Travel in Germany

Road & Automotive Transport

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

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

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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 running 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.

Rail links in adjacent countries
Denmark - same gauge - voltage change 15kVAC/25kVAC
Poland - same gauge - voltage change 15kVAC/3000VDC
Czech Republic - same gauge - voltage change 15kVAC/3000VDC
Austria - same gauge - same voltage
Switzerland - same gauge - same voltage
France - same gauge - voltage change 15kVAC/(25kVAC or 1500VDC).
Luxembourg - same gauge
The Netherlands - same gauge - voltage change 15kVAC/1500VDC
Belgium - same gauge - voltage change 15kVAC/3000VDC

Metros

Train of the S-Bahn BerlinCities with metro or light rail ("Stadtbahn") systems:

Berlin (S-Bahn, and U-Bahn,)
Bielefeld (Stadtbahn)
Bonn (Stadtbahn)
Bremen (Stadtbahn)
Brunswick (Stadtbahn)
Cologne (Stadtbahn)
Düsseldorf (Stadtbahn)
Frankfurt am Main (S-Bahn and Stadtbahn)
Freiburg im Breisgau (Stadtbahn)
Hamburg (S-Bahn, and U-Bahn, )
Hanover (S-Bahn and Stadtbahn)
Heidelberg (Stadtbahn)
Karlsruhe (Stadtbahn)
Mannheim (Stadtbahn)
Munich (S-Bahn, and U-Bahn, )
Nuremberg (S-Bahn and U-Bahn)
Ruhr Area (Stadtbahn)
Stuttgart (S-Bahn and Stadtbahn)

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Water transport

Hamburg HarbourWaterways: 7,500 km (1999); major rivers include the Rhine and Elbe; Kiel Canal is an important connection between the Baltic Sea and North 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)

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Air transport

Frankfurt Airport Terminal 1Airports: 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.)