Transportation in Neukölln comprises the public and private transport systems serving the Neukölln quarter of Berlin. The quarter is served by the Berlin U-Bahn, Berlin S-Bahn, bus and road networks, together with cycling and pedestrian infrastructure, inland waterways and freight railways. These networks connect Neukölln with the rest of Berlin, Brandenburg and Berlin Brandenburg Airport, while the Neukölln Harbor remains an important centre for freight transport.
Because of its dense urban character, transport in Neukölln is dominated by walking, cycling and public transport. Since the early 21st century, transport planning has increasingly focused on improving conditions for pedestrians and cyclists, reducing motor traffic, and expanding public transport. Future projects include planned extensions to the U-Bahn and tram networks, new bus services and other improvements to regional connectivity.
Overview Neukölln is one of Berlin's most densely populated inner-city quarters and is served by an extensive multimodal transportation network. Public transport is centred on two U-Bahn lines (U7 and U8), four S-Bahn lines and an extensive network of bus routes, which connect the quarter with central Berlin, surrounding districts, Brandenburg and Berlin Brandenburg Airport. Although Neukölln has no regional rail stations of its own, nearby stations such as Südkreuz, Ostkreuz and Schöneweide provide direct access to regional and long-distance rail services. The quarter is also served by major arterial roads, the A100 and A113 autobahns, extensive cycling and pedestrian infrastructure, inland waterways and freight railways.
The latest modal share data, based on a 2023–24 survey,Madlen Haarbach, "Verkehrswende in Berlin: Immer weniger Menschen in Neukölln fahren Auto", Tagesspiegel, 3 September 2025 (archived); Christian Latz, "Große Studie zum Berliner Verkehr: Das Auto bleibt immer öfter stehen, zu Fuß gehen boomt", Tagesspiegel, 8 April 2025. shows that Neukölln's residents have changed their travel behaviour significantly since the previous 2018 study. Walking accounted for 33.3% of all trips, followed by public transport at just under 24%, cycling at 21.8% and private automobiles at 21.3%. Compared with the Berlin average, cycling has become more common while automobile use has declined. Public transport use remains slightly below the citywide average, largely because many daily destinations are within walking or cycling distance in the densely developed northern neighbourhoods, while southern parts of the borough beyond the Ringbahn remain less well served by rapid transit.
Public transport Berlin's S-Bahn commuter rail, which also services Berlin's suburbs and the greater Berlin area, is managed by the S-Bahn Berlin GmbH, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn, while the regional commuter trains Regionalbahn (RB) and Regional-Express (RE) as well as the FEX airport express are managed directly by the Deutsche Bahn or regional franchisees. The U-Bahn rapid transit system, public ferries as well as bus and tram lines are operated by the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG).Exceptions are privately operated tramways like the Wuhlheide park railway or the Britzer Garten tramway; the VBB integration of the aerial tramway in the Gärten der Welt has often been proposed, but was declined until 2026; Stefan Ziller in: "Marzahn: Seilbahn in den Gärten der Welt bleibt von BVG getrennt – das ist der Grund", Berliner Zeitung, 24 September 2024. Together with the Brandenburg public transport providers, the S-Bahn and BVG form the network group Verkehrsverbund Berlin-Brandenburg (VBB). The BVG service center closest to the quarter Neukölln is located at Alexanderplatz U-Bahn station. VBB tickets are also valid on the Deutsche Bahn's regional lines. Aside from the S-Bahn, Neukölln does not have any regional commuter lines. The closest directly reachable RB and RE stations are Alexanderplatz, Ostkreuz, Schöneweide and Südkreuz.
U-Bahn
Neukölln is served by two U-Bahn subway lines, the northwest-to-southeast U7 (Rathaus Spandau ↔ Rudow) via Jungfernheide and Wilmersdorfer Straße/Charlottenburg, and the north-to-south U8 (Wittenau ↔ Hermannstraße) via Alexanderplatz, with an interchange between the two at Hermannplatz.For an overview including their history of construction, cf. e.g. Alexander Seefeldt, Robert Schwandl, Berliner U-Bahn-Linien: U7 – Quer durch den Westen, Berlin, 2013; Axel Mauruszat, Alexander Seefeldt, Berliner U-Bahn-Linien: U8 – Von Gesundbrunnen nach Neukölln, Berlin, 2015. Within Neukölln, the U7 has three additional eastbound stations along the Karl-Marx-Straße: Rathaus Neukölln, Karl-Marx-Straße and Neukölln, the latter being an interchange between U- and S-Bahn. The U8 has three additional southbound stations along the Hermannstraße: Boddinstraße, Leinestraße and Hermannstraße, the latter being the quarter's second interchange between U- and S-Bahn.
Three U-Bahn stations just outside of the quarter offer quicker access to certain neighborhoods of Neukölln: Südstern (U7) to the western parts of Hasenheide, Schönleinstraße (U8) to the Reuterkiez, and Grenzallee (U7) to the southern and south-eastern industrial parks including the Neukölln Harbor.
During workday nights, approximately between 1:00 and 4:00, Berlin's subways are not operational, but are replaced by buses. In Neukölln, the U7 and U8 are replaced by the bus lines N7 and N8 respectively. During nights before Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, the U-Bahn lines operate continuously.
