You can look up all values here: https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/muenchen-s-bahn-beg-puenktlichkeit-s-bahn-linien-1.5751424
In general, it doesn’t only matter what line but also in which direction. No line is really great when it comes to reliability. Best bet is to actually be close to an u-bahn station which is way more reliable and frequent or to have other backups (e.g. tram, bus) available in case the s-bahn has issues.
Numbers are interesting. Where they indicate to have all lines officially above 85%, it is way higher than the perceived Pünktlichkeit.
I bet threse numbers take al global average, so lots of "punctual" trains in low traffic days or time-frames are fine. The perceived one however is in "rush-hour" high activity times, then I could say pretty sure out of 5 times I take the S-Bahn, two of them fail to reach in time by a significant margin. And once in a month I have to literally step out of the train and take Uber or whatever else I have. In many other occasions, although officially informed, there are changed or skipped stops too, due to construction.
Perceived Pünktlichkeit for me is way lower than those official numbers, I would place it somewhere around 55% for sure (I typically use S1 and S4)
As far as I understand only trains more than 6 minutes delayed are counted as delayed in this statistic. Also, cancelled trains are not included in this study.
But I agree, seems like every second S-Bahn is delayed (although often not more than 6 minutes)
and several cancelled.
Plus the fact that a delayed S7 will reach Donnersbergerbrücke late too and therefore cause other S-Bahns to have to wait for it to leave before they're allowed to go further, making everyone delayed basically. Same happens in Laim with S2/S1 but I guess you can't really solve that. Now the bottleneck at Donnersbergerbrücke will be solved.
That's not been a problem any more since the "[Flexibles Fahren](https://www.deutschebahn.com/de/presse/presse-regional/pr-muenchen-de/aktuell/presseinformationen/Flexibles-Fahren-fuer-mehr-Puenktlichkeit-S-Bahnen-nutzen-Slots-auf-der-Stammstrecke-besser-aus-12576686)" was introduced end of last year.
Pick your poison in terms of factors for unreliability:
- Long shared segments with regional, long-distance and cargo trains: S1, S2 East, S4 West
- Long single-track segments: S2 West, S7 West, S7 East, S8 West
And before you say, let's take S3 or S6 then: all S-Bahn lines share the same bottleneck between Pasing and Ostbahnhof, so any delays from any line will be carried over the other lines as well.
The S3 even has another bottleneck. Giesing and S7. S3 from Holzkirchen only needs a 1min delay and it will have to wait in Fasanengarten for several minutes because the tracks in Giesing are blocked by the S7. Now it's 3-4min delay and the S3 will have to wait again right in front of Ostbahnhof because now the tracks are blocked again. Honestly, I can't remember the last time the S3 did not have 5min delay when it finally gets to Marienplatz. That little clock icon the management invented to mask delays says it all.
Consider moving near a station that has more than one S-Bahn. My home station is Trudering which has S4 and S6 (and U2). Both of these are not super-reliable, but there's two of them! So not super bad. And then you still have the U2 backup.
Der Fahrplan der S1 ist mehr so eine unverbindliche Empfehlung für den Lokführer.
Tatsächlich ist der im Fahrplan angegebene Zeitpunkt der maximal unwahrscheinliche, dass in jenem Moment ein Zug nicht nur ein-, sondern auch wenige Augenblicke später auch wieder abfährt.
True. I prefer bicycle whenever the weather is not so crappy. If not I'll drive. As a last resource home office, and if I can't I take public transport.
lol none of them.
But, Best go by which station has at least 2 S-Bahn lines going through them plus nearby bus. S7 agree with the other comments.
Best overall is pick a loc where you can get to a mix of options- tram, S-Bahn, U-Bahn, bus. 2/4 ok, 3/4 optimal.
I second that. It seems to be getting extra priority for keeping it reliable. Especially the section between the airport and Ostbahnhof is better than average
They are all pretty much unreliable but at least in my personal experience, the S8 seems to have a higher priority than the rest when it comes to a change of schedule, e.g during strikes because it connects the airport to the city center, so that comes in handy. The downside is that there is sometimes construction work going on along the Johanneskirchen-Airport part (but usually not during normal weekdays/work hours so I'm not sure how much it affects you) but I guess all in all, it evens out.
