Earlier quoted context omitted.
Okay, but when you compare to the US, it's still amazing.
Okay, but the US is 50x larger.
Sure, feel free to compare the trains in New York State vs Germany then.
Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains
31–40 of 113 posts
Re: Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains
#32Re: Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains
#33This 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…
> There should be a way a 9Euro ticket allows access to ICE trains twice a week with advanced booking.
We'll finance expensive high-speed train infrastructure with 9-Euro-Tickets. Very funny.
Re: Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains
#34Re: Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Okay, but the US is 50x larger.
I'm pretty sure Europe is bigger than US surface wise.
If you take a traditional definition of Continental Europe, including islands like Britain and Ireland, and going all the way into Russia as far as the Ural and Caucasus mountains, then Europe is slightly larger than the USA.
But if you're talking about just the European Union, then the EU is much smaller than the USA. Less than half the land area.
Re: Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains
#36As 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…
DB is not privatized, it is 100% state-owned. As far as I know, all ICE power cars are still in use today, except for the one destroyed in the Eschede accident.
Re: Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains
#37As 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.
Same here: I regularly take long-distance train rides throughout all Germany, both with ICE (the fast one) as well as RE (the regional one), and for me it works smoothly for the most part.
Re: Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 ta…
In summary: because corruption.
Re: Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm pretty sure Europe is bigger than US surface wise.
And we’ll over 2x the population.
Eh?? I thought they were quite similar... Mmm, yeah, EU population is only 447 million. You must be counting Russia and other countries too but those are outside of the socioeconomic system we're talking about.
Re: Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains
#40This 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…
> "such a scheme would greatly reduce congestion"
It might reduce congestion on roads, but would greatly increase congestion on trains. And many are full already!