STUTTGART, GERMANY-The light rail network of Stuttgart, Germany (population 560,000), which we have written about frequently, is the paradigm of a modem, efficient urban rail system.
Stuttgarter Strassenbahnen, a new member of APTA, runs 150 miles of track through 330 square miles of urban neighborhoods. Though this state capital (of Baden-Wuerttemberg) is the home of both Mercedes-Benz and Porsche, and private car ownership stands at more than one per household, public transit ridership has actually increased steadily over the past two decades; farebox coverage is more than 80 percent and private car use has declined to 43 percent of the modal split because of SSB's concerted efforts to improve and maintain service standards that won it the "top system in the world" award at the UITP International Transit Congress last June.
The fact that SSB pays attention not only to its rail and bus fleet that collectively moves about 170 million passengers per year, but also to the 6 percent who ride bikes, is demonstrated by its Degerloch urban cogwheel rail line (see photo) that moves up a steep incline from downtown to an intermodal terminal. Cyclists are permitted to load their bikes onto a mobile platform that is pushed ahead of the train all the way to its suburban terminal, where the bikers unload their two-wheelers to continue the trip.
About 3,300 passengers use the six stop, 2.2 kilometer line every workday, and about a thousand bikes are carried every week, a third of these during the weekend.
This is the only facility of its kind we are aware of. Do you know of any others? We'll be pleased to share your information.
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