Skip to main content

Lessons Learned From German Transit

Riding the rails in Germany shows the Chicago region a path forward for transforming transit.


Ken Eckert, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Why can’t the Chicago region have the standout transit service that many have experienced while traveling in foreign cities? 

It’s all too common to hear that the underlying conditions and culture are so different in the U.S.  that we can’t have that shiny and reliable train. To find out what’s really possible for transit, a group of 20 state lawmakers, labor leaders, civic leaders, and transportation advocates toured the Munich and Berlin transit systems in December and met with regional leaders to learn what it took to build their excellent, integrated regional system. The trip was inspired by The Plan of Action for Regional Transit  issued by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, which cited Berlin and Munich as successful cases to inform the greater Chicago transit system as it faces a funding crisis. A key takeaway was that to get a high-performing transit system like Germany’s, a large factor is having a vision and staying the course over a number of years.  If our leaders commit to it, we could have a much more integrated, rider-centered transit system that better meets our region’s needs.   

The delegation is briefed before boarding a high-speed train from Munich to Berlin.

The Munich and Berlin regions have many similarities to greater Chicago. It’s no secret that Germans love their cars and have a huge automotive industry (the autobahn is still going strong), but at the same time, they have prioritized transit because it was the right thing for their urban areas to support population growth and economic health, and for connectivity across the country. As shown in the table below, while the density of the regions is similar, Munich has twice the transit ridership and Berlin has five times the ridership of the Chicago region. 

Transit riders have a seamless experience on the German urban systems (everything other than high-speed intercity rail) because they can buy all fares via a single app and communications is integrated. This is because all operators in each region are part of a transit association, known as Verkehrsverbünde. Their motto is “one network, one timetable, one fare,” to make riding transit a simple and appealing choice. The member transit operators recognize that they will get more riders if they work in an integrated fashion. Their competitor is the car, not the other transit operators. They understand that integrated fares and information play a huge role in the rider experience. Transit operators have contracts with performance measures, including incentives for exceeding goals and fines for not meeting them. It’s an iterative process that starts with policy changes to increase ridership, which then leads to the next big capital investment.

This approach has proven its resilience as the Munich and Berlin regions have fully recovered ridership since COVID despite the same long-term shift of many working from home two to three days per week. This is because the regional associations enable nimble and cohesive transit marketing, and operators have adapted to serve new leisure markets, such as to rural areas on weekends for citydwellers to access nature.

Establishing this excellent transit system didn’t happen by accident. It involved setting up the governance structure to make transit improvement a priority. In 1972, Germany was overrun with cars and it was hard to use transit since operators had separate fares. In the 1990s, the government established transit associations to coordinate fares and marketing. The result: since 1972, Germany has doubled transit ridership and tripled transit performance. And transit has become very much part of the culture for future generations. Parents trust the system and let their kids ride on their own at a young age. Germans raise kids to be independent earlier, enabled by transit.

Group on train
(L-R): IL Representative Eva-Dina Delgado, Erin Aleman, Executive Director of Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, and MPC Senior Director Audrey Wennink enjoy the transit experience in Germany.

In Northeastern Illinois, we are at a turning point – will we make the choice to prioritize transit for the future, to boost our economy, to address climate change, to provide more affordable transportation? The German model shows us a path forward. After seeing Illinois lawmakers’ broad smiles and excitement on the German trains, we are optimistic they will advance bold policies that will set us up for an exciting transit future.


In the Media

The December 2024 Germany learning tour provided Illinois decision-makers and transportation-advocates a firsthand experience of the kind of transit experience the notable Berlin and Munich models deliver. The articles below provide related reading on the topic.

“It Was Magnificent”: Illinois legislators take a learning tour of Berlin and Munich transit systems

StreetsBlog Chicago

View the article
Man waiting for train

Debate over the future of CTA, Metra, Pace, RTA to heat up in Springfield this year

Chicago Tribune

View the article