The World’s Best Train Station?

Please consider doing an episode on Utrecht Central

Been to Berlin 3 times and HB is really a marvel

Regarding the elevators. It always annoys me when people with 2 perfectly working legs use Lifts aka Elevators to North Americans when there are escalators available.

Surely the speed is to discourage these lazy people from crowding out those who have no choice but to use them.

Just a thought...

This is funny, because I can't think of a more hated train station in Germany than Berlin Hauptbahnhof.

You must be out of your mind to think this station is great.

There is way too less space for persons. Almost the whole space above the lower Tracks is open, so a lot of space is wasted where people could have benches and some space to rest and wait. This is nonexistant. Whole Station Smells of hostile Architecture. The station is nice, if there were no people.

The thing was expensive as hell and we would've needed the money for the social sevices in Berlin.

Berlin rail system was working well before this station with everything being well connected. Noone here wanted it and noone here needs this still. Berlin ain't a centralized city.

Only Corporate NPC are able to like this stuff.

It even has a watermark

All paid by Bavaria,
because Berlin couldn't survive by itself.

I want to point out a massive flaw - the northern square in front of it. An asphalt planning failure without seating, too little capacity for pedestrians, no greenery. They just left it as is for 20 years. The bus station there seems more out of a post soviet hellscape than something fitting a capital.

Also, crossing the station north/south on a bike is borderline impossible, there was zero consideration for that. The land around the station was, yet again, just thrown at cars to appease the 40% of Berliners that own a car. It’s rather pathetic.

I get why you like it but I have to disagree. Last summer I traveled from Duisburg to Uppsala in sweden and had to change my train in Berlin. But, for some reasons the night trains dont leave the main station so I had to take 2 S-Bahn to the right station (those where way worse btw). Took me like 10 minutes to find where I had to go.... If I had known that I would have to go to the topfloor it would have been way faster but I could not find any mention of it....

You can't even go to toilet there! Even in Greece things are better

As someone who is changing on regular basis there, Hauptbahnhof is awful. Platforms are way to small, as well as stair ways and escalators, and changing over 4 or 5 storeys is super inconvenient. Elevators are super slow and basically not usable during rush hour. DB trains are always prioritised, so trains of other companies are regularly are not arriving on the platforms they're displayed.

If you are fron Berlin you will hate the Tram and Bus station outside.

One issue, bike parking. Please check blog by Jon Worth about bike parking at Berlin Hbf. Not comparable in any way to Amsterdam CS and Utrecht Centraal. I do agree it is a fantastic modern station, but I do find it so grand it makes you feel tiny as a human.

I personally like the design of the Rotterdam and Liege (Luik) stations in terms of design. Antwerp, St Pancras, Helsinki and Gare du Nord are my other favorites. But to be fair these are the ones I have visited myself, there are probably others that are even better.

It's a cocain driven nightmare. The scale is gigantic, the plazas are way too big, the location is inconvinient... It's horrible to use...

Leipzig Hauptbahnhof is also kinda pretty it has an okay mall built into it and is overall very open and wide

Really?? Did not see the video but I live in this city, and from experience this is just a horrible train station, you need twenty minutes to get from down to the top, and the elevators are far to few, they are slow and some of them dont work...

The city is a shithole, but the public transport is good 👍🏻🚇🚉🚈

no, no, no its the worst!

if you has no time the lift management is horrible. best regards from berlin.

I hate that trainstation its bigger then it needs to be with alot of empty space it is just uncomfortable to wait there for your train

I am German and I hate this train station. Yes, it’s nice to look at, but they should have better invested the money in the German train system in general and not in this one station. Because the building is open, there are pidgeons flying all around you.
When you are there the first time, it’s almost impossible to get a good orientation, you might loose your train. The toilets are obviously bad, but ok Berlin Mahrzan (pls make a video about Marzahn)there is a model of a toilet which works fantastic, with an auto clean.

who in the right mind would go to berlin and yet alone use their train station?

