Bahn, with regular, fixed interval services, lines under the city centre, and dedicated lines and stock.

* Chicago — Metra Electric Line extending southward from the city, and NICTD's South Shore Line into northern Indiana, share several features with S-Bahn lines such as dedicated trackage, grade separation, high level platforms, and electrification.

Rapperswil-Jona is one of the most significant traffic junctions in the region, and Rapperswil railway station is serving as nodal point for the SBB-CFF-FFS respectively Südostbahn and S-Bahn Zürich lines.

This is served by lines S5, S7, S15 and S40 of the Zurich S-Bahn, the first three of which provide frequent ( 6 trains per hour ) and fast ( 36 minute journey time ) links to the city of Zurich.

The other three stations are Jona railway station, served by lines S5 and S15 of the Zurich S-Bahn, Kempraten, served by line S7 of the Zurich S-Bahn, and Blumenau, served by the regional train to Ziegelbrücke and Linthal.

Friedberg's main station is on the Main-Weser Railway and is the northern terminal of Frankfurt's S-Bahn line S6 and also a stop for German Intercity trains and several regional railway lines.

The S-Bahn routes all feed into one of three core lines: a central, elevated east-west line ( the Stadtbahn ), a central, mostly underground north-south line ( the Nord-Süd-Tunnel ), and a circular, elevated line ( the Ringbahn ).

It has a station on the important railway between Dortmund and Duisburg and is served by Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn lines S1 and S3.

Two S-Bahn lines ( S 3 and S4 ) operate to Eschborn.

Wannsee is served by the Berlin S-Bahn lines S1-as terminus-and S7 at the Berlin-Wannsee railway station.

U-Bahn construction at Karlsplatz and Kärntner Straße, 1973 ; tram running on temporary trestle

Wiener Linien operate bus and tram ( Straßenbahn ) surface routes, and partly underground, partly overground metro or underground train lines ( Vienna U-Bahn ).

U-Bahn ridership is likewise growing strongly, but in contrast tram ridership is slightly lower and there has been a reduction in tram mileage in recent years ( from in 2004 to in 2007 ).

Beginning in 1978, in the course of construction of the U-Bahn, tram routes parallelling U-Bahn routes were introduced.

The Central, Northern and Piccadilly lines also having taken over suburban railways outside the centre, performing S-Bahn-like functions, though are really just overgrown U-Bahn lines, with small trains and bored tubes.

Other rapid transit lines such as the New York City Subway or Chicago ' L ' are more akin to U-Bahn lines.

It consists of 15 lines and is integrated with the mostly underground U-Bahn to form the backbone of Berlin's rapid transport system.

Category: Berlin U-Bahn lines

There are 9 Stadtbahn lines known as the U-Bahn.

During the time of the Berlin Wall, a number of Berlin U-Bahn stations on West Berlin lines became " ghost stations " ( Geisterbahnhöfe ) because they were on lines which passed through East Berlin territory.

The Vienna U-Bahn ( an abbreviation of Untergrundbahn, or underground railway ) is a rapid transit ( metro ) system consisting of five lines.

The first section of the modern U-Bahn opened on 8 May 1976, but two of the lines extended and later designated as U-Bahn ( U4, U6 ) date back to the Stadtbahn (" city railway ") system, which first opened in 1898.

Vienna U-Bahn trains of both types leaving Längenfeldgasse station: left, standard train on line U4 with third rail power ; right, T-cars train on U6 powered by overhead lines

Construction began on 3 November 1969 on and under Karlsplatz, where three lines of the basic network were to meet, and where central control of the U-Bahn was initially located.

However, there were three lines — the U-Bahn lines now designated U6 and U8, and the Nord-Süd Tunnel on the S-Bahn — that ran for the most part through West Berlin but passed through a relatively short stretch of East Berlin territory in the city centre.

Gleisdreieck is a Berlin U-Bahn station located on a viaduct on the and the lines in the Kreuzberg district.

Wittenbergplatz is a Berlin U-Bahn station on the, the, and lines.