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Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

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Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#631

Post by nephihaha »

potato3732842 wrote: post #617
nephihaha wrote: post #609

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I don't mean that at all. I've had to complain about things before and they accuse you of shouting (when you're not). They almost want people to swear, and rile them up, because that gives them the excuse to do nothing.

You're reading way too much into my use of the word "opinion". It's just whatever side of whatever the issue is be it customer service ad Burger King or some arcane discussion about compilers.

Yes, I'm aware of identity politics, but that is not what I'm talking about. I'm a member of a couple of minorities myself, and it confers little privilege on me with or without the abuse.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#632

Post by Etheryte »

3ds wrote: post #599
niemandhier wrote: post #426

It’s a system run at the absolute border of what is possible and that was designed with the “just enough” philosophy in mind. You cannot add a stop if the rails are single track and the next train is just behind you. If you do said train will be delayed, will not be able to switch tracks at its final destination ( since it has a hard slot for that) and errors cascade. It’s the best possible train system, given how li…

Exactly! When you spend billions on car infrastructure but hardly anything on rails, there will be issues. What people don’t write clickbaity blog posts about is how in general things work very well. I’m currently sitting on a train from Nuremberg to Berlin and it takes less than three hours, it’s on time, quiet and just a good experience. This trip used to take five hours but then the high speed rail track got compl…

Things do not work well in general. DB is internationally infamous for its garbage service because everyone who has ever taken DB has a horror story. I lived in Germany some years ago and not once did I manage to catch a train that was on time for both arrival and departure. And this doesn't even touch on the topic of being stranded in the middle of nowhere as a regular occurrence.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#633

Post by potato3732842 »

krisoft wrote: post #560
potato3732842 wrote: post #535

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Yes. That is a good reason to not stop without a platform. But I tell you one even better. Look at the layout of the Troisdorf station. There are tracks with platforms, and there are through tracks. The trough tracks are surrounded by live tracks on both sides. If the train stops there, unlocks the doors, and somehow coaxes the people to climb down those people are immediately on a live track. To get off of it they…

> Just let the people who are actually there and can actually see the situation use some judgement. Okay. But we are beyond that. The people who were there handled the situation and we both seem to agree that they didn't handle it well. We just seem to disagree how they should have handled it differently. Your proposal is that they should have dumped people on the tracks. My proposal is that they should have done mor…

You can't be honestly claiming that the people exercised poor judgement when their freedom of action is constrained by the fact that they are hemmed in by all manner of rules in a highly rule following culture and that that poor judgement is justification for further reduced autonomy?

They ("ze germans" broadly speaking) should've handed this 300yr ago by not heading down a path (in their defense it probably wasn't obvious) to a culture that create obvious failures by following rules to the point of absurdity.

The train is just an example, and unfortunately there's no control train. If not the train then the absurd and trivially avoidable failure will be something else.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#634

Post by dash2 »

vintagedave wrote: post #549
tim333 wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the UK the railways used to be kind of bad in the nationalised British Rail days. People moan about the current privatised rail but it mostly works.

It is also extraordinarily expensive, and since the cuts in the 1960s you have a fraction of the railway lines. It is absolutely terrible. Who knows if it was better in the nationalised days, but it sure needs some unification and central governance without a profit motive today.

> Who knows if it was better in the nationalised days

I do. I was there. It wasn't.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#635

Post by nephihaha »

stoneforger wrote: post #195
nephihaha wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Lingua Franca predates colonialism. Latin predates Lingua Franca, although one can argue Latin was forced down due to the Roman Empire's extensive reach and size. Ancient Greek also served a similar role. One doesn't need to learn each others language as long as they all know one common language. One could argue for Esperanto, or a purely symbolic language like traffic icons, but you need to learn that one too. So it…

The term "lingua franca" comes out of the Holy Roman Empire and Norman expansion, and later French imperialism, which gave it high status.

But I have long wondered whether many European languages will end up in the same state as Welsh or Basque or Sorbian. Icelandic is already much of the way there. Will Dutch and even German go the same way?

It is chauvinistic and colonial-minded to expect everyone to speak your language in their country. Not to mention arrogant.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#636

Post by tetha »

hylaride wrote: post #395
PurpleRamen wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The general reason is, the rule exists for a reason, and the "low worker" does not understand the bigger picture, so you should follow it blindly before doing something harmful you can't foresee. It's not always working well, but to be fair, also not always bad. Knowing how much you can stretch the rules can be an art which takes a long time to acquire.

Some cultures are more sticklers for creating and following rules and bureaucracy than others, though. A good example: Here in North America I'll jaywalk without a thought if there's no traffic. In Germany, you'll get grandmothers calling you a child-killer for setting a bad example if you did the same. Another example: Both France and Germany spend roughly the same amount (in raw Euros) on their militaries. France (…

> A good example: Here in North America I'll jaywalk without a thought if there's no traffic. In Germany, you'll get grandmothers calling you a child-killer for setting a bad example if you did the same.

This varies wildly in Germany. In Hamburg, at 7 - 9 in the morning near schools or kindergartens with kids around, many people are following good traffic behavior. At 9 on a university campus, or at 9 at night no one really cares.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#637

Post by ragall »

nephihaha wrote: post #153
reddalo wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most people here speak English Germany is the country where I found the highest number of people not being able to speak English, even people working in accomodation! French people probably know English but they refuse to speak it; Italians don't know English that well, but they try their best using rolling R's and gestures. (I'm a bit ironic)

[flagged]

Colonial my arse.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#638

Post by ragall »

creichenbach wrote: post #252
comrade1234 wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They changed the policy maybe 5-years ago about a train waiting for a late train to come in because they found that it added additional delays to the entire system. I prefer the new way.

> it added additional delays to the entire system Yes, obviously. And that hurts statistics. That's like killing sick cattle to be able to say that 100% of yours are healthy.

No, it means they contain the damage and run the system in a healthy manner.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#640

Post by nephihaha »

Yizahi wrote: post #290
nephihaha wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Шановні пасажири, цей потяг який слідує від станції Івано-Франківськ Головний через Житомир до станції Київ-Дарниця буде розділено дві частини, вагони з першого по п'ятнадцятий прослідують до станції Київ-Головний, а вагони з шістнадцятого по двадцять перший поїдуть у пекло, муахаха. Дякую за вашу увагу.

To be fair, I'm sure the USSR insisted on Russian language announcements in the Ukraine. Look how that turned out... Language war in the east.

If I went to the Ukraine, I would either pick up some Ukrainian or take some who did.

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