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Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

theocharis.dev

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Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#421

Post by zahlman »

jltsiren wrote: post #340
xenocratus wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We took that train, realised when we got to the other end of the line that we hadn't gotten where we expected, then turned back to the place where it separates. Waited for the next advertised train to airport (it's signalled on the electronic board as two separate entries; yes, it says "board whatever carriages for airport, and the rest for ...", or at least I assume it did, as it was in German of course; but again,…

I've never had trouble buying train tickets with a credit card in Germany. If I had to guess, your issue was that you were trying to use a card that didn't support chip-and-PIN or contactless payments.

> didn't support chip-and-PIN or contactless payments.

As opposed to... swiping the card?

Are there really cards out there that exclusively support that?

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#422

Post by stingraycharles »

this_user wrote: post #403
Zealotux wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked for a massive German company you heard of, this sounds more like the typical German philosophy of strictly following the process -- as absurd as it might be -- and refusing to take initiative for anything that is not explicitly defined as one's responsibility. As a French, the culture shock was brutal and I never really got around that work attitude. I went through a similar issue back when I used to take a…

So much in German work culture - and also culture in general - is about covering your own arse. If you follow the procedure, even if the outcome is disaster, you are not at fault; you were just implementing the rules, and you cannot be held accountable. It's the fault of whoever came up with the rules, except that is usually not a single person, but some amorphous entity that ran through some decision making process…

My favorite part of German work culture is watching an excel sheet together and going over the numbers.

My actual favorite part of German work culture is that meetings always have an agenda, that part is a delight when doing business with German customers.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#423

Post by biztos »

darubedarob wrote: post #375
rjzzleep wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The German rails network went downhill when they decided to socialize the losses and privatize the profit. Failure is blamed on the grunt workers, which are absolutely not interested in taking responsibility as a result of this. The fact that there are rotting railways everywhere and the DB waits until it gets so bad for cities to step in and take over part of the cost is a wonderful example of this. The new ICE's sp…

Add to that the transport buisness beeing marginal to the company who is mainly a immo speculation company trying to sell the strips of inner city land they hold.

Immo being real estate (Immobilien), for the curious.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#424

Post by throw-the-towel »

bombcar wrote: post #345
forgingahead wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Belgium gave me one of the more annoying train experiences when I was a younger man. I was in Leuven for a conference, and had decided to bring my then girlfriend (now wife) for a trip, after which we would take the Eurostar to London. On the ticket, it said Brussels-Midi, but after happily boarding the train, we only saw the following related options on the train map for stops: 1. Brussel-Noord 2. Brussel-Centraal 3…

Was it Centraal? That would have been my guess.

Nope, the biggest station is actually Midi/Zuid.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#425

Post by zahlman »

dale_glass wrote: post #373
sva_ wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How dare they speak their own language in their own country on a regional train

I think you still should be able to expect a bit of accommodation on trains that cross country borders or go to airports. The EU makes travel between EU countries as easy as travel between US states. You can just get on a train from Germany to Spain without any prior planning.

It's also unusual given how much English you'll hear in Germany nowadays (at least in major, tourist-attracting cities) in just about any other context.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#426

Post by niemandhier »

It’s a system run at the absolute border of what is possible and that was designed with the “just enough” philosophy in mind.

You cannot add a stop if the rails are single track and the next train is just behind you.

If you do said train will be delayed, will not be able to switch tracks at its final destination ( since it has a hard slot for that) and errors cascade.

It’s the best possible train system, given how little was invested …

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#427

Post by Taek »

Oh man, DB has one of the worst experiences in my well traveled history.

If you don't buy a seat, you don't get a seat. I was taking the 4am train 8 hours from Brussels to Berlin, and I bought seats for both legs of the trip. To sleep, of course.

The first leg of the trip was delayed, so they gave me a free ticket on the next train, 40 minutes later, but with no seat.

So, exhausted as all hell and wanting nothing more than a little nap, I was forced to stand in one of the hallways between the carriages, unable to rest much even vertically because people had to push past me to get to the bathroom.

Absolutely horrid experience.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#428

Post by jonasdegendt »

bombcar wrote: post #345
forgingahead wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Belgium gave me one of the more annoying train experiences when I was a younger man. I was in Leuven for a conference, and had decided to bring my then girlfriend (now wife) for a trip, after which we would take the Eurostar to London. On the ticket, it said Brussels-Midi, but after happily boarding the train, we only saw the following related options on the train map for stops: 1. Brussel-Noord 2. Brussel-Centraal 3…

Was it Centraal? That would have been my guess.

Hah nope! Even as a Belgian I find the naming of the Brussels train stations maddening. Brussels-Midi is the south station, so Brussel-Zuid. Midi allegedly means south in French, but I've never actually heard it being used over "sud", also south.

In conversation, midi also means noon (e.g. used as "meet me at noon"), which for my brain correlates more with central than south, given the context of a day.

Not a linguist, so what do I know, maybe someone else can chime in.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#429

Post by nmstoker »

potato3732842 wrote: post #390
Zealotux wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked for a massive German company you heard of, this sounds more like the typical German philosophy of strictly following the process -- as absurd as it might be -- and refusing to take initiative for anything that is not explicitly defined as one's responsibility. As a French, the culture shock was brutal and I never really got around that work attitude. I went through a similar issue back when I used to take a…

Reminds me of this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3EBs7sCOzo What really ought to bother people more than it does is that within just about any white western country/culture you can run the same comparison with "decently well off" being the german side and "everyone else" being the english side.

Reminds me of being en route with Lufthansa to Germany, needing an emergency landing in Turin, being shepherded onto a new working plane by Italians, then continuing to Germany where the whole plane load arrived without tickets from Turin...

The gate people tried to tell us it was impossible to be there without tickets, as if we were somehow collectively hiding them and a bit of persuasion would convince us to find the non-existent tickets! Not one person found they had a ticket, despite this allegedly being impossible.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#430

Post by arcfour »

smcl wrote: post #322
matrss wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DB has been reorganized as an AG in the 90s, i.e. a corporation under private law. They are forced to (at least try to) make a profit for their shareholders, which is a common trait of private organizations. They consistently do so via short-sighted (mis-)management, another common trait with many private organizations. This privatized corporation is indeed fully owned by the state as its only shareholder, but unfort…

I wonder how many times a low-effort "truthy" sounding comment like that is written without someone like you to correct them and to clarify. There's also comments here suggesting UK's privatisation fixed BR that I do not have the energy to correct anymore, so they just sit there being wrong for all to see

Is their comment true because you want it to be, or is it actually factually inaccurate and biased as many other people are saying?
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