It's really sad, because Germany otherwise has a great system with both high-speed rail and high connectivity (whereas France has great inter-city high speed rail to and from Paris, but the...
It's really sad, because Germany otherwise has a great system with both high-speed rail and high connectivity (whereas France has great inter-city high speed rail to and from Paris, but the regional rail is terrible). SBB (Swiss Federal Railways) now have a Swiss train on standby for most DB services scheduled in Switzerland to take over in case of a delay.
On the flip-side, I recently took a direct train from Berlin to Zurich with DB, which made its scheduled connection time in Basel, but SBB had its own train ready. It refused to let the DB train...
On the flip-side, I recently took a direct train from Berlin to Zurich with DB, which made its scheduled connection time in Basel, but SBB had its own train ready. It refused to let the DB train continue for 1.5 hours, but DB only told us after 30 minutes waiting in Basel and missed the SBB train to switch.
My impression in 1999 was that high-speed rail was going to be the death of the system, that is, HSR was an order of magnitude more expensive than the old trains, even faster than flying. There’s...
My impression in 1999 was that high-speed rail was going to be the death of the system, that is, HSR was an order of magnitude more expensive than the old trains, even faster than flying. There’s a kind of internal competition for capital: why will an organization invest in trains that cost $10 when it can invest in ones that cost $50 (we have been seeing this with cars since the beginning, auto journalists repeat like the brainwashed soldiers in the Manchurian Candidate that “Americans only want to buy huge cars” but if you try to buy a small car at a car dealer they are out of stock, when they get a used one it lasts less than two days on the lot, but they have 200 huge SUVS and 300 XXL trucks sitting unsold in a row - can they interest you in one.)
I have fond memories of the regional rail system though, I would sometimes take the train that ran all the way to the ferry across the river into Hrensco in the Czech Republic and found out that if you crossed the border on that side you ran into numerous checkpoints and guards but there was a path on the other side where you could walk between the countries and never be hassled.
That's interesting. I would be interested to see what percentage of capex is on rolling stock vs infrastructure – I think high-speed rail is more expensive, but primarily because of the expense of...
That's interesting. I would be interested to see what percentage of capex is on rolling stock vs infrastructure – I think high-speed rail is more expensive, but primarily because of the expense of building new track. I guess maintanance costs are higher, but I wouldn't imagine by that much (electrified, modern trains, rather than old diesel ones).
I also think high-speed rail is kind of necessary to achieve modal shift.
What I find interesting is that this really doesn't match with my experiences in and around the former East regions (Saxony, Brandenburg, Berlin, etc), but as soon as I leave this region...
What I find interesting is that this really doesn't match with my experiences in and around the former East regions (Saxony, Brandenburg, Berlin, etc), but as soon as I leave this region everything becomes chaos. My partner and I recently used the regional trains to get home from Berlin airport, and it ended up being about five connections (but free with the Deutschlandticket!), which all came within a couple of minutes of their expected time, and all met their connections. There was a bit of stress at the end when the DB app showed that we might not make our last connection, but we talked to the conductor and he assured us that he'd ring ahead, and it all worked out fine.
Compared to our last journey heading West/South to Austria, where things started going wrong as early as Erfurt. At one point the driver told us that we might be better off getting a different train, so we got out to have a look, only to find that train was even more delayed than we were. We had similar issues trying to get further South with a train coming from Germany.
So what's going on that the trains can run so well in some regions, and so terribly in other regions?
It's simply down to congestion and demand. Most of the traffic runs primarily along the wester north-south axis, Berlin/Hamburg to Köln to Stuttgart to München. The state of NRW is already the...
It's simply down to congestion and demand. Most of the traffic runs primarily along the wester north-south axis, Berlin/Hamburg to Köln to Stuttgart to München. The state of NRW is already the most dense in Germany and also carries significant freight demands due to their high industrial output then you double this with the extreme congestion between Frankfurt and Stuttgart and the corresponding lack of infrastructure there and the delays begin to pile up extremely fast. Any small delay for signaling equipment, track damage, etc quickly multiplies along this axis and begins to effect even more distant regions. The east is more sparsely populated and therefore has less demand, I'm sure that the tracks are in an equally dismal state of repair there but the small breakdowns do not have these huge cascading effects that cause exponential delays.
I fully believe in the DB system but it feels like Germany is staring a calamity in the face. Investment was so poor for so long because of low ridership, among other political reasons, but now that train travel is seriously in vogue huge demands are stressing an already desperately impaired system. How long will it be before riders lose all trust in DB and leave the system? I'm sure they will come back at some point but it could take years of lost revenues for ridership to return further compounding a poor funding situation
Yeah, I've had plenty to complain about in Berlin/Brandenburg but the regional trains have usually been pretty reliable. That said, I think this article focuses on long-distance trains, which I...
