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More and more German trains are not allowed to enter Switzerland

bluewin.ch

91–100 of 309 posts

Re: More and more German trains are not allowed to enter Switzerland

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>So everyone is just ass-covering all them time and not taking any risks. Heaving lived and worked in Germany for a few years, I realized that's the reason behind all the excessive bureaucracy and processes for everything: extensive ass covering. If something goes to shit under your watch then it's not your fault because you did everything by the book and you have the extensive paper trail to prove it. And nobody wan…

How is that different from US corporations

What dies that have to do with anything?

Re: More and more German trains are not allowed to enter Switzerland

#92
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It HAS NOT worked great for Sweden. Source: I live in Sweden there was a DN article recently about it. Here it is https://archive.is/zaGtb Mirror: https://web.archive.org/web/20240721074607/https://www.dn.se... (Its all too segmented, the trains, the track all different companies now nobody sees the full picture) and https://archive.is/MztnY Mirror: https://web.archive.org/web/20240726054426/https://www.dn.se... (The…

Came here to say this. Alos, one important thing that happened in Sweden was that the part that was not privatised was also ran like a for profit company. The railway infrastructure "CEO" basically stopped a lot of repair work and long term projects and was able to show some very good numbers to the goverment, which they very much liked. 10-15 years later things started falling apart, by which time she was long gone.

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck and follows all the Wall Street bad practices... So much for obstinately calling it "not-privatized", when by all practical matters it is.

Re: More and more German trains are not allowed to enter Switzerland

#93
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Climate goal and public transport is also more of a joke than scientifically sound. For example, the gear for the participating teams at the latest EM in Germany was transported in parallel by the empty buses the teams usually use. The whole VIP travel caused a lot of additional cars on the street. Don’t confuse means for an end. There is a lot of marketing and money involved - especially in green energy.

These 3 reputable, scientifically backed, sources disagree with your anecdote: United Nations: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2021/10/trans... US Department of Transport: https://www.transit.dot.gov/climate-challenge WRI: https://www.wri.org/insights/current-state-of-public-transpo...

Ideology and science do not mix well. The "UN Sustainable Development Goals", the current Biden/Harris-led DOT and the WRI are ideologically driven and use "Science" - in quotes because the term does not denote use of the scientific method but rather the institutional credibility, whether the scientific method was followed or not - to justify their targets and actions. Keep that in mind when you refer to these (and similarly ideologically driven) institutions as 'reputable, scientifically backed, sources'.

Do I need to add that the opponents of these organisations and institutions can also be ideologically driven? I hope not, that should be clear. Check your sources for ideological bias - no matter whether you happen to agree with that bias or not - and take that into account when you use them to defend or oppose a viewpoint.

Re: More and more German trains are not allowed to enter Switzerland

#94
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>So everyone is just ass-covering all them time and not taking any risks. Heaving lived and worked in Germany for a few years, I realized that's the reason behind all the excessive bureaucracy and processes for everything: extensive ass covering. If something goes to shit under your watch then it's not your fault because you did everything by the book and you have the extensive paper trail to prove it. And nobody wan…

>Heaving lived and worked in Germany for a few years, I realized that's the reason behind all the excessive bureaucracy and processes for everything: extensive ass covering. If something goes to shit under your watch then it's not your fault because you did everything by the book and you have the extensive paper trail to prove it. I've heard it said that the idea that Germans are efficient is a myth. (The new Berlin…

>Germans are, rather, rule followers.

Which is very good when the rules are sane and up to date, and very bad when otherwise.

Re: More and more German trains are not allowed to enter Switzerland

#95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Villach to Ljubljana is a joined ÖBB and SŽ line, not Deutsch Bahn. Your ticket was with DB, but the train getting cancelled had absolutely nothing to do with them. If you had asked at the Reisezentrum at Villach station you would have been presented with options to continue your journey, or get a refund.

Understood but from my perspective, the cause doesn't matter. I booked through DB and it was not a good experience. Was my very first Time and I had a few minutes to decide what to do as I had people waiting in Ljubljuana. Didnt even have time for a refund for that portion of the journey. I have decided to not take the train next time for sure if I can. Will try bus first.

Regardless, your experience has nothing to do with this topic or DB. And you could have gotten a partial refund quite easily, even after taking alternative transport. Refunds for delays is something DB has worked out pretty reliably. Filling out the online form is trivial, and if you use the DB app most fields are prefilled.

Re: More and more German trains are not allowed to enter Switzerland

#96

Hard but entirely relatable. Deutsche bahn is horrible, privatizing it in the 90s was one of many failures of that movement and was leading to crumbling infrastructure, an insurmountable hardware and technical debt and now to the most complex train system probably in the world. Hopefully some people learn from it - privatizing critical infrastructure like this is doomed to fail. You get the bad from a public company…

Can’t comment on the 90s, but it only seems to have become truly unreliable in the last 5 years maybe? I take a train through Germany 2-3 times a year, and delays and faults are pretty much inevitable on every journey.

I can't say what it was like 5 years ago, but I take a DB train 2-3 times a week and I can never be sure that I'll get to my destination on time, or that I'll even get there on the train.

Re: More and more German trains are not allowed to enter Switzerland

#98

This is so foreign to my American perspective - our public transport is more like, "maybe it'll be on time, probably not, you'll have no way of knowing, also screw you"

“Missed your connection? Sounds like a you problem.”

Re: More and more German trains are not allowed to enter Switzerland

#99
post #47

> Another figure illustrates why the practice is necessary from a Swiss perspective: in 2023, 92.5 percent of all trains in Switzerland reached their destination on time, compared to only 64 percent for long-distance trains in Germany. To add a bit more detail: SBB (Swiss federal railways) consider a train on time if it reaches its destination with less than three minutes’ delay [1]. DB (Deutsche Bahn) puts the thres…

To put this a bit into perspective: long-distance trains in Germany typically travel for at least half a day. "Long-distance" trains in Switzerland can be compared to regional lines in Germany (the country simply isn't that large, and the majority of rail travel in Switzerland happens between Zurich/Olten/Berne/Basel, which are all within 100 km of each other). The likelihood of anything going wrong during a 1:30h tr…

DB is in major crisis with the workforce with tens of thousands of boomers retiring soon. They don’t have enough people for any redundancy.

Re: More and more German trains are not allowed to enter Switzerland

#100

As a foreigner, I am currently travelling for work in Europe and had a DB train from Munich all the way to Ljubljana (Slovenia) through multiple connections. Interestingly, the trains were on time until we were in Germany but when I reached the last connection in Villach (Austria), suddenly they cancelled the train from Villach->Ljubljuana without any notice at last minute. As a foreigner without any understanding, I…

Flixbus: can book online, include bicycle. Actual bus: we don't take bikes.

I actually use flixbusses a lot. Great for pleasant journeys at a good price to see other places.

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