Munich

Munich is an interesting city for transport geeks. Trams, Suburban Railways, Electric (overhead power line) buses, and Metro’s, more commonly known as U-Bahn, operate in the Bavarian capital. I have had the good luck and good fortune to have travelled and researched here on numerous occasions.

The system works together nicely and more often than not is a pleasure to use. It is also possible to reach the majority of visitor attractions by public transport – whether in the confines of the city itself, or to other, more distant towns, villages and other places of interest. It is a great city to base oneself if you are heading for the highest walkable European border at Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

In the video below you’ll see an interesting solution to a familiar problem. How do you get customers in and out of your tram vehicle safely when it stops in the middle of a road and there’s no space to build a platform? Simple, you instal a set of traffic lights behind the tram, turn the lights to red, and, lo and behold, car drivers stop and permit people to join and alight.

I have seen a number of variations on this theme in other cities and will post those in due course, but for now, here’s how they do it in Munich..

tram stop with no platform. How to get customers in and out safely