The Mannheim/Ludwigshafen area is surrounded by a ring of motorways connecting it to Frankfurt in the north, Karlsruhe in the south, Saarbr�cken in the west and Nuremberg in the east.
Mannheim Hauptbahnhof (central station) is at the end of the Mannheim-Stuttgart high-speed rail line and is the most important railway junction in the southwest of Germany, served by ICE high-speed train system with connections to Frankfurt am Main / Berlin, Karlsruhe / Basel and Stuttgart / Munich. A new high speed line to Frankfurt is also planned to relieve the existing Ried Railway (Riedbahn). Mannheim Harbour is the second largest river port in Germany.
Although Frankfurt International Airport is only 65 km to the north, there were daily passenger flights from Mannheim City Airport (IATA code MHG) to Berlin, Hamburg and Saarbr�cken between 2004 and 2011.
Local public transport in Mannheim includes the RheinNeckar S-Bahn, eleven tram lines and numerous bus lines operated by Rhein-Neckar-Verkehr (Rhine-Neckar transport).
The RheinNeckar S-Bahn, established in 2003, connects most of the Rhine-Neckar area including lines into the Palatinate, Odenwald and southern Hesse. All S-Bahn lines run through Mannheim Hauptbahnhof, except S5. Further S-Bahn stations are at present Mannheim-Rangierbahnhof, Mannheim-Seckenheim and Mannheim-Friedrichsfeld-S�d.
Metre-gauge trams are operated in Mannheim, Ludwigshafen and Heidelberg by Rhein-Neckar-Verkehr GmbH (RNV), a company wholly owned by the three cities mentioned and a couple of municipalities in the Palatinate. RNV is the result of a merger on 1 October 2009 between the region's five former municipal transportation companies. Interurban trams are operated by RNV on a triangular route between Mannheim, Heidelberg and Weinheim that was originally established by the Upper Rhine Railway Company (Oberrheinische Eisenbahn, OEG), and the company also operates interurban trams between Bad D�rkheim, Ludwigshafen and
