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We have a Bahn Super Sparpreis ticket Berlin Prenzlauer Berg to Dresden with the routing Prenzlauer Berg (S->Bahn) -> Suedkreuz (EC379) -> Dresden.

Turns out we will be staying close to the central station and would like to start from there.

Questions:

  1. EC379 starts at the central station. Can we use the ticket as is just from there?
  2. If no, can we use the ticket as is for a non "Zugbindung" train (S-Bahn, Regionalbahn) to get from Central to Suedkreuz (instead of starting at Prenzlauer Allee)
  3. Do we have to buy a separate ticket from central to Suedkreuz?
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  • The S-Bahn is a local transport, so within the AB area (city limits of Berlin) it doesn't matter where the starting point is. I have never been checked between Hauptbahnhof and Südkreuz (takes only a few minutes). Most checking on the way to Dresden starts after Südkreuz. I doubt there is a price difference.
    – Mark Johnson
    Commented Nov 28 at 12:20
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    I doubt that you have a ticket from "Berlin Prenzlauer Berg" as there is no station with that name - neither on the S-Bahn nor on any other transport system (regional train, U-Bahn, tram or bus). If you are pedantic enough to ask a question like this, please give exact details.
    – Jan Blumschein
    Commented Nov 28 at 20:26
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    @JanBlumschein: given detail: 'instead of starting at Prenzlauer Allee', which is a S-Bahn Station in Prenzlauer Berg.
    – Mark Johnson
    Commented Nov 29 at 1:13
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    Does your ticket include City-Ticket?
    – gerrit
    Commented Nov 29 at 7:38
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    @MarkJohnson: Prenzlauer Allee This is exactly how I understand this question. Yet it is the precise wording of the ticket that matters (see travel.stackexchange.com/q/132842/141740 , ...), not hearsay.
    – Jan Blumschein
    Commented Nov 29 at 11:41

3 Answers 3

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edit: it looks like Deutsche Bahn changed how they issue tickets from/to cities with Cityticket agreement. If a (Super) Sparpreis ticket starts/ends with a local train trip to/from a long-distance train in the same Cityticket area, this trip is now always included as a Cityticket.

Unfortunately not

For a long time Deutsche Bahn offered the so-called "tarifliche Gleichstellung", which grouped the stations of a city into a larger virtual station (e.g. Berlin Central Station, Berlin Südkreuz etc. were grouped into the BERLIN virtual station) - a ticket from/to such a grouped station was valid from/to all stations in the group. However, they stopped offering it for long-distance tickets in December 2023. Since then you're required to adhere to the routing printed on the ticket. So:

  1. EC379 starts at the central station. Can we use the ticket as is just from there?

No, you have to enter EC379 at Berlin Südkreuz. The ticket is not valid between Berlin Central Station and Berlin Südkreuz.

  1. If no, can we use the ticket as is for a non "Zugbindung" train (S-Bahn, Regionalbahn) to get from Central to Suedkreuz (instead of starting at Prenzlauer Allee)

The first trip between Prenzlauer Allee and Südkreuz should be included as a Cityticket (+City on your ticket) on your ticket. Although it was intended for you to get from Prenzlauer Allee to Südkreuz, it is valid for a public transit (Bus/Tram/U-Bahn/S-Bahn/local trains) trip from any station inside the Berlin AB zone (so every station/stop inside the Berlin city limits) to Berlin Südkreuz.

  1. Do we have to buy a separate ticket from central to Suedkreuz?

No.

Aside from that: the trip between Central Station and Südkreuz takes about five minutes, making it unlikely that your ticket is getting checked that soon. Even if you're getting checked right after Central Station, there is a good chance that the conductor lets you get off the hook with a warning if you're being reasonable about it.

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    Unfortunately there is no sensible route from Prenzlauer Allee to Südkreuz via Central Station... Actually there is a sensible route through Hauptbahnhof: take S42 to Gesundbrunnen, then RE3 or RE5 (or FEX + whatever) to Südkreuz. (Only temporarily out of service for three weeks of construction works.)
    – Jan Blumschein
    Commented Nov 28 at 22:21
  • You're correct, I've checked the connections between Prenzlauer Allee and Südkreuz via the BVG route planner, which only showed me the S41 and S42/S2 routes. Unfortunately I didn't notice that due to construction work currently no local trains are going from Gesundbrunnen to Central Station, so the (sensible) route using local trains wasn't shown. Correcting my answer now.
    – Inconspicuous seagull
    Commented Nov 29 at 9:58
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    The "edit:" followed by the "Unfortunately not" is confusing. Could you rephrase the text to flow as a single cohesive answer? People can look at the edit history if they want to see intermediate changes.
    – cigien
    Commented Nov 29 at 14:13
  • re it looks like Deutsche Bahn changed how they issue tickets: IMHO mentioning how we expect them to issue tickets is of limited value (at least on a permanent "reference" site like this one) because that changes all the time without notice. Expect more changes to that matter to come with the next timetable change / price "adjustment" in mid-december. I would rather rely on them being clear in the text you get (you just have to know how to parse, and what rules apply e.g. for City zones and routing).
    – Jan Blumschein
    Commented Nov 29 at 14:26
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Actually an edge case

