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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

#501

Post by mcluck »

calmoo wrote: post #430
mcluck wrote: post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This would be a promotion piece if it was written for the US or Ireland

https://www.thelocal.de/20230410/more-than-a-third-of-german...

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

#502

Post by albert180 »

RamblingCTO wrote: post #493
albert180 wrote: post #444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, sounds like the people you know are not the brightest. Usually they make announcements on the stations where thefts occur to watch your belongings. (Usually where the train stays for 10-20 Minutes). I also don't know anyone who has gotten something stolen on the train personally.

Don't be a dick. It's easy to lose stuff to theft. It's got nothing to do with being bright.

It's even easier to forget stuff on the train and blame it onto theft

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

#503

Post by rjh29 »

pera wrote: post #69
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.

I never understood why trains are so expensive in England: when I lived in Bristol I liked to spend time in Bath, it's just a ~10 minutes ride but it costed 10 pounds each way if I remember correctly... but at least you could bring your bike for free :p

The Bristol to Bath journey is the UK's most expensive ticket by £/km. (Although it's £10 for a return if both trips are on the same day)

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

#504

Post by usr1106 »

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...

The reliability of trains in Germany is horrible compared to the planned and published timetables.

However, there are typically many more connections than in many other countries. Don't expect to be at your destination in time, but once you have accepted that travelling by train is still better than in many other countries. Yes, Switzerland plays in a different league.

Cars get stuck in traffic jams all the time. Still I don't hear frequently how horrible travelling by car is.

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

#505

Post by devilbunny »

syndicatedjelly wrote: post #409
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.

Don’t create mental blocks like that in your head just because everyone else in your age group says the same thing. You don’t have to zap every penny of debt in order to enjoy your life.

> You don’t have to zap every penny of debt in order to enjoy your life.

No, you don't, but you can't discharge student loans in a bankruptcy, and you have to pay them every month once you're no longer a student.

When I got to the end of medical residency, I took a job starting the day after it ended. A German-born and raised doctor of my acquaintance said that I was being foolish, I should take a month off after four years and take a nice vacation.

I said, "With what money? I don't have enough money to take a vacation, so I'll just be sitting at home, and I need a check at the end of this month to pay my bills. Do you want to pay for it?"

He did not. So I went to work.

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

#506

Post by martinald »

aredox wrote: post #280
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…

France doesn't get clockface timetabling because the topology of the network doesn't allow it - to mamy chokepoints. (Of course when I say doesn't allow it, I mean they could, but it would be very impractical and require major tradeoffs.)

That doesn't make any sense. The UK runs 2x the services on a network of less than 50% of the size of France - so 4x the services per route km. Believe me the UK network is riddled with horrendous chokepoints too.

Most of these routes have about 1-2tph running on them max. The UK (and I'm sure many other countries) manages to run clockface timetabling (for the most part) with a lot of routes on 10tph++.

It's not the lack of clockface timetabling that is the problem per se, it's the constant huge gaps in service. Eg approx 1tph, then a big gap of 3 hours, then 1tph. It's all over the place.

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

#507

Post by lsajdn872he »

1123581321 wrote: post #498
lsajdn872he wrote: post #490

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there, in Europe? I'd love to hear more about that if you know of something. I'm living in a van (by choice) and I have had issues with getting a mailing address. Currently registered at a friends place, but won't last forever. The post forwarding service is also not reliable and does not forward all mail anyway.

I found Clevver, which appears to have a few dozen locations available in Europe. Possibly based in Germany. It looks similar to EarthClassMail in the US. https://www.clevver.io/clevvermail-pricing/

Cool, I never found anything like this when I searched. I wonder how they get around the legal issues of it.

With the upgrade to "Registered Address" it costs a whopping 79.95€/month though, so it is not really a really an option for me. But good to know that it exists.

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

#508

Post by RamblingCTO »

albert180 wrote: post #502
RamblingCTO wrote: post #493

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't be a dick. It's easy to lose stuff to theft. It's got nothing to do with being bright.

It's even easier to forget stuff on the train and blame it onto theft

Again, nothing to do with brightness of a person

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

#509

Post by calmoo »

mcluck wrote: post #501
calmoo wrote: post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

This would be a promotion piece if it was written for the US or Ireland https://www.thelocal.de/20230410/more-than-a-third-of-german...

Not sure what point you're getting at, but you can see vast majority of trains in Ireland (over 90% from eyeballing this page) are on time[1].

[1] https://www.irishrail.ie/en-ie/about-us/train-punctuality-re...

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

#510

Post by munksbeer »

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...

Things must have really changed. Back in 1998 I did a month long trip around Germany on whatever the ticket was called to travel as much as you wanted for that month. I never had issues and I loved it all.
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