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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

#221

Post by willio58 »

narcindin wrote: post #212
willio58 wrote: post #192

As an American I am increasingly jealous of European countries and their public transport (among other things cough health care cough gun control). It feels like the only way we will ever get there as a country is one state at a time, and even then you see projects like California's high-speed rail that's massively over-budget and overdue. At least the blue states seem to _get_ it, meanwhile those who live in red or…

When blue states show me a viable public transportation network for a reasonable cost I will support them in my red state. Consider the CA high speed rail a PoC for the nation. Would you endorse copying that model? Is Chicago increasing its ridership/coverage (honest question).

Honestly, I couldn't tell you. I think the U.S. so far has failed horribly on this front. My note about blue states was simply that they are the only ones pushing for public transport like this. But will we ever see CA high-speed rail that's cheap and useful? I'm not sure.

It's obvious that the real cost of things like highspeed rail come from environmental regulation and cost of land purchases from existing land owners. European & Asian countries have obviously figured out a way to streamline this process. They have more lax environmental restrictions and acquire land either through force or by never allowing people to purchase land outright (in the case of China I believe). I don't know if we want to go that far, but at a certain point we have to do something because riding around on congested aging highways everywhere is not the answer.

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

#222

Post by panick21_ »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #87
buran77 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The healthcare and social service systems would not be able to function without the mandatory and voluntary unpaid 9 months work of the 17 - 19 year olds before they hit off for university. Interesting take. Is there any supporting official position on this or just personal opinion? If true I find it very scary that a country's health and social services systems would crumble were it not for the 3 months per year t…

> Is there any supporting official position on this or just personal opinion? The government figures and claims are supporting this opinion. In fact, it's been the government's opinion, not mine. I'm just quoting it. >If true I find it very scary that a country's health and social service systems would crumble were it not for the 3 months per year the teenagers of the country contribut 9 months not 3, and yes, that's…

> You don't need too long training to be qualified to drive an ambulance or perform CPR. At least not here. Teenagers are quite smart and quick learners if you treat them well.

What? I did civil service in Switzerland and while there are some jobs that require CPR courses to be done before hand, in non is it actually expected that you need it regularly. And for absolutely sure will they not let 18 year old drive ambulances, that's utterly insane.

Can you show me prove that in Austria they let 18 year old civil service people drive ambulances? Because I know for a fact this is not happening in Switzerland.

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

#223

Post by inferiorhuman »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #165
cbmuser wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think that Berlin's zone system is complex, you haven't seen the public transport in many other cities like Munich which has 6 zones or Japanese cities where trains are operated by different companies. Berlin's system is rather simple and comparably cheap.

Yeah but these days Japanese trains can all use the suica (and similar) cards to tap in and out, right? You don't actually need to understand the different rail companies or zones or whatever, you just get your one card and put money on it and then tap.

For regional, yes, a Passmo, Suica, or whatever card works pretty much everywhere. For Shinkansen service, you still have to buy tickets.

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

#224

Post by atourgates »

ghaff wrote: post #176
bombcar wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every transit system should have a “tourist day pass” that is moderately expensive but allows you to use anything for 24 hours or so.

City passes are mostly a lousy deal unless you're zipping here and there all day every day. Pay per use is almost always a better deal but you need to know the particulars and get the right card/amount.

True, but I often find them worth it to not have to worry about buying appropriate tickets for every journey when I'm a tourist in an unfamiliar city. And on many transit systems, the options seem to be, "Be a local and get an affordable pass or reloadable card, buy individual tickets for every journey, or be a visitor and buy a moderately more expensive tourist day pass."

This is extra true if you're traveling with a family including kids, as I often am.

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

#225

Post by danhor »

Xeoncross wrote: post #207
willio58 wrote: post #192

As an American I am increasingly jealous of European countries and their public transport (among other things cough health care cough gun control). It feels like the only way we will ever get there as a country is one state at a time, and even then you see projects like California's high-speed rail that's massively over-budget and overdue. At least the blue states seem to _get_ it, meanwhile those who live in red or…

As soon as we give up our over-sized personal income and pay more taxes we'll be able to have more public infrastructure. The issue seems to be people don't like the idea of only keeping 50% (or less) of their income + making 50% less to begin with. Most people that work at big tech get their big salaries because the companies profit in data-mining ways that would be more regulated in Europe.

While the US is investing less in transit than other countries, the projects themselves are silly expensive compared to other countries. For how little transit is used in the US, it's amazing how much (relative) funding there is.

To get the US towards building much more transit (and other infrastructure) there are many hurdles, but one of the main ones is building useful things for non-obscene amounts of money.

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

#226

Post by josefx »

jtvjan wrote: post #203
bombcar wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every transit system should have a “tourist day pass” that is moderately expensive but allows you to use anything for 24 hours or so.

I think having tickets at all is antiquated. In the Netherlands, there are terminals at the stations you tap your bank card against to "check in". When you get off, you tap it again at that station and your card gets charged. Sometimes the conductor comes around with a device to make sure people have checked in. If you don't want your travel to be associated with your bank account, you can get a chip card which can b…

I have about half a dozen different ways to get from one train station to another, some with first and second class options. Just tapping in and out would not be sufficient to find out how much I have to pay or in some cases which company to reimburse.

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

#227

Post by ThunderSizzle »

willio58 wrote: post #208
water554 wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/do-guns-m... https://www.rand.org/research/gun-policy/analysis/essays/199... To be honest, I don't really care if you have a pistol or a shotgun even. I don't want assault rifles to be easily accessible by people who want to murder children, LTBTQ people, or whoever else is deemed each week to deserve a mass murder. I say ban all guns, or at least the guns that are d…

Evil will always exist. You can't take evil out of humanity. Many places thought they could and never succeeded (e.g. communism thought they could somehow overrule mankind's tendency towards greed)

Removing guns from good people will only ensure good people will be attacked by evil people, whether inside or outside of your desired utopia.

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

#228

Post by KptMarchewa »

Scoundreller wrote: post #167
bombcar wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every transit system should have a “tourist day pass” that is moderately expensive but allows you to use anything for 24 hours or so.

Integrate it into my visa (stamp). I’m also surprised airports don’t integrate it into their passenger fees and boarding passes. But maybe that’s getting a little too multi-modal to handle.

Very impractical on some routes, no one is even going to look at your passport in Schengen area flights.

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

#229

Post by rebyn »

I got the Deutschlandticket for May and am tempted to travel from Berlin to Stralsund. Using RE/RB for this journeh takes more or less three hours without any train change (so not having to deal with the possible delay(s) and missing connecting rides), however I do hope the operator supports reserving a seat in advance with this subscription, cause otherwise showing up at the station not knowing for sure I'd have a seat would deter me from using this offer and instead just book ICE/IC (if any).

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

#230

Post by Xeoncross »

danhor wrote: post #225
Xeoncross wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As soon as we give up our over-sized personal income and pay more taxes we'll be able to have more public infrastructure. The issue seems to be people don't like the idea of only keeping 50% (or less) of their income + making 50% less to begin with. Most people that work at big tech get their big salaries because the companies profit in data-mining ways that would be more regulated in Europe.

While the US is investing less in transit than other countries, the projects themselves are silly expensive compared to other countries. For how little transit is used in the US, it's amazing how much (relative) funding there is. To get the US towards building much more transit (and other infrastructure) there are many hurdles, but one of the main ones is building useful things for non-obscene amounts of money.

yeah, that goes back to us paying people more than other countries. People in the US make a killing managing projects, working in the office, etc... not to mention the huge amounts the C-Suite as salary and bonuses for their leadership on these projects.
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