Berlin’s Amazing Trams and What We Could Learn from Them
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- Опубліковано 27 тра 2024
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Berlin is well-known for its fascinating history and impressive railway network, but we think the trams are too-often forgotten. In today's video, we talk about why these yellow city street giants so amazing.
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Regular reminder that this year all of our videos will have captions on them!
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Can you pleeaassee do a video about Prague Metro?
The trams don‘t have priorities at intersections. The M10 has all avg. speed of less than 14km/h..
What do you think about Vienna?
Can you make a video over the tram system from Germanys City Kassel we also have RegioTrams.
It's funny that in Germany, Berlin is seen as the city that does everything wrong, while Canada has a very favorable image.
Regarding transit, Berlin has quite a good image within Germany too.
@@nicolasblume1046 Yeah, they suck pretty much in every matter except public transit.
@@rgboss1337 where else? I've lived there for a few years and didnt notice anything unusual compared to other German big cities.
The biggest problem is the housing market, but that's normal for big cities in Europe
@@nicolasblume1046 organizing elections :D
@@nicolasblume1046 You´re probably not able to vote in Germany so you might not have noticed that couple years ago Berlin didn´t manage to print enough ballots for everyone so the votes of Berlin were not valid and they had to redo the election in Berlin long after the new goverment was in place already. They also needed an extreme amount of time to build their airport and they have one of the hightest crime rates in Germany. The waiting time to get a simple apointment in some govermental offices is extremely long so Berlin is pretty much considered as a failed state within Germany with a lot of depts they can´t pay back so other states have to jump in and pay for Berlins bills.
In additon the schools system of Berlin sucks and they accomplish every year to be in the top 3 of the worst states in PISA studies which show the knowledge level of the children in a state or countries.
As a resident of Berlin, I am very glad and proud to see a video about our tram network from a visitors perspective, especially with all the praise it gets.
I actually had to chuckle, when you mentioned that you were impressed at how fast the trams are. In fact, the average speed of the trams dropped in the last couple of years due to the increase of traffic and lack of signal priority at some intersections down to less than 18 kmh (~11 mph).
Nowadays, on average, even our busses are faster than our trams, so there's a lot of room for improvement in the future.
But I feel like our transit problems sound so nitpicky compared to those of other countries.
Germany actually has over 50 tram networks, some of them are really worth checking out (Munich, Erfurt, Woltersdorf near Berlin).
Erfurts trams are AMAZING! I visited once, fully expecting them to be like my hometown's (Magdeburg) shitty trams that get stuck in traffic and don't often have priority because our city planning department is utterly incompetent - but I was really blown away. Their trams are pretty much a Stadtbahn at this point.
I agree. The one on Freiburg is worth checking out too, although it’s a smaller city
@@FoXWoR Not Just Bikes did a video about Freiburg just a couple of weeks ago where he also talked a lot about their impressive tram system
18 km/h? I was waiting for that number in the video. Thanks. A fair speed in a congested downtown area, but room for improvement. I guess you usually go for faster trains, U- and S-bahn for longer distances in Berlin? My latest tram experience was the small but relatively modern Bybanen in Bergen, Norway. Similar trams too London, I believe. They run at around 25 km/h on average. I had hoped they would be faster with not much of mixed traffic, but comfortable acceleration, sane top speed and convenient stops work against the need for average speed.
Thanks a lot. I was about to write a more critical comment that our Tram (I'm living in Berlin) is becoming worse with the current goverment. Line extensions taking ages and with the last political switch cars are favoured again (before the environmental friendly alternatives were favorited). So overall the government need to do way more also because we have a lot of not operating Trams due to missing tram drivers...
Small correction from a tram driver in Berlin: We don't have a single station with a ticket machine. The ticket machines are in every vehicle.
Apart from that, a very nice video! As a tram driver, I unfortunately have to say that our speed often leaves a lot to be desired. But this is mainly because we (mostly) don't get priority at the traffic lights. Greetings from Berlin :)
Interesting to known, I always thought the "A" or "K" not only meant the traffic light recognized the tram/bus, but also that it turns the light "green" as fast as possible. Does at least the new extension to U Turmstraße have signal priority?
@@JouleThief29 Well for that the lights have to be equipped with that technologie, something i havent seen that much last time i was in Berlin...
@@JouleThief29 Sadly, often it only means that the Signal noticed us 🥲. Turmstraße is actually pretty good and fun to drive. Except that in the station Kriminalgericht Moabit we have the problem that the Signal only gives us about 10 seconds in the Station (which is not enough). After that time we have to manualy activate the Signal again for us, which means we need to leave the Tram and walk to the traffic light.
Musste vorhin auch überlegen da ich ebenfalls in Berlin Straßenbahn fahre aber wir haben eine Station mit Ticketautomaten an der Haltestelle. Hauptbahnhof.
Ah ja gut das kann sein. Vinetastraße könnte glaube ich auch einer stehen. Aber das sind ausnahmen ^^. Für welchen Hof fährst du wenn ich fragen darf?@@julianfemerling8258
Berlin is historically divided. More subway in the west and more trams in the east. Connecting east and west together is working great. My favorite projects are the new tram line to the Hauptbahnhof, which will go to Turmstr or even Junfernheide or Beusselstr one day. The other is the new subway line U5 in the east, which runs right theough the heart of the city and makes all the most important landmarks super accessible.
The extension from Hauptbahnhof to U Turmstraße went into operation last September!
@@ThiesiWhich was actually earlier than planned. It’s great. And they already plan to extend it further to Jungfernheide.
But I really hope they’ll get their issues fixed because there’s a lot of potential the tram (and all public transport systems) don’t use yet.
@@hi.2842 Well, I for one hope they'll get their act together and start extending the subway network. Every day without digging is a wasted day, especially in comparison to what they are doing in Paris and even Toronto right now.
the subway is pretty evenly divided, in former west berlin, its an increase in bus service that makes up for the lack of trams :)
@@ariantaheri4638 That’s not true. East Berlin has only minor parts of the U-Bahn. There’s only parts of U2, U5, U6 and U8. The majority of east Berlin is not connected to the U-Bahn.
East Berlin is mainly connected via S-Bahn and tram.
I love that this was uploaded WHILE I’m in Berlin! I can 100% vouch for their trams, they’re really fantastic and I’m glad they’re still expanding the network a bit!
The trams in West Berlin are still sadly lacking, though.
In my region of west berlin we had a tram in the median of a main road but the CDU removed it in the 60s for parking and now they are planning to bring it back.
@@minalumathe9072 From 1955 to 1981 the SPD ruled in Berlin. You may blame Willy Brandt on this.
It’s a shame that West-Berlin god rid of the trams. Berlin had the biggest tram network in the world at one point. Now we’re number 3 I think and 2/3 were essentially removed.