If you are afraid of heights than this station is a nightmare

If only NRW had a single single train station that isn't a post-apocalyptic ruin

it has way too few toiltes

i love the berlin main train station. the view of trains moving on top platform and underground at the same time is so unique (i love it). for me main issue is lack of sitting area and no lounge so if you have to wait in winter it is very difficult. second issue is lack of restroom. so many people use stairs of car parking and it is awful.

No, good luck finding a place to sit there.

Don't get it. It's a normal train station, and i am German.

Very well-researched video! Loved that you included the new construction S bahn map too

Thank you, as an employee of DB I spend a lot of time working at Berlin Hbf and it is a station I enjoy working in. There are many pros about this place but I do agree with you on your viewpoints on the Europaplatz exit which really isn't a sight to see, on the slow elevators and the narrow space on the upper platforms. The curvature also might be a nice thing to look at but for train personnel it's not very practical because the pre departure check that no that no one is stuck between the doors and the platform and such is very difficult, especially when the platform is still full of people. I have one thing to add concerning the lower platforms: While it is true, that each of the two upper platforms for the regional and long distance trains are only accessible from one of the from one of the track leading into the station (the tracks to/from Berlin Friedrichstraße or Zoologischer Garten are not connected), all of the lower platforms can be approached from each of the four tracks to/from South or North. In the everyday operations of the station with trains ending there or switching lines, this is very much necessary.

I don't know about "human". Architecture looks so simple and cold

Remember,it only has 1 bathroom

I was there. It is actually a shopping center with trains in most top and most bottom floor.

I find Berlin Hbf to be a very interesting station, although far from perfect. I actually get the heeby jeebys still after months of living here and using the station several times. First and foremost due to a slight fear of height and due to the fact that all railings are made of see through glass. Secondly, I love watching people but the thing is that here, I can only watch people walking. Not dangling, not waiting, not standing still. And that is what this station differentiates itself from a lot of other main stations. The only thing that would promote people standing at specific spots would be the shops which are the usual boring average branding shops. I'd like to see huge spaces dedicated to cafés with small tables. I'd love to spend my waiting time there. Right now it is just me standing in the middle, next to a circular elevator (because I do not bother any people flow there) and having a cup of filter coffee in my hand.
I'd say, ditch the idea of a shopping mall and make it a plaza. I'd be glorious!

❤

Whoever says this is the worst station hasn’t visited Lisbon’s Oriente Station.

I don't know how a train station having "offices" is considered a positive here. The building itself also isn't really that special, its huge glass box architecture which you can find all around the globe..

Great opinion, Reese. I particularly liked your metaphor of a "transit sandwich."

I just always felt that the station was in the middle of nowhere, as pointed out by you its supposed by nothing much. And inside it feels quite dated and dark already

Oh yeah - and i believe the initial plans included a much longer roof which would've protected from the weather but was very expensive

and here i am in zagreb being impresed by linz central station.

EVER SAW A CHINESE STATION ??????

It's an absolute nightmare for anyone with a fear of heights, I had like five panic attacks trying to catch my train lol

Ahhh sorry, it means you're not widely exposed, I don't know what planet you live in, but this station does not hold a candle to a lot of stations in Qatar, and Qatar's world-class metro does not hold a beer to stations in China so you can imagine how far behind this your stations is and for the fact that you mentioned many issues with the station already disqualifies it from competing as WORLD BEST STATION, the stations in Qatar and China are flawless, all the stations, and you can't compare this station to stations in those places in anything, please do more research or you travel more 😅

I guess you haven’t been to china.

Ye the stations looks great but not really anything more as the tram station is terrible the S-Bahn Tunnel Station is messed up and won't open soon and the upper platforms are way too thin and there are too few and Europaplatz is ugly and not great for walking and the worst thing imao is the bus terminal on the other side of the street (the busses that end there are even around the corner and not connected to the station well)

Sadly it is ugly AF

Make sure to share this video if you enjoyed it! Let me know your favourite rail stations down in the comments below ⬇