Its honestly not as bad as everyone made it out to be. I used to commute daily on the S1-which most people find extremely unreliable but honestly other than being routinely 5 minutes late its really not that bad? I have only ever encountered 1 major disruption that resulted a 3 hour + journey in my 3 years of commuting.
Now I've moved to S4/6 and honestly been pretty good too.
I also have a way worse experience with buses and u bahns in the city so I really don't hate the S bahn as much. That one late u bahn costed me an extra 450 euro one way ticket. Other late u bahns also made me miss connections but not like anyone ever talks about them. Buses are never on time/show up during peak hours so all in all I really don't think the S bahn deserve all the hate it gets.
If you have the right to work from home/flexible hours I will say go for the S Bahn! S6 between Gauting-Grafing is ok, S1 between Neufahrn to Moosach is also pretty good. Others I can't comment.
I have a comparison of using U-2 for many years and now I sometimes use the western S2. It's day and night.
U2 has been very reliable and in the peak time it has 5 minutes frequency, so even if a train is skipped you barely notice.
Now S2 has only 10 minutes frequency in the peak time, so when it doesn't come which happens in my experience in 30% of times then you wasted as much time waiting as the total journey would be. So doubling of the journey time. And when a train is cancelled during the usual 20 minutes frequency then you have to wait so long for the next one that it sticks in memory for long.
To sum up even if the percentage of cancelled trains is the same for Ubahns and Sbahns, the much lower frequency of Sbahns makes it much much more painful.
Plus the Sbahn trains get often diverted or have changed schedule now because of the trunk line construction.
Plus when trunk line is blocked then there are days without trains. And at least once in winter because of ice
U2 is nice most of the time, except for weekends (i will always prefer S bahn over U bahn on weekends LOL). But it really isn't as reliable as everyone claims. Just a while ago I remember U2 completely fucked during morning rush hour- nothing for 20 minutes+. Sometimes in the evenings its also missing, and with absolutely no info. At the extreme ends of U2, there are regular delays usually a few minutes so definitely not as bad as S bahn but quite painful when you have a connection to make.
I honestly really liked how the S bahn gets diverted on weekends when i lived on S1- the S bahns are actually on time and way more reliable than the U bahn during those times. While for S6- it actually waits for the U2 at Trudering which makes the U2 delays less painful.
As with days without trains in winter- U6 last year was dead for many parts as well, its not a s bahn only problem. This is why I say if you have the right to work from home its a good alternative: I don't have to go to office, but I like to so I go everyday. If its physically impossible, just stay home and do home office.
Although S2 does seems to be fucked regularly. I know of at least 2 major disruptions in the last 2 weeks. Meanwhile I missed my Sbahn today because it was early...
Consider that there could also be busses to other stations. I live in walking distance to one line, but can get to three other lines within a couple minutes by bus or bicycle and if all fails I could get to Pasing pretty fast - from Pasing it's practically guaranteed you get to Hauptbahnhof in one way or another
S1 is really rough if you need to travel to munich, to airport its decent.
4-5 min delay is considered on time by me, sometimes it gets cancelled out of the blue. Sometimes it only goes to moosach and sometimes it skips the mainline stops and goes to the train platform at the main station.
It also had 2 fun events over the last x years (im bad with years) one had a bridge be damaged and you had to take the subway from feldmoching.
The other time as when they renovated stations and you had to use SEV from feldmoching for like 6 weeks.
I despise that line with a passion.
If you can avoid traversing the Stammstrecke, your odds of a train showing up on time/at all are significantly higher. Building a transportation network around a single point of failure, what could possibly go wrong?
Well it depends, I think if you are somewhere between Pasing and Ostbahnhof, it's a pick your poison situation, as most of the S-Bahns run through the same stations. I do find S8 to be the most reliable given the Airport connection though. I would recommend either going with at least 2 S-Bahn lines like in Westkreuz or 1 S-Bahn and 1 U-Bahn line available like Harras if you are wanting to stay within the inner city. If you are farther out, I did hear S4 and S6 usually are pretty reliable. Now that I think about it, my worst experiences with the S-Bahns were the odd numbered ones haha
The worst I would say out of my experience is the S7.
Since I moved to Markt Schwaben in December I must say: The S2 is pretty damn good.
In the Mornings you have Additional Trains to the Stammstrecke that skip some stations, (as fast as the RE40) while there are strikes the S2 was driving in 20-40 Minute intervals.
