Talk:S-Bahn

Renaming S-Bahn to S-train
On 11th March 2016 user Diannaa renamed this article from "S-Bahn" to "S-Train" with the comment "Diannaa moved page S-Bahn to S-train: English name rather than German". This is wrong in so many ways.

1) S-Bahn = Stadtschnellbahn = Urban Express Railway, i.e. Bahn = railway, not train.

2) The "S-" prefix has been left, so that part has not been translated.

3) These systems are never called "S-train" in English. Can anybody actually provide a reference that the term "S-train" exists in English? I think not.

4) The move does not appear to have been discussed. The method of moving this article has wiped this talk page.

These systems are always referred to as "S-Bahn's" in English, this is the correct term. You cannot just invent a word just because you think the current title of the article is "not English". S-Bahn is a term used in German speaking countries, other terms are used in other countries (RER etc.). There is no generic term in English equivalent to an "S-Bahn". There are few equivalent systems in English-speaking countries; the currently under construction Crossrail system in London is effectively an S-Bahn and is so categorised in it's German Wikipedia article.

Will somebody please end this abortion and move this article back to "S-Bahn". TiffaF (talk) 18:29, 8 September 2016 (UTC)
 * What happed is that Diannaa on 8 March 2016 moved page S-train to Copenhagen S-train. And then on 11 March moved page S-Bahn to S-train. So the old S-Bahn is now S-train, and the old S-train is now Copenhagen S-train. But the Talk:S-Bahn was never moved, so the old talk page remains. I support using Copenhagen S-train as the name of the article about Copenhagen S-train. I doubt a little that we shall call the general article S-train because no article about any system (except Copenhagen S-train) are named S-train. It was however discussed on Talk:S-Bahn and on Talk:Copenhagen S-train (then named Talk:S-train), but no one seems to have objected or commented at all. --BIL (talk) 20:09, 8 September 2016 (UTC)
 * For what is worth, I agree that this whole "S-train" article idea is deeply wrong. Either the Commuter rail page could have been expanded with a more thorough description taking in consideration how commuter rail is done outside of the USA, or the generic S-Bahn and Commuter Rail articles be merged. The whole discussion about what differentiates a S-Bahn system from other commuter rail is flawed, because there are systems that confute each of the often listed specialties of an S-Bahn/S-train network (for example, trains running on separate dedicated tracks, or high service frequency). Touyats (talk) 22:58, 18 September 2016 (UTC)

German logo
Why does the German logo display in the Denmark section, above the Copenhagen S-train logo?--Klausok (talk) 07:58, 19 September 2016 (UTC)
 * There is a problem because the codes for inclusion of left and right side photos are mixed, and influence each other. I shall try to fix this.--BIL (talk) 10:49, 19 September 2016 (UTC)

Title, content, scope
I am writing to echo the concerns already raised on this page. It seems this article was moved from "S-Bahn" (which would be a reasonable title for an article on suburban rail in Germany, or the German-speaking world (Germany, Austria, parts of Switzerland) to "S-Train", which AFAICS has no particular meaning, certainly not as a distinct category of urban rail, as suggested here. Nor is "S-train" a correct translation of S-Bahn, nor is it used as a name for them in English-language sources.  The article also seems to be arguing for some unique status for these railways, though the characteristics listed for them are common to many suburban rail systems (London's Overground, or  New York City's Metro-North Line and LIRR, or the Paris RER, spring to mind immediately). It also includes lines in Belgium, Italy, the Czech Republic and Denmark, (which qualify as fast suburban railways) while excluding others; something even the German WP article on the S-bahn fails to do. In short it reads as an exercise in original research, and as such shouldn't be here.

So I would suggest we either:
 * a. send the whole lot to AfD as an OR mess, or
 * b. split & move relevant information to relevant articles (Suburban railway, MCS, or the individual systems) including a new article on the German S-bahn systems, or
 * c. return this page to "S-Bahn", re-focus it on the German systems and delete/move the rest

Any thoughts? Moonraker12 (talk) 16:45, 24 October 2016 (UTC)


 * I agree Moonraker12, upon looking at the history of this article it seems some overzealous users have altered the article to be some made up distinct transport classification. I support it being refocused back into the German S-bahn with a section at the bottom with showing similar and/or comparable international examples.Terramorphous (talk) 00:39, 25 October 2016 (UTC)

It looks like we all agree
This article is about rapid heavy metros that start with the letter S. Where do we go from here? Nankai (talk) 07:51, 30 January 2019 (UTC)


 * Good question. Seems this talk page has been pointing out the problem with this article for nigh on half a decade now: it's conflating the S-bahns of Germany with a supposed type of rail system that seems to be a Wikipedia invention. It might be best to delete and start again. ҉ Randwicked ҉ 10:46, 8 November 2020 (UTC)
 * The section "Comparable systems" seems to be largely redundant to Commuter rail. That is because there isn't that one S-Bahn. While most systems can be considered commuter rail, a few systems like the S-Bahn Berlin also have features of metro services. Others like the S-Bahn Magdeburg are just rebranded regional trains, sometimes with a few more stops in the city. This article should be an overview about the systems in Germany and Austria, not about commuter rail in general.--PhiH (talk) 13:08, 8 November 2020 (UTC)


 * what about Copenhagen S-tog or Prague Esko? Hobbitschuster (talk) 14:57, 8 November 2020 (UTC)
 * We can keep them here if the term derives from the German word "S-Bahn". I will start removing the other "comparable systems" and if necessary merge parts of them into commuter rail. --PhiH (talk) 08:03, 9 February 2021 (UTC)


 * I have finally merged the long "Comparable systems" section into Commuter rail. Currently those systems which use a name that might be based on the German term "S-Bahn" are still in the article although I'm not really sure if they fit here. --PhiH (talk) 20:29, 7 January 2022 (UTC)

Article title
As others have already pointed out on this talk page, this article should to be moved back to S-Bahn. The term S-train seems to be an invention of Wikipedia because a user thought we needed to use English names even if there isn't one. S-train is not a term that is used in reliable sources and not even a correct translation of the German word S-Bahn. --PhiH (talk) 10:43, 28 January 2022 (UTC)
 * Strongly agree with this. S-Bahn is what everyone says discussing these systems in English. I've never heard "S-Train" used anywhere except this article. ҉ Randwicked ҉ 11:25, 28 January 2022 (UTC)