Train Stations and Car Registrations: Evidence from Station Openings in Germany

Does better railway infrastructure encourage people to register less private cars? We analyse the opening of 170 train stations in Germany between 2010 and 2022 and compare them to a control group of locations that were identified as potential sites for new stations. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we find that annual car registrations within the catchment area of a newly opened station decline by at least 3.5 to 5.5 percent permanently. These effects are consistent in both urban and rural settings and correspond, on average, to at least 140 fewer car registrations over ten years for each new station. Further evidence suggests that the effects are driven by habit changes rather than by spatial sorting, leading to the conclusion that new train stations reduce the number of car registrations both locally and globally.