Growth of public transport passenger numbers grinds to a halt in Germany

Passenger numbers on Germany’s bus and rail services stagnated last year. According to statistics office Destatis, the number of passengers remained at around 11.5 billion in 2025, following a significant increase of around five percent or 0.5 billion in 2024, and the earlier rebound from the coronavirus pandemic.

Local buses were the most frequently used mode of transport with 5.3 billion passengers, followed by trams with around 3.9 billion passengers, Destatis said. For the report, individual journeys are defined as passengers. If people travelled multiple times during 2025, they are therefore counted multiple times.

Germany’s transport sector is lagging far behind most other sectors in reducing emissions, which remained largely constant for decades until the pandemic started in 2020. Green transport advocates stress the importance of boosting public transport as an alternative to cars, but the public transport passenger numbers suggest the switch made little headway last year. 

While the number of local bus and tram passengers remained constant last year, long-distance rail transport passenger numbers rose three percent to 146 million, but Destatis said the increase was linked to a rail strike in early 2024, which had depressed that year’s baseline figures. Only the number of passengers on long-distance buses rose significantly last year, by six percent to 11 million.