Rapid transit in Germany

The U-Bahn, commonly understood to stand for Untergrundbahn ('underground railway'), are conventional rapid transit systems that run mostly underground, while the S-Bahn or Stadtschnellbahn ('city rapid railway') are commuter rail services, that may run underground in the city center and have metro-like characteristics in Munich, Hamburg and Berlin which they only have to a lesser extent in other cities.

Additionally, several cities in the former East Germany, among them Dresden[1] or Erfurt[2] have taken to calling their tram systems – or upgrade and expansion projects for them – Stadtbahn without ever intending to introduce tunnel or elevated segments to the infrastructure.

The 14 S-Bahn systems are in Berlin, Bremen, Dresden, Hamburg, Hanover, Magdeburg, Mitteldeutschland, Munich, Nuremberg, Rhein-Main, Rhein-Neckar, Rhein-Ruhr (parts thereof also trademarked as Rhein-Sieg and/or Cologne), Rostock and Stuttgart.

In 1882, the growing number of steam-powered trains around Berlin prompted the Prussian State Railways to construct separate rail tracks for suburban traffic.

A lower rate for the newly founded Berliner Stadt-, Ring- und Vorortbahn ('Berlin City, Circular and Suburban Rail') was introduced on 1 October 1891.

As the steam powered trains came to be nuisances to more and more people, the Berliner Stadt-, Ring- und Vorortbahn switched to direct current wagons running on 750 V from a third rail.

Nuremberg and Munich decided on a full U-Bahn (like those in Berlin and Hamburg) independent from their existing tramways, which were originally planned to be phased out but are now being expanded again.

Shortage of money, increased passenger numbers and the insight that larger streets only attract even more cars slowed the building of rapid transit lines and led to a renaissance of the tramways in those cities that had forgotten them.

In Nuremberg and Munich, after 30 years new rolling stock was purchased, existing lines were modernised, and new ones were built, leading to new integrated traffic concepts.