At the beginning of 2023, 60.1 million road motor vehicles (passenger cars, lorries, road tractors for semi-trailers, buses and coaches, motorcycles, motorcycles n.e.c. and other road motor vehicles) were registered in Germany. The growth, which has continued for many years, led to an all-time high in the stock of road motor vehicles in Germany in 2023.
In 1990, the length of public railway lines in the former territory of the Federal Republic was some 30,000 kilometres. In the context of German unification, Deutsche Reichsbahn (railways of the former GDR) contributed a rail network of some 14,000 kilometres. In 2019, the total rail network was down to about 38,394 kilometres.
Roads of other than local transport (motorways, federal roads, Länder roads and district roads) had a length of almost 230,000 kilometres in 2022, of which motorways accounted for 13,155 kilometres (about 5.7). Germany thus has the second largest motorway network in Europe. Only Spanish motorways are longer.
On reference day 30 June 2022, the 682 German enterprises engaged in inland water transport had 2,416 inland waterway vessels for goods and passenger transport. They employed 6,024 staff members in the field of inland water transport and earned 1.25 billion euros from inland water transport.
In the same period, the 271 German airlines had a total of 1,093 aircraft and 59,455 staff members and achieved a turnover of 13.3 billion euros.
Source: Stock of road motor vehicles: Federal Motor Transport Authority, Flensburg
Length of lines: Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development.