Berlin Ostbahnhof train station, avoid it like the plague! The Berlin Ostbahnhof train station was the main train station in formerly East Berlin and as such it’s a bit of a tourist attraction. Perhaps this is reason why it’s a significanly more expensive train station than the rest of Berlin stations. At the Ostbahnhof train station, in a well known multinational burgers restaurant, a medium size coffee will cost you 3.40 Euros, yet in London, in at the same burgers franchise, a large coffee costs 1.29 Sterling Pound. Furthermore, no matter which food&drink venue you use, none of the numerous venues at this train station has own toilets. If you want to use the public toilets, it costs you 1 Euro each time. Therefore, if you sit in a venue to drink few beers, not only will you pay over the odds, will you spend 2 or 3 or more Euros to go to the toilet. But the prices you pay in there are not the only reason why you should avoid like the plague. On the evening of 28-12-2022 some time between 20:00 and 20:05 I did experience an unpleasant situation with two security guards at near the main entrance. I was killing time before going to the Berlin Brandenburg Airport, I was sat on a seat in one of those sort of translucent cubicles with seats. I was quietly drinking beer, I had with me a bag from supermarket with 1 bottle of Coca Cola, I bottle of water and 4 cans of beer, which I intended to drink until 23:54, time of departure of my suitable train S9 to the airport. So, I had almost 4 hours to kill and I had 4 cans of beer. Sat in front of me were two homeless people, one of them on a wheelchair, they both were also quiet, no causing any nuisance or disturbance at all. However, two petulant and impolite security guards turned up and with bad manners and impoliteness chased away the poor homeless people seeking warm from the inclement weather outside. Then, one the security guards, the youngest one and also the rudest and vicious one approached me. Without greeting first, without identifying himself as a security guard and with a wholly inappropriate tone of voice told me no to drink alcohol. I challenged his approach on the spot, but as I was drinking alcohol; I didn’t want to give him the opportunity to use the drinking fact further against me. So, I just said: OK, OK; but nothing was OK. The security guard who approached me was rude and impolite, needs to be said that Germans do not excel at politness. I said to the petulant security guard that we are not wizards enabled to guess whether something is allowed or not. In no where in Ostbahnhof train station are signs warning about alcohol consumption, therefore, it is not illegal to consume alcohol within the train station, anybody would assume. Furthermore, there are two supermarkets in the underground level that sell alcohol. If alcohol consumption is not illegal, what possible authority does a petulant security guard have to make rules himself and make alcohol consumption prohibited?? To sum up, Berlin Ostbahnhof is a highly expensive place patrolled by obnoxious and very rude security guards. Avoid it like the plague! Instead, just carry on one stop further. The next station is Warschauer Strasse, this is a much cheaper and friendly place. And just across the road is the East Side mall, a shopping mall with places to eat and drink at descent prices

Germany DB is extremely efficient. All the train terminals offer fast and consistent service. Truthful and updated information even upon delays and workarounds to get to the point you need in time!