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Transport in Germany

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Road and automotive transport

Map of the German autobahn network

Highways

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

Automobiles

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

Automobile companies their brands

See also


Rail transport

InterCity Express 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.

International passenger trains

(only major connections listed)

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.

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.

Metros

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 U-Bahn systems are:

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

Water transport

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.)

Air transport

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.)

See also

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