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Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains

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Re: Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains

#61

Post by DocTomoe »

ValentineC wrote: post #55
DocTomoe wrote: post #8

This 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…

> 4. Sylt (think 'the German version of Nantucket/Martha's Vineyard') will burn to the ground. As a non-American, I'd appreciate some further elaboration.

Sylt is considered "the holiday island for the uberrich". When the idea was first considered, their mayor carelessly spoke to the media that he feared the plebs coming to their island and do lower-class stuff, in short, getting on the nerves of 'regulars'.

Which was the inspiration for Germany's youth to - very loudly - start planning the invasion of Sylt to drink cheap beer from tincans and do lower-class stuff.

Add our liberal-democratic federal finance minister to the mix, who will get married on Sylt in mid-June, and you got a perfect storm.

Something very similar happened in the 1990s, when the Bahn had a cheap ticket - back then, riot police was sent to Sylt to avoid lower-class tourists getting too annoying. This time, though, it's likely going to be a lot worse, because of things being more organized thanks to the internet.

Re: Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains

#62

Post by brazzy »

ValentineC wrote: post #55
DocTomoe wrote: post #8

This 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…

> 4. Sylt (think 'the German version of Nantucket/Martha's Vineyard') will burn to the ground. As a non-American, I'd appreciate some further elaboration.

It's an island that has been a high society hotspot for decades. Think celebrities and politicians sipping champagne in overpriced beachside restaurants.

But even though it's an island, it's reachable by train via a dam, and the locals are worried about being overrun with day trip tourists, and the clebrities are worried about being crowded by poor people.

Re: Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains

#63

Post by rjzzleep »

tpmx wrote: post #46
rjzzleep wrote: post #22

Earlier 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…

So, echoing what eisstrom wrote: Deutsche Bahn is fully state owned. That phrase about "privatizing the profits and socializing the losses" is a common but still mindless form of dross in this case. I do understand why it gets a particular group of uninformed people to upvote your comment out of reflex though. You use it as click-bait, sort of, while building a convoluted argument that presumably very few of those up…

It was privatized in 1994. It's actually interesting that to the outside world people believe that it wasn't privatized because of the weird holding structure that it has.

They actually brag about how the privatization in 1994 was a huge success. The history of the privatisation of the Staatsbahn is so convoluted that it's hard to tell what actually happened.

https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/erfolgreiche-weichenstellung-...

EDIT: just because privatization isn't the kind of privatization you like doesn't mean it didn't happen. especially since the people here have no idea about the actual internal structure of the institution and who the leadership answers to.

Re: Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains

#64

Post by tpmx »

rjzzleep wrote: post #63
tpmx wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, echoing what eisstrom wrote: Deutsche Bahn is fully state owned. That phrase about "privatizing the profits and socializing the losses" is a common but still mindless form of dross in this case. I do understand why it gets a particular group of uninformed people to upvote your comment out of reflex though. You use it as click-bait, sort of, while building a convoluted argument that presumably very few of those up…

It was privatized in 1994. It's actually interesting that to the outside world people believe that it wasn't privatized because of the weird holding structure that it has. They actually brag about how the privatization in 1994 was a huge success. The history of the privatisation of the Staatsbahn is so convoluted that it's hard to tell what actually happened. https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/erfolgreiche-weichenstellun…

That article describes Deutsche Bahn being converted from a government agency to a fully state-owned "private" (public) company.

The word "private" as used here does not mean what you think it means.

("Mit der Bahnreform entstand ein Wirtschaftsunternehmen in privatrechtlicher Form. Der Bund blieb zwar alleiniger Eigentümer der neuen Bahn AG, er sollte allerdings nur noch bei strategischen Entscheidungen mitreden dürfen.")

Re: Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains

#65

Post by la_fayette »

DocTomoe wrote: post #8

This 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 is windy and cold also in summer, for a family holyday I woudn't recommend. Let's see how this turns out. The typical summer tourists go south...

Re: Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains

#66

Post by nixass »

dang wrote: post #10
paul-graham wrote: post #2

This 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…

What if someone has same name as some "celebrity"?

Re: Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains

#67

Post by objektif »

88840-8855 wrote: post #25
f6v wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

So is it about the size of the country or corrupt government?

Re: Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains

#68

Post by [deleted] »

rjzzleep wrote: post #63
tpmx wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, echoing what eisstrom wrote: Deutsche Bahn is fully state owned. That phrase about "privatizing the profits and socializing the losses" is a common but still mindless form of dross in this case. I do understand why it gets a particular group of uninformed people to upvote your comment out of reflex though. You use it as click-bait, sort of, while building a convoluted argument that presumably very few of those up…

It was privatized in 1994. It's actually interesting that to the outside world people believe that it wasn't privatized because of the weird holding structure that it has. They actually brag about how the privatization in 1994 was a huge success. The history of the privatisation of the Staatsbahn is so convoluted that it's hard to tell what actually happened. https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/erfolgreiche-weichenstellun…

[deleted]

Re: Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains

#69

Post by realPubkey »

blueflow wrote: post #29
DocTomoe wrote: post #8

This 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!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKmSLO6QNwg&ab_channel=Wobin...

Re: Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains

#70

Post by dmd »

winkelwagen wrote: post #5

As 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…

What does large/long distance mean here? Do german railways extend outside of Germany proper? I'm confused because the longest distance I can find between two major cities is Munich to Hamburg, and that's only about 400 miles!
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