The World of Railways and How They're Related

S-Bahn's, RERs, and through-running subways, how are these systems related, and how are they different? What does your city have?! Find out in our latest video!

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Ever wondered why your city's transit just doesn't seem quite up to snuff? RMTransit is here to answer that, and help you open your eyes to all of the different public transportation systems around the world!

Reece (the RM in RMTransit) is an urbanist and public transport critic residing in Toronto, Canada, with the goal of helping the world become more connected through metros, trams, buses, high-speed trains, and all other transport modes.

[oliphant]

At least the Berlin S-Bahn is quite convenient for travel within the city, and some of the lines don't actually reach (much) beyond the city limits.

[Alfie.w]

Important to note that the world's first metro, the Metropolitan line, was intended to be the backbone of a Tokyo-style through running network (and that was how it worked up until about the 1910s).

[nils]

I think an really interesting case study would be the Ruhr area in Germany. Due to big cities (Dortmund, Essen, Bochum) being so close together there the S-Bahn is commonly used to travel between cities together with other regional rail like the RB trains (Regionalbahn) or the RE/RRX (express regional rail).
At least in Dortmund the Stadtbahn (LRT) is used to travel from the suburbs to (and through) the city center, being a mix of overground (suburbs) and underground (city center) rail.

[PauxloE]

As a Berlin native, I'll have to say I like the fact that each different service has its own line number.
No risk of confusion and getting into the wrong train (if your goal is in the suburbs), and if you are only going inside the city before the branches happen, you'll either remember "all trains eastward work for me" or remember the (short) list of line numbers which work (e.g. to go to Lichtenberg from the center, you can use S5, S7, S75).
(Though today I was in a train of line 25, which at some point changed to become line 1, and they told everyone to get out and into another S25 train on the other side of the platform, even though the S1 was continuing the same direction for 5 more stops.)

[tdb]

S-Bahn seems to be the model Australia (unofficially) adopted. They act like a metro in the inner-city, whilst providing fast transport to other areas of the city. I would say it's quite a flexible system. I don't even know if any Australian cities have a "one train downtown in the morning, one train home in the evening" service.

[thedumgamer]

If you're trying to compare a London system to an S-bahn then you have the Thameslink portion of GTR

-Runs very frequent high density service through a city centre tunnel
-Culminates from many small branches on both sides of the river (MML and various ECML on the north)
-Runs through services, many of which are suburban

The only thing that is slightly different is the fact it operates the non suburban services between London and Brighton together with Southern, although these are still mainly commuter services serving the wider London commuter belt...

[ymoot]

13:05 The Hamburg S-Bahn "loop" is really more two seperate city corridors (basically what you said at 11:44) than an oceanian-style loop, since the services take either the northern (elevated) or the southern (tunneled) section through the city and then carry onwards into the suburbs
Edit: 14:50 I'm way more used to services being named differently and find it less confusing, even if it is "just" a branch. My guess is that tourists struggle less with distinct and unique numbering aswell since you won't hop on a service assuming that it will terminate at a certain station and then finding out that it doesn't. Probably just a matter of taste and being german-brained lol. Would love this being discussed in another video

[sagichnicht]

Vienna wasn't mentioned here but it is interesting to note that the inner urban signage strategy has been changed on the S-Bahn main corridor to showing the "main branch terminus" instead of the actual terminal station (which is listed in small just below). This is a bit more confusing for those venturing beyond but a lot easier to understand for inner urban passangers or tourists. They are also starting now a massive upgrading process, taking place from 2024-2027. Stations will be enlarged to allow even bigger trains and the whole main corridor will be upgraded to the ETCS Level 2 train control system. This will enable a fully subway like 2 min frequency on the main corridor.

[user]

Zurich also also a numbering scheme like in Berlin where almost each terminus to terminus line has an individual number, and yes that's quite practical for suburbanites. For travel in the core of the network (city of Zurich and bordering communes) this numbering scheme can become quite overwhelming having numbers going from 2 to 23. That's why I like to split them up in 4 main groups like the Paris RER depending on which Zurich main station substation they leave from. Group L: S2, S8, S14, S19: Bahnhof Löwenstrasse, platforms 31-34, Group M: S3, S5, S6, S7, S9, S11, S12, S15, S16, S20, S23: Bahnhof Museumsstrasse, platforms 41-44, Group SZU: S4, S10: SZU station, platforms 21-22, Group H: S21, S24, S25, S42: main hall, platforms 3-18. The remaining lines which are those that do not serve Zurich main station are split up in other groups. Group E: S13, S40: Einsiedeln, Group W: S26, S29, S33, S35: Winterthur, Group B: S36, S41: Bülach. Lines S17 and S18 are not included in this scheme as they run on meter gauge (Zurich tram tracks) and are more like interurban trams. Furthermore they do not share the tracks with other S-Lines like a S-Bahn usually does. On a map the individual groups would each get a line and then split up (like the Paris RER map) but in case of returning on the same tracks (like between Effretikon and Winterthur) branches from the same group would be shown separated to avoid confusion

[vongodric]

I'd also note that unlike many S-Bahn networks, overground operates almost entirely within London boundaries.

