Rail transport in Germany

Rail transport in Germany is provided predominantly by Deutsche Bahn., the railway network in Germany had a length of, of which were electrified and were double track. About are high-speed railway lines. Germany has the 6th longest railway network in the world, and the largest in Europe after Russia.
Germany was ranked 4th among national European rail systems in the 2017 European Railway Performance Index assessing intensity of use, quality of service and safety. It had a very good rating for intensity of use, by both passengers and freight, and good ratings for quality of service and safety. It also captured relatively high value in return for public investment with cost to performance ratios that outperform the average ratio for all European countries.
Germany's rail freight of 117 billion tons/kilometer meant it carried 17.6% of all inland German cargo in 2015.
Germany is a member of the International Union of Railways. The UIC Country Code for Germany is 80.
Urban rail in Germany includes rapid transit, commuter rail, Stadtbahn, trams and funiculars. Suspension railways are present in two cities, Dresden and Wuppertal, in addition to the H-Bahn at Düsseldorf Airport and Dortmund University. Stuttgart has an urban rack railway.
Island railways are present on Fehmarn, Sylt and Wangerooge.

Overview

In 2018, railways in Germany transported the following numbers of passengers and freight.

Operators

, a state-owned private company, is the main provider of railway service. In recent years a number of competitors have started business, such as SWEG, ODEG or FlixTrain. DB runs several semi-independent divisions, such as DB Fernverkehr, DB Regio and DB Cargo. DB mostly offers state-funded regional services, but some companies offer long-distance services as well. In 2016, DB had a share of 67% in the regional railway market and 68.6% in the inland freight market.
As of October 2016, there were 452 railway operators registered in Germany, among them 124 regional passenger operators, 20 long-distance operators, and 163 freight operators. Transdev Germany is the largest private operator of buses and passenger trains in Germany. Also Netinera operates several railway lines in Germany.
In 2018, public sector funding accounted for 25.6% of the cost of short-distance passenger transport including all rail and bus services. The long-distance market generally does not require government funding.

Special schemes

In June, July and August 2022, there was a special ticket called the 9-Euro-Ticket, which was a ticket with which passengers could travel for €9 per month on local and regional transport throughout Germany. The initiative aimed to reduce energy consumption during the global energy crisis in 2021–2022 and alleviate the costs of living for people. Some criticized the enterprise, saying it led to overcrowding of trains at some points
The Deutschlandticket replaces the 9-Euro-Ticket. This subscription public transport ticket costs €49 and is valid for all local public transport in Germany. The price for the Deutschlandticket will be raised to €58 per month in January 2025.

Stations

Platform height

The European Union Commission issued a TSI on 30 May 2002, that sets out standard platform heights for passenger steps on high-speed rail. These standard heights are and.
In Germany new builds are 550 mm and 760 mm. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern has new builds with 550 mm. Hesse, NRW, Berlin had new builds with 760 mm.

Routes

Track gauges

Signals

Rolling stock

In 2014 and 2015, the rolling stock used in Germany included the following numbers of vehicle types.

Services

Long-distance services of Deutsche Bahn

Long-distance services of Deutsche Bahn are operated by its DB Fernverkehr division:

InterCity-Express – high speed train, largely national but some routes to the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, France, and Denmark
EuroCity – international long-distance trains to larger cities in Europe.
InterCity – national long-distance trains
EuroNight – international night trains

InterRegio services, introduced in 1988 to replace the former Schnellzug and InterCity, were discontinued in Germany in 2003.
The UrlaubsExpress, national night trains to the Alps and the Baltic Sea during vacation times, were abolished in 2007.
Deutsche Bahn is gradually increasing the percentage of InterCity-Express services and downgrading the remaining InterCity services to the role formerly played by the InterRegio.

Long-distance services of other operators

EuroStar Red – high-speed services to Belgium and France, using modified French TGV trains.
Eurocity / InterCity – trains operated by non-German companies that cross the border
EuroCity-Express – on two routes since 2020, operated by Swiss Federal Railways
Flixtrain – operates a handful of long distance trains; Flixtrain is a subsidiary of Flixbus, mostly an operator of long distance buses
RailJet – operated by Austrian Federal Railways, runs services to Austria
NightJet – a sleeper train operated by ÖBB to destinations in mainland Europe
WESTbahn – provides services to Austria

Cisalpino provided services to Switzerland and Italy.
Veolia Verkehr offered services on certain former InterRegio routes until 2014.

Regional and local

and local rail traffic is organised and funded by the federal states. The usual procedure under EU legislation is to award the contract to the lowest bid by means of a tender procedure. The respective states are free to announce short- or long-term contracts as well as to stipulate further conditions such as on rolling stock. In recent years, many bids have been won by private rail companies like NordWestBahn or Netinera, although some states have awarded long-term contracts to local DB Regio subsidiaries. The train types for regional and local traffic are as follows.

