Rapid transit in Germany

German U-Bahn logo

German S-Bahn logo

Rapid transit in Germany consists of four U-Bahn systems and 14 S-Bahn systems. The U-Bahn, commonly understood to stand for Untergrundbahn ('underground railway'), are conventional rapid transit systems that run mostly underground, while the S-Bahn or Stadtschnellbahn ('city rapid railway') are commuter rail services, that may run underground in the city center and have metro-like characteristics in Munich, Hamburg and Berlin which they only have to a lesser extent in other cities. There are also over a dozen semi-metro or Stadtbahn systems that are rapid transit in the city center and light rail outside.

There are four U-Bahn systems, namely in Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Nuremberg; these are all run by the transit authorities in the city. Some cities call their Stadtbahn "U-Bahn" (like Frankfurt) or abbreviate their Stadtbahn with a U. The confusing term U-Stadtbahn is also used on occasion and as U-Bahn is often seen as the more desirable term, common parlance and non-specialist media are often not very rigorous with the definition of their terms. Additionally, several cities in the former East Germany, among them Dresden^[1] or Erfurt^[2] have taken to calling their tram systems – or upgrade and expansion projects for them – Stadtbahn without ever intending to introduce tunnel or elevated segments to the infrastructure.

The 14 S-Bahn systems are in Berlin, Bremen, Dresden, Hamburg, Hanover, Magdeburg, Mitteldeutschland, Munich, Nuremberg, Rhein-Main, Rhein-Neckar, Rhein-Ruhr (parts thereof also trademarked as Rhein-Sieg and/or Cologne), Rostock and Stuttgart. Most S-Bahn systems are franchised to the national train operating company, Deutsche Bahn, and have developed from the mainline railways. Normal headway is 20 minutes^{[citation needed]} and, on busy routes, use dedicated tracks running alongside mainline routes. Ticketing is governed by the local transport authority (Verkehrsverbund) and connectivity is integrated into the city public transport system. The first S-Bahn systems developed in Berlin and Hamburg with third rail electrification and have many characteristics comparable to the metro systems of their city (albeit with bigger distances between stations), but the newer S-Bahn systems which started to open in the 1970s are characterized with more shared infrastructure with mainline rail and the use of overhead wire electrification.