Is this an old article? They haven't consistently run on time for around a decade. The service is no better than supposedly worse trains in say the UK and is nowhere near say Korea's train system.
I moved to Germany 10 years ago and while regional and suburban train service has been great, the long distance service has been terrible, with high prices, almost no high speed service and no competition. I'm Italian and therefore I had very low expectations, but at least high speed trains in Italy run better than Germany (at least until recently, when lack of regular maintenance work ultimately made its dent into the service quality).
But for many software engineer this is not a big surprise: everyone knows that accumulating tech debt and neglecting maintence will eventually bite back sooner or later.
The punctuality of the trains has been more of a joke for quite a bit, I don't think it's a big part of German identity.
The part that is really terrible are the long-distance trains. Not that the regional trains are always punctual, their reliability varies a lot per route. But they're not as bad as the long-distance trains.
One big recent improvement is the Germany ticket, for 58 EUR per month you can take any regional train or bus.
No longer? They were bitching and moaning when I visited fifteen years ago in my hostel. They got horrified when I told them they're coddled to be annoyed about 15 minute delays and spoke on how things are in the states... anyways this is troubling I guess... but it's not new.
Edit: also, I found the English UI to be the best in the EU (yes, better than UK's) and traveled the continent on DB, so while I sympathize with wanting things better... as an American it was a pretty good system.
When I toured Germany in the 1980s with a train pass, there were clocks all over the train stations. If the train was scheduled to start at 11:07, when the big hand clicked to 7, the train started to move.
It was wonderful.
BTW, the D community is all over the world. We schedule a zoom meeting each month. When we began the meetings, and the meeting started at, say, 8, the meeting organizer would say "we need to wait a bit for the rest to join us". I put my foot down and said when the meeting is scheduled for 8, it starts at exactly 8.
And everyone shows up on time! It's amazing how that works.
The last time I caught a train in Germany I remember having to wait on a freezing platform for ~ 3 hours until they gave up on the train and got us a coach and drove us to Hamburg...that was ~ 9 years ago.
I don't remember having the same issue in Netherlands though.
On the other hand I've been in Japan for a long time, I honestly don't remember a single train being late in all that time.
dude, Germany's identy crisis is that Germans still don't get the potential they have. They are still, after decades of American ( I love America but I think they had it waaaaaay too easy in the past decades ) easy mode, not realizing they are playing the game of others.
Two bad examples: there's a PhD level genius just a few villages away and he still didn't even try to get the funding to build a proper mechatronics Hogwarts in our area ( it's 2025 ... ) and a nuclear Physics PhD, who's now a banker ( crying laughing joker emoji, a fucking banker, like one of those modern Kazakhs, crying laughing Joker emoji ) just a little further away .... who's daddy is also a Physics PhD and has been in IT for 30 years or so ...
Iean, sure, money, but is that all "agency" or just the result of priming/nudging towards the lower levels?
Good little Germans, just do as I do, keep your lips ( and minds ) sealed .... walk away
it's 4 to 8 hours of work per day anyway and you got the brains for it, ma dudes and dudettes, what the fuuuuuuuck
> “The reliability of the railway must be significantly improved,” Patrick Schnieder, Germany’s new transportation minister said .. calling the punctuality numbers “unsatisfactory.” Passengers often make the same point — but using expletives.
The old data chart shows that they never did run on time, so it was always just a myth. Well, don't build your identity on lies and you won't have a crisis :)
I remember last decade seeing an ad on a Deutsche Bahn "ticket envelope" (remember those things?) promoting their new mobile app, proudly telling everyone "now with delays notification!"...
The diagram is confusing because DB has started “massaging” the data.
As an example, if a train which travels back and forth between two cities has a certain amount of delay, it will just turn around and not serve the remaining stations on the line. And that’s as many stations not counted as delays. This trick is named the “pofalla turnaround”, after the DB infrastructure boss Ronald Pofalla who introduced it in 2018.
And I think that’s just one trick, meaning the downfall starts earlier and is more significant I suspect.
Sadly true, always plan your trip with at least half an hour exchange, with as minimal train exchanges as possible.
Also pick train stations for the exchange where there are more options for follow up connection trains, in case that half an hour is not enough.
Additionally good luck with luggage, the new trains hardly have any space for luggage, I don't understand how they are supposed to be an alternative to cars, if the only luggage I can fit on the upper compartment is a slim backpack, under the seat, or if I am lucky fighting for a slot on the single luggage compartment in the middle of the wagon.
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[ 3.9 ms ] story [ 61.2 ms ] threadBut for many software engineer this is not a big surprise: everyone knows that accumulating tech debt and neglecting maintence will eventually bite back sooner or later.
The part that is really terrible are the long-distance trains. Not that the regional trains are always punctual, their reliability varies a lot per route. But they're not as bad as the long-distance trains.
One big recent improvement is the Germany ticket, for 58 EUR per month you can take any regional train or bus.
Edit: also, I found the English UI to be the best in the EU (yes, better than UK's) and traveled the continent on DB, so while I sympathize with wanting things better... as an American it was a pretty good system.
It was wonderful.
BTW, the D community is all over the world. We schedule a zoom meeting each month. When we began the meetings, and the meeting started at, say, 8, the meeting organizer would say "we need to wait a bit for the rest to join us". I put my foot down and said when the meeting is scheduled for 8, it starts at exactly 8.
And everyone shows up on time! It's amazing how that works.
The last time I caught a train in Germany I remember having to wait on a freezing platform for ~ 3 hours until they gave up on the train and got us a coach and drove us to Hamburg...that was ~ 9 years ago.
I don't remember having the same issue in Netherlands though.
On the other hand I've been in Japan for a long time, I honestly don't remember a single train being late in all that time.
Two bad examples: there's a PhD level genius just a few villages away and he still didn't even try to get the funding to build a proper mechatronics Hogwarts in our area ( it's 2025 ... ) and a nuclear Physics PhD, who's now a banker ( crying laughing joker emoji, a fucking banker, like one of those modern Kazakhs, crying laughing Joker emoji ) just a little further away .... who's daddy is also a Physics PhD and has been in IT for 30 years or so ... Iean, sure, money, but is that all "agency" or just the result of priming/nudging towards the lower levels?
Good little Germans, just do as I do, keep your lips ( and minds ) sealed .... walk away
it's 4 to 8 hours of work per day anyway and you got the brains for it, ma dudes and dudettes, what the fuuuuuuuck
Thanks for the chuckle!
I live in Germany and I sent the article to my former manager. His response, verbatim, was this:
"This pisses me off so deeply".
I went on to muse about the "academic quarter hour" and that now "six minutes is now German standard lateness".
All in good faith, and hell of a lot of fun.
And I think that’s just one trick, meaning the downfall starts earlier and is more significant I suspect.
Germany took some choices about where it's going as a nation and now complaining about how the destination terrain is shaping up.
I'd hope they discover causality one day but I'm afraid that ship already sailed.
Also pick train stations for the exchange where there are more options for follow up connection trains, in case that half an hour is not enough.
Additionally good luck with luggage, the new trains hardly have any space for luggage, I don't understand how they are supposed to be an alternative to cars, if the only luggage I can fit on the upper compartment is a slim backpack, under the seat, or if I am lucky fighting for a slot on the single luggage compartment in the middle of the wagon.