What's Up with PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION in Germany?!

Tickets, trains, buses, trams...some important things to know about public transportation in Germany, Munich in particular!

So my question for you is: Does the city where you live have public transportation? And if so how complicated is it to buy the right ticket? And for people living in a place without public transportation, do you wish you had it?

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Music:
In The Hall Of The Mountain King by Grieg

[braunXYZ]

It's generally a good advice to watch for splitting trains. it's pretty common and you really don't want to be in the wrong part of an ICE.

[chickenskink]

Another reason why I love living in Germany. Public transportation is super convenient here. But more importantly, it's better for the environment than cars!
They just really need to make long-distance trains a whole lot cheaper. Not only would it make my life easier, but it would also encourage more people to take a train instead of their car (again, better for the environment).

[peterkoller]

tiny town in Austria - no public transportation within the town limits required, everything within walking distance (10mins on foot to cross the town) BUT if you live a bit outside the town, you are lost without a car.

[jonathanteufel]

I life in Heidelberg with a population of 150.000 and we have buses, Trams (we call it Straßenbahn) and S-Bahn. We have a cheap City-Ticket valid between the three main traffic points. If you want to go further you have to buy a full ticket. Most of the students have a Maxxticket valid for one year and they can just hop on and off and don't have to think about getting a ticket what is kind of amazing 👌

[shonaguthrie]

I’m heading to München tomorrow, so this was a great time to see this!

[vincentgambino]

Dana!! You should do a video comparing the police, firefighters, overall emergency “helpers” between America and Germany!!

[chloeclemenson]

I live in Turin, Italy (I'm a student) and every year I pay €175 for a year transportation pass, it's good for the buses, trams, and subway; it also lets me get into museums in the city for free

[ivar_van_osch]

We use the OV-CHIPKAART, which is valid for All public transport throughout the Netherlands

[reicharx]

Im so glad, that i am a Student and have a Semesterticket

[angelileones]

I love watching your videos. It helps me prepare what to expect living in Germany

[librasgirl]

In Berlin we have ABC areas, you can get either AB, BC or ABC Tickets. A is the inner city, B the rest of the city, C the surrounding areas and cities nearby, for example, you can travel in Potsdam, if you have the Berlin ABC or BC ticket.
Day tickets last till 4 am the next day. We have short tickets (3 stops on U-Bahn & S-Bahn, 6 for Tram and bus). Regular tickets last 2 hours. There's a 4 ticket combi, that is cheaper, but you will get 4 separated tickets, so it's easy to use.
In Berlin, there is a ferry service, too, that does belong to the public transportation network.
And there's still a difference between East and West Berlin. In the East, you'll have more trams, in the West more U-Bahn stations.
Berlin has a 24 h transportation network. During the week U-Bahn, S-Bahn and most trams won't run, but there are always night buses and the M-trams run day and night.

[dearseall]

Here in Austria, near Lake Constance, you can use ALL Public Transport Systems with only one ticket, from the bus in front of your house to the RJ (Austrian ICE).

[ResfeberBear]

I wish I'd seen your video before my last trip to Munich, I learnt the hard way about the train splitting up on the way to the airport! (on the bright side, I had time to grab another Mezzo Mix and Hanuta while I was waiting for another train to go back again!)

[jochenriedling]

Important point to the subway system in Germany: Nuremberg has a system of lines too. And one where the trains are operated by the control center instead of a driver.

[Ccn]

I live in Leipzig and here, the Tram is the biggest part of public transportation. You can reach a tramstation by foot in about 5 min from anywhere in the city and the lines All meet "star like" in the citycenter in front of the main trainstation.

The buslines are placed in rings around the city so you you don't always to have to go to the citycenter first to reach a district right next to where you are.

As i need the Tram to get to work, i pay a monthly subscription(about 50€/month) and can use the Tram, S-Bahn and bus as much as i want.

[rogerlynch]

Nice that you have explained the German term S-Bahn. That is a big German - English confusion point. Great job. Yes, TRAMBAHNEN, earlier called Die Elektrische or E-Zug because runnig on Electricity. From the Eighties on they became revived by city planers before that almost everywhere taken out of service.

[HansFranke]

Well, maybe some tiny little remarks here. The second most common transportation in Germany isn't the U-bahn, but trams (or streetcars). Today trams run in 71 German cities, making Germany the country with the most tram systems in the world. Next, there are only 4 cities with U-Bahn networks in Germany (Berlin, Hamburg, Muenchen and Nueremberg. Also, S-Bahn doesn't mean Stadtschnellbahn, but Schnellbahn. Stadtbahnen are supered up trams, usually due improved trackwork, like heightened stations (Hannover) or underground sections. Some cities like to call them either U-Bahn (Frankfurt) or Stadtbahn ( Hannover) or both (Stuttgart) to mark the improvements, using either symbols in public. Still they are light rail systems based on trams. S-Bahn in contrast is heavy rail, build to railway specifications and running on railway track.

[trickycoolj]

What a timely video, I’m visiting Munich for the first time next month! I’ve visited Siegen (NRW) a bunch and Berlin twice but this is my first trip to Bavaria and I’m super excited! Transportation in Seattle is 95% by bus and we have one light rail train but we will get more in the next 30 years (I’ll be close to retirement). We used to have a very confusing “ride free” area in the downtown core, but once the light rail serviced downtown and wasn’t free it was too confusing to have buses free and rail cost money so now they all cost money. It’s a bummer for those that work downtown and can’t hop on a stop or two to get lunch or run errands in a different part of downtown quickly but it’s much easier for visitors and discourages people sleeping on the buses all day.

[BFBeast]

Yes, that about sounds like what Cologne's ticket structure is like too. Thankfully, there's an easy solution for those forced to rely on public transport: "Jahreskarte". (lit: ticket-for-a-year). No worries about distance brackets or the like. Or better yet (relatively speaking). Being blind like me and my wife and having the "free public transport" stamp on our handicap passes.

And before someone asks: I have about 2% usable eyesight left, which is plenty to enjoy Youtube with.

Keep up the great work, Dana and Mr. German Man, your vids are a great source of enjoyment.

[chaoticgoodghst]

This sounds so complicated.

In Holland you can buy something called a "OV-Chip card" which translates to "Public Transportation Chip Card" which looks like your usual PIN and when you want to travel somewhere you just transfer between €5 and for example €25 from your bank account to your card.

This card can be used for buses, trains, trams and undergrounds. All you have to do is scan the card at the little scanner before you enter the bus or train.

In the bus, you scan the card inside the bus at the scanning machine.

At the train station the scanning machines aren't IN the train but outside of the train on the train station, and you check in at the station.

^ I think this system is SO much easier than different tickets and everything 😇