Transport in Germany
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As a densely populated country in a central location in Europe and with a developed economy, Germany has a dense transport infrastructure.
One of the first
Since
Verkehrsmittel (German: [fɛɐ̯ˈkeːɐ̯sˌmɪtl̩] ⓘ) and Verkehrszeichen - Transportation signs in Germany are available here in German and English.
Road and automotive transport
Overview
The volume of traffic in Germany, especially goods transportation, is at a very high level due to its central location in Europe. In the past few decades, much of the freight traffic shifted from rail to road, which led the
High-speed vehicular traffic has a long tradition in Germany given that the first
The German government has had issues with upkeep of the country's autobahn network, having had to revamp the Eastern portion's transport system since the unification of Germany between the
Roads
Germany has approximately 650,000 km of roads,[3] of which 231,000 km are non-local roads.[4] The road network is extensively used with nearly 2 trillion km travelled by car in 2005, in comparison to just 70 billion km travelled by rail and 35 billion km travelled by plane.[3]
The Autobahn is the German federal highway system. The official German term is Bundesautobahn (plural Bundesautobahnen, abbreviated 'BAB'), which translates as 'federal motorway'. Where no local speed limit is posted, the advisory limit (
The main Autobahnen going all across Germany have single digit numbers. Shorter highways of regional importance have double digit numbers (like A 24, connecting Berlin and Hamburg). Very short stretches built for heavy local traffic (for example ring roads or the A 555 from Cologne to Bonn) usually have three digits, where the first digit depends on the region.
East–west routes are usually even-numbered, north–south routes are usually odd-numbered. The numbers of the north–south Autobahnen increase from west to east; that is to say, the more easterly roads are given higher numbers. Similarly, the east–west routes use increasing numbers from north to south.
The autobahns are considered the safest category of German roads: for example, in 2012, while carrying 31% of all motorized road traffic, they only accounted for 11% of Germany's traffic fatalities.[6]
German autobahns are still toll-free for light vehicles, but on 1 January 2005, a blanket mandatory toll on heavy trucks was introduced.
The national roads in Germany are called Bundesstraßen (federal roads). Their numbers are usually well known to local road users, as they appear (written in black digits on a yellow rectangle with black border) on direction traffic signs and on street maps. A Bundesstraße is often referred to as "B" followed by its number, for example "B1", one of the main east–west routes. More important routes have lower numbers. Odd numbers are usually applied to north–south oriented roads, and even numbers for east–west routes. Bypass routes are referred to with an appended "a" (alternative) or "n" (new alignment), as in "B 56n".
Other main public roads are maintained by the Bundesländer (states), called Landesstraße (country road) or Staatsstraße (state road). The numbers of these roads are prefixed with "L", "S" or "St", but are usually not seen on direction signs or written on maps. They appear on the kilometre posts on the roadside. Numbers are unique only within one state.
The
Rail transport
Overview
Germany features a total of 43,468 km railways, of which at least 19,973 km are electrified (2014).[7]
Railway subsidies amounted to €17.0 billion in 2014[8] and there are significant differences between the financing of long-distance and short-distance (or local) trains in Germany. While long-distance trains can be run by any railway company, the companies also receive no subsidies from the government. Local trains however are subsidised by the German states, which pay the operating companies to run these trains and indeed in 2013, 59% of the cost of short-distance passenger rail transport was covered by subsidies.[9] This resulted in many private companies offering to run local train services as they can provide cheaper service than the state-owned Deutsche Bahn. Track construction is entirely and track maintenance partly government financed both for long and short range trains.[citation needed] On the other hand, all rail vehicles are charged track access charges by DB Netz which in turn delivers (part of) its profits to the federal budget.
High speed rail started in the early 1990s with the introduction of the Inter City Express (ICE) into revenue service after first plans to modernize the rail system had been drawn up under the government of Willy Brandt. While the high speed network is not as dense as those of France or Spain, ICE or slightly slower (max. speed 200 km/h) Intercity (IC) serve most major cities. Several extensions or upgrades to high speed lines are under construction or planned for the near future, some of them after decades of planning.
The fastest high-speed train operated by Deutsche Bahn, the
The German government on 13 February 2018 announced plans to make public transportation free as a means to reduce road traffic and decrease air pollution to EU-mandated levels.[10] The new policy will be put to the test by the end of the year in the cities of Bonn, Essen, Herrenberg, Reutlingen and Mannheim.[11] Issues remain concerning the costs of such a move as ticket sales for public transportation constitute a major source of income for cities.[12][needs update]
International freight trains
While Germany and most of
S-Bahn
Almost all major metro areas of Germany have suburban rail systems called
Rapid transit (U-Bahn)
Relatively few cities have a full-fledged underground
Cities with U-Bahn systems are:
With the exception of Hamburg, all of those aforementioned cities also have a tram system, often with new lines built to light rail standards. Berlin and Hamburg (as well as the then independent city of Schöneberg whose lone subway line is today's line 4 of the Berlin U-Bahn) began building their networks before World War I whereas Nuremberg and Munich - despite earlier attempts in the 1930s and 1940s - only opened their networks in the 1970s (in time for the 1972 Summer Olympics in the case of Munich).
