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More and more German trains are not allowed to enter Switzerland

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Re: More and more German trains are not allowed to enter Switzerland

#291

Post by ivan_gammel »

Rinzler89 wrote: post #286
ivan_gammel wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why isn't that a solution? Are you saying aritmetic is wrong? I’m saying that you just proposed random idea that has nothing to do with solving the workforce crisis. Reducing welfare state will not increase birth rate, if anything it will decrease it. Lower taxes will not lead to bigger families, with scarce housing the additional income will be simply redistributed to landlords thus increasing inequality. You prop…

1) The Swiss way is not random WTF are you on about. It's based on people receiving welfare based on individual contributions, not based on social need, out of bottomless money pit which is anything but bottomless. You can't grow your economy if you use a third of the national budget on welfare instead of stuff like R&D to boost the economy. 2) There's no workforce crisis, it's just a shit pay and too high CoL crisis…

> The Swiss way is not random WTF are you on about.

You failed to explain how it will help DB to hire more people. Yes, this is random until you connect the dots.

> Skilled workforce will always come if you pay for it enough to make it worth their effort.

To Germany? No, they will not. I would not, if the money were my primary incentive (yes, I’m THE skilled workforce you are talking about). You are talking about half of current German GDP to make it an incentive. And the whole country must start speaking English as a primary language. And of course there’s global demographic problem: you see, population of our planet will peak soon enough, poor countries will get richer and there will be less and less incentive for educated people to move. For small countries like Switzerland it may be enough for a while. For most of the Europe merit-based systems won’t work - we will have to offer support and education to refugees and unskilled economic migrants. Neocolonial model with immigration-supported economy is simply not sustainable.

> Why are you so focused on birthrates? See above.

> Uneducated people having more kids

Who said “uneducated”? In Germany education rates are very high. The problem is not education itself, but deferred or abandoned family plans because of simpler life opportunities elsewhere.

> Food for thought.

I don’t think you are in position to tell this to anyone regarding this topic. You clearly have not educated yourself enough on this matter.

Re: More and more German trains are not allowed to enter Switzerland

#293

Post by dash2 »

GordonS wrote: post #252
dash2 wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of us remember pre-privatisation as being a lot worse: carriages were older, trains were slower and there were less of them, staff were ruder and didn't care about their customers, announcements were inaudible. Fares were probably lower though.

Unfortunately I'm old enough too :) Yes, it's true that things were pretty grim. I remember being embarrassed when a colleague from Norway travelled with me in a filthy, worn train carriage stinking of piss :( But IMO that doesn't excuse the lack of poor management since then. Things could be much, much better.

I think the question is, will nationalization make things better? Historically, the UK has not done very well with nationalized industries. Maybe this time will be different.

Re: More and more German trains are not allowed to enter Switzerland

#295

Post by vel0city »

snovv_crash wrote: post #235
vel0city wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Traveling 2,000km in the US would take me like 5 hours including an hour in the airport each way. Even if you made it two hours on departure that's six hours of total travel time. Compared to a 23 hour train trip. Distances like that, trains just don't make sense IMO.

Europe has airports as well, of course. We're discussing other transport here though.

Sure, but people lament the lack of trans-national US trains. If even taking high speed rail in a region of the world known for good trains (Europe), a normal-ish kind of travel pattern would take 23 hours versus 5 hours, why would people choose the train?

Don't get me wrong, I'm generally pro-train. I'm super excited for the prospects of the Texas bullet train. Trains can make a lot of sense to a certain distance. But why would you pick it for a 2,000km trip?

Re: More and more German trains are not allowed to enter Switzerland

#296

Post by iggldiggl »

bradley13 wrote: post #134

The German train system isn't awful, when talking about long distance trains. It's not good, but it's not awful. Look at the regional feeder lines, though. Unmaintained tracks, ancient trains, diesel instead of electric. Many towns have no connection at all - where I used to work, there was an old train station, but the tracks had been ripped up years earlier. I used to (have to) rely on the German train system. Than…

That probably strongly depends on where exactly you're living, though. I can't complain about my local trains, which are nothing like what you describe.

Re: More and more German trains are not allowed to enter Switzerland

#297

Post by Chris2048 »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #247
Chris2048 wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In that case, "late" would be quantative.

The article does in fact quantify: 15 minutes for certain ICE trains, 10 minutes otherwise.

I'm not sure you understand. 15m late is quantative. punctual is binary.

Re: More and more German trains are not allowed to enter Switzerland

#298

Post by tomjakubowski »

systemtest wrote: post #132
hungie wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems... poor? A one in twenty trains late stat will basically mean every person will have to deal with a late train roughly every week? I bet, however, it's not uniformly distributed and some lines are late more than others. Hopefully that 95% is them being honest about the current state, while they push higher.

That is a lot better than the 62% on-time statistic for Deutsche Bahn inter-city travel. I deal with late trains around two-thirds of my trips. Sometimes up to two hours of delay.

Isn't the LIRR more of a commuter rail than intercity?

Re: More and more German trains are not allowed to enter Switzerland

#299

Post by pyuser583 »

Rinzler89 wrote: post #261
trueismywork wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The language is a big problem. They can get quality immigrants, but convincing those quality immigrants to learn German is a big task. A lot of people would rather go to US with all it's uncertainty than stay in Germany due to these issues.

The language isn't the biggest problem. Once you learn the language your problems don't stop. The big problem is most companies in Germany still prefer to exclusively hire locals who went through the German education system and have degrees from established local educational institutions, instead of recognizing foreigners' digress from abroad at similar levels to that of locals. It's a white collar form of discrimina…

Americans don’t place much trust in foreign degrees.

We do value actual experience (as opposed to certification).

I once interviewed a nanny who had been a practicing lawyer in Central America.

I chose to hire someone with no education, but an extra year of nannying.

Re: More and more German trains are not allowed to enter Switzerland

#300

Post by tkubacki »

misja111 wrote: post #284
tkubacki wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do consider Switzerland doings as hostile to EU. 1) Switzerland gain on using EU transportation and free market but does not contribute fair fee to maintain and build it. You can tax EU - we will see who will survive. 2) Switzerland does unfair tax competition 3) Switzerland helped hide EU citizens untaxed money (maybe still does) 4) Switzerland helps Russian oligarchs maintain their wealth and many other criminals…

1) EU gains on CH transportation just as well. 2) unfair in what way? Swiss taxes are lower than most EU countries, that's true. But not all: Income tax in e.g. Bulgaria is lower, company taxes are lower in Ireland. But even if it were the lowest, why is that unfair? Can't voters decide by themselves how much taxes they want to pay? 3) 15 years ago, yes. But then Switzerland had to give up banking secrecy, at least f…

1) EU can workaround you - you can't workaround EU. Size is not proportional.

2) It's obvious - fin-tech have virtual companies to lower taxes in Switzerland, lot of individuals try to get Swiss tax residence to lower taxes. Switzerland knows that and allows that.

5) My point is - if Switzerland want to be secure inside EU it should pay fee to secure external EU borders. That would be a fair deal.

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