How does public transportation in Germany compare to the US?

High speed rail

German ICE train and French TGV 

Frankfurt's airport has a direct train connection to Frankfurt City, a condition one can find at many US airports such as Baltimore/Washington International, Newark and San Francisco as well. Just as at BWI, the airport train station in Frankfurt also offers long distance train service via the German ICE and Regio trains. The Intercity Express trains are similar to Amtrak's Azela trains but generally cheaper and connecting to a Europe-wide network with transfer trains usually within a few minutes directly on the other side of the platform. As soon as one train is late, the connectivity suffers obviously, even though the connecting trains usually wait for a few minutes. Bigger disturbances quickly ripple through the network. They are not as uncommon as the good reputation of the European high speed rail system would suggest. German Rail, theoretically a private company, is a brainchild of the German Government, just as Amtrak. Both depend heavily on federal money, and both are chronically underfunded, even though Deutsche Bahn (DB) is modern than Amtrak's premier service between New York and Washington dubbed Acela. Modern ICE trains regularly travel at speeds of 160 miles per hour or more, Amtrak can do maximally 150mph on only a few short stretches. The later generation ICE trains have no longer engines like the Azela train but are propelled by several sets of electric motors installed directly over the wheel trucks similar to light rail.

German ICE train interior design

This way they can go forward and backward the same way with the operator sitting in a control module at the end of the first or last passenger car. Tracks are in much better shape than in the US and riders can easily use their laptops at maximum speed, a challenge in an Amtrak train which jolts the passenger quite a bit at top speed. Like Amtrak, DB allows paperless electronic ticketing, has dynamic pricing (the same trip is much cheaper on a Saturday afternoon than on a Monday morning) but the DB coaches are better appointed (electronic displays show next stops, connections, actual arrival times and the current speed). The cafe cars offer more and better food choices and some trains have real restaurant cars as well. Overall train tickets are somewhat cheaper than in the US but much higher than many inner European flights, thus far more people fly on distances like Stuttgart to Berlin (For at times as little as $60) than take the train (above $250) for the 400 miles trip. (6-1/4 hrs by train, about what it also takes by car due to a more direct route). The various high speed rail systems of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Spain and Great Britain are now largely able to use each others network, making it possible to board a train in one country and arrive deep in the heart of another without ever leaving one's seat. The systems and the train manufacturers also compete for the most successful train set, ensuring that progress for the steel wheel on rail technology is far from being finished.

Buses

Stuttgart Citaro artic buses (Photo Philipsen)

Most city transit buses in Europe are a standardized Euro model manufactured by various bus companies. The Mercedes Citaro buses, for example, come in 40' standard length as in the US' or as 60' articulated buses, sometimes with rear double axis propulsion. The following observations apply to the Mercedes buses used by the Stuttgarter Strassenbahn (SSB). In Stuttgart articulated buses are the norm and have three doors, in front for entry and the two rear doors for exit, whereby the middle door is designated for the mobility impaired and people with strollers. The buses have no bike racks. Onboard only folding bikes are permitted.

There is a large open area behind the center door for placing wheel chairs, strollers and the like. The doors are wide and largely glazed allowing easy view and use. The wide pneumatically operated doors are a far cry from the flimsy folding doors of the New Flyer buses in the US. However, the difference is not only one of technology, but more one of demographics. The SSB and their bus maker don't seem to worry about fare cheaters boarding through rear doors, the chief reason why the New Flyer narrow rear doors fit only a person at a time and flap shut so fast that they often hit disboarding passengers.

The Citaro front access allows two lanes for boarding, one for cash payers and one for prepaid tickets. There is a reader for electronic tickets similar to what airlines uses for boarding passes. Cash payers put their money on an open tray and the operator will give change into another tray from a coin holder. The SSB offers  multiple trip tickets which have to be inserted into a validator where they get notched and stamped. There are also day passes, weekly and monthly passes. Plainclothes fare inspections are frequent and carry an element of surprise. (The inspectors cannot be spotted from how they are dressed). The fact that change is made in Germany and not in the US also has to do with the US experience that operators were frequently threatened to give up their cash until the fares disappared in a sealed box that is so solid, that nobody has access to it without special tools.

Two lane entry and ticket reader (Photo Philipsen)

The operator has two electronic displays, one for ticket info and one for route info. All stops are shown in sequence and with their scheduled times. Passenger have a screen display in view that shows the route, the current location, the upcoming stops with estimated time to the stop and when the bus stops all the transfers at this location with real time display of the connections in minutes. The lastest models offer USB charging ports for selected seats. There are male and female bus operators, of course, all navigated their large vehicles through the often tiny streets competently, souveraine and with pride as much as one can judge this. People never leave the bus through the front door, thanks to a mechanical arm that moves only one way and the rules which Germans like to obey. There is little or no banter even though, unlike at the US counterpart, seats are mounted on the front wheel wells directly behind the driver. The operators I saw showed little interest in the visual fare identification, apparently relying on the random fare inspectors instead.

The buses are diesel or diesel electric. Mercedes currently doesn't offer a full electric bus to transit agencies, according to a city council representative who tried to use a federal grant for emission free buses (They offer CNG) and was rebuffed by the manufacturer. Diesel emissions are a big problem in Germany, and espcially in Stuttgart where the city will enact diesel prohibitions for older diesel vehicles starting January 2019 for large parts of the city where fine particle and NOx is too high.