Yeah, I've had plenty to complain about in Berlin/Brandenburg but the regional trains have usually been pretty reliable. That said, I think this article focuses on long-distance trains, which I have a lot less experience with. It's usually a lot more burdensome on passengers when a long-distance train is late or delayed, since they come so much less regularly than regional trains generally do.
That's probably true, but even then, I do still get IC/ICEs in and around the region, and rarely ever have issues. The big problem right now is the Warnemünde/BER/Dresden train just not running (I...
That's probably true, but even then, I do still get IC/ICEs in and around the region, and rarely ever have issues. The big problem right now is the Warnemünde/BER/Dresden train just not running (I think something to do with works around Berlin?) but that's been fairly well telegraphed up front.
I think it more has to do with luck. I had a rough day in July when I left Berlin by international train, but it was not completely unexpected because there was some heavy maintenance being done...
I think it more has to do with luck. I had a rough day in July when I left Berlin by international train, but it was not completely unexpected because there was some heavy maintenance being done around the Berlin stations. This was planned months in advance, I already had a hard time booking a ticket to get to Berlin in the first place because of that.
I have had trains cancelled en route, mid-trip ... actually on the train, en route to our destination, and the announcement comes on, everybody must get off at the next stop, the train is...
I have had trains cancelled en route, mid-trip ... actually on the train, en route to our destination, and the announcement comes on, everybody must get off at the next stop, the train is cancelled.
But the deal-breaker for me was last month. I still don't actually know for sure what happened, but I boarded a train, my DBahn app and the platform sign both said that it was my train. The train itself had no identification on it, anywhere, at all.
Despite all evidence to the contrary, I somehow boarded an ICE train that was not going to my destination. The DeutschlandTicket does not include the ICE trains. After awhile, I realized I was on the wrong train ... and at that point, the conductor forced me--on pain of criminal prosecution--to buy a 30 Euro ticket for the privilege of riding on the wrong train.
As best I can tell, my train was cancelled at the last second, and a different train was rerouted to the same track/platform/time as my train, and probably they announced it (my German is still mediocre even when the speaker quality is good), but they didn't have enough time to change the display on the sign.
That is my guess, anyway -- because that ICE train dropped me off some 45 minutes away from my intended destination, and while catching yet another train back to my home, I observed them do exactly the same thing (except this time I was paying attention, and also, that train at least, had a label on it).
I thought keeping the trains running on time was like THE example of German efficiency. Still its a good excuse to post the old bit about the Kafka airport https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEyFH-a-XoQ
I thought keeping the trains running on time was like THE example of German efficiency. Still its a good excuse to post the old bit about the Kafka airport https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEyFH-a-XoQ
Haha the article photo is of Frankfurt Central which is the first train station I visited in Germany and the only train station I have ever gotten lost in.
Haha the article photo is of Frankfurt Central which is the first train station I visited in Germany and the only train station I have ever gotten lost in.
It's really sad, because Germany otherwise has a great system with both high-speed rail and high connectivity (whereas France has great inter-city high speed rail to and from Paris, but the regional rail is terrible). SBB (Swiss Federal Railways) now have a Swiss train on standby for most DB services scheduled in Switzerland to take over in case of a delay.
On the flip-side, I recently took a direct train from Berlin to Zurich with DB, which made its scheduled connection time in Basel, but SBB had its own train ready. It refused to let the DB train continue for 1.5 hours, but DB only told us after 30 minutes waiting in Basel and missed the SBB train to switch.
I think it was a plan to ban German trains from the network as part of the Swiss "Rail 2035" program.
My impression in 1999 was that high-speed rail was going to be the death of the system, that is, HSR was an order of magnitude more expensive than the old trains, even faster than flying. There’s a kind of internal competition for capital: why will an organization invest in trains that cost $10 when it can invest in ones that cost $50 (we have been seeing this with cars since the beginning, auto journalists repeat like the brainwashed soldiers in the Manchurian Candidate that “Americans only want to buy huge cars” but if you try to buy a small car at a car dealer they are out of stock, when they get a used one it lasts less than two days on the lot, but they have 200 huge SUVS and 300 XXL trucks sitting unsold in a row - can they interest you in one.)
I have fond memories of the regional rail system though, I would sometimes take the train that ran all the way to the ferry across the river into Hrensco in the Czech Republic and found out that if you crossed the border on that side you ran into numerous checkpoints and guards but there was a path on the other side where you could walk between the countries and never be hassled.