I’m glad that there’s more tram being built, but the CDU basically doesn’t want them because they’re planning more car friendly infrastructure.
@@BrokenCurtain But there was the recent extension of the M10 to Turmstraße, which is genuinely a great connection! The TXL bus used to serve that, but the bus route was discontinued when Tegel closed, so it's great to have the U9 connected to the tram network now.
But yeah you're right, there's still hardly any in the western half of the city.
Every time Reece has shown some sort of North American tram footage, most of it from Toronto of course, I couldn't help but notice how painfully slow the trams look in every single shot. Like they're crawling through the city for no reason. This video highlights this once again.
Here in East Germany even mid-sized cities (for German standards, in NA these would be considered small with 200k inhabitants) have extensive tram networks and these bad boys are speedy. Even the old soviet era ones (Tatra) that have been phased out pretty much everywhere could haul ass.
I’m already tired when the tram is driving across Alexanderplatz because they have to go slow because of the pedestrians.
The trams here already feel so slow I wonder how slow the ones in NA are haha.
But seriously I love that Berlin has a good network. I hope we’ll finally male it even better in the future.
You can see Berlin’s Tatras in Szczecin, Poland as well as Lviv, Ukraine. Good for those cities, because these still show how reliable they are. Not so good for Berlin, because in case of snow the system has to shut down now. Berlin’s public transport system relies on global warming without weather extremes.
@@AndreasSebayang That’s pure bullshit. I literally just toon the tram yesterday when it was snowing and also took them several times in early December when we had quite a lot of snow for Berlin. They work just fine in snowy conditions.
The actual issue is our driver shortage.
@@hi.2842 And about the bullshit: To go a bit technical, most modern low floor trams are not designed to handle decent snow fall. Look at Helsinki, they have the equipment we lack to keep them running. Germany is not capable to handle snow fall anymore. Munich and Bavaria proved that and they have relatively good equipment. Not compared to Austria (less population than bavaria yet more snow equipment for rails) or of course Switzerland.
Toronto needs to spend some time on a gap year in Germany to find itself and learn that trams can be fast!
I was so surprised how much faster the trams were in Leipzig and Berlin compared to the MAX in Portland even on the street running portions. Speaking of which a video on Leipzig would be awesome, it actually has one of the largest train station buildings in Europe!
Visiting San Francisco, the trams were agonizing, going ridiculously slow and stopping at every block for a stop sign - why!? It's a 4-way stop, trams should be exempted by default, not wait for cross traffic that has also stopped.
The Portland Streetcar, bus, and even some portions of our MAX are *aggrivatingly* slow. I completely agree with North American cities needing to reduce stops, on all street-level transit modes. It's ridiculous to stop 8 times per mile
The MAX frustrates me by trying to be two things at once. It's fast enough outside of downtown (though I wish I could zoom past cars on the freeways), but once you get downtown it crawls, making crosstown trips painfully slow. If you're staying downtown, it works well enough, but I still think you could power walk across town and beat the train!
Leipzig is the largest terminal station(a terminal station has tracks entering only on one side[i.e. they don't pass through the station]) in Europe with 23 active tracks and an area of more than 83.000 square meters.
@brandonbollwark: one also has to keep in mind that in general cities like Berlin or Leipzig have a lot of 'wider' streets (which makes it also possible to have much more separation between public transit, tree alleys, bike lanes AND space for pedestrians AND cafe outdoor seats. this does not work very well in many European cities with as default more narrow streets - especially if the structure is still more medieval. in the US and Canada the more car centric streets outside of the often 'to narrow' build streets offer at least the possibility to upgrade their structures to like the best combination you often have in cities like in Berlin - while it is much more difficult for instance in many parts of Paris, London, Athens or even masses of smaller, cosy but structural not the best ones, to upgrade, because that meant to destroy masses of (often older) buildings. This kind of problems also have developing countries if a huge part was grown very quickly but with too small streets (which is why they often use lifted lighttrains) - and it was the same problem many cities had already in the past for similar reasons and why like in Paris masses of older structures were destroyed (Haussman plan) to make it possible to do more new boulevards and axis. And this is also the reason why I am always VERY sceptical about making streets more narrow (if there are houses built than you cannot regain more space anymore) ...
Weird thing about Berlin trams that I love - the network has a line where the Berlin Wall used to be. Most of the routes in West Berlin were turned into buses or U-Bahns, while in the East, they just kept the trams.
Yeah its a peculiar but very notable divide in the Iron curtain and their transport policies. Legacy tram systems are very common in East Germany, even in cities as small as 50.000 people like Görlitz and Gotha. And the big cities generally didn't get subways in the eastern block and if they did, they got it in very small quantities. Whereas in Western Germany, many tram systems shut down getting replaced by buses, or were upgraded to more metro-like Light rail systems as is seen with the plethora of "Stadtbahn" systems.
m10?
Its a great case of a the structure of a network being very much a result of history!
@@drdewott9154 Even Western Germany and also Austria and Switzerland kept more trams than any other western nation did. Cities like Augsburg, Basel, Braunschweig, Graz, Krefeld, Freiburg, Linz Würzburg, Ulm would have had a hard time keeping their tram system in for example France or Spain which are famous for building new trams.
@@drdewott9154 Reason was that Petrol/Fuel/Gas/Benzin had to be imported and the GDR (DDR) had no money for that. Electrical power was available due coal-power-plants and the in-country coal-mines.
Can't believe Germany's second largest city (Hamburg) doesn't have a tram system. That is also the largest city in Europe without one.
Hamburg had a very impressive tram network back in the day, but then everybody thought cars were the best thing ever and every single tram track was ripped out. Very sad from a today's standpoint.
hamburg has a lacking transit history
But Hamburg has Electric Busses with LCD screen 😂
Eh
so does berlin@@Henrik-fr2rp
This channel should be mandatory viewing for all TTC and Metrolinx employees.
And STM, RTC, etc. Basically every transit authority...
@@dez7800 Does that include Amtrak and Via Rail?
@@JimBones1990 It should !
When I visited Berlin the trams actually felt slow compared to some of the trams in Dresden.
It would be interesting if you could make a video about the Dresden tram system because it is a pretty big city with basically no S-Bahn and no metro, so it relies only on trams as the backbone of public transit.
As a Dresdener, i second this. Comparing the transportation networks in other cities, to dresden, it is my impression, that Dresden's Network is much better integrated in the city! It is, also imho the best visually designed i have seen so far!
Leipzig as well
I wonder if the driving of German tram systems are more aggressive in general😂 in less big cities, trams actually operates somewhat like metros with Ubahn has about 700-800 meter station spacing.
Dresden and Leipzig are quite small cities, of course trams are faster there than in a metropole like Berlin
@@vommLeipzig is definitely not small lol
Thanks for your Video!
