Bet on German Train Delays • Hacker News Board

Re: Bet on German Train Delays

#121

Post by okanat » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 1:37 PM UTC

ilikerashers wrote: post #108

okanat wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the issue with receiving tickets as PDF? It is the most flexible yet digital option. PDFs work regardless of the medium. You can show it in the phone or you can always add them to DB Navigator App anyways or if you would like to be old school, just print them.

How about NFC? App with a QR code displayed? Could be a force of habit for UK but that's mostly how we do tickets. Printing is usually still an option.

NFC is limited access for phones. You need to pay Google and Apple tax. Android does allow independent communication but it is not widespread and you'll lose a big chunk of Apple users. You basically tie yourself to a platform that way.

You can scan and add your QRs (or more correctly Aztec barcodes) in DB Navigator app already. If you bought it via your own account (instead of your company buying it), you don't even need to do it. The tickets automatically appear.

DB Navigator is one of the best transport apps and already implements some caching. However you're ultimately tied to cell network or WiFi in train for certain othet apps and the quality of implementation. PDFs don't expire.

Re: Bet on German Train Delays

#122

Post by DocTomoe » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 1:38 PM UTC

lava_pidgeon wrote: post #113

Schlagbohrer wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Privitisation is a huge curse, and a tremendous scam perpetuated by capitalist financiers. Where has it ever produced better results? No private entity can provide a service at cost like the government can.

SpaceX or rockets Generally, Telecom in Germany, flights in Europe, train transport in Japan and Italy.

I would not call telecommunications privatization in Germany a success story.

Yes, we can use more devices now. Prices have stayed more or less the same (or have risen, corrected by inflation. Service quality has collapsed, though.

Re: Bet on German Train Delays

#123

Post by samiv » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 1:38 PM UTC

palata wrote: post #27

croisillon wrote: post #14

for the people who wouldn't have inadvertently clicked on the website: it's not real money, it's a campaign to nudge the German provider to care about their infamous delays

I am pretty sure that they know about the delays. A nice thing about the Deutsche Bahn is that they exist . It's not the case in every country in the world. Sure, they can improve, but it seems possible. The French SNCF has improved a lot in the last decade, for instance.

You're actually not necessarily right.

At this point here in the south of Germany not having DB would be an improvement.

Now it exists and you might even try to take it just to be delayed and disappointed. You'll lose your money and they behave in their arrogant manner with impunity.

Their customer "service" will definitely tell you how it's your own fault for having had the nerve to actually try to take their train. You might have even carried some dirt to the train for Christs sake!

So yeah. Not having it would already be an improvement. You'd just shrug and move on and take an alternative transport. Even horse and carriage would be better.

Re: Bet on German Train Delays

#124

Post by gzread » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 1:38 PM UTC

ilikerashers wrote: post #108

okanat wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the issue with receiving tickets as PDF? It is the most flexible yet digital option. PDFs work regardless of the medium. You can show it in the phone or you can always add them to DB Navigator App anyways or if you would like to be old school, just print them.

How about NFC? App with a QR code displayed? Could be a force of habit for UK but that's mostly how we do tickets. Printing is usually still an option.

They have an app with a code that isn't QR displayed. You can also get a PDF to print if you want to.

Re: Bet on German Train Delays

#125

Post by okanat » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 1:42 PM UTC

meetpaleltech wrote: post #102

okanat wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well people keep electing CxU. The current structure of DB is formed by Helmut Kohl cabinet which is CxU.

[flagged]

"We elected right-wing parties who are against sane wages and unions and often use/exploit immigrants to depress wages while funneling billions into companies and away from infrastructure projects. So we decided to elect an even more right-wing party to blame immigrants while doing even more funneling away. It will definitely solve all the infrastructure problems that those penniless brown people and weird speaking ones caused."

Re: Bet on German Train Delays

#126

Post by joe_mamba » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 1:42 PM UTC

gzread wrote: post #117

joe_mamba wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is that an issue? It's a freelance gig, so you are free to ask for whatever requirements you want. But I remember being interviewed for a cybersecurity job at Siemens's Trains division and the german guys there started grilling me on some obscure cybersecurity standards used by the rail industry, even though that was never in my pentest resume and it's something that can be learned on the job. Germans really hate…

It's a problem because they don't get good employees and then they don't work well as a company.

Maybe they don't want good employees, they want yes-men instead that don't rock the boat and keep the politics gravy train going for the C-suites.

Good employees are required for the private sector that has competition, not for pseudo-state controlled pseudo-monopolies.

Re: Bet on German Train Delays

#127

Post by moooo99 » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 1:43 PM UTC

lava_pidgeon wrote: post #113

Schlagbohrer wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Privitisation is a huge curse, and a tremendous scam perpetuated by capitalist financiers. Where has it ever produced better results? No private entity can provide a service at cost like the government can.

SpaceX or rockets Generally, Telecom in Germany, flights in Europe, train transport in Japan and Italy.

> Telecom in Germany

Telekom is a profitable enterprise. Yet, telecom infrastructure in Germany is on a remarkably bad level and relatively expensive. Cell coverage is also still bad, especially when travelling via rail or car.

With the exception if the Japanese Rail, all the other examples are different in one crucial detail: they are not natural monopolies.

Re: Bet on German Train Delays

#128

Post by gzread » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 1:45 PM UTC

InfinityByTen wrote: post #82

surrTurr wrote: post #42

if you want to look up historic delay data (to make better guesses) you can use zugspaet: https://zugspaet.de/

I was considering trains for a Berlin-Frankfurt trip, and after looking at the performance of the preferred train, I'm not sure I want to still go that way: 25% cancellations :/

If your train is cancelled, you can take the next train or a different train, without buying a new ticket. The app will tell you this.

Re: Bet on German Train Delays

#129

Post by zelphirkalt » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 1:47 PM UTC

fnordian_slip wrote: post #45

croisillon wrote: post #14

for the people who wouldn't have inadvertently clicked on the website: it's not real money, it's a campaign to nudge the German provider to care about their infamous delays

It's incredible that about 80% of people in this thread seem to be commenting without having looked at the website. In defense of Deutsche Bahn, countries with comparable infrastructure but more reliable transport have put in about twice as much money per capita for the last 30 years at least. Also, it went through a pseudo-privatisation back then, which hasn't helped (just private enough to focus on quarterly profit…

> I have to admit I'm rather biased as I work there, but I would say most employees do the best they can with the hand they're dealt.

I think most people don't blame the normal employees. The blame is on the management layers, the "Wasserkopf", that gives themselves boni, even if things are done poorly and are going badly. A disconnect from the reality on the tracks.

I don't see improvements. I rather see worse and worse reliability, even though Deutsche Bahn asks for more and more money from the government. That money is disappearing somewhere, at least partially, instead of arriving in projects for improving the situation. In many places, if not most, there isn't even a single turnout track, so that any construction work halts the whole line. Disastrous. You cannot ask people to buy train tickets for 100 to 200 EUR, and then be hours late. I mean, you can, but then you are delusional. They are not surviving because of their great product or service, they are only surviving, because people don't have good alternatives. Basically, it is extortion. In other countries I pay 1/10 of the ticket price and I arrive on friggin' time, on a much longer ride.

Re: Bet on German Train Delays

#130

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 1:47 PM UTC

renegade-otter wrote: post #25

eigenspace wrote: post #11

The proliferation of online gambling is IMO one of the bigger under-reported trends in modern society, and has a real potential for massive externalities throughout society.

That is most definitely NOT under-reported. I read about this as a giant red flag every week. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/01/america-polym...

[deleted]