Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 113 posts

Re: Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains

#71

Post by alexott »

ThePhysicist wrote: post #15
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…

That's really unlucky. Before the Covid thing I took a long-distance train at least once per month for two decades, and I never managed to get stranded anywhere even when I chose late connections. Normally DB knows the connections passengers have, and it seems that if the last train of the day gets delayed the other trains wait for it to make sure no one gets stranded. I would really have enjoyed staying in one of th…

DB is nightmare. I had so many cases of missing trains when they had 1 hour delay on 1.5h track, connecting trains no waiting even for 5 minutes, cancelling train in last minute, etc.

Re: Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains

#72

Post by pvg »

nixass wrote: post #66
dang wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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"?

HN implodes and disappears in a puff of logic. So don't tell such people about HN.

Re: Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains

#73

Post by dang »

nixass wrote: post #66
dang wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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"?

We'll figure it out.

Re: Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains

#74

Post by Overtonwindow »

I must confess that I've used the train system in Berlin many, many times and never paid because I didn't realize (at first) and later forgot.. Have things changed so that you need to go through a turnstile or similar ticket entry system, or is this just for the RE trains?

Re: Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains

#75

Post by esel2k »

As Swiss (just southern country of Germany fyi), the push for cheaper train is always interesting. However I expect the same level of punctuality and reliability when I would be ready to use train vs my car for work or business trips. I did regularly go to Germany for work (Stuttgart, Karlsruhe and Frankfurt) and regularly had issues with either people causing trouble and police needed to board, suicide (sad but a reality) and most often technical problems. These often lead to missing important connecting trains.

So all in all for me the first step is not to reduce price but to ensure reliable infrastructure…

Re: Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains

#76

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

esrauch wrote: post #31
88840-8855 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, but the US is 50x larger.

Sure, feel free to compare the trains in New York State vs Germany then.

The primary issue in NY is the subway service and the Amtrack trains coming in via the soon to be replaced portal bridge in NJ plus general Amtrack crappiness from other routes (not an NY problem). The commuter lines are decent. Though, with ridership destroyed it remains to be seen what impact the revenue shortfalls will have going forward.

Re: Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains

#77

Post by pftburger »

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…

Ive had a Bahncard 100 (yearly pass for all fast trains in the country) for six years now and while there are problems, its about once a year, working out to about 1% of my train trips.

For air travel, Id guesstimate I get delays about 10-20% of the time.

Re: Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains

#79

Post by josefx »

tpmx wrote: post #64
rjzzleep wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 dür…

The problem is probably more the EU directive that caused the privatization, because it requires that all European rail services compete commercially. Which means they are all required to make a profit even if it is a net negative to society. I can't wait for an EU directive that requires our firefighters to compete commercially, following the example of Marcus Licinius Crassus this would seem quite doable.

Re: Germany is offering a summer of cheap trains

#80

Post by tpmx »

josefx wrote: post #79
tpmx wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 dür…

The problem is probably more the EU directive that caused the privatization, because it requires that all European rail services compete commercially. Which means they are all required to make a profit even if it is a net negative to society. I can't wait for an EU directive that requires our firefighters to compete commercially, following the example of Marcus Licinius Crassus this would seem quite doable.

Wait, what problem? Do you also believe that Deutsche Bahn was privatized, as in the ownership being transferred from the government to private citizens? If not, can you please clarify for the benefit of other readers of the thread?
Post reply on HN