Earlier quoted context omitted.
Okay, but when you compare to the US, it's still amazing.
Okay, but the US is 50x larger.
I'm pretty sure Europe is bigger than US surface wise.
Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains
21–30 of 113 posts
Re: Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains
#22As someone using the German railway for a large distance destination couple a weeks ago it was a total disaster, we got stranded in a unfamiliar German city. Deutsche bahn told us they didn’t have any of their (partner) hotel rooms left. Just arrange something yourself. That was very nice because all the hotels were full anyway. It took us another 2 hours of calling to find something. I was exhausted when I finally c…
The mess of DB isn't that much different from how the oligarchs in a lot of eastern European countries came to be. Privatization without real plan. Privatize the profits and socialize the losses.
The rails near Hamburg Altona are rotting, but the Bahn didn't want to foot the bill. So they came up with a horrible new station somewhere else. As a result the city chipped in to make a better one and pay of it from tax money.
I'm the last person to favour the government institutions in Germany. They're slow, lazy and full of old lazy hierarchies that must have been productive 30 years ago, but what is the point of privatizing something when the structure itself doesn't change and the privatization does nothing but siphon money out of the system and pump tax money in anyway? Half the ICE fleet is out of commission nowadays.
Re: Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains
#23This should be a standard scheme all across Europe. Given the high population density and relatively short distances - such a scheme would greatly reduce congestion and provide a cheaper way of transport (apart from reducing dependency). This scheme should be made permanent. The lack of access to high speed ICE trains is a hinderance. There should be a way a 9Euro ticket allows access to ICE trains twice a week with…
I appreciate the submission but can you please pick a different username? Celebrity names are a variant of trollish usernames [1], and we don't allow those on HN [2] because they subtly troll every thread they post to. Inevitably this leads to low-value off-topic stuff. We've learned from experience to just deal with the problem early, so I've temporarily banned this account. If you'd like to pick a neutral, non-trol…
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Re: Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains
#24As someone using the German railway for a large distance destination couple a weeks ago it was a total disaster, we got stranded in a unfamiliar German city. Deutsche bahn told us they didn’t have any of their (partner) hotel rooms left. Just arrange something yourself. That was very nice because all the hotels were full anyway. It took us another 2 hours of calling to find something. I was exhausted when I finally c…
I do not share your experience. I used to commute weekly for 1,75 hours in one direction with ICE. I had rarely problems that lasted more than 5 minutes. There was no change of trains required which might help here.
Let me guess: Your commute was in East Germany? Reliability is a lot better there [1]
[1] https://media.ccc.de/v/36c3-10652-bahnmining_-_punktlichkeit...
Re: Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
Okay, but the US is 50x larger.
China has trains.
And China has an agenda and a government that is supporting the building of railways. It's successful.
In US the government was supporting the development of roads a century ago. It was very successful.
Re: Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Okay, but when you compare to the US, it's still amazing.
Okay, but the US is 50x larger.
Okay, but with a GDP and population to (out)match, sooo not really relevant. Per capita and per square km, "German train system quality" is a bajillion times better than in the US.
Re: Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains
#27Re: Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains
#28Already well-covered on HN:
Re: Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains
#29This is first and foremost a subsidy scheme to give public transit providers some more money - many people will buy the 9 euro ticket which before did not buy monthly tickets - and for each such ticket, the state will give the public transit provider the difference to a full month ticket, up to 200 Euros. 1. The casual public transit rider will get one of these tickets: 9 Euros is like three rides on the Berlin subwa…
Sylt ist fällich!
Re: Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains
#30As someone using the German railway for a large distance destination couple a weeks ago it was a total disaster, we got stranded in a unfamiliar German city. Deutsche bahn told us they didn’t have any of their (partner) hotel rooms left. Just arrange something yourself. That was very nice because all the hotels were full anyway. It took us another 2 hours of calling to find something. I was exhausted when I finally c…
The mess of DB isn't that much different from how the oligarchs in a lot of eastern European countries came to be. Privatization without real plan. Privatize the profits and socialize the losses. The rails near Hamburg Altona are rotting, but the Bahn didn't want to foot the bill. So they came up with a horrible new station somewhere else. As a result the city chipped in to make a better one and pay of it from tax mo…
> what is the point of privatizing something when the structure itself doesn't change and the privatization does nothing but siphon money out of the system and pump tax money in anyway?
That is the point.
Gigantic projects like nuclear reactors, stadiums, high ways, bridges, airports (hallo Berlin) trains (and big software projects and wars, too) are just different ways of funneling a significant percentage of the tax payer money funding the project into the politicians' and decision makers' circle's wallet.