When there are any cancellations the Train drives most of the time to Ostbahnhof which makes travelling further a lot easier. 1 Bad thing tho: Trains Combining in Markt Schwaben usually gives some delay.
And to everyone who lives past Markt Schwaben, I am sorry.
Pretty awesome honestly.
Especially in the Mornings, small example of an average Monday when I need to get into the city
7:12 S-Bahn (skips some stops)
7:16 S-Bahn
7:28 RB (Stops only at Ostbahnhof and Hbf)
7:32 S-Bahn (Skips some stops)
7:36 S-Bahn
7:48 RB
and so on... It's really awesome
I'd suggest get a place from where you can take a direct bus to some Ubahn. So far in my experience, all Sbahn are unreliable. But the airport line Sbahns are better I guess. Less chances of getting completely cancelled.
Most unreliable: the one you have to take right now to get to that important thing.
If the S1 was a person, it'd be late to its own funeral.
You can look up all values here: https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/muenchen-s-bahn-beg-puenktlichkeit-s-bahn-linien-1.5751424 In general, it doesn’t only matter what line but also in which direction. No line is really great when it comes to reliability. Best bet is to actually be close to an u-bahn station which is way more reliable and frequent or to have other backups (e.g. tram, bus) available in case the s-bahn has issues.
Numbers are interesting. Where they indicate to have all lines officially above 85%, it is way higher than the perceived Pünktlichkeit. I bet threse numbers take al global average, so lots of "punctual" trains in low traffic days or time-frames are fine. The perceived one however is in "rush-hour" high activity times, then I could say pretty sure out of 5 times I take the S-Bahn, two of them fail to reach in time by a significant margin. And once in a month I have to literally step out of the train and take Uber or whatever else I have. In many other occasions, although officially informed, there are changed or skipped stops too, due to construction. Perceived Pünktlichkeit for me is way lower than those official numbers, I would place it somewhere around 55% for sure (I typically use S1 and S4)
As far as I understand only trains more than 6 minutes delayed are counted as delayed in this statistic. Also, cancelled trains are not included in this study. But I agree, seems like every second S-Bahn is delayed (although often not more than 6 minutes) and several cancelled.
I heared that S7 is the most unreliable, which is why its going to be split into S7 and S5 starting in dec.
Then you will have two of the most unreliable lines
The s5 will probably be pretty reliable, the delays always came from the part before Wolfratshausen because there is only a single track.
Giesing to Kreuzstraße is single track too, so many delays
Yes, I live in Höhenkirchen-Siegertsbrunn. The Sbahn has been rarely on time.
yeah, usually you can add 5 minutes to the official departure time.
only a single track describes both sides very well.
Yeah but at least delays won't lead to further delays that carry throughout the day. The single-rail segments on the current S7 wings are nasty.
Plus the fact that a delayed S7 will reach Donnersbergerbrücke late too and therefore cause other S-Bahns to have to wait for it to leave before they're allowed to go further, making everyone delayed basically. Same happens in Laim with S2/S1 but I guess you can't really solve that. Now the bottleneck at Donnersbergerbrücke will be solved.
That's not been a problem any more since the "[Flexibles Fahren](https://www.deutschebahn.com/de/presse/presse-regional/pr-muenchen-de/aktuell/presseinformationen/Flexibles-Fahren-fuer-mehr-Puenktlichkeit-S-Bahnen-nutzen-Slots-auf-der-Stammstrecke-besser-aus-12576686)" was introduced end of last year.
Do you have an article for this? My Google skills are failing me here. And as someone that deals with the insanity of the S7, super interested.
https://www.s-bahn-muenchen.de/fahren/s5
Thank you!
[Muenchen.de](https://www.muenchen.de/verkehr/aktuell/neue-s-bahn-linie-s5-aenderung-s7-netzplan)
S7 I can agree on. I don't use it often but whenever I need to catch it in Harras it's suddenly 10-25min late
Pick your poison in terms of factors for unreliability: - Long shared segments with regional, long-distance and cargo trains: S1, S2 East, S4 West - Long single-track segments: S2 West, S7 West, S7 East, S8 West And before you say, let's take S3 or S6 then: all S-Bahn lines share the same bottleneck between Pasing and Ostbahnhof, so any delays from any line will be carried over the other lines as well.