S-Bahn
Neukölln is served by four S-Bahn commuter lines, with U-Bahn interchanges at Berlin-Hermannstraße (U8) and Berlin-Neukölln (U7), each for all of the four lines. The shorter S47 connects the quarter to Südkreuz in the west, and via Baumschulenweg station, Niederschöneweide and the Schöneweide–Spindlersfeld branch line to Spindlersfeld in the south-eastern Dahme suburbs. The long-haul S46 connects Neukölln to Westend in the far west via Südkreuz, Westkreuz and Messe Nord/ZOB close to the Messe Berlin exhibition grounds, the ICC and Berlin's central bus station (ZOB). In the opposite direction, the S46 connects to the town Königs Wusterhausen south-east of Berlin via Baumschulenweg station, Adlershof, Grünau and the town Zeuthen. Two additional important services are the Ringbahn circle lines S41 (clockwise) and S42 (counter-clockwise), providing access to numerous U-Bahn and S-Bahn interchanges, and connecting through all of Berlin's crosses, Südkreuz, Westkreuz, Gesundbrunnen (Nordkreuz) and Ostkreuz with many intercity travel options.All except Westkreuz provide access to many Regionalbahn, Regional-Express, intercity and EuroCity trains, with Gesundbrunnen and Südkreuz also connected to Germany's Intercity Express network; in addition, the provider FlixTrain is operating from Südkreuz station. Overall, Neukölln has four S-Bahn stations, the aforementioned Hermannstraße and Neukölln as well as Sonnenallee on the Ringbahn at the outskirts of Rixdorf, and Köllnische Heide on the southeastbound railway, providing S-Bahn access to the inhabitants of Weiße Siedlung, High-Deck-Siedlung and Schulenburgpark.
Bus
Due to sufficient access to U- and S-Bahn for most areas of Neukölln, the quarter is currently not served by any of Berlin's ExpressBus lines. Still, Neukölln has several regular bus lines, connecting for example Marzahn (194) and Marienfelde (277). There are also four MetroBus lines, the most important ones being the M29 connecting via Checkpoint Charlie and the southern Potsdamer Platz area to the western city center including Kurfürstendamm, the M41 to Berlin Central Station via Potsdamer Platz, and the southbound M44 via Britzer Garten to Buckow-Süd, the terminus of a potential extension of the U-Bahn line U8 (see below). In addition to the N8 and N7 U-Bahn replacement bus lines during night hours (see above), Neukölln is served by several regular night bus lines, for example the N94, which connects Hermannplatz and Lichtenberg railway station via Ostkreuz.
Airport connections Since the closing of the airports Tegel and Tempelhof, whose airfield was partially situated in Neukölln, Berlin only has one remaining international airport, Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER), the former (and greatly extended) Berlin Schönefeld Airport just outside of Berlin.Another smaller airport northeast of Berlin, which is mainly used by charter planes, is Eberswalde–Finow Airport; it has always been a candidate for an expansion into a second international airport in the Berlin periphery; "Flugplatz Eberswalde-Finow: Ex-Militärlandeplatz mischt Tegel-Diskussion auf", Berliner Morgenpost, 11 August 2017. Since the 2025 timetable change, which included the cancellation of the S-Bahn line S45, the quarter Neukölln has no direct daytime connection to the BER anymore.
When exclusively using the U-Bahn, an interchange between subway and the airport express bus lines X7 and X71 is necessary at the current U7 terminus Rudow.The minimum frequency in off-hours is every 10 minutes (X7 and X71 combined), while the X7 itself runs every 5 minutes in peak time. If the S-Bahn is the primary mode of transport, BER passengers to and from Neukölln can use interchanges at Südkreuz station between S-Bahn and the FEX airport express train or the regional express train RE20, which both connect to the BER, and are usually the fastest routes between Neukölln and the airport.The FEX operates every 15 minutes between 4:00 and 0:30, and once every hour between 0:30 and 4:00, reaching the BER within 13–15 minutes. The RE20 operates once every hour between 4:00 and 21:00, reaching the BER within 15 minutes. Sonnenallee station connects to Südkreuz with the circle lines S41 and S42, Köllnische Heide with the lines S46 and S47, and the U-Bahn interchanges Hermannstraße and Neukölln with all four available S-Bahn lines. A slightly longer alternate route is possible with an interchange at Schöneweide station between the S-Bahn lines S46 or S47 and the regional express trains RE24 or RE32.Combined, the two regional express lines operate every 30 minutes, reaching the BER within 11–12 minutes. Sonnenallee station on the Ringbahn, however, has no direct connection to Schöneweide (see below). When exclusively using the S-Bahn, BER passengers to and from Neukölln need to use interchanges at Baumschulenweg station between the S46 or S47 (to and from Hermannstraße, Neukölln and Köllnische Heide) and the southern lines S85 and S9.Sonnenallee station has no direct public transport connection to the Baumschulenweg and Schöneweide stations, so the only options are using the circle lines, preferably with the FEX and RE20 western interchanges at Südkreuz, with the similarly fast eastern alternates RE24 or RE30 via Ostkreuz station, or with longer S-Bahn-only options using the eastern interchange at Treptower Park station between the circle lines and the S85 or S9. During the night, the service on the U-Bahn line U7 is replaced by the night bus line N7, which directly connects Neukölln and the airport.Since the closing of the old Terminal 5 near Schönefeld, the daytime bus line 171 between Hermannplatz and BER has not been extended to reach the operational terminals 1–4: using this line, passengers need to interchange either at Rudow (X7/71) or at the terminus Schönefeld (S-Bahn). Furthermore, line 171 is eventually set to terminate at Rudow; cf. "Nahverkehrsplan Berlin 2019–2023", Senatsverwaltung für Umwelt, Verkehr und Klimaschutz, p. 282.
Ferry