> In defense of Deutsche Bahn, countries with comparable infrastructure but more reliable transport have put in about twice as much money per capita for the last 30 years at least.

Why is that "in defense?"

When you let your infrastructure rot away since the 90s of the last century for something as complex as a train network by brutally underinvesting.

Then you seriously fucked up. There's nothing to defend here.

> It's incredible that about 80% of people in this thread seem to be commenting without having looked at the website.

Are you new to the Internet? This has been a thing since (at least) Slashdot. :)

Yes everyone does their best but in typical german fashion nobody does the right thing because it would mean to break some rules or habit. Its a general problem but it shows hard at DB.

As someone who is in a group who regularly trashes DB at will, no one blames the line employees, but definitely blame people in upper levels of management

> I have to admit I'm rather biased as I work there, but I would say most employees do the best they can with the hand they're dealt.

I think most people don't blame the normal employees. The blame is on the management layers, the "Wasserkopf", that gives themselves boni, even if things are done poorly and are going badly. A disconnect from the reality on the tracks.

I don't see improvements. I rather see worse and worse reliability, even though Deutsche Bahn asks for more and more money from the government. That money is disappearing somewhere, at least partially, instead of arriving in projects for improving the situation. In many places, if not most, there isn't even a single turnout track, so that any construction work halts the whole line. Disastrous. You cannot ask people to buy train tickets for 100 to 200 EUR, and then be hours late. I mean, you can, but then you are delusional. They are not surviving because of their great product or service, they are only surviving, because people don't have good alternatives. Basically, it is extortion. In other countries I pay 1/10 of the ticket price and I arrive on friggin' time, on a much longer ride.

Privitisation is a huge curse, and a tremendous scam perpetuated by capitalist financiers. Where has it ever produced better results? No private entity can provide a service at cost like the government can.

> It's incredible that about 80% of people in this thread seem to be commenting without having looked at the website.

It’s almost as if people are tired of having betting shoved down their throats.

> I work there

OMG. Employers to never work for:

- the Bund - the Oeffentlichen - Deutsche Bahn - Unions, especially ver.di - established / legacy parties

When Generalsanierung is over, they can start again right away. That's just the maintenance/running cost. What is needed is building turnout tracks and other stuff to avoid delays. The delays turn people away from riding trains, or buying tickets. We want to combat climate change, but our train service is so bad, that people prefer to drive 4-person cars, alone, for hours, during which they need to be paying attention to the road at all times, instead of sitting in a train and relaxing, or getting stuff done, that they can do during the ride. There is something fundamentally wrong.

This is true. DB trains get me from one point to another point, and in my experience, are usually not more than a few hours delayed end-to-end.

Remember that if your train is delayed more than a certain amount (30 minutes?) you have the legal right to ignore the routing on your ticket and take any train you want, that leads towards the destination on your ticket. Consider it an adventure. The app can suggest alternative routes in real-time, and you can also ask at the info desk at any station that has one.

You're actually not necessarily right.

At this point here in the south of Germany not having DB would be an improvement.

Now it exists and you might even try to take it just to be delayed and disappointed. You'll lose your money and they behave in their arrogant manner with impunity.

Their customer "service" will definitely tell you how it's your own fault for having had the nerve to actually try to take their train. You might have even carried some dirt to the train for Christs sake!

So yeah. Not having it would already be an improvement. You'd just shrug and move on and take an alternative transport. Even horse and carriage would be better.

> A nice thing about the Deutsche Bahn is that they exist. It's not the case in every country in the world.

EU does not have a train monopoly. There are other train companies in Germany (FlixTrain, OBB, BRB...). And operators from other countries can also operate there, even French SNCF!

DB is blocking slots on rail, that could be used by other operators. And they are not going to change because it is Germany.

Surprising but train drivers and operators also like to go home on time.

For Deutsche Bahn, freelance contracting jobs in their IT famously always require 2+ years experience in train infrastructure companies as a hard requirement. Not joking, this is a common pattern in their job ads. Look at this ad, where they are looking for a Go/React/RabbitMQ expert: https://www.freelancermap.de/projekt/senior-fullstack-entwic...