Agora analysis: 21 million people in Germany without good public transport connections

Where can many people in Germany take the bus and train easily and where can't they? An analysis names regions and numbers.

The think tank Agora criticizes the poor connection of many people in Germany to local public transport. (Archive image) Photo: Hendrik Schmidt/dpa

Berlin. The think tank Agora Verkehrswende sees 21 million people in Germany and therefore around a quarter of the population poorly or not at all served by local public transport. For around 5.6 million of them, the offer does not even reach the lowest quality class, according to the new public transport atlas from Agora Verkehrswende. The population in more rural regions is particularly affected.

From the Berlin think tank's point of view, a good basic offer is a stop about 250 meters from home, from which a bus leaves every half hour on weekdays.

The worst-off people are dependent on cars. Communities in Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt as well as in Bavaria outside the metropolitan areas are particularly affected.

Frankfurt is number one

Around 30 million people are very well or well served by buses and trains. This group mainly lives in large cities or their surroundings. In large cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants, Frankfurt am Main has the best offer. Close behind in the analysis by Agora Verkehrswende are Stuttgart, Munich, Karlsruhe, Düsseldorf and Darmstadt.

When it comes to rural districts, densely populated outskirts of metropolises such as the Munich district and the Hanover region performed best, while the regional states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse and Baden-Württemberg performed best. Rhineland-Palatinate offers the best balance between what is available in urban and rural regions. In contrast, in Bavaria, Saxony and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania there is a large gap between strong centers and sparsely developed areas.