91–100 of 113 posts
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?
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…
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…
If you beed to be on time, national flights with Lufthansa for me are close to 100% reliable whereas Deutsche Bahn turned out to be a catastrophe in about 50% of the cases. I still don’t get it: they own the complete network, they control every train on it and arriving on time at a place is like playing roulette. Neither air travel nor traveling by car gives those headaches (especially when you listen to your dynamic…
I have to say, that if I have to be on time somewhere I take the car. DB is too much risk to miss the connecting train and the employees just look at you „well, bad luck. Next train 2h“
When I m on vacation i would file that under „experience“ and would just sit somewhere and sip coffee.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Lufthansa rarely gets "Personenschaden" ("injury to persons", an euphemism for "suicide") on their flight paths while Deutsche Bahn has frequently to deal with that. A delayed intercity express train definitely delays departure of other trains that are considered Anschluss(züge) ("connecting trains"). It then ripples through the network.
Then how do other countries get to a reliable service? Japan, Switzerland, France…
I still have a good story from a TGV travel from Paris back to Geneva that took the double of the time, partial return travel back to Paris, again reversed mid-way back to Geneva, being blocked on a trainstation on the middle of nowhere waiting for restaurant wagon supplies trying to calm down everyone, and finally arriving into Geneva several hours later than expected.
I cut lots of details on that reliable train trip.
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 re…
However I really do miss their pontuallity.
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?
There's no gate or turnstile to any kind of rail transport, local or long distance. I wonder how long you managed to travel without a ticket in Berlin though as ticket inspectors are very common.
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 re…
In Cornwall, UK, the local council has started something similar but not just for summer. Now a person can buy 7 day ticket for £10 and can travel anywhere in Cornwall on any bus. The stated goal for this policy is to encourage people to use public transport as much as possible, and to nudge older citizens to use public transport instead of driving themselves.
It's being fronted as preventing further taxpayer costs, but I can't but feel maybe if there weren't a million private ToC's and the RoC's bleeding the railways dry this would be a non-issue.