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More and more German trains are not allowed to enter Switzerland

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Re: More and more German trains are not allowed to enter Switzerland

#141

Post by JumpCrisscross »

hungie wrote: post #111
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> so foreign to my American perspective - our public transport is more like, "maybe it'll be on time, probably not, you'll have no way of knowing, also screw you" New York’s Metro-North and LIRR have 95%+ on-time rates [1]. (EDIT: On time is defined as less than 6 minutes late [2].) [1] https://www.metro-magazine.com/10217862/metro-north-lirr-exp... [2] https://www.osc.ny.gov/files/reports/pdf/report-9-2025.pdf

That seems... poor? A one in twenty trains late stat will basically mean every person will have to deal with a late train roughly every week? I bet, however, it's not uniformly distributed and some lines are late more than others. Hopefully that 95% is them being honest about the current state, while they push higher.

> I bet, however, it's not uniformly distributed and some lines are late more than others

Sure. But "with a nearly perfect on-time performance of 99.3% on Hudson, Harlem, and New Haven Lines," there isn't much room to hide problems. (LIRR is 96.3%.)

The point is we have systems that have been well built and well maintained. They just don't get coverage because they just work. (The LIRR is far from perfect, mind you. But it's apparently outperforming the DB. You have to get to some of the worst routes during peak conditions to get in the neighbourhood of DB's systemic numbers.)

Re: More and more German trains are not allowed to enter Switzerland

#142

Post by Tainnor »

codegeek wrote: post #35

As a foreigner, I am currently travelling for work in Europe and had a DB train from Munich all the way to Ljubljana (Slovenia) through multiple connections. Interestingly, the trains were on time until we were in Germany but when I reached the last connection in Villach (Austria), suddenly they cancelled the train from Villach->Ljubljuana without any notice at last minute. As a foreigner without any understanding, I…

> Look for using Bus like Flixbus as an alternative if possible. They are not perfect but more reliable than the DB train for sure.

I wouldn't recommend that, at least not for longer rides. Apart from the fact that I don't trust their overworked drivers (there was a big accident this year that may have been caused by a conflict between the drivers, according to some witness reports), its cheapness also tends to attract rather unsavoury individuals. I have all sorts of horror stories, from the guy (probably on some drugs) who started shouting multiple times in the middle of the night, to some dude who fell asleep with his orange juice bottle still open, which then spilled all over me, to the guy who thought it was a good idea to take drugs across the Swiss border (which caused a massive delay as, of course, his baggage was then extensively searched), etc. I've met weird people on trains too, but Flixbus is a whole other level.

Re: More and more German trains are not allowed to enter Switzerland

#143

Post by PetitPrince »

ceroxylon wrote: post #124
hungie wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems... poor? A one in twenty trains late stat will basically mean every person will have to deal with a late train roughly every week? I bet, however, it's not uniformly distributed and some lines are late more than others. Hopefully that 95% is them being honest about the current state, while they push higher.

If true it would beat the 92.5% statistic for Swiss trains that was mentioned in the article.

As JumpCrisscross asked the definition of on-time is important. Most Euro countries define "on time" as "within 5 minutes" with something like 90%+ of their train being on time.

SBB CFF FFS has similar numbers, except it defines "on time" as "within 3 minutes"[1] which is of course harder to achieve.

[1] https://company.sbb.ch/en/the-company/responsibility-society...

Re: More and more German trains are not allowed to enter Switzerland

#144

Post by JackFr »

trgn wrote: post #116
JohnMakin wrote: post #97

This is so foreign to my American perspective - our public transport is more like, "maybe it'll be on time, probably not, you'll have no way of knowing, also screw you"

It's absolutely crazy to me! I can see my uber driver on my phone stopping to pick up a pretzel from the convenience store, but I can't see where the bus is or get any kind of estimate of when it's going to arrive at the busstop. On vacation this summer in europe, all tram stops had estimated arrival times. Ridiculous, 5-10 minutes out at worst, they wouldn't even need the electronic signs, just a placard that says "…

> but I can't see where the bus is or get any kind of estimate of when it's going to arrive at the busstop.

