One in three people in Germany dissatisfied with local public transport – survey

A third of people in Germany say they do not feel well connected by bus or train near their home, and are not satisfied with the number of departures at their nearest stop, according to a survey commissioned by railway association Allianz pro Schiene, environmental NGO BUND and the German Road Safety Council. Dissatisfaction is highest in small towns with up to 5,000 inhabitants, where over 70 percent of people are not satisfied with the accessibility of public transport nor with its frequency.

Local public transport is perceived to be most reliable in Germany's three city states of Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen. People in the federal states of Saxony-Anhalt, Lower Saxony and Brandenburg show the most dissatisfaction with their local public transport.

The majority of respondents (68%) said they have not perceived positive or negative changes in bus and rail connections in their area in the past five years, while 17 percent said they felt positive change, and 15 percent a negative change. Close to half (48%) say safety on cycle paths has not improved or worsened either, with roughly one quarter saying they felt safer and one quarter feeling less safe. When it comes to walking, 62 percent of people said they felt no change in how safe they feel, while 23 percent said they felt more unsafe.

"People want more local public transport, they want safe cycle paths and they want to be able to get around on foot without worrying," said Tina Löffelsend, head of climate protection at BUND. "A new federal government must align transport policy more closely with the different needs."

The transport sector remains Germany's "problem child”, as emissions have not decreased significantly since the early 1990s. A report from green mobility think tank Agora Verkehrswende found that delaying climate action in the sector would lead to a significantly more expensive transition to climate neutrality by 2045.