These four sections served as tariff zones of the suburban fare structure before World War II.

Gesundbrunnen is not a typical crossing, but rather has parallel tracks that curve to the south after leaving the station, allowing trains to run towards Südkreuz.

The approximately 88-square-kilometre (34 sq mi) area encompassed by the Ringbahn comprises the "Berlin A" zone in the Verkehrsverbund Berlin-Brandenburg's fare structure.

With the opening of the section from Schöneberg through the still-independent city of Charlottenburg (now Westend station) to Moabit on 15 November 1877, the ring was complete for freight and long-distance trains, while the suburban trains running on the Ringbahn would still visit and reverse at Potsdamer station in the city center, turning north from the ring, running parallel to the Berlin–Potsdam–Magdeburg Railway.

Passengers could change at the Kolonnenstraße station across the platform to continue to ride on the Ringbahn without going all the way to the Potsdamer Ringbahnhof.

Since the trains were pulled by steam locomotives, they had to be refilled with water and coal and serviced at relatively short intervals; this was possible by reversing at Potsdamer Bahnhof.

Even after electrification, the management of the railway company wanted to spare the passengers the need to change at the Papestraße or Schöneberg stations to a properly provisioned train traveling from the suburbs to downtown Berlin.

[5] In World War II, the Potsdamer and Anhalter stations were heavily bombed; the Südringspitzkehre was closed in 1944 and was never reopened.

[6] From 1944 until the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, S-Bahn trains ran over the direct line between Papestraße (now Südkreuz) and Schöneberg opened in 1933, making a complete circle.

The East Berlin section, from Schönhauser Allee to Treptower Park, remained in operation as it formed part of a major north-south tangent.

The reconstruction of the connection between Sonnenallee and Treptow Park required large-scale renovation that was not feasible in the short term.

The western part of the ring line was put back into operation in stages: More than 12 years after the fall of the Wall, the last gap of the S-Bahn between Westhafen, Wedding and Gesundbrunnen, was fully restored on 16 June 2002.