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Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

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Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#671

Post by morkalork »

zb3 wrote: post #476
eviks wrote: post #451

> Apparently we were not registered at Troisdorf station, so we are on the wrong tracks. We cannot stop.” And of course there is some huge fine or even potentially jail time if you moo in protest and pull that nice red lever to avoid the Christmas present of this bureaucratic idiocy (after all, you have legs that are capable of crossing train tracks and eyes to do that safely)?

It's for emergency.. if that happened to me I'd argue in court that I thought the driver went insane (because a system can't work like that) so it qualified as emergency.. But back to my country (Poland), it's better here - some had problems with physically getting out on the right station, and when the conductor saw it she even encouraged us to pull this lever in those cases so we don't have to get out at the wrong…

Hyper-ventilate some, scream "Its too hot in here, I think I'm dying!" and presto-bango your very first panic attack and mental breakdown.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#672

Post by cyberax »

wiz21c wrote: post #349
svara wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as DB goes, I'm pretty sure it's mostly an issue of systemic technical and consequently social collapse. The system runs beyond its limits and consequently the culture collapses because the people inside learn they have no agency. The German rail network is quite good on paper, with dense and high frequency connections even to relatively remote locations. But keeping that functional (particularly with constant…

That's the crux: we must invest in trains instead of planes.

Why?

Planes are faster, and there is actual competition keeping prices down. There is no competition on railroads, no accountability, no nothing. More importantly, railroads have to be managed centrally to work. And this makes them overwhelmingly complex, resulting in an ever-growing bureaucracy.

Air travel is decentralized, and while individual airports (cue: BER) can get screwed up, it doesn't cascade through the whole system.

We just need to add a bit of carbon pricing to reflect the true price of flights.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#674

Post by alexfoo »

apexalpha wrote: post #379
mcv wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find this figure absolutely baffling. How can you run a train system with half of all trains being late?

Someone has never been outside the Western world, lol. In many countries the train comes when it comes and goes when it can, regardless of any fictional like schedules.

(Hence the occasionally heard witty announcement in the UK…)

“Please mind the gap between the timetable and reality.”

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#675

Post by tim333 »

dash2 wrote: post #634
vintagedave wrote: post #549

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Also if you look at the usage numbers they dropped off in the nationalised days and picked back up after https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_rail_transport_in_G...

I was around but not a heavy rail user in the nationalised days though the stories back then were quite reminiscent of the current DB stories.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#676

Post by eigenspace »

britzsquad wrote: post #666

For my job, I travel all over Germany very often. I take the car, train, bus, or sometimes even the plane. The train is the most comfortable means of transportation in Germany. Of course, there are delays, and sometimes mistakes happen that result in very long delays. But where doesn't that happen? I find traveling by car to be the worst. How many times this year have I been stuck in traffic jams for several hours wi…

I'm glad at least someone has a sense of proportion here. German trains have problems for sure, but the train system in Germany is nonetheless fantastic.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#677

Post by embedding-shape »

low_tech_love wrote: post #386
BloondAndDoom wrote: post #131

I feel like we lost humanity somewhere in modern world. I grew up in 3rd world country and if this were to happen, train would literally stop somewhere, anywhere. (With the assumption it’s safe from crewing into another train). But the idea that you go 55 minutes just because of policy; and skip 15 stations is crazy to me. Again with the assumptions that it can safely stop somewhere for 5m and I’m pretty sure the ans…

I’d say it’s mostly a North-European thing, not the whole world. I am a latin american living in Sweden and the overwhelming lack of empathy and humanity you’ll experience in the healthcare system is borderline unbelievable (until you learn to expect and deal with it). They trust the system so much that whenever it doesn’t work, it’s basically ”well bummer”. You become the 1% for which the system has failed, and you’…

> I’d say it’s mostly a North-European thing,

I think it's a "busy tracks" problem in general, which yeah, is a problem in Europe in general. You can't just stop a train in the middle of some track, there are a bunch of other trains coming too, who can't just pass unless you get to a place where that is possible, which isn't everywhere.

None the less, the rest of what you say is true of Sweden, but I don't think it's the reason a train refuses to stop on some train tracks.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#678

Post by ninalanyon »

zahlman wrote: post #421
jltsiren wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never had trouble buying train tickets with a credit card in Germany. If I had to guess, your issue was that you were trying to use a card that didn't support chip-and-PIN or contactless payments.

> didn't support chip-and-PIN or contactless payments. As opposed to... swiping the card? Are there really cards out there that exclusively support that?

Very few Norwegian issued cards, if any, have a magnetic strip. It's too easily cloned.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#680

Post by alexfoo »

Etheryte wrote: post #625
dpacmittal wrote: post #490

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's safe if the track is electrified

Electric trains don't get power via the tracks like that, they use power lines. Metros are a different matter, but that's not what the article is about.

Many UK long distance trains still take power from a third rail for some of all of their journey.

Overhead electrification is a long term goal for the non-Metro UK rail network but it is a long way off.

The other method is an electric train with a diesel generator car.

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