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Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

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Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#731

Post by martijnvds »

anal_reactor wrote: post #147
microtonal wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And being delayed for 15-40 minutes, getting thrown out in the middle of nowhere, or having to continue by bus is an inconvenience for most people, but a nightmare for people with disabilities. Imagine being in a wheelchair, having a digestive condition (Crohn, IBS, etc.), or some sort of anxiety. I imagine that there are groups of people in Germany that simply do not travel anymore. It is an area where proper govern…

> they are fined NS is state-owned so all fines are just money transfer between two branches of the government. Also, they know that "the trains fail with current amount of public funding, I wonder if less funding will improve the situation" is not good logic. Therefore there won't be any actual fines. > and I think in an extreme case they can lose their concession And then what? Most of the country will be left with…

> the trains fail with current amount of public funding, I wonder if less funding will improve the situation" is not good logic

Tell that to the current government (and most of the previous governments in recent years).

You can't put money into it! Guess NS will just have to increase ticket prices _again_.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#732

Post by pjmlp »

bondarchuk wrote: post #582
pjmlp wrote: post #577

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great advice which I assume you follow to the letter.

idk man, I get it's nice if things are clear for you, but it's misplaced IMO to have this level of entitlement over people speaking their mother tongue in their own country

I hope you get to learn Portuguese well enough that my fellow country folks never force themselves to speak any other language, in case you happen to visit us, if not, oh well.

I am fluent in several European languages and dialects, human languages is second nature alongside learning programming languages.

As for entitlement, the expectations on international trains crossing borders aren't the same as local trains, which I left out from the comment, it was an ICE after crew change.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#733

Post by LargoLasskhyfv »

Should have taken the KVB/SWB line 16 from Cologne HBF to Bonn Bad Godesberg Rheinalle/BF instead, and the bus line 855 from there to Meckenheim BF, or so :)

( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadtbahnwagen_B#/media/File:K... / https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rheinuferbahn / https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadtbahnstrecke_Bonn%E2%80%93... )

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#734

Post by jdeibele »

tharkun__ wrote: post #479
gmueckl wrote: post #440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand ome detail of this story: Amtrak platforms are about 110cm high. That's more than waist high for most people. So how do you let people get on and off at a grade intersection instead of at a platform?

And now you tell me how those doors function at 110cm height instead of ground level ;) https://media.amtrak.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Autumn-1...

I've ridden on Amtrak trains. The door for the passenger compartments is in the middle of the observation cars, the oval on the lower level is the window on the door. You can see 3 of them on the 3 cars. The crew would put out a step at stops which was helpful considering the age of most of the passengers.

Up top are seats and maybe a lounge, below are bedrooms, bathrooms, and storage. There's a spiral staircase to change levels.

The locomotive has steps right outside the wheels with handrails.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#735

Post by carlmr »

hylaride wrote: post #381
carlmr wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>invest more relative to their passenger load. For Switzerland does this account for the almost double salaries or only absolute spending? If you spend 1€ in Switzerland I imagine you get much less work output than for 1€ in Germany.

Raw investment numbers don't necessarily matter, but the productivity of said number. Even if things are more expensive in Switzerland, if they make efficient use of said investment, then it can work out ok (or even better). I have no idea if this is actually the case, but you have to take that into account or Switzerland would not be as successful as it is. Higher incomes have historically been a symptom of producti…

>Higher incomes have historically been a symptom of productivity

If I go to Zürich I get a burger for 30Fr that I can get in Southern Germany for 15€ and in Berlin for 8€. That is with roughly the same quality.

I'd say past productivity leads to network effects and investments in one area that boost local salaries and decouples them quite strongly from current productivity.

My previous company had a per-dollar extremely unproductive location in silicon valley. The people there weren't at fault. You don't magically become more productive because you live next to SF.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#737

Post by zorked »

pembrook wrote: post #714
wiz21c wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

No amount of money will overcome the fundamental issue: monopoly. Airlines are subject to market competition since any competitor around the globe can spot a poorly run route and buy their planes into those slots. If they can execute more efficiently than you, they can afford to lower prices (or increase the level of service) more than you, and thus put you out of business. Trains do not work this way. No amount of i…

China and Switzerland seem to do fine with trains.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#738

Post by abigail95 »

locallost wrote: post #557
abigail95 wrote: post #444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to continue the analogy via consequences, it's not a defense to kidnapping to say you let them go at the end.

For it to be a kidnapping there needs to be a realistic threat you will not be let go. Have a nice day.

Just so you know I was offended at the use of the term kidnapping from the article but for different reasons.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#739

Post by eisa01 »

jltsiren wrote: post #340
xenocratus wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We took that train, realised when we got to the other end of the line that we hadn't gotten where we expected, then turned back to the place where it separates. Waited for the next advertised train to airport (it's signalled on the electronic board as two separate entries; yes, it says "board whatever carriages for airport, and the rest for ...", or at least I assume it did, as it was in German of course; but again,…

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.

Two years back the S-bahn ticket machines at the aiport only supported chip+pin, not contactless. Had to open my banking app to figure out my pin code, as I wanted to use my corporate Amex

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#740

Post by belorn »

Telemakhos wrote: post #477
this_user wrote: post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So much in German work culture - and also culture in general - is about covering your own arse. If you follow the procedure, even if the outcome is disaster, you are not at fault; you were just implementing the rules, and you cannot be held accountable. It's the fault of whoever came up with the rules, except that is usually not a single person, but some amorphous entity that ran through some decision making process…

That sounds a lot like industrial safety culture: blame the process, not the worker, so we can iterate on the safety built into the process if there is a failure, because doing so lessens the chance of future failures. It’s a great way to build airplanes.

The idea in the aerospace industry is that you should not blame the pilot, since pilot error became a all-catch rule no matter if there was design or system errors. The classical example is the button for the landing gear, where pilots continued to accidentally press it and crashing the plane. The engineers added guardrails to the button and the pilot error rate went down.
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