[Sacto]

Tokyo's through-running trains proved to be a bit of a nightmare to deal with because some subway lines use 1, 435 mm gauge, some subway lines use 1, 372 mm gauge and many subway lines use the 1, 067 mm gauge. Trying to integrate them all together became quite a challenge, but the results have been spectacular, particularly the _F-Liner_ that connects the nortthern suburbs of Tokyo in Saitama Prefecture all the way to Yokohama.

[mx]

Double Decker S-Bahn trains are also a thing in some German systems, like Dresden where the S-Bahn very heavily uses the tracks built for regional and long distance service

[sunrae]

As a Berliner nothing beats a Ring (loop) with a cross in the middle. Brings you almost everywhere. As far as i know Berlin-Brandenburg pursue a regio network in the form of a star for coming growth.

[lucabutera]

Great video! You should make a video on Philadelphia’s SEPTA regional rail, it’s one of the best built out s-bahn systems in the US, especially for a city of its size. SEPTA has a lot of flaws though, particularly in its inner-city services, but the regional rail is actually quite spectacular and very useful!

[fewchan]

While major private railway lines and metro lines in Tokyo are forming network with "through running" operation, JR network does "German model" with Ueno Tokyo line and "Paris model" with Yokosuka Sobu rapid line (tunnel between Shinagwa and Kinshicho).

[Frankfurtdabezzzt]

One of the big issues with the central tunnel of many S-Bahn systems is that if there is a disruption in the tunnel the whole system grinds to a halt.

[WanukeX]

11:46 "or perhaps two" - Torontonian trying to manifest the midtown line.

[Zwei-Rosen]

For English speakers, it's quite simple in Germany: S is suburban, U is urban. That's not how it was originally meant, but it nevertheless is correct in practice.

[f.g.]

We human beings have this slightly annoying obsession with categorizing everything into very rigid categories. Which in a way it can be really helpful for us to navigate day-to-day in new situations, but also makes us a bit limited and close minded to new or different concepts.
Each city/region develops their own transit options according to its own needs and characteristics (geography, population, economical factors, etc). It's not that important what it's called, only that it serves a purpose.
It's really ambiguous what an S-bahn or RER is. The different RER services in Paris are very different among themselves. And look at S-bahns: Berlin, Bremen, Hamburg, Zurich, Zug, Copenhagen - these are quite different to each other, there's barely any single characteristic that fits all of them apart from being trains that somehow serve urban areas.
So forget the labels and take systems for what they are in reality, detached from labels. Some of these are simply collections of different lines and services, Zurich S-bahn being a great example of a diverse system.

In the case of the London Overground it's neither an S-bahn nor a RER. Nowadays it's a collections of different urban lines that serve London without running through city center. The London Overground is best understood when one looks at its history and development.
When the original London Overground was created it was a condensation of 3 or 4 lines, some mainline, some used by the London Underground, in order to create a loop around the city center that would complement the radial lines (London Underground and British Rail). This loop or collection or arches runs mostly through Zone 2, so it runs within London but around the central Zone 1. For context London goes into Zone 9 in crowns, so even Zone 2 is pretty "central". A couple of branches / extremities of the arches run briefly further out into zone 4/5, and this is what could be seen as S-bahn, but it was a very small part of a mostly Zone 2 service. It is super helpful for Londoners to go around town and reach a few important attractions.

After the first loop, throughout the years Transport For London started to take over some lines/services from mainline rail operators, getting some more arches and some radial lines from the suburbs that terminate at terminals in zone 1, so lines with very different characteristics from the OG Ldn Overground, but they ended up included in the same London Overground mode.
Therefore, repeating myself from above, what we have today is simply a collections of different urban lines that serve London without running through city center like the Ldn Underground does (EDIT: and at lower frequencies than the Underground).

[Fanw]

Thanks Reece for a superb video. I would agree that the London Overground is not really an S-Bahn. The Elizabeth line is closely analagous to a Parisian RER. The London Thameslink line is arguably like a gigantic version of the Zurich S-Bahn, with trains running out to Brighton, Cambridge and Peterborough. The latter is 122 kms. from London.
Two points about Zurich. The central section Oerlikon-Stadelhofen- is treated by Zurichers as a metro-style line, just like many other German-speaking cities. On busy routes out to places such as Winterthur, Wetzikon and Dietikon, trains are (at least) every 15 minutes.