A guest post from Jason!
Dräger sent me to Germany the week before last. It was my first time traveling by train in Europe, and it was amazing. Most of the cities have what’s called U-Bahn and S-Bahn lines, the equivalent of our subway and commuter rail. These are handled by the RMV system. It’s when you go farther out that it’s really different from the U.S.
The Lübeck train station
The national transportation system, Deutsche Bahn, operates a large regional and inter-city train network. And when I say large, I mean 34,000 kilometers of track and 1.9 billion passengers annually. One can pretty much get from any point in the country to another by train alone.
The Hamburg train station
And when you do get to your city, you can easily rent a bike or a car, because Deutsche Bahn runs a giant car/bike share operation, as well. How awesome is that? Boston’s supposed to get a bike share program this summer, and I’m looking forward to it.
A Book-n-Drive car in Frankfurt
All that, and the trains go upwards of 125 mph, with test track already built for maglev trains that go upwards of 250 mph. I can’t even get 50 miles from my house without feeling stranded once I get there; public transportation just isn’t that integrated into our culture. But being in Germany and using the system for only a few days made me wish that we had more of that here.
So many bikes outside of the Lübeck train station
