Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn • Hacker News Board

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#191

Post by burnt-resistor » Mon, Dec 29, 2025, 1:34 PM UTC

ffsm8 wrote: post #82

em500 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Deutsche Bahn is completely state owned, UK rail is privatized. They're both pretty bad. China's new high speed rail is state owned, while the Japanese network is largely private. They're both far better than UK and Germany. I wonder what are the main determinants of the quality of large infra networks? State ownership only seems to have a very loose correlation, where even the sign of the relationship is unclear.

You're actually misrepresenting it with that imo. DB is state owned, yes ... but it's run like a private company. It's basically the classic "privatize profits, socialize losses" - done as a yearly routine. Not even remotely exaggerating, it's incredibly corrupt.

Welcome to public-private "partnerships", featuring socialism for corporations with extractive profiteering of users.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#192

Post by RobotToaster » Mon, Dec 29, 2025, 1:34 PM UTC

em500 wrote: post #72

101008 wrote: post #10

I know the author mentioned this, but I just got nervous imagining this as a tourist who doesn't speak German at all. This shouldn't be like this. Why they don't help at all? It's also funny considering how here in South America we look at Germany trains (and Switzerland trains) as always on time, and the best train system, etc. But I am sure if this happens here it would be on the cover of newspapers.

I'd reverse the question ask why Germany (or any other country where English is not an official language, and does not majorly rely on tourism for income) would provide any public information in English? Commercial services can choose to do so a matter of self interest, but why would state financed services?

English is the most common lingua franca.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#193

Post by Zufriedenheit » Mon, Dec 29, 2025, 1:34 PM UTC

matrss wrote: post #150

mosura wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

German trains, as recently as the 90s, were phenomenal, and integrated superbly with the Swiss and others. It is in the 21st century that Germany has gone off the rails.

In other words: it's going downhill ever since the DB was privatized.

DB is not privatized. It is 100% owned by the state.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#194

Post by mothballed » Mon, Dec 29, 2025, 1:34 PM UTC

BloondAndDoom wrote: post #131

I feel like we lost humanity somewhere in modern world. I grew up in 3rd world country and if this were to happen, train would literally stop somewhere, anywhere. (With the assumption it’s safe from crewing into another train). But the idea that you go 55 minutes just because of policy; and skip 15 stations is crazy to me. Again with the assumptions that it can safely stop somewhere for 5m and I’m pretty sure the ans…

This has been done in USA using slow moving freight inner-city. Just can't do it on passenger service. It is illegal, but there is no one around to enforce it, the vast majority of the time.

I can neither confirm nor deny, I may have done it to get to/from the grocery store from near my house when I didn't have money for a car.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#195

Post by stoneforger » Mon, Dec 29, 2025, 1:34 PM UTC

nephihaha wrote: post #129

larnon wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because even in countries less developed(by western standards), there are more English announcements, so visiting tourists can also use the public transport. This isn't lack of speaking the language as well, it is more about not wanting to speak another language because "In Deutschland muss man Deutsch sprechen." It is reaching French level of racism at this point. Funny for a country that wants to attract so many in…

[flagged]

Lingua Franca predates colonialism. Latin predates Lingua Franca, although one can argue Latin was forced down due to the Roman Empire's extensive reach and size. Ancient Greek also served a similar role. One doesn't need to learn each others language as long as they all know one common language. One could argue for Esperanto, or a purely symbolic language like traffic icons, but you need to learn that one too. So it makes more sense to use a fit for purpose language for travel that has no ambiguities. You can even create a graph that can be queried. There's all sorts of ways to solve this with as little pain as possible as long as you care to. And wanting people to just learn the local language to traverse a transport network is chauvinism.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#196

Post by throw310822 » Mon, Dec 29, 2025, 1:34 PM UTC

abigail95 wrote: post #102

croes wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you want to waste the time of an ambulance and emergency doctor just to be able to get off a train, which could mean that emergency services are lacking elsewhere?

Why is my time less valuable than an ambulance or doctor? You have to make a lot of assumptions and normative judgements for that to be true, which I reject. Morally DB (through the driver) is the one lying and saying things like "cannot stop". They don't want to stop - that's different. They've already broken the social contract, I'm free to do the same.

It's probably less valuable because they're surely working, and their job is to save lives and it's time sensitive; while there are chances that you're not working and that your job is less time-critical than theirs.

However I second your idea that "if the train doesn't stop it's because they decided they didn't want it to stop"- and therefore they should be considered responsible for kidnapping their customers unless it can be proven that it was absolutely impossible to stop the train without catastrophic consequences.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#197

Post by nephihaha » Mon, Dec 29, 2025, 1:34 PM UTC

f6v wrote: post #9

nephihaha wrote: post #2

DB is a lot better run than British trains... My God. Twenty minutes late is normal in the UK.

OP mentions "six minutes" as a DB metric. But the thing is that DB doesn't care about trains being late. It's absolutely normal to have an hour delay in Germany. You can be considered lucky if it's under an hour. What will usually happen is that you spend half a day in some village waiting for your connection and travel the rest of the way standing in the doorway with your bags.

I've been on UK trains that were an hour late, others that changed platform at least three times, headed to the wrong destination etc.

Many are cancelled without a decent reason being given. I rarely take British trains now they are so expensive and unreliable. Only long distance maybe because buses are unpleasant.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#198

Post by pell » Mon, Dec 29, 2025, 1:34 PM UTC

abigail95 wrote: post #91

manarth wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "If you find yourself in a similar situation and want out - call emergency services, say chest pain, out of breath" Being stuck on a train that's arbitrarily changing stops is irritating and disruptive to passengers. Faking a medical emergency is also disruptive to passengers, and also to the emergency services, who may prioritise the hoax call over genuine emergencies, which risks other peoples' health. > "The pro…

It's not a fake emergency. Acute anxiety causes the same thing. That's for a hospital to decide, not a train company.

> If you find yourself in a similar situation and want out - call emergency services, say chest pain, out of breath, and where you are.

It is if you instruct people how to best lie to emergency services because your train was delayed.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#199

Post by orsorna » Mon, Dec 29, 2025, 1:35 PM UTC

jimnotgym wrote: post #70

hexbin010 wrote: post #8

Deutsche Bahn seems very similar to most of the railway in England. Customer service is non-existent; delays are highly normalised. The UK government hates how expensive it is to operate, so they are reducing subsidies and massively prioritising the most profitable routes and raising prices. Staff got nice condition/pay bumps during COVID and all have the attitude that they are doing us a favour. I don't mean that li…

I'm pro car, I would much prefer to relax on a train, but the economics just don't work in the UK. I can't think of anywhere I want to go where taking the train is cheaper than driving

After paying for fuel, insurance, property taxes and maintenance (exclude the possibility of a car note in this scenario), is it still cheaper than taking the train?

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#200

Post by rwmj » Mon, Dec 29, 2025, 1:35 PM UTC

BloondAndDoom wrote: post #131

I feel like we lost humanity somewhere in modern world. I grew up in 3rd world country and if this were to happen, train would literally stop somewhere, anywhere. (With the assumption it’s safe from crewing into another train). But the idea that you go 55 minutes just because of policy; and skip 15 stations is crazy to me. Again with the assumptions that it can safely stop somewhere for 5m and I’m pretty sure the ans…

I wonder if it's not safety but money. In the UK, train operators pay station operators a fixed fee to stop. As a result trains can't just stop somewhere randomly (except I hope in an emergency) even if that would benefit many people. All this is, needless to say, very stupid.