In 2025, passenger numbers for bus and rail public transit in Germany were comparable to those of 2024, according to preliminary figures released by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) on Wednesday. The total number of passengers transported reached approximately 11.5 billion. This represents an increase from the 10.9 billion passengers recorded in 2023, and a slight increase from the 11.4 billion recorded the previous year.
Within the local public transportation (ÖPNV), which accounts for 99 percent of all line traffic, passenger numbers remained stable in 2025 at around 11.3 billion. Local buses and trams saw usage amounts comparable to the previous year. Buses remained the most frequented mode of transport with 5.3 billion passengers, followed by trams with approximately 3.9 billion passengers.
A slight increase of about one percent was noted only in the regional rail service in 2025 compared to the previous year, a rise that is likely related to the strikes experienced in the first quarter of 2024. Passengers using regional rail reached 2.8 billion in 2025.
In long-distance line transport, passenger numbers rose to 157 million in 2025, marking a three percent increase compared to 2024. Within long-distance rail transport, 146 million passengers traveled, which is also three percent more than in 2024. These increases are very likely linked to the strikes in the first quarter of 2024, as well as the expansion of the reporting scope for long-distance rail beginning in the first quarter of 2025; without the newly included companies, the passenger increase would have been only two percent. For long-distance bus travel, eleven million passengers traveled. Since passenger numbers had plateaued in 2024 due to the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, 2025 saw a passenger growth of six percent in this sector.