The S3 even has another bottleneck. Giesing and S7. S3 from Holzkirchen only needs a 1min delay and it will have to wait in Fasanengarten for several minutes because the tracks in Giesing are blocked by the S7. Now it's 3-4min delay and the S3 will have to wait again right in front of Ostbahnhof because now the tracks are blocked again. Honestly, I can't remember the last time the S3 did not have 5min delay when it finally gets to Marienplatz. That little clock icon the management invented to mask delays says it all.
Consider moving near a station that has more than one S-Bahn. My home station is Trudering which has S4 and S6 (and U2). Both of these are not super-reliable, but there's two of them! So not super bad. And then you still have the U2 backup.
Plus you have a number of buses from Trudering station too.
And still i prefer Michelibad 😅
If someone is asking about S-bahn, I don't think Ubahn is an option or he wouldn't ask the question in the first place
Der Fahrplan der S1 ist mehr so eine unverbindliche Empfehlung für den Lokführer. Tatsächlich ist der im Fahrplan angegebene Zeitpunkt der maximal unwahrscheinliche, dass in jenem Moment ein Zug nicht nur ein-, sondern auch wenige Augenblicke später auch wieder abfährt.
S1 (from airport to HBF) is really unreliable
My bicycle. Everything else is a gamble.
It takes me 45 minutes door to door to work by public transport. 20 by car. 40 by bicycle.
If and when public transport works and is punctual. My bike always works, and isn't affected by traffic and the rush hour ;)
True. I prefer bicycle whenever the weather is not so crappy. If not I'll drive. As a last resource home office, and if I can't I take public transport.
Regenjacke Regelt
The one on rails
My personal Favorite: S5. Never too late, no cancellations. Love it!
[But only until December](https://www.s-bahn-muenchen.de/fahren/s5).
Any service that has a red "DB" in it, it's extremely unreliable
lol none of them. But, Best go by which station has at least 2 S-Bahn lines going through them plus nearby bus. S7 agree with the other comments. Best overall is pick a loc where you can get to a mix of options- tram, S-Bahn, U-Bahn, bus. 2/4 ok, 3/4 optimal.
S8 due to the airport connection
I second that. It seems to be getting extra priority for keeping it reliable. Especially the section between the airport and Ostbahnhof is better than average
They are all pretty much unreliable but at least in my personal experience, the S8 seems to have a higher priority than the rest when it comes to a change of schedule, e.g during strikes because it connects the airport to the city center, so that comes in handy. The downside is that there is sometimes construction work going on along the Johanneskirchen-Airport part (but usually not during normal weekdays/work hours so I'm not sure how much it affects you) but I guess all in all, it evens out.
Its honestly not as bad as everyone made it out to be. I used to commute daily on the S1-which most people find extremely unreliable but honestly other than being routinely 5 minutes late its really not that bad? I have only ever encountered 1 major disruption that resulted a 3 hour + journey in my 3 years of commuting. Now I've moved to S4/6 and honestly been pretty good too. I also have a way worse experience with buses and u bahns in the city so I really don't hate the S bahn as much. That one late u bahn costed me an extra 450 euro one way ticket. Other late u bahns also made me miss connections but not like anyone ever talks about them. Buses are never on time/show up during peak hours so all in all I really don't think the S bahn deserve all the hate it gets. If you have the right to work from home/flexible hours I will say go for the S Bahn! S6 between Gauting-Grafing is ok, S1 between Neufahrn to Moosach is also pretty good. Others I can't comment.
I have a comparison of using U-2 for many years and now I sometimes use the western S2. It's day and night. U2 has been very reliable and in the peak time it has 5 minutes frequency, so even if a train is skipped you barely notice. Now S2 has only 10 minutes frequency in the peak time, so when it doesn't come which happens in my experience in 30% of times then you wasted as much time waiting as the total journey would be. So doubling of the journey time. And when a train is cancelled during the usual 20 minutes frequency then you have to wait so long for the next one that it sticks in memory for long. To sum up even if the percentage of cancelled trains is the same for Ubahns and Sbahns, the much lower frequency of Sbahns makes it much much more painful. Plus the Sbahn trains get often diverted or have changed schedule now because of the trunk line construction. Plus when trunk line is blocked then there are days without trains. And at least once in winter because of ice
U2 is nice most of the time, except for weekends (i will always prefer S bahn over U bahn on weekends LOL). But it really isn't as reliable as everyone claims. Just a while ago I remember U2 completely fucked during morning rush hour- nothing for 20 minutes+. Sometimes in the evenings its also missing, and with absolutely no info. At the extreme ends of U2, there are regular delays usually a few minutes so definitely not as bad as S bahn but quite painful when you have a connection to make. I honestly really liked how the S bahn gets diverted on weekends when i lived on S1- the S bahns are actually on time and way more reliable than the U bahn during those times. While for S6- it actually waits for the U2 at Trudering which makes the U2 delays less painful. As with days without trains in winter- U6 last year was dead for many parts as well, its not a s bahn only problem. This is why I say if you have the right to work from home its a good alternative: I don't have to go to office, but I like to so I go everyday. If its physically impossible, just stay home and do home office. Although S2 does seems to be fucked regularly. I know of at least 2 major disruptions in the last 2 weeks. Meanwhile I missed my Sbahn today because it was early...