As someone who had been to Berlin often, let me state some Points:
1.: Berlin also has a lot of stops with street-level boarding as well as several segments with on steet rails. The M10 has a lot of this wich makes the line way less reliable than other lines.
2.: Berlin also buys Trams in big contracts. The contract runs for about ten Jears and contains a lot of options, which contain a number of different capacities and onedirectional as well al bidirectional cars. The Options are called in regular intervalls so there is a constant flow of new trams. Since the Trams last about 25-30 Jears, you typically see about 2-3 generations of trams running at the same time. For Berlin, this works fine.
3. The tram network has it's history in eastern Berlin, since western Berlin got rid of its trams in the 60s. Sadly in the last 30 Jears there were only a small numer of extensions into western Berlin, sine there is no political will for more. So the Tram network remains mainly for the eastern parts of the city. In western Berlin there is indeed a bigger Subway network than in eastern Berlin.
Thanks for the info :)
For future reference, it is spelled 'years' not 'jears' :)
To add to it, the problem isn't really the space but pure political will because a lot of the middle running space still exists, but often converted into parking which is really hard to get rid of.
Trams last far longer than 25-30 years, they're often used even once they're 50 years old, which was the case in many cities in Poland 15 years ago, and likely still is a case in some Ukrainian cities.
Did yu edit your comment, I can:t read past "points:"
Meanwhile in the USA, trams/streetcars usually function as merely "walking accelerators" and are less than 3km in total track length.
Well, it does appear NOLA's St Charles line will be extended. And it does provide a nice tour of the Garden District.
More seriously, am surprised at NOLA's streetcar extensions as they seem to be continuing.
Yes, like in Kansas City for example. Pitiful.
Because they're not meant as transportation - they're meant as real estate boosters and election bribes.
No, in USA they're light metro but worse
@@longiusaescius2537 Light rail is a little bit different from a streetcar in the US. For example, the DC streetcar is something like what the OP was referring to. It's just one line. Light rail would be something more like the network built in Dallas.
Suggestion for a sixth action point: Don't make your trams wait at traffic lights. They have to just automatically go first, and be detected in advance, like here in the Netherlands. Otherwise how are you going get that consistent schedule?
Am I right that they are made to wait at traffic lights if they are ahead of schedule? Seems like a very good way to use traffic lights.
@@kjh23gk In my experience, no. The driver knows when they're ahead of schedule and stays at the stop slightlylonger. But I've never driven a tram, only rode them, so take that with whatever grain of salt you want.
Trams are large and block stuff. I don't think you want them near intersections longer than they need to be.
@@kjh23gk I've heard that buses in the Netherlands usually wait at lights if they're ahead of schedule
Some old environmental laws in the US require a certain amount of waiting by trams. See, cars pollute while waiting (excluding hybrids, all electric, and gas powered cars with automatic shut off systems, none of which were things when these laws were made), trams don't. So, forcing cars to wait a long time increases pollution, in theory. Not quite sure the exact status of such laws today.
Yes, here in Hannover (Germany) the trams have priority too 👍
You should start offering advisory services to cities thinking about expanding public transit. This video has been so much more informative than some of the published local planning documentation where I live...
afaik he does work as a transit advisor
You don't mention that almost all the trams run in the former East Berlin, because unlike in the West they were never discontinued, just modernised at reunification. Just two routes reach the West - one along a dual carriageway in the North, and a newer addition through the city centre. (The U-bahn, by contrast, serves the West much better).
Yeah, thats better covered in other videos! This one is great: ua-cam.com/video/Dz7uqifiDi0/v-deo.htmlsi=JEbUENyo3Y6ynFmC
Yes, I've seen that one. The point I was trying to make was that, great though the modernisation of the East Berlin trams has been, it's hardly a model to learn from because there has been almost no building from sdcratch, nor is there much intent to. When we were there, admottedly in 1991, the modernisation was moving apace, but the only new line was along the conveniently wide central reservation of a dual carriageway. Trams had even been removed from Alexanderplatz, the central square of the old East Berlin, though there was already talk of reopening them there. Since then, a lot of disused track has been brought back into use in the East, but the only new track into the old West is an extension to the new Hauptbahnhof (and allegedly beyond late last year, though I can't confirm this.)
Cities starting from scratch don't have such infrastructure to revive. Your video on Leeds noted how bad hat city is for transit. It used to have a fine network of trams (Alan Bennett has written about them) but the wider streets they ran on have been macadamed over and the extra space is used for parking, of course.
i mean he kinda did. If we kept the western system our systemw ould be by far the biggest one today.
@@ol1ver49It is a model to learn from mainly because it shows all the features a century-old system can develop and that work. Modern systems that are created from scratch very often take the "clean and unified" approach, but that doesn't work. Especially trams work best when they are cramped into the nooks and crannies of the existing city, using every trick to fit a tram through somewhere where there are people who'd use it, not when they are planned with the "no mixed traffic, wide single-use median, a stop exactly every 332.9 feet, yada yada yada" mindset. Old system have their quirks, like a line splitting because a road is too narrow for tracks in each direction, or a cross-connection flowing in car traffic for a hundred metres. And unless you also build your city from scratch together with your best-practices tram, you need to copy that stuff, too. It's there because it works.
I think the comparison "Toronto vs Berlin" still holds if you compare Toronto with other European cities (at least those I've been to) with tram operation. I live in Prague, and have been to Vienna and Budapest. All of which have a great tram service, similar to what you've mentioned about Berlin's. (Vienna has the second-highest number of stops in the world, the Budapest tram network has the highest ridership in the world as well as the longest trams (56 metres) and Prague has the biggest fleet and second highest ridership in the world). In all three systems stops have traffic info, time tables, sometimes real-time schedules, shelters, you know exactly where the tram will stop, level boarding, frequent service etc. Two switch blades are (I thing) always used, information about switch state is displayed for the driver to see it, and automatic switching is also a standard.
The reason Berlins tram system largely is in East-Berlin, is because West-Germany tried to follow their leaders in the USA in making transport more car centric, and so they shutdown and removed all tram tracks in the 1960s.
Though West-Berlin focused on subways and busses, I personally much prefer the approach in the East, of trams providing very solid high capacity transport for trips in your and the next district and for longer trips bringing you to next S-Bahn and subway stops.
Except bavaria where nuremburg have a subway/u bahn and a well connect tram system or munich to which has both well made u bahn and well made u bahn baden wüttemberg to
@@lordtraxroy He was talking about Berlin in a video about Berlin.
@@Keckegenkai but mx338 he also mention it about west germany
yeah and they still got rid of a lot of trams there@@lordtraxroy
@@lordtraxroy West-Germany in general has is built a lot more car centric, but they still have public transport, for a multitude of reasons, one would be a lot of systems were actually built before WWII, but yes West-Germany also did built decent public transport. However if you look at development in East-Germany you have very small cities like Frankfurt an der Oder which still have 4 tram lines.
