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Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

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Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#751

Post by trinix912 »

huhkerrf wrote: post #4

DB is continually the worst train experience I have in Europe. I have never been on a train in Germany that's on time or that stops at the right station. Several times I've had to find someone young (and who speaks English) and say, "I'm just going to follow you to the next train." I've been told that the UK is worse, but I don't have much experience with it outside of Eurostar.

> DB is continually the worst train experience I have in Europe

Oh c’mon have you tried trains in Slovenia? The ICE from Budapest with a constant 230+ min delay, the regional one from Ljubljana to Celje where half the track is seemingly under perpetual construction (so transfer to a bus!), passenger trains delayed all the time waiting for freight trains, trains randomly going 20kph on some segments, and lately even vandals sabotaging the tracks. And don’t worry, they announce all of that exclusively in Slovene with no extra answers.

I’ve been on DB and it wasn’t that bad. It was expensive but at least the train didn’t max out at 80kph.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#752

Post by type0 »

Zealotux wrote: post #221
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 worked for a massive German company you heard of, this sounds more like the typical German philosophy of strictly following the process -- as absurd as it might be -- and refusing to take initiative for anything that is not explicitly defined as one's responsibility. As a French, the culture shock was brutal and I never really got around that work attitude. I went through a similar issue back when I used to take a…

For anyone who likes trains I can recommend The Train (1964), it's a fun little war movie with Burt Lancaster about French resistance in 1944

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#753

Post by LadyCailin »

ninalanyon wrote: post #678
zahlman wrote: post #421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Both my DNB and Nordea cards, as well as my personal and corporate Norwegian AMEX cards all have magnetic strip, and they’ve all been issued somewhat recently.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#754

Post by amai »

filmor wrote: post #463

The RE5 is operated by National Express. You have not been kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn. The connection in question is probably https://bahn.expert/details/RE28521/j/20251224-a0049123-9494... . According to this page, it actually did stop at Troisdorf (though, that doesn't have to be correct). I don't see why they should have been able to stop at Neuwied but not any of the stations in between. Most of them are possibly…

So there are actually train companies in Germany that are worse than Deutsche Bahn?

https://nationalexpress.de/de/

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#755

Post by mk89 »

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…

This has nothing to do with lost humanity.

In my experience, this doesn't always happen, and I say this as someone who traveled very often on that same RE5. The situation is what it is (poor maintenance, etc), but the main issue is that the tracks are shared with freight trains impossible to stop given their weight, so to avoid collisions and have a nice (albeit late) Christmas, they made that call to play it safe, rather than have a freight train crash into a train full of people.

I wouldn't blame it on the person, I would rather blame it on the shitty system the train driver has to rely on - apparently so unreliable they had to do what they did. Keep in mind, that's a delay also for that person who very likely doesn't want to work on that day either - the same person that has to deal with that level of BS every day now.

Of course, just to be clear, there is always the German ready to save the world by following an idiotic nonsense procedure, but that's everywhere in the world.

> I have fond memories of train stopping close to my house for various random reasons and I’d just get out so I don’t have to walk back from the station. The modern world where everything is “safety issue” and “someone else’s problem” is where we lost our ways, and it’s never coming back.

You got lucky many times. All it takes is that one time someone makes the wrong call and you get smashed by a train. In Europe this is very rarely the case, because exactly of these "nonsense" rules.

The main issue is the shitty maintenance/sync with other trains etc. "Digitalization".

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#756

Post by Gibbon1 »

belorn wrote: post #740
Telemakhos wrote: post #477

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's my dad who worked at NaSA doing aeronautics stuff said.

Pilots fuck up all the time so blaming them doesn't excuse anything.

And I find myself butting heads with people over that all the time. Coworker (smug satisfied voice) well if the end user fucks up it's not our fault. Me (trying not to sound really annoyed) yeah it's still our problem.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#757

Post by alexott »

DiogenesKynikos wrote: post #750
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…

The train is indeed the most comfortable means of transportation in Germany, but it's so unreliable nowadays that it's practically unusable if you need to get somewhere on a schedule. Want to get to the airport 2 hours before your flight? Sorry, you have to plan in at least an extra hour, because there's a 40% chance your train will be severely delayed or canceled. This unreliability drives people who need to get pla…

Want to be at airport at time? Go with DB a day before and sleep at hotel near airport

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#758

Post by mtmail »

T0Bi wrote: post #525
indiantinker wrote: post #17

DB is weird. They seem to make their own rules and then run the game and “dont tell the rules to anyone”. I was on my way to catch a flight from Munich to my home (Madrid). I didn’t knew that apparently at one point the train splits into two parts and the front part goes to the airport and the other part just goes to the nearby cattle farms and comes back in 3 hours. Google Maps - No idea Citymapper - what? English a…

When was this? Took the train (S1) last week and every single screen at the stations and in the train explains this in detail and there are probably 20 announcements both in German and English telling everybody which coach goes to the airport and which to Freising. It's not that complicated.

Those announcements in English have been in place for 20 years. Neither train to Munich airport (S1, S8) goes to cattle farms. Tourists can get confused if they're unaware in which part of the train they sit.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#759

Post by Etheryte »

alexfoo wrote: post #680
Etheryte wrote: post #625

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Interesting, TIL. Trains don't do that where I'm from for obvious safety reasons, but I understand infrastructure everywhere comes with different baggage.
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