Munich S-Bahn Challenge

[michael_schl]

Hello everybody,

I've been thinking about what would be a great challenge to start with. As the tube (U-Bahn) in my hometown Munich is already set at only 5 minutes above optimal time it seems highly unlikely to break it. So instead I turned my attention to the S-Bahn (overground-like) instead.

It has 150 (or 149) stations and the branches are connected by low-frequency bus service which reduces the combinatorial complexity enormous while making it more risky to the notorious delays.

I'm looking for some clarification on whether I should go for the 150 stations or 149 stations?
The contentious station is the central station (Hauptbahnhof). The regular S-Bahn station is an underground station (with platforms 1&2). On the other hand we have the normal train central station. It is above ground and composed of a main hall (platforms 11-26) and two attached side wings to the North (Starnberger Flügelbahnhof platforms 27-36) and South (Holzkirchner Flügelbahnhof platforms 5-10). They are primarily used for regional trains going either to the West or the East (via the South Ring). This main hall with the two side wings is operationally completely separate from the underground S-Bahn station and therefore has also different internal abbreviations.
The 150th station might be this above ground station as there are 4 trains a day arriving in the morning at the Starnberger Flügelbahnhof (platforms 27-36) to cover peak which are not returning to the regular service afterwards. The operator therefore also counts them separately on their website and used to explicitly mention that before a website redesign.
Can this really constitute as a different station?
Another use of these above ground platforms are during disruptions in the main tunnel and construction as diversion destinations. However then they also sometimes stop at the main hall (platforms 11-26). Would it count as the same station as the side wing and as having visited the 150th station?
There's a construction coming up in 2 months that would see trains leaving every 20 minutes from the main hall which would make it much simpler to organize. Although these trains will primarily stop at platform 26 so inside the main hall (not the side wing which gets daily traffic).

I'm really looking forward to this challenge and would love to hear your thoughts on it.
Especially if the 150th station should be included and whether the main hall counts as the same station as the side wing in order to use it during the construction time.

Best regards,
Michael from Munich

[jrparkin]

This is an interesting one. But having looked at the overhead map on Wikipedia, it only has one set of platforms designated for S Bahn trains, as opposed to the U Bahn which has two (U4/U5 and U1/U2/U7).

If you were doing the U Bahn challenge you would have to arrive and/or depart from BOTH of these platforms to count for a FNC.

However because there is only one set of S Bahn platforms in the station in my opinion only one visit is necessary meaning 149 stations

Good luck

[al]

The way it tends to be decided here is if the ticket barriers are separate - if they are then they are different stations. I understand the limited service there, but if it is a different set of barriers then I would say it is number 150 personally.

I'm not the law on this subject, however!!!!!

Good luck whatever constraints end up being used.

[jrparkin]

I have done some brief additional research primarily on ShowMeJourney and from what I've read on the Hauptbahnhof station it seems to indicate you would only need to visit the station once

Other sites have stated the system has 150 stations in the title of the article, but in the article itself it states 'nearly' 150 stations. I think you just visit Hauptbahnhof the once

[greatkingrat]

I guess the UK equivalent would be whether you need to visit Liverpool Street High Level when doing an Elizabeth Line challenge.

[jrparkin]

I would say no, you only need to visit Liverpool Street once. The other half is for other services that aren't Elizabeth Line like the Overground for instance - again just a quick look at Wikipedia gave me this information

[al]

Apart from the fact that peak hour Elizabeth Line trains also depart from the High Level, not just Overground, which is why GKR mentioned it. Wikipedia is not 100% accurate on every subject!