(1) As others have said, your ticket is not valid on EC379 from Hauptbahnhof until Südkreuz. Nobody will care: this is a journey of five minutes, and it is quite unlikely that you will meet a conductor who is on duty but not busy with something else (like answering desperate questions, telling people where not to store their bags etc). You may or may not want to risk the adventure of these five minutes.

(2) For regional transport within Berlin the exact wording of the point of departure as written on your ticket does matter. (But prepare for railway/S-Bahn/BVG staff who do not know or understand the precise meaning of these ever-changing details issued by DB Fernverkehr who is not their employer.)

Key point is whether or not you have a City-Ticket included. A ticket from "Berlin Südkreuz + City" (or "BERLIN + City" in the good old days, see @Inconspicuousseagull's answer) should be valid for a single journey on RE/RB/S/U/tram from anywhere within Berlin AB to Südkreuz station; a ticket mentioning e.g. "Von [i.e. from] Berlin Schönhauser Allee" would allow only a direct[definition needed] trip from that precise station. I am not sure which one they sell as a Super-Sparpreis these days…

Yet I do not believe that your ticket is "from Berlin Prenzlauer Berg" – simply because there is no station (or stop) with that name (and the borough named Prenzlauer Berg has lost its official status & local parliament in 2001, only a certain fame remains). So we have to know what else you got. (You did not buy a ticket from Prenzlau[provincial town 100km north] by accident, did you?)

Note that your ticket may contain an extra timetable information (mentioning there that "this is not a ticket"). If "Berlin Prenzlauer Allee" appears only in that timetable section (and not in the actual ticket), then you are fine.

(3) Let's assume you do actually have a ticket from "Berlin Prenzlauer Allee" (or any other station in the Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood). If so, you are entitled only to a direct trip from that point of departure; yet in Berlin's dense railway network you often have more than one route option.

In times of normal schedule one of your reasonable choices would be to take the S-Bahn to Gesundbrunnen, and then some regional train (RE3, RE5, …) to Südkreuz, passing through Hauptbahnhof. (Not a detour, and nominally as fast as Ringbahn, albeit less frequent/reliable.) Hence taking a regional train from Hbf to Südkreuz should certainly be covered by your ticket.

Unfortunately the regional service from Gesundbrunnen to Hauptbahnhof is temporarily suspended for construction works until 2024-12-13 (while Hbf to Südkreuz is still running). So if you do your trip in these two weeks to come, you can take the southbound RE3 / RE4 starting in Hauptbahnhof, but might then get into trouble explaining how the heck you have made it there (if anybody takes the time to verify your itinerary on-the-fly, and dares to ask).

Again very unlikely as this is a journey of seven or eight minutes (so little time to argue), and regional trains through Berlin tend to be crowded (I might be more concerned of getting off at the proper destination).

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  • Prenzlauer Berg is still an Ortsteil (sub-district).
    – Mark Johnson
    Commented Nov 29 at 1:21
  • I am not sure which one they sell as a Super-Sparpreis these days… After looking into that again: if a (Super) Sparpreis ticket begins (or ends) with a local train trip completely inside the same Cityticket area, DB only issues the ticket from (to) the station where you enter (exit) the first (last) long distance train, and adds the local train trip as a City ticket, e.g. a trip from München-Isartor to Berlin Hbf would be issued as München+City -> Berlin
    – Inconspicuous seagull
    Commented Nov 29 at 12:04
  • @Inconspicuousseagull That's what they do now, it may change again in two weeks…
    – Jan Blumschein
    Commented Nov 29 at 14:29
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What you have is most likely a Südkreuz - Dresden Sparpreis ticket with a "Cityticket" included. Officially you're supposed to take any kind of transport to Südkreuz - S-bahn, U-bahn, tram, bus, regional train (RB/RE) - and board the EC there.

Unofficially boarding at Berlin HBF is never going to be a problem.

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    What makes you so sure that unofficially boarding at HBF is never going to be a problem? I'd say it won't be a problem for 99% of travelers who do it - leaving the last 1% that is unlucky enough to be checked by a pedantic conductor starting ticket control 2 minutes after leaving Berlin HBF...
    – Sabine
    Commented Nov 28 at 14:55
  • Ticket checks between Hbf and Südkreuz happen rarely, but they do happen.
    – Juliane Röll
    Commented Nov 29 at 23:25

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