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Millions snap up new Germany-wide public transit ticket

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Re: Millions snap up new Germany-wide public transit ticket

#21

Post by usrusr »

TekMol wrote: post #7

The problem is that in Germany, the city-to-city trains that can be used with this ticket do not have WIFI IIRC. Can anybody confirm this? Traveling time without WIFI is a much higher burden to me than normal traveling time, where I can work on my projects. I actually like working on the train. It is a nice environment. But without that possibility, long train rides are a chore to me. And it will be interesting to se…

The possibility to go long distance on trains meant for commuters is an unfortunate side effect of the ticket, more tolerated than intended.

The big improvement is that the ticket you buy for your home town now also works in cities you visit, no more figuring out a different byzantine price model each time you book a hotel.

Imagine vehicle tax would only permit to drive on the roads of your home town and going elsewhere would require you to register locally. Until yesterday, that was exactly how public transit worked.

Re: Millions snap up new Germany-wide public transit ticket

#22

Post by pluijzer »

TekMol wrote: post #12
throwaway22032 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just use mobile data? That's what the trains are using anyway.

In my experience, the mobile connection is very flaky on the trains in Germany. I would think the train can have a much more powerful antenna to talk to mobile towers and then relay that to the passangers. So that WIFI is better than mobile data.

In my experience network coverage in Germany is way below must other European countries I have visited. Some with a much lower inhabitant desisty like Finland.

Re: Millions snap up new Germany-wide public transit ticket

#23

Post by tempaccount1234 »

dstick wrote: post #13
TekMol wrote: post #7

The problem is that in Germany, the city-to-city trains that can be used with this ticket do not have WIFI IIRC. Can anybody confirm this? Traveling time without WIFI is a much higher burden to me than normal traveling time, where I can work on my projects. I actually like working on the train. It is a nice environment. But without that possibility, long train rides are a chore to me. And it will be interesting to se…

From my limited experience on the German rails (Amsterdam - Berlin 5/6 times in the last 4 years) the mobile 4G/5G connection was pretty good. Only dropping off when travelling through very remote rural areas. In the Netherlands we have unlimited data subscriptions, I assume Germany has something similar? That should be enough to get some work done in the train :)

Unlimited data here is rare (or too expensive), usually normal people have 5-10gb a month. Still it covers most web and messaged stuff, just don’t watch too much video….

Re: Millions snap up new Germany-wide public transit ticket

#24

Post by Escapado »

lakomen wrote: post #16
bleep_bloop wrote: post #2

Controversial opinion: Public transport should be publicly owned.

Well, the problem is, especially in Germany. If someone is a "Beamter" which can't be fired, has low income, there's no motivation to make a good job. It took me 3 months to get a Bescheinigung über Daueraufenthalt" . In theory, yes, transportation as well as communication should be owned by the public and available for free. A state that has 100 billion for buying weapons can afford that too. Buy Germany has deterio…

I won't dispute that there is corruption and that there are still Nazis and right wing forces around - especially if you look in certain german states.

But if I am completely honest lots of government agencies and the people working there are entirely complacent with the state of bureaucracy because they don't feel like they can or need to change this sorry state of affairs. I had to wait more than two months to get an appointment to be able to formally leave the christian church to avoid paying church tax. When I went there the woman took my ID, started typing all my credentials into some interface of some government software for 10 minutes and then I could go. I don't even remember saying or hearing anything but "Hello", "ID Please" and "Bye".

Why can I not do that online with my ID? Why did she have to type in all my information and not get that from some other government body? Why is she even typing it at all of it's all on the ID and that could be scanned as they are entirely standardized. What did I wait for two months for?

When I talk to people who work for the government they tell me it's just the process and they simply don't question it. Sometimes some complain but there is little or nothing to be gained. And I think herein lies a bigger part of the problem. The structure does not reward or incentivise improvement.

And so I would argue the problem is not one of being publicly or privately owned but about the structures that provide incentive to offer good service. And if there is none - regardless of the ownership model - then most likely it will fall flat. When you have privately owned monopolies you see a similar effect - they don't need to improve affairs, they just need to stay in power.

Re: Millions snap up new Germany-wide public transit ticket

#25

Post by HPsquared »

timellis-smith wrote: post #9
bleep_bloop wrote: post #2

Controversial opinion: Public transport should be publicly owned.

Theres a really interesting graph showing rail usage under both public and private ownership in GB. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/15/GB... I'll let you draw your own conclusions From this page https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail

The infrastructure (railways and stations) is still publicly owned under Network Rail. Only the trains themselves are privately owned (often by foreign state-owned enterprises, funnily enough)

Re: Millions snap up new Germany-wide public transit ticket

#26

Post by HPsquared »

PicassoCTs wrote: post #8
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They were at one point, but capitalism said everything needs to make a profit.

The pyramid scheme grinds to an halt, if it does not. Everything goto join the MLM scheme, or those running the whole affair get a existential crisis.

Central banking and social security are the MLM schemes. Free markets, if we had them, would rebalance that kind of thing.

Re: Millions snap up new Germany-wide public transit ticket

#27

Post by jillesvangurp »

_s wrote: post #15
TekMol wrote: post #7

The problem is that in Germany, the city-to-city trains that can be used with this ticket do not have WIFI IIRC. Can anybody confirm this? Traveling time without WIFI is a much higher burden to me than normal traveling time, where I can work on my projects. I actually like working on the train. It is a nice environment. But without that possibility, long train rides are a chore to me. And it will be interesting to se…

With 5G speeds and unlimited data* - do you even need WiFi? Not to mention most companies nowadays have clear policies of (not) connecting to free public wifi's or even working in public spaces where your screen may be visible. * Usually the first 50gb is max speed and then it drops to 25/25 etc - which is still really fast.

Because network coverage in Germany is pretty bad, so you are mostly out of reach from networks when traveling by train. It's gotten better over the years since I moved here. But I'm basically still offline 80% of the journey between Berlin and my parents place in the Netherlands. As soon as you cross the border into NL, it's fine. It's a German issue. You have this effect on all its borders. You travel to the border, you are basically offline. As soon as you cross it into Poland, France, Denmark, etc. it's suddenly fine.

Of course train wifi on intercities has the same issues since it relies on the same infrastructure. Even when it works, it tends to be a pretty poor experience and the network is low speed, over subscribed, etc.

Re: Millions snap up new Germany-wide public transit ticket

#28

Post by JumpCrisscross »

zimpenfish wrote: post #11
timellis-smith wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Theres a really interesting graph showing rail usage under both public and private ownership in GB. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/15/GB... I'll let you draw your own conclusions From this page https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail

Doesn't really cover a lot of things you'd want to know like price, satisfaction, reliability, etc. - all of which, I believe, are strongly negative compared with 30 years ago. Also doesn't tell you if it's long distance or commuter or both - which is an important distinction since many more people commute these days. In summary, it's a meaningless piece of chartjunk [edit: in the context of nationalisation vs privat…

> price, satisfaction, reliability

Do these matter if ridership is falling?

Re: Millions snap up new Germany-wide public transit ticket

#30

Post by okr »

tfourb wrote: post #4
bleep_bloop wrote: post #2

Controversial opinion: Public transport should be publicly owned.

It technically is in many places around Germany: The national railway infrastructure is owned by a government-owned entity, as is the main railway company. Many municipal public transport systems are also owned directly by the municipalities themselves, although there are also some semi-privatized systems and the national railway company also owns shares of municipal public transport systems in many major cities. Sti…

I agree. And to finance it, everyone should serve a year of their life for public services like that. So it does not look like, that we want public goods, but someone else but not me has to do the work. The tax burden is already so high.
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