Headways for buses and trams during peak hours are as low as 5 minutes and as high as 20 minutes. The fares vary by zone and start with short trips at about $1.50. The tickets are valid for the entire regional transit compact VVS with over 30 providers including bus and rail. The full network day pass costs about $18 and allows trips far into the areas as far as 30 miles from the center city. In my trips no train or bus was more than 3 minutes late, trains usually arrived within the advertised minute.

Every passenger is different, some are sitting, others may prefer. If you care about all people equally, and you want to make sure that everyone reaches their destination safely, whenever needed, then your welcome as: Bus driver in regular transit service. In the activity as a bus driver you provide sovereign and reliably always safe transport for our passengers in the metropolitan area Stuttgart. Of course, you also take care of the sale and the control of tickets. You are also responsible for passenger information on fare and route issues. During the 14-week full-time training, we will qualify you at our in-house driving school in Stuttgart-Möhringen for use in the regular service of the SSB. For the training as a bus driver you bring: Driver's license class B for min. 2 years, completed vocational training (desirable), adequate knowledge of German, willingness to shift work, also on weekends and holidays and technical understanding,  a minimum age of 24 years. (Job offer of the SSB).

Bus and rail operators at the SSB earn on average about $42k annually (gross). Earlier this year their union organized a strike for a 6% raise.

Operator's cabin with route monitor and
cash changer German transit bus
(Photo Philipsen)

Light Rail

Many German cities have some form of light rail which sometimes is more like a streetcar and sometimes more like a subway. The Stuttgart light rail system is signed with a blue capital U, typically used for German subways (Underground) due to the fact that the trains are articulated doubles or two-car consists with two articulated trains which run underground in the central city. Where they run on the surface, they have their own right of way in the median or alongside of roadways. Trains principally manage traffic signals and have full preemption.

All tickets have to be prepaid on rather old fashioned vending machines which do not accept credit cards. There are no readers for tickets on a mobile phone anywhere and I am not clear how those would be handled except that fare inspectors would accept them. It seems that SSB and VVS aren't big on counting their riders.

S Trains

The S train category, common in some European countries, is a bit confusing for visitors from overseas. They are in part heavy rail regional trains and in part subway. However, except for Berlin, they are usually operated by German Rail or its subsidiaries and often share tracks with other trains. This is easy since they use overhead catenary and not third rail (except, again, in Berlin) like metro trains. They can also be quite long. Where the urban system has no underground portion, the trains use frequently double- decker coaches. In cities with dead end main stations (Frankfurt, Stuttgart and many others) S Bahns now circulate underneath the inner city in an underground system that looks and feels like any real subway except for the lack of third rail. In Stuttgart the SSB U-trains and the DB S trains together provide an underground rail network comparable to DC or San Francisco.

German S commuter train doubl- decker coach.
(Photo Philipsen)

The latest generation S trains are coupled in such a way that three long coaches form an uninterrupted interior allowing unobstructed views from end to end of each train unit. Those trains, of course, don't use engines but are self propelled like the ICE trains. Just like the buses, the S trains and latest U trains offer displays with route, stations and connections. Upon arrival, bus terminals are placed at the stations with buses coordinated with and waiting for arriving trains. Thanks to the regional ticket system, no new ticket is needed at the transfer.

The VVS offers an app that allows trip planning, ticket purchase, ticket display, real time information about escalators and elevators and possible disruptions. While not as user friendly as, for example, the US Transit app, the VVS app offers a while range of user options which go beyond what Transit or Google maps can do.

All in all, transit use in Europe is far easier and much more common than in Europe whereby it isn't entirely clear what is the chicken, and what the egg. As we have seen, that the European bus isn't only a means of transportation for those who have no other choice but is widely accepted as a reliable way for getting around by all segments of the population is one of the reasons why even bus design can be more user friendly.

Alternative modes

There are no electric share scooters, no dockless bikes and no Uber or Lyft in Stuttgart or most other German cities. (Except Berlin). The Germans can't tolerate the largely unregulated state of these systems. A federal government workgroup just came up with the idea that scooters need to be licensed, have a license plate and turn signals (!).
Meanwhile the big boys try to keep business to themselves: Daimler Benz operates many of their own brand (electric) Car to Go Smart Cars and even offers a transit app with their cars as a last mile option. The docked bikes in Suttgart (and many other cities) are operated by Deutsche Bahn. In this way, it all goes its orderly way and disrupters are kept at bay in Germany, not necessarily a competitive advantage.

Klaus Philipsen, FAIA

Buffet car in the ICE train

Double-decker commuter train near Los Angeles (Photo Philipsen)

US transit bus San Diego (Photo Philipsen)

Stuttgart Transit bus Citaro (Photo Philipsen)

Stuttgart light rail interior (Photo Philipsen)

Center door as exit and entry for mobility impaired and strollers (Photo Philipsen)

Intermodal stop underground light rail/ bus with real time service indicator sign
(Photo Philipsen)

Stuttgart cog rail train (Photo Philipsen)

Stuttgart S train in underground station: Like a subway (Photo Philipsen)

Interior of modern S train: No obstructions between the coaches
Onboard bus #44 indicator showing route, arrival times and connections (below) (Photo Philipsen)

The VVS rail network