HOME to almost 3.6 million people, Berlin has expanded and modernised considerably since reunification in 1990. For its residents, the city’s impressive public transport system – covering rail, tram, ferries and bus – is the backbone of the day-to-day, with a comprehensive and interconnecting system operated by BVG (Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe) which was founded in 1928. The BVG network is extensive and there are many places where the S or U-Bahn connects to DB network services.
At the end of the Second World War, Berlin was split into four sectors divided between the British, American, French and Soviets – but it was the construction of the infamous Berlin Wall, completed in August 1961, that segregated around one million people in East Berlin (and what was then East Germany) under the control of the German Democratic Republic allied to the Soviet regime. Much of the city’s historical and cultural sector was in the East, and much of today’s tram network
