{"id":5172,"date":"2014-06-29T11:33:18","date_gmt":"2014-06-29T11:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=5172"},"modified":"2017-11-15T14:31:28","modified_gmt":"2017-11-15T14:31:28","slug":"munichtransportsystem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/munichtransportsystem\/","title":{"rendered":"Seven reasons to like the transport system in M\u00fcnchen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Public transport is generally not something to get excited about. In London, at least, travelling by train or bus can be a stressful, claustrophobic, and somewhat unhygienic experience. But each time I get a train in M\u00fcnchen, I am always pleasantly surprised by what a nice experience it is. Last time I was in M\u00fcnchen, I decided to make a list of the reasons why I like the transport system there.<\/p>\n

\"Marienplatz<\/a>

Marienplatz U-Bahn Station. Photo by dh87 on Flickr.com is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0<\/p><\/div>\n

Reason #1:<\/strong> The U-Bahn (underground train line) never feels cramped<\/strong> \u2013 even at peak times. I have a suspicion that the U-Bahn trains are wider than the ones in the London Underground, which could be the reason why. I noticed a few seats on the U-Bahn even had little shelves next to them, which is another practical detail that I really like about them. It\u2019s good to know you can put your bag down somewhere without having to remove it when it starts to get busy.<\/p>\n

Reason #2: The U-bahn has phone signal. <\/strong>Don\u2019t ask me how, but you can send texts and make phone calls on the U-Bahn. Pretty handy, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

Reason #3: Multimedia.<\/strong> At some U-Bahn stations there are TV screens showing you things like the weather and news headlines, so you can catch up on the news while waiting for your train to arrive. This screen then changes to a notice saying \u201cZug f\u00e4hrt ein\u201d \u2013 \u201cTrain approaching\u201d!<\/p>\n

Similarly, on some U-Bahn trains there are TV screens which tell you which stop is coming up next. They have these on buses in M\u00fcnchen, too, which I find really helpful. In general, I don\u2019t like taking the bus, because if you don\u2019t know the area then there\u2019s no way of knowing which stop you\u2019re supposed to get off at (other than a grumpy bus driver\u2019s impatient wave, if you\u2019re lucky)! So it\u2019s useful that they have these information screens on the buses in M\u00fcnchen.<\/p>\n

However, one screen I saw on a U-Bahn train went even further than that: As well as telling you which stop was next, it told you where you could go to from that stop, which line you\u2019d need to get on for all possible stops, which platform to go to, and in how many minutes all of those trains would leave. How incredibly efficient is that?!<\/p>\n

Reason #4: No ticket barriers. <\/strong>Getting around\u00a0M\u00fcnchen by public transport is ridiculously easy. Unlike the UK train system, which insists you pass your ticket through a ticket barrier at every step of your journey (and then show an inspector your ticket when on the train), all you need to do in M\u00fcnchen is this:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Validate your ticket before the start of your journey by stamping it at one of the ticket validation machines located at each station<\/li>\n
  2. Stuff your ticket into your purse\/wallet<\/li>\n
  3. Get on with your day<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Yes, it\u2019s true: There are no ticket barriers!! What\u2019s great about this is that you don\u2019t have to fumble around with tickets while struggling with your luggage, coffee, and other things. You can move freely in and out of Bahnh\u00f6fe<\/em> (train stations), and also make bus journeys with your ticket safely tucked away in your bag the entire time. In most cases, you won\u2019t even need to take it out again once you\u2019ve validated it and put it away. It\u2019s so easy!<\/p>\n

    Don\u2019t let this fool you into thinking that you can get away with not buying a ticket, though. Fahrkartenkontrolleure<\/em> (ticket inspectors) do exist on the U-Bahn \u2013 though, personally, I have never had one ask to see my ticket (Note: On S-Bahn trains they check tickets on-board for every journey).<\/p>\n

    Reason #5: The Bayern Ticket. <\/strong>This costs about 22\u20ac for one person, and then an extra 4\u20ac per person (up to 5 passengers allowed on one ticket), and gives you unlimited travel on regional trains (incl. U-Bahn, buses, trams) for one day, around the entire state of Bavaria! You can even visit Salzburg in \u00d6sterreich on it and, with a Bayern-B\u00f6hmen Ticket you can get as far as the Bohemia region of Czech Republic. Pretty good value, in my opinion!<\/p>\n