Cities with Stadtbahn systems can be found in the article Trams in Germany. Locals sometimes confuse Stadtbahn and "proper" U-Bahn as the logo for the former sometimes employs a white U on a blue background similar to the logo of the latter (in most cases, however, the Stadtbahn-logo includes additions to that U-logo). Furthermore, Stadtbahn systems often include partially or wholly underground sections (especially in city centers) and in the case of Frankfurt U-Bahn what is properly a Stadtbahn is even officially called an U-Bahn. To some extent this confusion was deliberate at the time of the opening of the Stadtbahn networks, as it was seen at the time to be more desirable to have a "proper" U-Bahn system than a "mere" tram system and many cities which embarked on Stadtbahn building projects did so with the official goal of eventually converting the entire network to U-Bahn standards.
Trams (Straßenbahn)
Germany was among the first countries to have electric streetcars, and Berlin has one of the longest tram networks in the world. Many West German cities abandoned their previous tram systems in the 1960s and 1970s while others upgraded them to "
Air transport
Short distances and the extensive network of motorways and railways make airplanes uncompetitive for travel within Germany. Only about 1% of all distance travelled was by plane in 2002.[3] But due to a decline in prices with the introduction of low-fares airlines, domestic air travel is becoming more attractive. In 2013 Germany had the fifth largest passenger air market in the world with 105,016,346 passengers.[13] However, the advent of new faster rail lines often leads to cuts in service by the airlines or even total abandonment of routes like Frankfurt-Cologne, Berlin-Hannover or Berlin-Hamburg.
Airlines
Germany's largest airline is Lufthansa, which was privatised in the 1990s. Lufthansa also operates two regional subsidiaries under the Lufthansa Regional brand and a low-cost subsidiary, Eurowings, which operates independently. Lufthansa flies a dense network of domestic, European and intercontinental routes. Germany's second-largest airline was Air Berlin, which also operated a network of domestic and European destinations with a focus on leisure routes as well as some long-haul services. Air Berlin declared bankruptcy in 2017 with the last flight under its own name in October of that year.
Charter and leisure carriers include
Airports
There are several more scheduled passenger airports throughout Germany, mainly serving European metropolitan and leisure destinations. Intercontinental long-haul routes are operated to and from the airports in Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Cologne/Bonn, Hamburg and Stuttgart.
Airports — with paved runways:
- total: 318
- over 3,047 m: 14
- 2,438 to 3,047 m: 49
- 1,524 to 2,437 m: 60
- 914 to 1,523 m: 70
- under 914 m: 125 (2013 est.)
Airports — with unpaved runways:
- total: 221
- over 3,047 m: 0
- 2,438 to 3,047 m: 0
- 1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
- 914 to 1,523 m: 35
- under 914 m: 185 (2013 est.)
Heliports: 23 (2013 est.)
Water transport
This article needs additional citations for verification. (August 2016) |
Waterways: 7,467 km (2013);
Pipelines: oil 2,400 km (2013)[17]
Ports and harbours:
The
Merchant marine:
total: 427 ships
Ships by type: barge carrier 2,
Ferries operate mostly between mainland Germany and its islands, serving both tourism and freight transport. Car ferries also operate across the Baltic Sea to the Nordic countries, Russia and the Baltic countries. Rail ferries operate across the
See also
Driving in Germany travel guide from Wikivoyage
Rail travel in Germany travel guide from Wikivoyage
- List of airports in Germany
- License plates in Germany
- List of motorways in Germany
- List of federal highways in Germany
- Tourism in Germany
- 9-Euro-Ticket
External links
- CIA World Factbook - see section on transportation
References
- ^ bundesregierung.de - The federal government says 40% of €164,000,000,000 spent on transport infrastructure where spent in the eastern part
- ^ Logistics, Oliver Wyman on Transportation &. "European Bus Upstarts Snatch 20% of Passengers from Rail". Forbes.
- ^ iRAP. Archived from the originalon March 7, 2009. Retrieved 2009-02-17.
- BMVBS. Archived from the originalon 2011-10-11. Retrieved 2011-05-22.
- ^ "Gemeinsames Datenangebot der Statistischen Ämter des Bundes und der Länder". Archived from the original on 2003-11-15.
- ^ "Traffic and Accident Data: Summary Statistics - Germany" (PDF). Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen (Federal Highway Research Institute). Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen. September 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-04-08. Retrieved 2014-04-07.
- ^ a b c "CIA World Facebook: Germany".
- ^ "German Railway Financing" (PDF). p. 2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-10.
- ^ "Market Analysis: German Railways 2014" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-11-27. Retrieved 2015-11-10.
- ^ Oltermann, Philip (2018-02-14). "German cities to trial free public transport to cut pollution". the Guardian. Retrieved 2018-02-15.
- ^ "POLITICO Morgen Europa: Freie Öffis gegen schlechte Luft — Neues zum Spitzenkandidatenprozess — In eigener Sache". POLITICO. 2018-02-13. Retrieved 2018-02-15.
- ^ "Kostenloser Nahverkehr: Allein in Hamburg so teuer wie eine Elbphilharmonie pro Jahr". Spiegel Online. 2018-02-14. Retrieved 2018-02-15.
- ^ World Bank Datebase, http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IS.AIR.PSGR
- ^ "Airports with the most passengers in Germany 2022". Statista. Retrieved 2023-12-14.
- ^ Stewart, Alison (2020-01-23). "Germany's Kiel Canal: The world's busiest man-made waterway is an engineer feat". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2023-07-05.
- ^ "Water locks on the rivers of Europe". Darby's Destinations. Retrieved 2023-07-05.
- ^ Germany. The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency.
- ^ "Top 50 World Container Ports". World Shipping Council. Retrieved 29 May 2019.