East-Germany just put public transportation in the center of their development, while West-Germany always tries being accommodating to cars, while still building public transport, because also in West-Germany not everyone could afford car, and cities also just weren't historically built to handle car ownership.
(Berlin native here. I grew up in the south-eastern part of Berlin with dense network, but now live in the north-western corner with no tram nearby.)
→ 7:10 "In Berlin, tram stops often have large, defined platforms, often with ticket machines." - I don't remember ever having seen a ticket machine on a tram platform. Maybe at major stops like the main station? (You have ticket machines in each tram vehicle, though.) The real-time information is also only there for the newer (or upgraded) stops.
→ Note that besides these "metro"-trams, we also have metro buses, which apply the same concept to some bus lines (mostly in the western part where there are no trams). M means that during the day you have at least every 10 minutes a tram/bus, and it also runs during the night (at least every 30 minutes, sometimes more often), though partially in reduced length, if the other part is covered by another M line. The idea is that these run at corridors which would need a metro-level transit, but didn't get one.
→ I think most people often using the trams in Berlin will often notice delays ... and it's especially annoying if it leads to you losing your connection. People in Berlin like to complain about their transit, and the trams are no exception. I guess we need someone with a look from the outside to tell us how nice we actually have it.
Yes, correct. Confusingly, tram, bus, and ferry stops usually do not have ticket machines. You buy tickets on the vehicle/boat instead.
@@FUZxxl I always bought tickets at the u-bahn platforms since they accept cards. Actually I usually have a monthly or subscription ticket. Also I might know you.
More content from Central Europe would be welcome, and in particular Vienna.
Yep! Especially that this part of Europe has a lot of tram systems: in Austria, Czechia, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary etc. For which the principles are mostly the same as for Berlin.
@@kbieniu7 Prague is quite interesting because of the density and number of cars for size of the city. Especially considering Prague also has large capacity subway. We have over 700 trams on 26 lines with only 290 tram stops for city of 1.3 million. Budapest and Vienna networks are quite a bit larger but they also serve much larger cities.
Yeah, and in legacy tram systems (like Berlin or Prague) often every edge spur has multiple lines going to it, so every 8 minutes becomes every 4 when you've got an option of two services. This still shouldn't go overboard because the worst-case scenario is still the max wait time - in Zagreb, Croatia there's a section with two every-14-minutes services interlined and it's very often just faster to walk. But pairing up two 8-minute headways provides a very respectable level of service.
Almost No Tram Station in Berlin has a Ticket machine... in fact: The only i'm wäre of is at Hauptbahnhof. Instead you have "historic" Ticket machines in the Trams...
I remember getting on one without a ticket, because there was nowhere to buy one and then discovered the machine in the tram only took coins. I had no choice but to do a bit of schwarzfahren until I reached an S-Bahn station where I could buy a ticket with a card.
And please don’t forget the BVG’s unique approach to public relations 😉.
you mean ex prison convicts as ticket checkers?
@@tank-eleven I guess they mean Tarifzone Liebe
@@tank-elevenif that is actually true then I applaud them for that
The LED screens is such a good point. Sometimes those LEDs screens aren't working (or connecting to the GPS location service) on a TTC route you rarely ride and you need to worry about how many stops ahead for you to get off, if they pass a stop as there was no request to get on/off. It does produces rider anxiety and for less frequent riders I can see that being an small pressure point to take a car.
I sit 2 hours in public transport in berlin every Day and that never happend to me...
Meanwhile in my country, many public buses delivered as late as 2017 don't have any screens at all telling you what your next stop is, though some netizens have suggested checking public transport smartphone apps instead
As a "Berliner" it´s always so nice to see you making videos of Public transit in Berlin! Great video!
Wow, as a Melbournian, it’s wild to me that things such as dual points and LED boards at junctions are seen as non-standard! I’d love for you to come to Australia soon Rhys so you can accurately give a better assessment as to what Melbourne can learn from Berlin and what they can learn from us. We’re thankfully blessed with no turning loops at terminuses and plenty of sidings all over the network.
I don’t think Berlin can learn a lot from Melbourne.
Meanwhile Zurich is probably the only city I've been to where all trams are single-ended & thus are all reliant on turning loops
I wished that you would do a video on Dresden, as it's the main transport mechanism here, while having basically the same system as Berlin.
Heyy, nice to see you covering the #1 public transit system in the world? Would you do #2 (Prague) in the future? I think it has its cool specifics as well.
Well from my second visit this year, when I depended on trams, I have to say there are a few rather disappointing aspects, like no air conditioning and no live times at stops... Where does this #2 place thing come from? I've seen it quoted a number of times...
@@jarekweckwerth1390Displays for real-time info are in the process of being put on most major stops right now. And Prague also ordered new trams with AC, which will replace some of the old-ones.
I‘d say Budapest, Berlin, Prague (and don‘t know East Asia, so it might be unfair to them).
First the Central Station and now this! Reece is giving me a whole new appreciation of my home!
You should definetly make a video about the trams in Budapest!
Berlins Publics Transportation has become underrated over the Years
depends on where you are coming from, for a lot of Germans its a rather average experience ... too many other German (west european) cities at least match Berlins standards.
@@diedampfbrasse98 which German cities have better public transport then Berlin?
@@nonnadiona2659 German people seem have a hate boner for Berlin for some reasons because apart from Munich I don't see any Network even remotely comparable. If this was average Germany would have the best public transportation in the world
i have no hate for Berlin, its just not in any particular way special or outstanding ... in particular the tram network/infrastructure is a copy&paste thing in a lot of german cities. Only real difference being the scale, but not the quality, tech, operation or design.
@@diedampfbrasse98 Which other German city has 24/7 operation on their Trams? Which one has better vehicles? Which city has even a remotely comparable S and U-Bahn network?
I am really glad you enjoyed your visit to my home town. Situations like trams going over the pedestrian Alexanderplatz are actually a nightmare for drivers, locals and distracted visitors. I still would like to see more trolley-buses than trams. They can go round obstacles like badly parked cars, can change lanes to allow passnerngers to board (rather than walk over two lanes of traffic) and as an ex-cyclist the rails are a nightmare on mixed usage streetspace.
Buses, including trolleybuses, have so much less capacity than these trams. The big trams have capacity that's comparable to the subway trains. A bus needs one driver for half a subway carriage.
Thank you for the great video. Come to Dresden, Germany. The Tram network is really great here and has also many good aspects which improve the service.
Tram networks are great across East Germany generally even! I've lived in Erfurt and Jena, and visit Leipzig semi-regularly. All cities have good to great public transport mostly centered around trams. One of the few good remnants of the GDR way to do things imo.
as someone living in Berlin I love how updated your map is. Long live U Turmstrasse!