    When you buy a Bayern Ticket, you must declare how many people are travelling on it. Before June 2012 you did not have to declare this, so technically you could ask a stranger at a train station if they had a Bayern Ticket, and then split the cost with them to make it cheaper for all of you to travel. The only condition was that you sat together during the journey, so that when the ticket inspector came round you could tell them exactly who was included in the ticket. This happened to me once; a guy came up to me and my then-boyfriend to ask if he could give us some money and share our Bayern Ticket. We happily obliged \u2013 we saw no reason not to. However, the rules were changed in 2012 to stop exactly that from happening\u2026 oops!<\/p>\n

    Reason #6: Environmentally-friendly escalators. <\/strong>The Rolltreppen<\/em> (escalators) at U-Bahn stations are stationary until you step on them. That means if you\u2019re at the top of the Rolltreppe<\/em>, it\u2019ll start moving downwards, and if you\u2019re standing at the bottom, it\u2019ll move upwards. That\u2019s both practical and environmentally-friendly!<\/p>\n

    Reason #7: The stations are like works of art. <\/strong>The U-Bahn and S-Bahn stations in M\u00fcnchen are wonderful to look at. As you pull in to a station you’ll see it has a different colour scheme or design to the last one. Here are a few photos, so you can see what I’m talking about:<\/p>\n

    \"Munich<\/a>

    Olympia-Einkaufszentrum. Photo by motoyen on Flickr.com<\/p><\/div>\n

    \"Georg<\/a>

    Georg-Brauchle-Ring. Photo by nachtsichtarts on Flickr.com<\/p><\/div>\n

     <\/p>\n

    \"lets<\/a>

    Moosach. Photo by fknet on Flickr.com<\/p><\/div>\n

    ***<\/p>\n

    I am sure there are more, but for now these are my seven very good reasons for liking the M\u00fcnchen transport system. I am trying to think of something I don\u2019t like about it, but I can\u2019t think of anything. Do you have anything (good or bad) to add? It need not be about M\u00fcnchen in particular.<\/p>\n

    To finish, here is some handy vocabulary for getting around in M\u00fcnchen:<\/p>\n

    S-Bahn<\/strong> \u2013 Suburban trains (stands for \u2018Stadtschnellbahn\u2019)<\/p>\n

    U-Bahn<\/strong> \u2013 Underground trains (stands for \u201aUntergrundbahn\u2018)<\/p>\n

    Stra\u00dfenbahn<\/span><\/span><\/strong> – Tram<\/p>\n

    Bus<\/strong> – Bus<\/p>\n

    Schnellbahnnetz \u2013 <\/strong>Train map of all S-Bahn and U-Bahn lines<\/p>\n

    Schwarzfahren <\/strong>\u2013 Travelling without a ticket (literally: \u2018riding black\u2019)<\/p>\n

    Zug f\u00e4hrt ein<\/strong> \u2013 Train is approaching<\/p>\n

    Bitte zur\u00fcckbleiben<\/strong> \u2013 Please stand back [from the doors]<\/p>\n

    N\u00e4chster Halt:<\/strong> \u2013 Next stop:<\/p>\n

    \u201eNoch jemand zugestiegen?\u201d<\/strong> \u2013 \u201cHas anybody joined since the last stop?\u201d (You might hear ticket inspectors say this when walking through the trains)<\/p>\n

    Ausstieg rechts\/links<\/strong> \u2013 Exit right\/left (Sometimes you\u2019ll hear this announcement, which tells you which doors to use to leave the train)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

    Public transport is generally not something to get excited about. In London, at least, travelling by train or bus can be a stressful, claustrophobic, and somewhat unhygienic experience. But each time I get a train in M\u00fcnchen, I am always pleasantly surprised by what a nice experience it is. Last time I was in M\u00fcnchen…<\/p>\n

    Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":7494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[337701,337702,7599,8349,376027,13],"class_list":["post-5172","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-munchen","tag-munich","tag-trains","tag-transport","tag-travel","tag-vocabulary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5172"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9064,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5172\/revisions\/9064"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}