Regional-Express and InterRegio-Express – medium-distance semi-fast trains for regional services
Regionalbahn – basic local service, usually calling at all stations
Metropolexpress – local train in the state of Baden-Württemberg
S-Bahn – suburban rail services mostly provided by Deutsche Bahn
U-Bahn – underground train services provided by the various cities' transport bodies
Tram / light rail services – tramways are in place in several cities, in a few major cities these run underground in the city centre

Previously, there were also other regional train types, the Stadt-Express, formerly named City-Bahn.

By state

Rail links to adjacent countries

Germany has rail links to all of its nine neighbouring nations. These countries use the same mainline gauge, although electrification and other systems such as signalling may differ.

Denmark — voltage change to 25 kV AC 50 Hz
Poland — voltage change to 3 kV DC
Czech Republic — voltage change to 3 kV DC
Austria — same voltage
Switzerland — same voltage, but different pantographs
France — voltage change to 25 kV AC 50 Hz
Luxembourg— voltage change to 25 kV AC 50 Hz
Belgium — voltage change to 3 kV DC
The Netherlands — voltage change to 1500 V DC or 25 kV AC 50 Hz

There are also train ferries between Rostock and Trelleborg across the Baltic Sea. Until December 2019, there were also train ferries carrying EuroCity and ICE services between Puttgarden and Rødby, Denmark. The Lake Constance train ferries linked Germany with Switzerland and Austria across Lake Constance.

International passenger trains

The table includes operational cross-border services, most of which run either as EuroCity, EuroCity-Express, InterCity, Intercity-Express or Regionalexpress. Local border services are not listed.

Service	Route	Countries
Eurostar	Dortmund — — —	Germany – Belgium – France
	Hamburg — — Prague	Germany – Czech Republic
/	Münster / — — — — Innsbruck	Germany – Austria
/	Münster / Dortmund / Frankfurt — — Salzburg — Klagenfurt	Germany – Austria
	Frankfurt — Basel — — Milan	Germany – Switzerland – Italy
	Munich — Bregenz — Zurich	Germany – Austria – Switzerland
	Munich — Innsbruck — Verona — Bologna	Germany – Austria – Italy
	Berlin — Warsaw Wschodnia / Gdynia	Germany – Poland
	Berlin — — Frankfurt — — — Innsbruck Hbf	Germany – Austria
	Berlin — Frankfurt — — /	Germany –Switzerland
	— Berlin — Chemnitz /	Germany
	Kiel / Hamburg-Altona — — Basel —	Germany – Switzerland
	Hamburg-Altona — — Munich — Wörgl Hbf — Schwarzach-St. Veit	Germany – Austria
	Berlin — — Prague — —	Germany – Czech Republic – Austria
	Düsseldorf — Köln Hbf — Koblenz Hbf — Trier Hbf —	Germany – Luxembourg
	Amsterdam / Dortmund — Cologne — Basel	Germany – Switzerland
	Karlsruhe — Munich	Germany
	— Hamburg	Denmark – Germany
	Amsterdam — Berlin Ostbahnhof	Netherlands – Germany
	Amsterdam — Frankfurt	Netherlands – Germany
	— Frankfurt	Belgium – Germany
	Paris East — Saarbrücken / Frankfurt	France – Germany
	Paris East — — Munich	France – Germany
	Marseille — Frankfurt	France – Germany
	Stuttgart — — / Zurich	Germany
	Budapest — Vienna West — Munich — Frankfurt	Hungary – Austria – Germany
	Dortmund/Hamburg-Altona — — Vienna	Germany – Austria
	Stuttgart — Munich — Salzburg — Vienna West	Germany – Austria
	— Feldkirch — Innsbruck — Vienna West	Germany – Austria
Kulturzug	— — Cottbus —	Germany – Poland
	Basel Bad Bf — — — / Ulm Hbf	Germany – Switzerland
	Koblenz — Trier Hbf — Luxembourg	Germany – Luxembourg
	Munich — Prague	Germany – Czech Republic
	Berlin / Hamburg — — Malmö	Germany – Denmark – Sweden
	Stuttgart — Munich — Salzburg — — Zagreb /	Germany – Austria – Slovenia – Croatia
NightJet	Berlin / Hamburg — Zurich	Germany – Switzerland
NightJet	Hamburg / Düsseldorf — Vienna / Innsbruck	Germany – Austria
NightJet	Vienna — — Berlin-Charlottenburg / Warsaw Wschodnia	Austria – Czech Republic – Germany / Poland
NightJet	Munich — Salzburg — Venice / Rome	Germany – Austria – Italy
European Sleeper	Prague — Dresden — Berlin — Amsterdam — Brussels	Czech Republic – Germany – Netherlands – Belgium