Hello Reece! Trams are also essential in Zürich’s network, a city that has 60% of transfer by public transportation. Would be nice to analyse for your viewers
yeah but it should also be considered that Zürich has a smaller population than the Pankow district in Berlin
Yeah, when I visited Zurich, I was amazed by just how awesome the Trams in Zurich are.
But what completely amazed me is how Zurichs Trams have pretty much the same ridership as the Trams and Metro in Frankfurt am Main combined. And that is for a city that is much smaller than Frankfurt by population. And for context: Frankfurt is far from perfect, but also definitely not terrible.
Its just that in Zurich, Trams are so frequent and fast that you would have to be a monstrous idiot to go by car in that city. Sadly, Zurich still has quite Car-friendly infrastructure and pretty much lacks any good bike infrastructure. This means that there is quite a bit of noise and air pollution from all these cars (many of which are loud Porsches or Ferraris by the way) in Zurich which lessens my excitement for the city overall
Zürich and Berlin native here, Zürichs system is superior to use for sure, always on time and gets you everywhere even outside of Zürich. Berlin has a more complex system with the Ring that’s actually quite genius to transport insane masses of passengers efficiently. Sadly delays are more frequent and never communicated (they are in Switzerland) and the BVG are really scummy and have no lenience whatsoever… Berlin is the more interesting system as a whole since it is a base for large flat city intercity travel organisation. Zürich couldn’t even really do that considering it’s rather unique topography, unless they build massive tunnels under the Zürichsee
yeah i was recently in Berlin again, and there is a tram like every 2 minutes in all kinds of directions, it was really impressive, and i grew up in Munich which already has a quite good tram network too. i studied in Ulm though, and right when i left Ulm they were building the second tram line up the Eselberg with part of an 8% incline (after testing on another stretch if the trams would be able to manage the incline, Böfinger Steige on line 1)
if you want to make more tram-videos, you maybe should visit Dresden. Its a city where the tram actually is the backbone of transit and the people seem to love it. The local transit authority regularly gets votet best in germany and they have some pretty need new trams too. They are wider than the old ones for more capacity. And DVB is still working to widen the spaces between tracks to allow them to go on more routs - as they have done in the last 30 years. Also they have crazy plans for new routs....
Just check some photos from 1900s or even before. Trams were always a part of the city.
Great video, thanks!
As a foreigner living in Berlin, recently I got way more appreciation for a public transport in here.
Since we tend to dismiss significantly staff that we take for granted, during last trip to Spain I just realized how good public transportation is around here. Most of the stops are fully accessible, which was not a thing in Spain, (we have seen many times people with baby trolleys struggling to leave the bus, I am not even mentioning wheelchair users since cities are so poorly designed that they have no chance reaching bus stop) you have live updates on google map, you can literally see where the train or a bus is at any given moment, public transport is also mostly on time. But of course, Germans love to complain about public transport , well maybe that is what pushes improvement.
One have to mention a homeless issue, since it is an open access system often homeless are seeking shelter within station and vehicles, and putting a problem of homelessness aside, it can get nasty, smelly even dangerous. Once I brought some lice home, have seen a guy fully naked, cleaning himself with wet tissues.
Still those are rare occurrences and usually police are dealing with it quickly and respectfully.
And what I forgot to mention is that you have kids as young as 5 years old traveling on their own. A lot of them.
Please don't call police on someone cleaning themselves unless you want people to stop cleaning themselves. Write to your representative asking for public showers or something.
Next time you're in Europe you should go to Brussels - the Pre-Metro system is interested with regards to underground trams. They're trams but the system was built so it could be easily converted to a proper metro later if needed - there are lots of underground stations already and tunnels. There's also loads to see there! (a tram museum, an amazing railway museum, some really cool lines). It's one of a relatively small number of west European cities that never got rid of its trams
Reece one of these days you need to do Prague, which does many transport things well, and the subway, and trams are pretty good, while the buses fill in the gaps, while being still being a bus service. And commuter trains also are somewhat integrated.
This comparison was interesting to see, because my own experience with riding Trams in Berlin as a German was somewhat different. I rode around extensively in Berlin last month and found that they made a lot of stops, were sometimes quite slow and had their schedule impacted by car accidents because of icing streets and Berlin drivers driving like maniacs (especially the Taxis). I also wouldn't describe them as the backbone of Berlin's public transit, but more akin to connectors to the U-Bahn's arteries. As a positive I would note comfortability and capacity and they're certainly not slower than other Trams I know... which probably means the Toronto experience is quite awful.
I have to agree with you. I am surprised by how much praise Berlin's tram system gets. For me, the tram section is the most unreliable and uncomfortable part of my daily commute. I take the bus in Neukölln to Hermannplatz, then the U8 to Rosenthaler Platz in Prenzlauer Berg, and then the tram several stops to my office. The tram to me feels like a shittier version of a bus. Both get caught in traffic, yes, but the bus has the ability to turn and is not trapped on the tracks like a tram. I also feel that the standing and sitting arrangements on the tram are somehow more awkward than on the bus. I actively avoid taking trams if possible, and much prefer the subway and bus systems.
Not to mention, they are also incredibly loud when turning and crossing switches; I would get very annoyed having to hear that if I lived by a tram junction. Don't see why that is preferable to busses, especially the new electric ones that are very quiet.
Maybe this is just because I experience a uniquely bad part of the tram network, in the heart of Prenzlauer Berg, where trams are always late due to traffic. But I also felt that the tram-based system in Cologne was also incredibly inferior compared to busses.
@@clarko95Reading the comment from @mausklick1635 I actually wanted to ask if he took the tram in Prenzlauer Berg. Funny that you mention it! :-) I totally agree about the trams there. The tram lines in the south-east are in my experience way more reliable and extensive. And therefore much more enjoyable.
Exactly, I am so confused with the praises. The tram is what it sounds like: a train trying to go through city traffic. It's slow, noisy, rigid... How is it better than buses?
@@clarko95 it heavily depends on where you live
@@jeremyquentin42 its more comfortable and in many places also faster and higher frequency. No bus in this city runs every 3 minutes and the trams win a lot of reliability on those 3 min freqs due to seperation. None of the bus routes in this city could even be run every 3 minutes. Also, less motion sickness. All of this is also proven by the higher average speeds Trams in Berlin achieve compared to busses.
I love your videos about Berlin. As a frequent user of the public transport here I am often mad about it. Simply because of those little things. Crowded trams or a bus that’s once again not showing up. That’s obviously annoying but your videos help me appreciate this more.
It’s always so easy to start hating things when there’s small annoying bits about it that we forget how incredible it actually is.
