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I spend £8,500 a year to live on a train

metro.co.uk

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Re: I spend £8,500 a year to live on a train

#261

Post by flohofwoe »

martinald wrote: post #194
Daviey wrote: post #5

Compared to the UK where a standard-class rail season ticket for me to get to London (including underground), at £8,272 p/y.. but for that, I also have the luxury of either standing in an overcrowded carriage, or if I am super lucky I get to sit in a seat that smells of urine.

After spending a lot of time in Europe, the grass definitely isn't greener. Trains in France are not vastly cheaper than the UK, but the service pattern is awful outside the very main routes. Often huge gaps in service for parts of the day and non-clockface timetabling. Seems to be very poor utilisation of rolling stock, with a lot of the stations having trains sitting for hours doing nothing (which should really be…

> DB has horrendous reliability problems

As a regular train traveller in Germany, it averages out. It's almost exclusively the intercity connections which are delayed, but those usually run on an hourly clock. It's actually not that uncommon that I can save half an hour of travel time because I can catch a delayed ICE from the previous time slot instead of waiting 45 minutes for the next train ;)

Re: I spend £8,500 a year to live on a train

#262

Post by op00to »

rrr_oh_man wrote: post #39
op00to wrote: post #16

This is awesome. I love trains, the German trains more so. Wish I could go back in time and do this!

Why not now?

I have two small children I am responsible for. The children attend school. As the responsible person, my first priority is to ensure my children are safe, well fed, happy, and ready to attend school. I have a spouse I love, and I would not want to simply drop my responsibilities onto my spouse.

I am a W2 employee, and not able to move to another country to work without getting approval and incurring unknown tax liabilities.

My employer requires I do most of my work in a secure location. I am unable to have conversations with my customers in public places, and I talk with my customers constantly.

Also, I'm fucking old, and I couldn't stand sleeping sitting in a chair when I was 18. I still can't now, unless it's my big comfy lay-z-boy.

Re: I spend £8,500 a year to live on a train

#263

Post by mytailorisrich »

dspillett wrote: post #253
mytailorisrich wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The subsidies go mostly to the infrastructure and currently that number is high because it includes the cost of the shambolic HS2. Indeed, Network Rail is still a state-owned company. But the majority of the expenses (trains, staff, etc) are borne by the operators and paid for by the fares. I agree that the way privatisation has worked is poor, though.

But the way it should work is that the franchises pay in to maintain the infrastructure that they use, which is itself privately owned. The subsidies were well above pre-privatisation levels long before HS2, largely due to a couple of major incidents in 2000 or soon after (showing that the claims privatisation could fund a safe rail system was at best grossly incorrect and at worse an outright lie by those bidding fo…

Well no, the infrastructure is not really privately-owned since Network Rail is owned by the government. But I agree that in an actual privately-run system franchises should cover all those costs. Of course that would mean even higher fares.

In any case, railways are expensive and need significant investment. In terms of financing the question is then to find the the sweet spot between fares and public spending (i.e. taxes).

Neither privatisation nor nationalisation are silver bullets. As is often the case it is a question of good management and customer focus. That being said, it is hard to imagine a system with real competition because of the very nature of railways, which tend to be natural monopolies. That being the case, state ownership may make sense, with the caveat that it should be well managed along private sector standards.

Re: I spend £8,500 a year to live on a train

#264

Post by flohofwoe »

sva_ wrote: post #66
ben_w wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're just commuting like a normal person, there's also the Deutschlandticket, all* public transport for €49/month. * including ferries, busses, underground, but also has exceptions that don't matter for normal commuting such as "no intercity express" and "a seat isn't guaranteed".

You need some thick skin spending so much time in regional trains. It has become so bad in crowded areas that I'm always super happy once it is over. Nevermind delays, trains being canceled, or standing in freezing temperatures at some random trainstop because the train broke down.

ICEs have become super crowded too though (in the 2nd class at least), and IME the regional train connections are actually much more reliable than the intercity connections (where long delays are quite common).

Re: I spend £8,500 a year to live on a train

#266

Post by jon-wood »

unkeen wrote: post #222
martinald wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After spending a lot of time in Europe, the grass definitely isn't greener. Trains in France are not vastly cheaper than the UK, but the service pattern is awful outside the very main routes. Often huge gaps in service for parts of the day and non-clockface timetabling. Seems to be very poor utilisation of rolling stock, with a lot of the stations having trains sitting for hours doing nothing (which should really be…

The UK is part of Europe, too.

It's really not. There was a little falling out that occurred in 2016, you might have heard of it.

Re: I spend £8,500 a year to live on a train

#267

Post by op00to »

coldtea wrote: post #127
igetspam wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is something you could do at 17 that you can't at 30+, with a partner and a kid. If full remote had been an option for me at 17, I'd have likely ended up a lifetime nomad. This is that.

Depends on the willingness of the partner and the age of the kid. Tons of people travel "nomad style", and even have wild adventures around the globe for months on end with small kids.

I think your view of "tons of people" that travel "nomad style" might be skewed by social media and the rose tinted lenses that people often view others on social media through.

I know one person that travels "nomad style" 100% of the time, and the only way they can do that is by not having a partner or kids. They've tried with the partner, and it didn't work out for them.

I would much prefer my kids be well educated by my fantastic public schools, have a strong social group that they grow up with and bond with over time, and when the time comes for them to explore the world, they take that opportunity.

We do travel with our kids, but I would much rather work when I need to work, and rest and relax and travel when I am not working. I have no interest in combining work and travel.

Why bother telling people what they should be doing?

Re: I spend £8,500 a year to live on a train

#268

Post by flohofwoe »

jon-wood wrote: post #266
unkeen wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The UK is part of Europe, too.

It's really not. There was a little falling out that occurred in 2016, you might have heard of it.

EU and Europe are not the same thing (one is an organization, the other is a continent).

Re: I spend £8,500 a year to live on a train

#269

Post by marcosdumay »

corobo wrote: post #47

I love trains as much as the next nerd but that's a heck of a commitment haha I think if I wanted to do the digital nomad thing I'd have to cheat on the nomad bit a little and have an anchor flat somewhere.. where else would I keep the NAS?! As it stands my lil studio flat is 300/yr cheaper with all bills inc and has a coffee machine built into the (admittedly communal, but massive) kitchen. Plenty of caffeine, plent…

> where else would I keep the NAS?!

In a colocation?

I mean, I guess I get what you are trying to say, by the NAS is the least compelling reason to keep an address somewhere.

Re: I spend £8,500 a year to live on a train

#270

Post by immibis »

garciasn wrote: post #258
gnfargbl wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of the older posts ( https://leben-im-zug.de/howto-nachtreise-im-ice/ ) explain that when he was travelling second class, he was able to sleep on a luggage rack most of the time. That practice actually appears to consume a negative number of seats! This is clearly also something you can only do when you're seventeen. I think if I tried to sleep on a luggage rack then (a) I would wake up in a claustrophobic panic…

Only because, according to him, the attendants don't seem to mind the homeless teenager (and others) doing this, not because it's ok.

If nobody minds, then in what sense is it not okay? If the space is needed for luggage, I'm sure he will be asked to move.
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