I love train travel. Even the delays people always rag on DB is really not that bad. It could be better yes, but not having to drive everywhere is so nice.
However I do often miss the small conviences of a car. Going to the store and traveling in bad weather were much easier, and yes I’m aware you can have a car here too I just won’t be getting one.
Although I must admit I do miss a good road trip too. Where the journey is part of the trip. It’s much easier to find something spontaneously while driving and stop to enjoy it.
Overall though not having to drive and being able to relax makes train travel the best
Even the delays people always rag on DB is really not that bad
No, it is. Go to the UK or Spain and try their trains there. Miles better. Delays of maybe a few minutes on average.
It spills over too. People avoid getting the Eurostar to Germany because although the UK-France connection is solid, anything after that is just a big fat question mark.
Hell even getting a train to the airport in Germany comes with a huge time risk. You just don’t get that stress-inducing level of planning uncertainty in other developed countries with train systems as you do with the DB
You can always just don’t plan and go from train to train and travel around europe, ofc this will not leave you easy access to smaller towns and villages, maybe if you also take your bike with you
Even the delays people always rag on DB is really not that bad. It could be better yes, but not having to drive everywhere is so nice.
Lmao.
Try going on a inter-metro train (usually designated as MEX) and have it not be delayed by >10min during day time.
My best record was 1h30min.
Meanwhile the DB navigator app says nothing about delays or cancelled trains and marks the route as done.
It’s can’t be that hard to get the GPS location of a train, can it?
Conspiracy theory: Germany is surrounded by countries doing quite well with their trains. Germany has the strongest car industry in Europe. Thus Deutsche bahn executives must be payed off by the German car industry to keep the trains run bad.
No it is the politicians. Germany used to have a reliable train system. There are a number of issues though. First of all Germany uses trains for freight in a significant way. Then since the 90s they gave some control over regional trains to the states, who then increased the number of trains, because that was popular. They also added high speed trains to the system, which is great but when they are run alongside slower regional and freight trains, they need to overtake them, which lowers a railways capacity.
That all combines to Germany having way too many trains on its tracks, which creates traffic jams. The solution is pretty obviously to build more tracks and at best more high speed lines to add capacity. However that is blocked by the car lobby.
I won’t disagree with you on the DB app. Absolute dumpster fire. If they could accurately display their delays it would be so much better. They have so many trains running at major hubs people would find the next best train if they were honest and reported accurately. Nothing like watching an alternative train leave and then the app adds 10 more minutes to your delay.
Don’t even get me started on trying to find a bus with DB navigator. Would it kill them to put the fucking stieg info on there? I’ve missed so many bused because of this.
Wouldnt kill them to put a direction triangle for viewing direction in the damn map like on google maps.
Fucking google maps is more accurate and better to navigate the routes than DB navigator. How??? They have literally all the data for the trains but google maps manages to make a better product ;-;
Just a side note here: MEX trains are a product for Baden-Württemberg (often designed with the bwegt brand in mind), which is not used anywhere else as far as I’m aware. They replaced the older RB trains that have become a rarer sight in BW.
BW, but I’ve traveled Berlin to Munich to Stuttgart with stops in between via regional rail with a D-ticket. So I’m most unfamiliar with the Northwestern parts of the country.
Trains were mostly on time, if late they seemed to average 10 minutes late, and a few times there were some very late trains. But between the major hubs it was usually possible to just take a different train. I feel like people don’t give Germany enough credit for the sheer number of trains it has. You’re running trains on lines every hour that other European countries would only have a train every 2 or 3 hours.
Although I’ll admit the first place I lived was a small village and my daily commute relied on one train that was nearly 15 minutes late every day. I learned to adjust for it.
No train delay has ever compared to getting stuck in Atlanta traffic for 4 hours. It should on average take 1 hour to drive through Atlanta. I’ve yet to have a train delayed by 3 hrs
I live in Germany currently and am from the US.
I love train travel. Even the delays people always rag on DB is really not that bad. It could be better yes, but not having to drive everywhere is so nice.
However I do often miss the small conviences of a car. Going to the store and traveling in bad weather were much easier, and yes I’m aware you can have a car here too I just won’t be getting one.
