Episode Details
Back to EpisodesOne Nation, One Ticket - Germany's Train Network
Description
Louis announces his move to Germany for two years, as the Transit Tangents Pod plans to continue with a mix of European and American content.
• Germany's Deutschland ticket offers access to the entire country's public transit for a monthly fee
• German transit operates on multiple tiers: ICE (high-speed), IC (intercity), RE/RB (regional), plus local networks
• High-speed ICE trains connect major cities at 250 km/h but face punctuality issues at 66% on-time performance
• German cities feature integrated U-Bahn (subway), S-Bahn (commuter rail), and Straßenbahn (tram) systems
• Small 120,000-person city of Jena has 5 tram lines and 13 bus routes serving nearly as many daily passengers as all of Austin
• Texas is geographically twice the size of Germany yet lacks comprehensive transit connections between cities
• Frankfurt metro (2.7M people) has extensive transit comparable to similarly sized US cities like Austin, Charlotte, Denver
The hosts are planning a special Northeast Corridor Acela tour from Boston to Baltimore in June – stay tuned and support via Patreon if you want to help make trips like this happen.