Transport in Germany

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Because of Germany's central situation in Europe, the volume of traffic, especially the transit of goods, is very high. In the past decades, much of the freight traffic shifted from rail to road transport, which led the Federal Government to introduce a motor toll for trucks in 2005. In addition, individual traffic increased to an extent that on German roads, traffic densities are very high by international comparison. For the future, a further strong increase of traffic is expected.

High-speed vehicular traffic has a long tradition in Germany, not only owing to the automobile industry, but also, because the first motorway (Autobahn) in the world, the AVUS, and the world's first automobile were developed and built in Germany. Germany possesses one of the densest road systems of the world. In contrast to other European countries, German motorways partially have no blanket speed limit. However, signposted limits are in place on many dangerous or congested stretches, and where traffic noise or pollution poses a nuisance.

Another way to travel is via rail. Deutsche Bahn (German Rail) is the major German railway infrastructure and service operator. For commuter and regional services, franchises of various sizes are granted by the individual states, though largely financed from the federal budget. Unsubsidised long-range service operators can compete freely all over the country, at least in theory. Actually, Deutsche Bahn holds a de facto monopoly on long-range services.

The InterCityExpress or ICE is a type of high-speed train operated by Deutsche Bahn in Germany and neighbouring countries, for example to Zürich, Switzerland or Vienna, Austria. ICE trains also serve Amsterdam (The Netherlands) as well as Liège and Brussels (Belgium). In spite of branch lines progressively being closed for at least the last seven decades, the rail network throughout Germany is still very extensive and provides excellent services in most areas. On regular lines, at least one train every two hours will call even in the smallest of villages. Nearly all larger metropolitan areas are served by an S-Bahn heavy rail metro system. A large proportion of towns feature underground and/or tram systems. Good urban and overland bus services are ubiquitous.

Frankfurt International Airport is a major international airport and European transportation hub. Frankfurt Airport ranks among the world's top ten airports and serves 304 flight destinations in 110 countries. Depending whether total passengers, flights or cargo traffic are used as a measure, it ranks as the busiest, second busiest and third busiest in Europe. alongside London Heathrow Airport and Paris's Charles de Gaulle.

Germany's second important international airport is Munich International Airport; other major airports are Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport, Düsseldorf International Airport, Berlin, Hamburg Airport and Cologne Bonn Airport. Travelling by plane within Germany is unusual due to the extensive network of motorways and railway services. But due to the declining prices released by the many low-cost carriers who build a remarkable domestic network airtraffic within Germany is increasing. On long range travel taking the plane is occasionally less expensive than the Deutsche Bahn.

Contents

[edit] Road and automotive transport

Map of the German autobahn network
Map of the German autobahn network

[edit] Highways

  • Total: 656,140 km
  • Paved: 650,891 km (including 11,400 km of autobahn expressway
  • Unpaved: 5,249 km (all-weather) (1998 est.)

[edit] Automobiles

  • Total number of cars: 53,600,000
  • Cars per 1,000 capita: 658

[edit] Automobile companies their brands

[edit] See also

[edit] Rail transport

InterCityExpress train, Stuttgart.
InterCityExpress train, Stuttgart.

Railways:

  • total: 40,826 km, including
  • at least 14,253 km electrified and
  • 14,768 km double- or multiple-tracked (1998)

Deutsche Bahn (DB) is the major German railway company. Though Deutsche Bahn is a private company, the government still holds all shares and therefore Deutsche Bahn can still be called a state-owned company.

Since its privatisation in 1994, Deutsche Bahn AG (DB AG) no longer publishes details of the tracks it owns; in addition to the DB AG system there are about 280 privately or locally owned railway companies which own an approximate 3,000 km to 4,000 km of the total tracks and use DB tracks in open access.

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; instead, the long-distance trains must be self-supporting. Local trains however are subsidized by the German states (Länder) which pay the operating companies to run these trains. This resulted in many private companies offering to run local train services as they can provide cheaper service than the state-owned Deutsche Bahn. Long-distance trains on the other side are primarily operated by Deutsche Bahn as the initial investment in rolling stock is a lot higher and not subsidized by the state.

[edit] Rail links in adjacent countries

[edit] International passenger trains

(only major connections listed)

[edit] International freight trains

While Germany and most of contiguous Europe use Standard gauge (1435mm), differences in Signaling, Rules and Regulations, Electrification voltages, etc. tend to hamstrung freight operations across borders.

[edit] S-Bahn

In some areas of Germany an urban railway called S-Bahn is in operation. These trains usually connect larger agglomerations to the suburban areas, although in the case of the Rhein-Ruhr S-Bahn these also serve as a method of interurban transport between large cities.

[edit] Metros

Train of the U-Bahn Berlin
Train of the U-Bahn Berlin

Relatively few cities have a full-fledged underground U-Bahn system, though a larger number has upgraded its tramways to light rail standards. These systems are called Stadtbahn, not to be confused with the S-Bahn, which usually is an interurban train running on main line rails.

Cities with pure U-Bahn systems are:

Cities with Stadtbahn systems can be found in the article Trams in Germany.

[edit] Water transport

Hamburg Harbour
Hamburg Harbour

Waterways: 7,500 km (1999); major rivers include the Rhine and Elbe; Kiel Canal is an important connection between the Baltic Sea and North Sea, the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal links Rotterdam on the North Sea with the Black Sea.

Pipelines: crude oil 2,500 km (1998)

Ports and harbours: Berlin, Bonn, Brake, Bremen, Bremerhaven, Cologne, Dortmund, Dresden, Duisburg, Emden, Hamburg, Karlsruhe, Kiel, Lübeck, Magdeburg, Mannheim, Oldenburg, Rostock, Stuttgart

The port of Hamburg is the largest sea-harbour in Germany and ranks #2 in Europe, #7 world-wide (2004).

Merchant marine:
total: 475 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 6,395,990 GRT/8,014,132 DWT
ships by type: bulk 2, cargo 181, chemical tanker 12, container 239, liquified gas 2, multi-functional large load carrier 5, passenger 2, petroleum tanker 8, rail car carrier 2, refrigerated cargo 2, roll-on/roll-off 13, short-sea passenger 7 (1999 est.)

[edit] Air transport

Frankfurt Airport Terminal 1
Frankfurt Airport Terminal 1

Airports: 615 (1999 est.)

Airports — with paved runways:

  • total: 320
    • over 3,047 m: 14
    • 2,438 to 3,047 m: 61
    • 1,524 to 2,437 m: 67
    • 914 to 1,523 m: 56
    • under 914 m: 122 (1999 est.)

Airports — with unpaved runways:

  • total: 295
    • over 3,047 m: 2
    • 2,438 to 3,047 m: 6
    • 1,524 to 2,437 m: 6
    • 914 to 1,523 m: 55
    • under 914 m: 226 (1999 est.)

Heliports: 59 (1999 est.)


National airlines:

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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