The majority of the German railways are now owned by the state governments. Out of 34,470 m. of railway completed and open for traffic in 1906, only 2579 m. were the property of private undertakings, and of these about 150 were worked by the state. The bulk of the railways are of the normal 4 ft. 8½ in. gauge. Narrow-gauge (2½ ft.) lines—or light railways—extended over 1218 m. in 1903, and of these 537 m. were worked by the state.
The board responsible for the imperial control over the whole railway system in Germany is the Reichseisenbahnamt in Berlin, the administration of the various state systems residing, in Prussia, in the ministry of public works; in Bavaria in the ministry of the royal house and of the exterior; in Württemberg in the ministry of the exterior; in Saxony in the ministry of the interior; in Baden and Hesse-Darmstadt in commissions of the ministry of finance; and in Alsace-Lorraine in the imperial ministry of railways.
The management of the Prussian railway system is committed to the charge of twenty “directions,” into which the whole network of lines is divided, being those of Altona, Berlin, Breslau, Bromberg, Danzig, Elberfeld, Erfurt, Essen a.d. Ruhr, Frankfort-on-Main, Halle a.d. Saale, Hanover, Cassel, Kattowitz, Cologne, Königsberg, Magdeburg, Münster, Posen, Saarbrücken and Stettin. The entire length of the system was in 1906 20,835 m., giving an average of about 950 m. to each “direction.” The smallest mileage controlled by a “direction” is Berlin, with 380 m., and the greatest, Königsberg, with 1200 m.
The Bavarian system embraces 4642 m., and is controlled and managed, apart from the “general direction” in Munich, by ten traffic boards, in Augsburg, Bamberg, Ingolstadt, Kempten, Munich, Nuremberg, Regensburg, Rosenheim, Weiden and Würzburg.
The system of the kingdom of Saxony has a length of 1616 m., and is controlled by the general direction in Dresden.
The length of the Württemberg system is 1141 m., and is managed by a general direction in Stuttgart.
Baden (state) controls 1233, Oldenburg (state) 382, Mecklenburg-Schwerin 726 and Saxe-Weimar 257 m. respectively. Railways lying within the other smaller states are mostly worked by Prussia.
Alsace-Lorraine has a separate system of 1085 m., which is worked by the imperial general direction in Strassburg.
By the linking-up of the various state systems several grand trunk line routes have been developed—notably the lines Berlin-Vienna-Budapest; Berlin-Cologne-Brussels and Paris; Berlin-Halle-Frankfort-on-Main-Basel; Hamburg-Cassel-Munich and Verona; and Breslau-Dresden-Bamberg-Geneva. Until 1907 no uniform system of passenger rates had been adopted, each state retaining its own fares—a condition that led to much confusion. From the 1st of May 1907 the following tariff came into force. For ordinary trains the rate for first class was fixed at 1¼d. a mile; for second class at .7d.; for third class at ½d., and for fourth class at ¼d. a mile. For express trains an extra charge is made of 2s. for distances exceeding 93 m. (150 kils.) in the two superior classes, and 1s. for a lesser distance, and of 1s. and 6d. respectively in the case of third class tickets. Fourth class passengers are not conveyed by express trains. The above rates include government duty; but the privilege of free luggage (as up to 56 ℔) has been withdrawn, and all luggage other than hand baggage taken into the carriages is charged for. In 1903 371,084,000 metric tons of goods, including animals, were conveyed by the German railways, yielding £68,085,000 sterling, and the number of passengers carried was 957,684,000, yielding £29,300,000.
The passenger ports of Germany affording oversea communications to distant lands are mainly those of Bremen (Bremerhaven) and Hamburg (Cuxhaven) both of which are situate on the North Sea. From them great steamship lines, notably the North German Lloyd, the Hamburg-American, the Hamburg South American and the German East African steamship companies, maintain express mail and other services with North and South America, Australia, the Cape of Good Hope and the Far East. London and other English ports, French, Italian and Levant coast towns are also served by passenger steamboat sailings from the two great North Sea ports. The Baltic ports, such as Lübeck, Stettin, Danzig (Neufahrwasser) and Königsberg, principally provide communication with the coast towns of the adjacent countries, Russia and Sweden.