According to preliminary results released by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) on Wednesday, the number of passengers transported by buses and trains in Germany in 2025 was approximately the same as in 2024, reaching around 11.5 billion people. This represents an increase from 10.9 billion passengers in 2023 to 11.4 billion in the previous year.
Within the public local transport sector (ÖPNV), which accounts for 99 percent of rail and bus traffic, passenger volume remained stable at around 11.3 billion people in 2025. Local buses and trams saw usage levels similar to those of the previous year. Of the listed modes, the bus was the most frequently used mode of transport with 5.3 billion passengers, followed by trams with approximately 3.9 billion passengers.
Only in the regional railway transport showed a slight increase of about one percent in 2025 compared to the year before, a rise possibly linked to the strikes that took place in the first quarter of 2024. The number of passengers in regional railway transport climbed to 2.8 billion in 2025.
For long-distance rail transport, passenger numbers in 2025 rose to 157 million, marking a three percent increase over 2024. In long-distance rail travel overall, 146 million passengers traveled, also a three percent increase compared to 2024. These increases are very likely related to the strikes in the first quarter of 2024, as well as an expansion of the reporting scope for long-distance rail starting from the first quarter of 2025. Had the newly included companies not been factored in, the passenger growth would have been only two percent.
In long-distance bus travel, eleven million passengers traveled. After growth had stagnated in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2024, 2025 saw a passenger increase of six percent.