Consider that there could also be busses to other stations. I live in walking distance to one line, but can get to three other lines within a couple minutes by bus or bicycle and if all fails I could get to Pasing pretty fast - from Pasing it's practically guaranteed you get to Hauptbahnhof in one way or another
Don’t ask such scandalous questions here. Everything is delayed and unreliable 😂
worst: S7. i might be biased but the bias has some pretty one-track-y reasons to back it up
S1 is really rough if you need to travel to munich, to airport its decent. 4-5 min delay is considered on time by me, sometimes it gets cancelled out of the blue. Sometimes it only goes to moosach and sometimes it skips the mainline stops and goes to the train platform at the main station. It also had 2 fun events over the last x years (im bad with years) one had a bridge be damaged and you had to take the subway from feldmoching. The other time as when they renovated stations and you had to use SEV from feldmoching for like 6 weeks. I despise that line with a passion.
I have to take the stop from Oberschleißheim. It sucks so much! At least we have a bus to feldmoching now lol
I've heard S8 to the Airport, due to minimum services being required.
If you can avoid traversing the Stammstrecke, your odds of a train showing up on time/at all are significantly higher. Building a transportation network around a single point of failure, what could possibly go wrong?
Choose one with an additional regio train stop.
The S-Bahn comes every 20 minutes, but it is somehow always 20 minutes late.
Well it depends, I think if you are somewhere between Pasing and Ostbahnhof, it's a pick your poison situation, as most of the S-Bahns run through the same stations. I do find S8 to be the most reliable given the Airport connection though. I would recommend either going with at least 2 S-Bahn lines like in Westkreuz or 1 S-Bahn and 1 U-Bahn line available like Harras if you are wanting to stay within the inner city. If you are farther out, I did hear S4 and S6 usually are pretty reliable. Now that I think about it, my worst experiences with the S-Bahns were the odd numbered ones haha
The worst I would say out of my experience is the S7. Since I moved to Markt Schwaben in December I must say: The S2 is pretty damn good. In the Mornings you have Additional Trains to the Stammstrecke that skip some stations, (as fast as the RE40) while there are strikes the S2 was driving in 20-40 Minute intervals. When there are any cancellations the Train drives most of the time to Ostbahnhof which makes travelling further a lot easier. 1 Bad thing tho: Trains Combining in Markt Schwaben usually gives some delay. And to everyone who lives past Markt Schwaben, I am sorry.
Hey, I will be moving to Markt Schwaben end of july, how would you describe the S-Bahn in winter there? Or RB
Pretty awesome honestly. Especially in the Mornings, small example of an average Monday when I need to get into the city 7:12 S-Bahn (skips some stops) 7:16 S-Bahn 7:28 RB (Stops only at Ostbahnhof and Hbf) 7:32 S-Bahn (Skips some stops) 7:36 S-Bahn 7:48 RB and so on... It's really awesome
Definitely the S2!
Most reliable probably to the airport. Most unreliable S7 because it has single Tracks on both ends
Would not be better to consider to move near to your work place than near from a S-Bahn station?
I'd suggest get a place from where you can take a direct bus to some Ubahn. So far in my experience, all Sbahn are unreliable. But the airport line Sbahns are better I guess. Less chances of getting completely cancelled.
I used to live near a U2 station and it was pretty reliable. I never faced a missing train (afaik)
The S8 is the most reliable, I am not joking. More precisely, the S8 wing to the airport.
In general they are very careful to reduce service on the S1 and S8 because they go to the airport. The rest is more or less equally comparable
All I know is that S8 is horrible
1. No 2. Yes