Rail transport in Germany


, Germany had a railway network of of which are electrified and were double track. Germany is a member of the International Union of Railways. The UIC Country Code for Germany is 80.
Germany was ranked fourth among national European rail systems in the 2017 European Railway Performance Index assessing intensity of use, quality of service and safety. Germany had a very good rating for intensity of use, by both passengers and freight, and good ratings for quality of service and safety. Germany also captured relatively high value in return for public investment with cost to performance ratios that outperform the average ratio for all European countries.

Overview

As of 2006, there were around 23,500 powered rail vehicles in Germany, operated by the main operator Deutsche Bahn as well as around 150 smaller private railway companies:
In 2006, railways in Germany carried around 119,968,000 passengers on long-distance trains, and 2,091,828,000 passengers on short-distance trains. In the same year they carried 346,118,000 tonnes of goods at an average distance of.
Deutsche Bahn is the main provider of railway service. In recent years a number of competitors have started business. They mostly offer state-subsidized regional services, but some companies offer long-distance services as well.
InterRegio services, introduced in 1988 to replace the former Schnellzug and Intercity, were abolished in 2003. 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 InterCityExpress services, and downgrading the remaining InterCity services to the role formerly played by InterRegio.
The earliest form of railways, wagonways were developed in Germany in the 16th century. A wagonway operation was illustrated in Germany in 1556 by Georgius Agricola in his work De re metallica. This line used "Hund" carts with unflanged wheels running on wooden planks and a vertical pin on the truck fitting into the gap between the planks to keep it going the right way. The miners called the wagons Hunde from the noise they made on the tracks. Such wagonways soon became very popular in Europe.
Modern rail history officially began with the opening of the steam-hauled Bavarian Ludwig Railway between Nuremberg and Fürth on 7 December 1835. The first long distance railway was the Leipzig-Dresden railway, completed on 7 April 1839. The following years saw a rapid growth: By the year 1845, there were already more than of railroads in Germany, ten years later that number was above 8,000.
German unification in 1871 stimulated consolidation, nationalization into state-owned companies, and further rapid growth. Unlike the situation in France, the goal was support of industrialization, and so heavy lines crisscrossed the Ruhr and other industrial districts, and provided good connections to the major ports of Hamburg and Bremen. By 1880, Germany had 9,400 locomotives pulling 43,000 passengers and 30,000 tons of freight, and forged ahead of France.
During the Second World War, austere versions of the standard locomotives were produced to speed up construction times and minimise the use of imported materials. These were the so-called war locomotives. Absent a good highway network and trucks, the Germans relied heavily on the railways, supplemented by slower river and canal transport for bulk goods.
In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell. Train frequency rapidly increased on the existing East/West corridors; closed links which had formerly crossed the border were re-opened. On 3 October 1990, Germany was reunified; however, this was not immediately the case with the railways. Administrative and organisational problems led to the decision to completely re-organise and reconnect Germany's railways. The so-called Bahnreform came into effect on 1 January 1994, when the State railways Deutsche Bundesbahn and Deutsche Reichsbahn were formally reunited to form the current German Railway Corporation.
The German railways were long protected from competition from intercity buses on journeys over 50 km. However, in 2013, this protection was removed, leading to a significant shift from rail to bus for long journeys. In addition, Deutsche Bahn officially lost its railway monopoly status in 1996; since then its share in regional railway market has dropped to 67%, and in the inland freight market it dropped to 68.6%. As of October 2016, there were 452 railway operators registered in Germany, among them 20 being long-distance operators.

Track gauges

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 550 mm and 760 mm.
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.

Rail links to adjacent countries

All these links are to countries of the same gauge, although electrification and other systems may differ.
Local border services are not listed.
Public sector subsidies accounted for 23.7% of the cost of short-distance passenger transport including all rail and bus services. Subsidies are generally not paid in the long-distance market.