Passenger numbers for local rail services (including S-Bahn trains) grew by 2.1% to 2.52 billion, while tram and U-Bahn ridership increased by 1.7% to 3.85 billion. There was a 1.1% decline in local bus ridership although this remains the most frequently-used mode with 5.28 billion journeys.

For long-distance travel, ridership on inter-city trains continued its recent slow decline with a further drop of 1.1% to 130 million passengers. Correspondingly, the recently-liberalised long-distance bus market continued to experience surging growth, with passenger numbers almost doubling from 8.2 million to an estimated 17-19 million, with precise figures still to be finalised.

Completing the picture, 23 million passengers in Germany used internal flights, an increase of 0.7% compared with 2013.