Not true in New York City. See all the busses and all the stops. Estimated number of passengers and arrival times.

https://bustime.mta.info/#m4

Re: More and more German trains are not allowed to enter Switzerland

#145

Post by shrimp_emoji »

JohnMakin wrote: post #97

This is so foreign to my American perspective - our public transport is more like, "maybe it'll be on time, probably not, you'll have no way of knowing, also screw you"

That's like Italian trains, but it's more like "nobody knows what platform it's gonna be at; keep a look out and run when you see it; also, screw you".

Re: More and more German trains are not allowed to enter Switzerland

#146

Post by vel0city »

trgn wrote: post #116
JohnMakin wrote: post #97

This is so foreign to my American perspective - our public transport is more like, "maybe it'll be on time, probably not, you'll have no way of knowing, also screw you"

It's absolutely crazy to me! I can see my uber driver on my phone stopping to pick up a pretzel from the convenience store, but I can't see where the bus is or get any kind of estimate of when it's going to arrive at the busstop. On vacation this summer in europe, all tram stops had estimated arrival times. Ridiculous, 5-10 minutes out at worst, they wouldn't even need the electronic signs, just a placard that says "…

I've taken transit in a few US and Canadian cities. Most of the time there was some app that reported the live location of the busses and trains in transit.

Often I could get the data through Transit, but sometimes they have their own app.

https://transitapp.com/

Re: More and more German trains are not allowed to enter Switzerland

#147

Post by meroes »

robin_reala wrote: post #19
notTooFarGone wrote: post #6

Hard but entirely relatable. Deutsche bahn is horrible, privatizing it in the 90s was one of many failures of that movement and was leading to crumbling infrastructure, an insurmountable hardware and technical debt and now to the most complex train system probably in the world. Hopefully some people learn from it - privatizing critical infrastructure like this is doomed to fail. You get the bad from a public company…

Can’t comment on the 90s, but it only seems to have become truly unreliable in the last 5 years maybe? I take a train through Germany 2-3 times a year, and delays and faults are pretty much inevitable on every journey.

I’ve been to Germany twice to visit family. All of my trains had delays (one was because a suicide though), and every time Ive heard from family, they are also having train delays. It’s very unreliable.

My experiences in France were quite the opposite. So much for stereotypes.

Re: More and more German trains are not allowed to enter Switzerland

#148

Post by UIUC_06 »

mauvehaus wrote: post #112

In heaven the cooks are Italian, the lovers are French, the mechanics are German, the police are British, and it's all organized by the Swiss. (In hell the cooks are British, the mechanics are French, the lovers are Swiss, the police are German, and it's all organized by the Italians.)

[dead]

Re: More and more German trains are not allowed to enter Switzerland

#149

Post by nodar86 »

vel0city wrote: post #139
JohnMakin wrote: post #97

This is so foreign to my American perspective - our public transport is more like, "maybe it'll be on time, probably not, you'll have no way of knowing, also screw you"

The Dallas Area Raipd Transit on-time rate is about the same as this Swiss train system at 93%. The Trinity Railway Express is 97%, so higher on-time rate than the Swiss system.

And how do they define “on-time”? In Switzerland a train is considered on time if it reaches its destination with less than three minutes’ delay.

Re: More and more German trains are not allowed to enter Switzerland

#150

Post by vel0city »

systemtest wrote: post #135
_zoltan_ wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Across the whole country it's absolutely true. There are car only distances for a lot of stuff.

Does the US not have an extensive network of Greyhound busses, similar to our FlixBus system? Or is that just something I saw in the movies? (I'm not American)

There are even FlixBusses in the US. I see them pretty often.

There are a number of nation-wide and regional inter-city bus systems. They're just not extremely popular since car ownership is typically pretty high, fuel costs are generally low-ish, and chances are when you get to your destination you'll need a car anyways.

See companies like:

https://vonlane.com/

https://www.vamoosebus.com/

https://www.luxbusamerica.com/

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