At the same side it’s also so interesting that a city like Berlin, that definitely did a lot to become a car centric city, is still so mich better than many north American cities. I really hope that we can change the car centric city planning from cold war times to actually make this city even greater.
What does a car centric planning have to do with the cold war? I'd say, that in the GDR and East Berlin there was no car centric planning, because there were no cars to plan for.
@@olivermeineke9707 There’s no direct connection. It’s just what happened at the time. Especially in the west but east Berlin also has some terrible car centric planning. Most of Berlins car centric planning just happened before the wall came down. I could’ve also just said „before the walk came down“ instead of cold war. It’s just referring to the time not the cold war itself.
It's also much better than many car-centric European cities. Perhaps Berlin has something to learn from North American cities like New York.
We can't get rid of car centrism with the CDU in charge of the city. They're already tearing down bus lanes.
I have visited Berlin twice - and agree that the Berlin ubahns, sbahns and streetcars contribute to a great car-free experience.
The change from 600 to 750 V is even more impressive when you know that they did it all under running wheel. It was planned for years, hundreds of people at work in the middle of the night, technicans in every running tram. They turned the 600 V off, the technicans changed some control boards in the trams, and they switched 750 V on. All that in a couple of minutes, the trains went running again as if nothing happened.
PS: Are you still in Berlin? The tram network in Köpenick could see some love too. Busses and trams running through pedestrian zones at the Rathaus Köpenick, combined bus and tram lanes in the center of the road at Bahnhofstr./Lindenstr., bus lanes for the tram and busses in the Bahnhofstr. at S Köpenick to speed everything up while there are construction works at the S-Bahn station. Or trams running through scenic forest routes, 68 to Schmöckwitz or 61 to Rahnsdorf.
This is awesome! Thank you for taking on this topic! I’ve been wondering about this for ages
I remember having a similar revelation visiting Prague - the sheer velocity of the trams was incredible
Oh yeah, its really otherworldly. Something to aspire to!
Nice video!
I live in the outskirts of Berlin and commute there daily on public transportation. From my point of view the trams and busses are doing well there - as special in comparison to the alternatives (S and U Bahn, car)
The most important achievement is their reliable schedule.
I also visited the town Freiburg recently and was very pleasantly surprised by their tram operations. They were very frequent, fast, convenient, with modern stops and relatively unexpensive . They also drive in the middle of the huge pedestrian central place and have some healthy mix of old and modern cars. I think they found a good balance of integrating that whole thing as a win win for all traffic participants.
..worth checking out, although Freiburg is much smaller than Berlin 😅😊
"The gap between the quality of transit you get from the best subway system and the worst subway system, well, it's not actually that large."
*Boston's T has entered the chat.*
There are two types of trams - ones designed for local travel to get you to a metro or train station, and ones designed to act as a metro. Fewer stops turns your tram into a more of a generic LRT, at the expense of people (especially disabled people) using them to get to the local shops or other transit options. If you don't have a metro, you probably want both types. If you have a Metro you really only need the local tram variant.
The trams in East Berlin seem to compensate the lack of subway lines there. I always see trams as the second best option, as subway trains can go much faster. As there are already so many tram lines, it is unlikely that we will see a new metro line in that area any time soon, as Berlin is not a very rich city.
I must admit though that Berlin trams are much better than in most other cities. In Melbourne the trams were so slow in the city center that walking sometimes was the faster option. They have a lot of tram stop plus a lot of red light stops. I even experienced traffic jams on those tram lines. My tram had to wait for ten minutes, because so many trams before us first clogged the track. The tram driver even told us that walking might be the faster option now.
By the way, many decades ago even my small home town of Celle had trams. Celle now had a population of 72,000 or so and back then the population must have been even smaller. Really that that they ripped the tracks out of the roads long before I was born. It shows though that even a small city can have a tram.
Trams can actually be overall faster than metros on short routes, depending on the depth of the metro lines. If the metro lines are deep, then it can take 1½ minutes just to get to the platform, and then you also have to go back up again at the destination. So if the distance travelled is less than ~5 kilometers, and there aren't any tight corners on the tram route, then the tram can be the fastest option. This means that trams are great at filling up the 'gaps' between subway or S-bahn lines, which also happens often in Berlin. Taking a tram all the way out along Landsberger Allee isn't slow but isn't super fast either, but if you're going out to the further parts of the tram network, then you can just take the U5 or S7 instead and then change to the tram.
Trams can stand alone in small and medium-sized cities, but in large cities they work best alongside a good metro/regional network.
They have their pros and cons. I also like the speed of the subway, but the trams pack a lot more routes and stops, so that's not worse, just different priorities. A lot of east berlin trams run in separate right-of-way in between the car lanes, and in that circumstance they can go pretty fast.
Amazing! Will you do some other Middle-european tram cities in the future? Germany, Poland, Czechia, Hungary and to some extent my home Slovakia all mix their legacy networks with newest inovations on a tight budget. Specifically Prague and Budapest which carry around 800k to 1,1 million passengers per day (more than their quite ok metro networks). Budapest lines 4, 6 and 1 come to mind. Both cities have really good but unique systems worth a video imo even if they might seem small to you. Other semi-interesting systems would be the High Tatras tram network, Szeged, Liberec, Most, Kosice, Lodz tram trains, Brno with its big plans and Bratislava just because how much small innovation is being implemented in spite of the city budget being in a deficit and country being neglected during communism and now socially conservative mafia governments. Idk im a small town guy so cities above 2 milion seem already huge to me and something like London and Paris is just breathtaking. Love your nuanced and fun vids, pls do more small European networks, they can teach one a lot.
Zooming past stopped rush-hour traffic in a tram going quite a bit faster than the car speed limit is always fun.
I think the most shoking thing here is how bad Toronto's issues are. Berlin's system looks quite normal to me (European perspective).
Berlin's system actually looks quite SLOW (North American perspective). Just not as slow as Toronto's.
is Toronto's not normal for America where car companies run everything?
They run everything in Berlin, too, so the CDU is slowly destroying all this woke commie public transport nonsense.
@@zackgro8440
3min intervals on the main frequented lines, 5min on the medium and about 5~10min on the rarer ones
I'm talking about the speed, not the frequency.@@Keckegenkai
@@zackgro8440 not really. Its faster on average compared to every other US tram, like muni metro, but grade seperated light rail in the US is faster. Kinda pointless to compare a street running tram to those tho.
You should look at the tram/subway combination in Hannover/Germany! For 500.000 inhabitants in Hannover it's really not bad!
Recently I watched some videos about the tramway in Hannover from the channel "ic-lokführer". I was pleasantly surprised by the layout of the tracks. I also liked the service offered, such as the possibility to transfer between lines at "Kröpcke". Even the fact that the buses wait for the trams at the terminal stops whenever possible is perfect.
