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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

#421

Post by notahacker »

badcppdev wrote: post #151
ciconia wrote: post #133

> Uch. TRAINS. They’re a necessary evil in many of our lives. Horrible big tin cans full of smelly people that never turn up on time and make you late for everything. The less time spent on them the better. At least for most of us in the UK, anyway. Not my first though when I think of trains, but I'm not in the UK.

It's the British way to hate on things that are quite useful parts of their society. Trains, highways, airports, health system, garbage collection, emergency services, etc all work remarkably well and people just choose to look at the negative aspects and tell negative anecdotes. It does feel like it's counterproductive on a society level.

When I saw "I spend £8500 a year to live on a train" I assumed it was someone moaning about a 2hr commute to London...

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

#422

Post by callalex »

dangus wrote: post #420
boppo1 wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would have done tons of things like this if I didn't have student loans hanging over my head.

This seems cheaper than rent so I don’t know what student loans has to do with it.

Stable employment generally requires a stable location, stable schedule, and a mailing address.

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

#423

Post by mcluck »

tetris11 wrote: post #342
nicolas_t wrote: post #321

> You know how it is with trains. Even the unsurprisingly much more efficient German rail system. Efficient and German Rail systems are not words that go together. https://www.dw.com/en/germany-november-train-punctuality-wor...

I'm surprised this is coming from the Metro. Trains in England are bad , but trains in Germany are the worst . The only thing that works in Germany are the busses, and even then, some of them you have to call an hour before first...

I have heard this opinion over and over again but it just hasn't been my experience. I've spent a lot of time in both Berlin and Munich over the last couple of years and I never waited more than 10 minutes for a train

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

#424

Post by ethbr1 »

iraqmtpizza wrote: post #337
johnwalkr wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's true of most transit and also true for roads.

Two wrongs don't make a right. If a particular taxpayer-funded road was one cent per mile for the end user as opposed to other higher-priced roads, you wouldn't say, "wow, this road is reasonably priced!" Unless you're literally just doing a travel blog

Is it a wrong?

There's a lot of externalities around transit that aren't directly priced into costs vs ticket revenue.

If France decides "We want high speed national rail connectivity between cities", I'd look at it more of an entitlement / service than a profitable enterprise.

Nobody expects national healthcare services to be profitable.

(Also, both France and Germany's relatively recent experience with their national rail networks being the reason their countries are still independent sovereign states)

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

#425

Post by blibble »

dspillett wrote: post #191
williamdclt wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> to subsidise their national networks Do you have a source? That's an extraordinary claim, the sort of thing I'd expect to find in Nigel Farage's bag of lies

It is effectively true. Many European firms own chunks of the rail franchises in the UK and charge a shed load more than their local rail services are able to. Similar to the power franchises with the likes of EDF owning a large stake and charging a lot more here than they can get away with in France. It isn't an EU thing, though it has at times been something Farage and his ilk have banged on about as if it is an EU…

> it is the way the Tories setup the privatisation of the railways

which they did to implement... EU Directive 91/440 ("First Railway Package")

yes, the UK tended to gold plate EU regs, but the spark was the EU

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

#426

Post by obmelvin »

dfxm12 wrote: post #407
obmelvin wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Berlin is a very odd city for renting. There are so many protections for renters. I have a friend who's parents bought a place there while she was doing her PhD. She got a roommate who was starting a PhD at the same time. This friend has since done a PostDoc in the US and worked nearly 5 years here (read: the original rate was set a while ago). Meanwhile, her old-roommate refuses to move out, pay more in rent or pay…

I imagine that cases like this have driven up the rent prices quite a bit. Can you elaborate on why you imagine this?

I just mean that strict controls over the ability to raise prices & not letting the landlord terminate the lease after a 12-month cycle has ended would likely effect the calculations done by landlords.

A landlord may want a high price to 1) bake in future raises, if they can't be done year to year and 2) a filter to only rent to people with high paying jobs in an attempt to avoid situations where someone doesn't leave because they'll never find something as cheap.

To be clear, this is my inductive reasoning after asking this friend many questions in disbelief at her situation. I can't say definitively that this is a cause of higher rents. Nor do I mean to imply that there aren't bigger effects.

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

#428

Post by Smar »

lenkite wrote: post #408

I always enjoyed Deutsche Bahn whenever I traveled to Germany. Such a user-friendly experience for an international tourist. Even before the smartphone era it was easy to book tickets at the machine. Just hop and go to another city and return with the night train! Saw so many places without the stress of driving.

Here in Finland, I've only ever purchased tickets from the machines on stations. I suppose they are not used in most countries?

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

#429

Post by jareklupinski »

ballenf wrote: post #416
kragen wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a colo will host your nas in a virtual machine for €5 a month or in a physical machine for €30 a month. this includes the machine and internet connection. i think you'll have a hard time finding a studio flat in europe for under €150 a month

Kind of ironic that the train is a colo for people. A mobile colo.

I'm looking to upgrade to a 2U apartment soon

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

#430

Post by calmoo »

mcluck wrote: post #423
tetris11 wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised this is coming from the Metro. Trains in England are bad , but trains in Germany are the worst . The only thing that works in Germany are the busses, and even then, some of them you have to call an hour before first...

I have heard this opinion over and over again but it just hasn't been my experience. I've spent a lot of time in both Berlin and Munich over the last couple of years and I never waited more than 10 minutes for a train

It’s not an opinion anymore, it’s fact. A huge percentage of trains are late in Germany because of crumbling infrastructure here.
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