That's interesting. I would be interested to see what percentage of capex is on rolling stock vs infrastructure – I think high-speed rail is more expensive, but primarily because of the expense of building new track. I guess maintanance costs are higher, but I wouldn't imagine by that much (electrified, modern trains, rather than old diesel ones).
I also think high-speed rail is kind of necessary to achieve modal shift.
What I find interesting is that this really doesn't match with my experiences in and around the former East regions (Saxony, Brandenburg, Berlin, etc), but as soon as I leave this region everything becomes chaos. My partner and I recently used the regional trains to get home from Berlin airport, and it ended up being about five connections (but free with the Deutschlandticket!), which all came within a couple of minutes of their expected time, and all met their connections. There was a bit of stress at the end when the DB app showed that we might not make our last connection, but we talked to the conductor and he assured us that he'd ring ahead, and it all worked out fine.
Compared to our last journey heading West/South to Austria, where things started going wrong as early as Erfurt. At one point the driver told us that we might be better off getting a different train, so we got out to have a look, only to find that train was even more delayed than we were. We had similar issues trying to get further South with a train coming from Germany.
So what's going on that the trains can run so well in some regions, and so terribly in other regions?
It's simply down to congestion and demand. Most of the traffic runs primarily along the wester north-south axis, Berlin/Hamburg to Köln to Stuttgart to München. The state of NRW is already the most dense in Germany and also carries significant freight demands due to their high industrial output then you double this with the extreme congestion between Frankfurt and Stuttgart and the corresponding lack of infrastructure there and the delays begin to pile up extremely fast. Any small delay for signaling equipment, track damage, etc quickly multiplies along this axis and begins to effect even more distant regions. The east is more sparsely populated and therefore has less demand, I'm sure that the tracks are in an equally dismal state of repair there but the small breakdowns do not have these huge cascading effects that cause exponential delays.
I fully believe in the DB system but it feels like Germany is staring a calamity in the face. Investment was so poor for so long because of low ridership, among other political reasons, but now that train travel is seriously in vogue huge demands are stressing an already desperately impaired system. How long will it be before riders lose all trust in DB and leave the system? I'm sure they will come back at some point but it could take years of lost revenues for ridership to return further compounding a poor funding situation
Yeah, I've had plenty to complain about in Berlin/Brandenburg but the regional trains have usually been pretty reliable. That said, I think this article focuses on long-distance trains, which I have a lot less experience with. It's usually a lot more burdensome on passengers when a long-distance train is late or delayed, since they come so much less regularly than regional trains generally do.
That's probably true, but even then, I do still get IC/ICEs in and around the region, and rarely ever have issues. The big problem right now is the Warnemünde/BER/Dresden train just not running (I think something to do with works around Berlin?) but that's been fairly well telegraphed up front.
I think it more has to do with luck. I had a rough day in July when I left Berlin by international train, but it was not completely unexpected because there was some heavy maintenance being done around the Berlin stations. This was planned months in advance, I already had a hard time booking a ticket to get to Berlin in the first place because of that.
I have had trains cancelled en route, mid-trip ... actually on the train, en route to our destination, and the announcement comes on, everybody must get off at the next stop, the train is cancelled.
But the deal-breaker for me was last month. I still don't actually know for sure what happened, but I boarded a train, my DBahn app and the platform sign both said that it was my train. The train itself had no identification on it, anywhere, at all.
Despite all evidence to the contrary, I somehow boarded an ICE train that was not going to my destination. The DeutschlandTicket does not include the ICE trains. After awhile, I realized I was on the wrong train ... and at that point, the conductor forced me--on pain of criminal prosecution--to buy a 30 Euro ticket for the privilege of riding on the wrong train.
As best I can tell, my train was cancelled at the last second, and a different train was rerouted to the same track/platform/time as my train, and probably they announced it (my German is still mediocre even when the speaker quality is good), but they didn't have enough time to change the display on the sign.
That is my guess, anyway -- because that ICE train dropped me off some 45 minutes away from my intended destination, and while catching yet another train back to my home, I observed them do exactly the same thing (except this time I was paying attention, and also, that train at least, had a label on it).
I thought keeping the trains running on time was like THE example of German efficiency. Still its a good excuse to post the old bit about the Kafka airport https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEyFH-a-XoQ
It used to be. When they were still state owned.
I remember when the DB was privatized and things started to go downhill from there.
It is still state owned:
Source: Wikipedia
The problem is that it is an enterprise and has a mandate to make a profit.
Yes, that is what I meant to say.
LOL, in Cologne the local transit authority is the KVB, and locals joke that is stands for "Kommt veilicht bald", or "Maybe coming soon".
Haha the article photo is of Frankfurt Central which is the first train station I visited in Germany and the only train station I have ever gotten lost in.