Although I must admit I do miss a good road trip too. Where the journey is part of the trip. It’s much easier to find something spontaneously while driving and stop to enjoy it.
Overall though not having to drive and being able to relax makes train travel the best
No, it is. Go to the UK or Spain and try their trains there. Miles better. Delays of maybe a few minutes on average.
It spills over too. People avoid getting the Eurostar to Germany because although the UK-France connection is solid, anything after that is just a big fat question mark.
Hell even getting a train to the airport in Germany comes with a huge time risk. You just don’t get that stress-inducing level of planning uncertainty in other developed countries with train systems as you do with the DB
The best way to get from the Netherlands to Germany by train is to take the train to the border, taxi/über across the border, then back on the train.
I thought the UK trains were trash and over priced because Thatcher privatized them?
they are trash and they are over priced, but they run predictably. You can bank on making a flight at the airport by taking the train
Can’t you still rent a car for a trip?
Yes, but it’s much harder to justify the cost with the significantly cheaper train travel.
Plus driving here feels different. My guess is it’s the population density.
You can always just don’t plan and go from train to train and travel around europe, ofc this will not leave you easy access to smaller towns and villages, maybe if you also take your bike with you
Lmao.
Try going on a inter-metro train (usually designated as MEX) and have it not be delayed by >10min during day time.
My best record was 1h30min.
Meanwhile the DB navigator app says nothing about delays or cancelled trains and marks the route as done.
It’s can’t be that hard to get the GPS location of a train, can it?
Conspiracy theory: Germany is surrounded by countries doing quite well with their trains. Germany has the strongest car industry in Europe. Thus Deutsche bahn executives must be payed off by the German car industry to keep the trains run bad.
No it is the politicians. Germany used to have a reliable train system. There are a number of issues though. First of all Germany uses trains for freight in a significant way. Then since the 90s they gave some control over regional trains to the states, who then increased the number of trains, because that was popular. They also added high speed trains to the system, which is great but when they are run alongside slower regional and freight trains, they need to overtake them, which lowers a railways capacity.
That all combines to Germany having way too many trains on its tracks, which creates traffic jams. The solution is pretty obviously to build more tracks and at best more high speed lines to add capacity. However that is blocked by the car lobby.
No conspiracy.
The car lobby heavily subsidizes the politicians to not inveat into railway. I am quite sure about that.
I won’t disagree with you on the DB app. Absolute dumpster fire. If they could accurately display their delays it would be so much better. They have so many trains running at major hubs people would find the next best train if they were honest and reported accurately. Nothing like watching an alternative train leave and then the app adds 10 more minutes to your delay.
Don’t even get me started on trying to find a bus with DB navigator. Would it kill them to put the fucking stieg info on there? I’ve missed so many bused because of this.
Wouldnt kill them to put a direction triangle for viewing direction in the damn map like on google maps.
Fucking google maps is more accurate and better to navigate the routes than DB navigator. How??? They have literally all the data for the trains but google maps manages to make a better product ;-;
Just a side note here: MEX trains are a product for Baden-Württemberg (often designed with the bwegt brand in mind), which is not used anywhere else as far as I’m aware. They replaced the older RB trains that have become a rarer sight in BW.
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Are you in Bavaria?
In Northern Germany I heard that you need a car and no one takes trains because they’re always late.
BW, but I’ve traveled Berlin to Munich to Stuttgart with stops in between via regional rail with a D-ticket. So I’m most unfamiliar with the Northwestern parts of the country.
Trains were mostly on time, if late they seemed to average 10 minutes late, and a few times there were some very late trains. But between the major hubs it was usually possible to just take a different train. I feel like people don’t give Germany enough credit for the sheer number of trains it has. You’re running trains on lines every hour that other European countries would only have a train every 2 or 3 hours.
Although I’ll admit the first place I lived was a small village and my daily commute relied on one train that was nearly 15 minutes late every day. I learned to adjust for it.
No train delay has ever compared to getting stuck in Atlanta traffic for 4 hours. It should on average take 1 hour to drive through Atlanta. I’ve yet to have a train delayed by 3 hrs
Hamburg main stations is the second busiest in the EU…