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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

#111

The biggest advantage of the new Germany-wide ticket is not the price, but rather that it simplifies things. This is a map of German public transit companies: [0]. I've heard the current fractured system be compared to the Holy Roman Empire. Every little region has its own ticketing system. If you arrive in a new city, you have to figure out how to buy local transit tickets, often with quite complicated rules (e.g.,…

And for visitors who may not even speak the primary language, public transit is awful in most places in terms of onboarding jet lagged visitors. Apparently no one does UX trials of people who have zero familiarity with the system and don't speak the language--though at least they maybe accommodate major Western languages. But, in general, it's pretty awful and you at least should do some research in advance.

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

#112
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you take the train and not the car, you cause a lot less externalities.

It may be the case that I cause a lot less externalities, but I don't think that affects the definition of a public good. If I visited my friend by using a motorcycle, I'd cause less externalities too, but I don't think motorcycles are public goods. Same with scooters, e-bikes and normal bikes.

Because reality requires these things of us but we should minimize the impact.

You’re just stringing words together to look smart; physical reality calls the shots. Your attempt to conjure some immutable truth in Anglo gibberish is banal

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

#113
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…

At least in Baden-Württemberg, most regional trains (and even some busses) I've used so far have WLAN nowadays.

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

#114

Can this have the potential of having the MoviePass type outcome? Also, wouldn’t this overcrowd public transit?

There was already a 9€ ticket last year, while I wansnt in Germany at that time I didn't read a lot about overcrowding. With a more expensive ticket the effect will probably be even smaller today, though in the long run all trains will probably get more filled up.

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

#115
post #103

Controversial opinion: Public transport should be publicly owned.

[flagged]

Haha - at the same time many libertarians / conservatives want there to be no infrastructure owned by the public! Another way we are at war with ourselves in the good old semi-public private USA.

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

#116

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

That seems to align with the state of the British economy more than anything else.

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

#117

We need Uber for Public Transit. Enter you destination and it tells you which bus to get on in real time, when to transfer and deducts payment automatically at the end of your trip. The Uber experience on transit would make lots never riders and occasional riders use transit more often. The mental load is a lot of some people at the end of the day, driving is just easier.

Google Maps does this for you. And nearly every local provider tends to have apps with end to end directions these days.

GM tells you the route, it doesn't let you pay for it all at once at the end of the trip.

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

#118
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, you don't have to figure it out. You can just punch in start and end of your journey into one of several apps that work nationwide, and pay whatever it says. Of course, many people don't have any of the apps, particularly people who rarely use public transport, which are also the people most easily confuse by the complicated fee structure. Unfortunately, the new monthly ticket does little to help them. 49 EUR…

You're out of luck, if none of the route segments is served by Deutsche Bahn (which is often the case for regional routes), because then you'll be unable to buy your ticket using the most common nation-wide app DB Navigator.

Or worse, you can still buy the ticket, but it's not valid for any trains actually in service. This stuff is really non-obvious. For example, train operators can license certain Deutsche Bahn trademarks without accepting Deutsche Bahn tickets.

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

#120
post #111

The biggest advantage of the new Germany-wide ticket is not the price, but rather that it simplifies things. This is a map of German public transit companies: [0]. I've heard the current fractured system be compared to the Holy Roman Empire. Every little region has its own ticketing system. If you arrive in a new city, you have to figure out how to buy local transit tickets, often with quite complicated rules (e.g.,…

And for visitors who may not even speak the primary language, public transit is awful in most places in terms of onboarding jet lagged visitors. Apparently no one does UX trials of people who have zero familiarity with the system and don't speak the language--though at least they maybe accommodate major Western languages. But, in general, it's pretty awful and you at least should do some research in advance.

I agree that vending machines are really a mess. However I recommend the Deutsche Bahn Navigator App. If you have an account you can easily get most tickets.

Also states like Baden-Württemberg got their act together recently and made it possible to book tickets all way through.

I recently was in Netherlands trying to get from the Hague to the islands south of Rotterdam and it was also quite confusing.

but the new ticket is really nice wrt booking.

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