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..