Some 11.5 billion passengers travelled on local public transport networks across Germany last year, which is 2% lower than the pre-pandemic year of 2019.
According to preliminary results from Germany’s Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the distance travelled by all passengers using local bus and train services totalled 121 billion kilometres in 2024, which is 7% higher than in 2019.
Mobility behaviour
As Destatis noted, the pandemic-era lockdown significantly altered mobility behaviour, leading to a ‘collapse’ in passenger numbers, which began to rise again in 2022 due to discounted ticket campaigns. However, passenger growth declined in the first half of this year, the data indicated.
All modes of public transport have seen passenger numbers decline compared to 2019, albeit to varying degrees – trams reported the largest decline in use, carrying 3.9 billion passengers in 2024, 5% fewer than in 2019.
Buses, which are the most-used type of public transport, reported 5.4 billion passengers last year, representing a 1% decrease. Rail-based local transport carried around 2.8 billion passengers, down 1% from 2019, with this figure partly affected by strike actions during the year.
Total distance travelled
While fewer passengers used both rail and bus transport, both modes of transport saw increases in the total distance travelled, according to Destatis.
Local rail transport accounted for 64 billion passenger kilometres in 2024, 12% higher than in 2019, with the average journey length rising by three kilometres to 23 kilometres.
In the case of buses, the total distance travelled increased by 4% to 40 billion passenger kilometres, with the average journey length rising to 7.3 kilometres, up from 7 kilometres in 2019. For trams, the average travel distance remaining unchanged at 4.2 kilometres.
‘The Deutschlandticket, introduced on May 1, 2023, may have contributed to making local rail and bus journeys more attractive for medium-distance travel,’ Destatis noted. ‘There are also changes between increased home office use and distance to work.’ Read more here.