Finally the Berlins Tram Video. I was waiting for it since you said in one old video someday you will have to do it. Interesting about the Metro (M) Lines is that they have 24/7 service(except for one of the two Northern Branches of the M1(on which I live. 😢)). It also has a LOT of potential for growth since it doesn’t really goes into West-Berlin and a lot of new lines are planned. As example for The Spandau district in West-Berlin are plans for a whole Network which its own center.(kinda like Köpenick has). Kinda hoped the Berlin Trams would get a more complete System explained though(they definitely deserve it!) In this video you didn’t really scratched the layer of dust on the surface.
Ha..., being from Berlin, too, and used to everybody always complaining about the public transportion, it is great to see, that they do a lot of things right at BVG (the public company that runs the trams). I do love our trams and busses!
You should check out Tram line 87 while in Berlin next time. It's far outside the city core (starting at S3 station Rahnsdorf) but it is a historical tram line that was started in 1913 and is still operating today, without any route changes and using historical rolling stock. They utilize old GDR cars called "Gothawagen" from the 1960s. It is a highlight of the Berlin tram network IMO (even if they are run by a separate entity and not by the BVG).
The tram network gets a lot of praise here, especially the Hauptbahnhof section. But the recent expansion of M10 has been quite bad, with a lot of cancelled or super late trains due to the M10 crossing the whole city, a lot on tracks shared with streets and sometimes even without right of way for the trams. The expansion has made this effect "domino further" due to the now longer route.
Also on the topic of switches, there was a 2 year time period recently where a particular section in east Berlin required manual switching by the drivers (getting out of the tram to manually switch the blade).
Check Wikipedia: "Woltersdorf tram" (Tram line 87)
Traams are a great transportation option. More cities should bring them back.
Referencing the comment I just made, it's often easier said than done. Trams can be slow if they're weaving through small city streets, fighting with traffic or are poorly designed. I love trams too but my experience of using one daily in a medium sized city was not ideal
Many cities shouldn't have torn them down in the first place. Just look at Brussels. It used to have the tightest tram network in the world
i was in Athens last week. Rode every inch of the metro and tram network. Their trams take you mostly from the core of athens to the coast. Not a huge/vast network but it was decent overall.
I'm lucky enough to use these trams to commute to work, and it's so fast and easy. I have 3 different lines available from my house, so if there's an issue with one, I can just take another. Honestly most service interruptions are due to the lack of grade separation. Cars drive onto the dedicated tracks and get stuck, or they try to turn left at an intersection without checking for the tram first, which has right-of-way.
I love underground tram stops. Its actually really nice. Lots of European cities do have underground tram stations. The stations underground are good for cities with lots of rain or where the weather isn't shiny all year. Underground stations you don't need to put the leaves out of the track in autumn, or snow in the winter. People can stand without getting wet or falling because of ice. Underground stations have so many benefits for trams.
Look at Bergen, Brussels, Dortmund, Dusseldorf, Essen, Den Haag, Porto, Alicante, Valencia, Paris, Krakow, Rostock etc... they all have underground sections of their tram network. Sometimes it is just better to build them underground. That's why trams are so good because they are so much more flexible than metro/subway systems. Their stations above the ground are a lot smaller, which is great for strollers, bikes, and wheelchair users.
In Bergen, Norway. The Hordaland hospital station is underground. It connects the tram with the trolleybus that runs on the surface there. The typography also helps to set if an underground stop is ok or not. Stop judging this as a bad thing, please. It just hurts as everything else you say is correct. Just make a video of Porto, Portugal. Go there. It is one of the world's biggest tram-underground systems in the world. It changed my mind fully. And now they are extending it into the city center underground with a new line open soon.
I always found the tram info screens in Berlin trams and other places that adopt a similar design to be actually measurably worse than the simple LED matrix indicator because the most important information - the next stop - is in so much smaller and less visible font. This is really hard to read at some angles especially if your vision is not perfect, and the system where they switch the display to an announcement is a bit annoying.
The Hague does it better by having a hybrid system where you get both on the same tram (not either-or like in Berlin) - there are info screens like in Berlin, but you also get large font LED displays.
I agree. I much prefer a LED indicator for the simplicity. If you want a ton of detail you can place it someplace else like a map display screen. All I really need to know is the next stop or the terminus direction when I'm onboard.
However, when you can see the upcoming spots you've got more room to prepare on when you have to get out
Really interesting video, thanks Reece!
Hey Nice Video, a couple of notes though:
That "Point Indicator " you've marked at around 5 mins is just a normal trafficlight for trams (showing stop for both directions). The Point indicator is the little signal right before it, but because no tram is approaching it is turned off.
There are no Ticket machines at Berlins tram stops. Ticketmachines are in the Trams them selves.
M-Lines (both Bus and Tram) have 24h service.
7:19 this was (for me) the most infuriating part of toronto’s tram/metro network. finding the stops 🤦♂️ of course no further information once you do, because… reasons.
One thing I do love about Berlin and German cities is their distinct "H" for Haltstelle, same could be said for post-soviet states with their iconic blue signs, but here in the US, designs vary so much it's very annoying with no uniform symbol for bus stop or the bus symbol is really small, and then having no schedule posted at bus stops (even a timepoint schedule would be nice).
One reason why it's the same everywhere is probably that it's also relevant for car drivers, because they are not allowed to park 15 meters before and behind the sign.
In Berlin, the metro-trams (M6, M8...) run every 5 minutes during business hours.
Fun video for me, having previously lived in Toronto (slowing to a crawl at switches is so painful) and now living in Berlin
BUT: bi-directional Trams feature also less seating and are significantly heavier due to additional door mechanisms! Additional doors increase maintenance as well
not every tram in Berlin is bi directional tho
That's why Munich doesn't buy bidirectional trams and builds turning loops on new tram lines.
networks rarely use that feature anyway these days, on most german tram networks it is merely a stopgap feature for the few lines which still/temporarily have no turning loop/turning cross (being incomplete or cut by construction work) ... i believe not even a dozen out of 166 trams in my city are bi-directional, pretty much every line has a loop (or at least a crossing to back up into and turn) on both ends, because bi-directional trams have so many drawbacks in operation.
My local tram network of Rotterdam, also has only uni-directional trams
Okay, this partially explains why Mainz bought unidirectional Variobahn trams when the two previous vehicles (Stadtbahn Typ M, GT6M) are bi-directional. To be fair, it's unlikely the city will go fully unidirectional (Bretzenheim is lacking a balloon loop and is unlikely to get one) but most of its network is built for unidirectional vehicles.
We Germans are masters of organizing any kind of thing, be it good or bad. But our country is on the decline. God help us through 2024.
