I lived 15 years in The Netherlands and 3 years ago moved to Germany.

Back in NL I used to complain about trains being late...

Boy oh boy was I not ready for Germany and Deutsche Bahn. I heard stories, but it was so absurd at times that I treated them as comical acts.

Then I traveled long distance on DB...

- trains being late by 15-40 minutes is NORMAL. It's included. At this point I feel like it's even planned. - the "thrown out in the middle of nowhere" happens! Ruthlessly. Operationally. With zero empathy or guidance. One minute you traveled inside the train approaching your destination another minute you are on a station in some village, knowing nothing about "why?" And "what is next?"

I still take trains - but I do not plan any appointments on arrival. As arrival is theoretical and not guaranteed. I just take a gamble and sink hours into the journey. Read books. Watch movies.

P.s. I am surprised that DB is not held more accountable for the absolutely shit service they provide.

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microtonal 9 hours ago | parent | next [-]

And being delayed for 15-40 minutes, getting thrown out in the middle of nowhere, or having to continue by bus is an inconvenience for most people, but a nightmare for people with disabilities. Imagine being in a wheelchair, having a digestive condition (Crohn, IBS, etc.), or some sort of anxiety. I imagine that there are groups of people in Germany that simply do not travel anymore.

It is an area where proper governance is failing. I don't know about Germany, but in The Netherlands, Dutch law requires at least 90% of the trains to be on time (less than 5 minutes delay). If national train company do not reach those numbers, they are fined and I think in an extreme case they can lose their concession.

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jeroenhd 9 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> Dutch law requires at least 90% of the trains to be on time (less than 5 minutes delay

Yes, however, any train delayed more than 30 minutes gets canceled entirely and doesn't get counted in the statistics. The train this article is talking about would not be registered late under Dutch terms (though it probably wouldn't have traveled comically far without stopping).

Not saying Dutch trains are as bad as German trains, but applying the same laws won't fix DB's problems.

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anal_reactor 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> they are fined

NS is state-owned so all fines are just money transfer between two branches of the government. Also, they know that "the trains fail with current amount of public funding, I wonder if less funding will improve the situation" is not good logic. Therefore there won't be any actual fines.

> and I think in an extreme case they can lose their concession

And then what? Most of the country will be left without trains? The company will be dissolved and replaced by the Chinese? Not gonna happen.

	▲	martijnvds 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		> the trains fail with current amount of public funding, I wonder if less funding will improve the situation" is not good logic Tell that to the current government (and most of the previous governments in recent years). You can't put money into it! Guess NS will just have to increase ticket prices _again_.
	▲	microtonal 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		And then what? Most of the country will be left without trains? The company will be dissolved and replaced by the Chinese? Not gonna happen. I don't think it would happen all at once for the main network, but Arriva sure likes to get more and more lines.

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Avamander 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> P.s. I am surprised that DB is not held more accountable for the absolutely shit service they provide.

That's the famous German efficiency, not to waste time on things that were not done or caused by being inefficient in the first place. There's no point in wasting time on improving some process, fax machines still work, don't they?

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tapia 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The accountability part is what makes me more angry. I get to lose so many (maybe hundreds?) of hours a year because of how bad DB works. Meanwhile the executives at DB get their nice boni each year and absurdly high wages for what they do... which is consistently worsening the train experience year after year. Probably none of them even use the train.