Great observation about the more 'agressive' driving, I also noticed that on a lot of european systems (especially Prague). Here in Melbourne we're somewhere inbetween - the drivers get along pretty quickly when they can, but we also have a 15km/h limit over all points & crossings, and a compulosry complete stop before facing points. Sydney's light rail by comparison has much more substantial infrastructure, but the trams move very slowly and cautiously in a lot of situations anyway.
It's worth mentioning that in the outer districts Berlin trams are operated in LRT- or metro-like style. To me that's one of the great benefits of trams. You can literally switch the mode of service without changing the vehicle.
Tbh your new channel look and Thumbnail make it seem like you're a scammy finance company trying to sell me crypto, to me at least
It's definitely more corporate
7:26 addition: in Berlin we also have stations where one would need to hop on / off from across the road. In fact they are pretty common and sometimes you even have a bike lane in between so that's kinda tricky sometimes. Also, there are tram lines with a higher frequency than 10 mins, e.g., the M4 which basically runs every 3-4 minutes.
In Germany: As a passenger getting on the tram, you have the priority over any other vehicles (§ 20 StVO paragraph 2). So if someone on the bike lane isn't stopping for you, you just have to shout some evil German swear words at them, they probably know they have to stop. Especially if they have a driver's license.
Aha! So it WAS you I saw. Good video, and regards from one of the drivers of the BVG trams.
Very clear and concise. Your proposal makes a lot of sense!
You should also take a look at the Prague tram system... it is frequent, quite large, clean and almost always on-time.
It is true that most tram lines in Berlin are on a 10 minutes schedule, however as you also mentioned several lines overlap on certain city parts, making the availability on those stops in some cases being less then 5 minutes apart.
Thank you, Reece! ❤❤❤❤
You should have a look at the trams in Nice, France. A couple years ago, they expanded their network with 2 new lines that you might like. There's also some very interesting choices they have made with their trams - for example, the trams on Lines 2 & 3 run on battery when above ground and recharge at stops - to remove the need for overhead cables. They also have my favourite stop announcements ever 😁
As an Australian that grew up with Melbourne trams that stop on every corner (or there abouts) and now live in Sydney where the new "trams" (they are really light rail IMO) stops once in every neighbourhood outside the central core. Everything Reece highlights is true but the one issue in Sydney with less frequent stops is they are not true "last mile" transport as you can have a 10 minute or longer walk along the direction of the track to get to your destination. In my mind this is more of a train than tram
It sounds like a train type of route planning, but on tram type of tracks. Mixing and matching the pros and cons.
For me as a german its very nice to hear that you as a goreigner like the trams coming on point. Would be nice to see a video of you reviewing the DB :D i mean its a honor for me to hear our public transport is very nice, ty ::)
The worst train service in Germany is still better than the average service outside of Europe or China. Keep pushing to make it better, but know that it's already pretty good.
I live in Berlin and the trams have always been my favorite mode of transportation. It really is great.
Thx for the video! I've been a few times to Toronto from Berlin and what struck me the most, waiting for a nightbus with no information about arrival times. People around me called it the "Magical Blue Line" :D
Berlin trams are perfect. I have no complaints with them, I used them much more than the metro
Regarding the bigger stop spacing: Berlin is quite gracious when it comes to space usage. Built on a green field, with wide streets and relatively low density, completely bombed down and rebuilt just 70 years ago, if you have one thing in excess, it is space. That also means it takes ages to get from A to B, not because of congestion, it is just a very VAST city. Usually this also means that apartments, if you can afford one, are much larger than other, non-bombed, European capitals. This however requires far spacing.
Compare this to Barcelona (ultra high density, flat sharing), or Vienna (tram stops at every corner)
I really enjoy your videos on Transit and admire the way that you compare the transit system in Toronto vs transit around the rest of the world. The positive approach that you take when comparing the transit systems around the world is quite nice compared to the negave approach that the youtube channel (Not Just Bikes) takes when comparing the way things are done in North America vs the Netherlands. As someone that grew up in Toronto, taking public transit from a young age (I think I was 10) was very second nature to me. I now reside in Burlington and therefore taking the GO transit network is something I much enjoy, thanks for the amazing videos and keep up the great work.
I usually avoid going into the city, but damn this guys enthusiasm just makes me want to take some public transportation and just go, no destination... just go.
As someone who has been using the Berlin tram system often, I didn't know that they are so special compared to other tram systems. But when I watch this video I do realize that the trams and their Stop and stuff are really nice and pretty good.
Cool, I'll get to check out Berlin and their trams for the first time this year. Now I have some things to look out for!
- tram free American
Great video! Not all public transit is created equal and I appreciate that you analyze these systems rather than just saying more is better.
Also another thing that Berlin has thats cool is its night tram service! every 30 minutes for a tram route is a good balance between good frequency and good system reliability so you dont have to do "catch up" maintenance all the time, which seems to be the case in Toronto and NYC. With those dedicated ROW's and green track you showed us, it seems it could hypothetically be much easier to do single tracking for night service, and even then with good frequent service. In Amsterdam theres that funky mall where the trams single track and the trams still run every 3 minutes; though video seems to show that 90 seconds between trams are possible. So running a 2 line service every 15 minutes or a 3 line service every 10 minutes, with trams per route every 30 minutes, could be easily single tracked at night given you have the right ROW and appropriate switch distance. Anyway, I'm an advocate for 24/7 service on railways and Berlin has good 24/7 trams!
another banger from Reece
And I thought „Just a normal tram” I’m glad to hear something good about German Public transport especially about Munich.
It should be noted that the trams mostly run in the eastern part of Berlin, which also reflects the division of Germany and the different policies in East and West Germany.
In West Berlin, they got rid of their tram network by the 1960s, as did many cities in West Germany in the 1960s and 1970s.
East Berlin kept their trams though, as did many cities in East Germany, which is the main reason why there are still tram networks in cities as small as Nordhausen, Halberstadt, Gotha or Görlitz.
I've been preaching improving operations for TTC streetcars for 25 years, using examples of how it is done elsewhere. Not easy overcoming the "head-in-sand" Toronto mentality. Keep hammering away, you're doing good work!
You have a great talent for explaining things well and entertainingly. You also did extremely good research. What you could go into more detail is, that in Berlin all traffic lights for cars and trams are networked together and computers control them so that all vehicles make good progress, but that a preferred green wave is switched on for trams.
Reece, you should visit and talk about Vienna, Budapest and Prague when you talk about trams...
Do a video about Bucharest, please! We have so many manual switches there it's crazy, where tram drives have to pick a lever, insert it in a hole, and pull to switch the tracks. It's actually pretty fun!
Nice video! I very much like the Berlin tram system (but I am biased as a Berliner haha). Btw nice new Logo!
I appreciate your words on Berlin's trams. Now, please visit Prague's tram network. To me, that is still a notch higher. :)