Reaction video FAIL: Getting past German immigration (but mostly about trains)

[@hape3862]

Everything was better in the past, including the future.

[@eltfell]

And even that sucks.

[@ppd3bw]

@@eltfell everything was better in the past. Only one thing was worse: The morals were also better ;-)

[@ShouldOfStudiedForTheTest]

As a German, I used to believe the German train service to be generally terrible until I have done a bit of research myself and found out that in most countries (even many developed countries), a train once an hour is considered frequent (for heavy rail that is). I wasn't even aware that Germany is one of the few developed countries where small towns (10,000-20,000 or sometimes even 5,000 inh.) have consistent rail access (1-2h, mostly 1h here in NRW). My only attempt at explanation is that individual travel is normalized for the last three generations of people, so there is bias against other transport systems, especially when it is "tried out" over the usual car travel (also in reference to climate change). I have even read stories which where obviously made up like a 30 minute journey taking 4h.

[@John_Weiss]

In the US, many trains run only _once a day._ Granted, these are trains that travel cross-country, but even trains between the major cities on the East Coast between Boston and Washington DC are infrequent and _sllllloooooooow._ Only the NYC to DC trains are more frequent, and even those slow down in certain areas to speeds slower than driving by car would be. Congress has been destroying our last vestiges of a train network in the US since the 1980s.

[@xaverlustig3581]

It's not that the infrastructure is bad, but the service quality has been going downhill. The trains are notoriously late or get cancelled, on tracks meticulously built to reach every small town 100 years ago. Unless the tracks have been closed and replaced by a cycling path, that is.

[@xaverlustig3581]

PS "My only attempt at explanation is that individual travel is normalized for the last three generations of people, so there is bias against other transport systems" Only someone who doesn't actually use public transport can say such a thing. Everything is notoriously late: Buses, trains, trams, metros. If you live in an area where the bus only comes every 60 minutes (which is OK, I'm not complaining) but the bus then doesn't come, you wait for 60 minutes in vain. And if it runs 5 minutes late, it fails to catch the connection to a train that also runs on a 60 minutes schedule, you lose another hour. This unreliability is making the system near useless. You can't tell your boss "Sorry I'm two hours late, but the bus wasn't on time" every other day.

[@gaedingar9791]

@@xaverlustig3581 Last year I tried using the car more often, because I didn't want to have so much contact to strangers during a pandamic. But I switched back to public transport almost immediatly. With the car, you stuck in the same traffic, that causes the bus to be late. That doesn't really solve the problem. And at least on my standard routes, the delay of the trains is about the same as the time, you have to plan for the traffic, if not less. And there is another bonus to the train: I don't have to waste my concentration for driving and searching parking spaces.

[@ShouldOfStudiedForTheTest]

@@xaverlustig3581 "Doesn't actually use public transport"? I litetally commute to my college every day for the last 3 years using one and two trains per route. And not everyone lives in rural areas with busses that stop once an hour. One of my trains is indeed once an hour (though they are mulitple services) and the othet is an S-Bahn commuter with 15 min frequency.

[@2manyIce]

Foil Arms and Hog missed the third most popular sport: complaining.

[@treinenliefde]

3:36 this, this right here. Here in the Netherlands people always bash the trains while just accepting all the traffic jams and other issues with the car. My train is 10 minutes late I hate the entire rail system and trains always suck but sitting in an hour long traffic jam is fine. Trains are just trendy to hate. Even though there is generally no sense behind the statement. Only 7/100 trains are delayed more than three minutes in the Netherlands, and almost all routes have a 30 minute to even a 10 minute frequency on some routes. You know many times I have been too late for school because of the train in the past 2.5 years? Less than 5 times.

[@burgerpommes2001]

And all delays come from international trains from Germany and Belgium

[@KakaoHammerhead]

Unfortunately, travelling by train is often less convenient: It's less flexible, more time consuming, needs additional ways to/from the stations, often leaves you without a proper seat, forces you to share your narrow space with a crowd of nasty people and often costs more money. I would at least expect a train to be more or less on time in order to accept it as equally good.

[@treinenliefde]

@@KakaoHammerhead I dont think Ive had to stand more than 5 times in the last 2.5 years. And this means my daily commute, and very frequent (generally twice a month) doing cross country trips with the train. Although this is of course different depending on where you travel by train. I know that most trains in the west are more crowded, here in the east I almost never have issues, only when part of a train breaks down and has to be uncoupled. I do agree though that the train can often be less convenient in terms of speed and flexibility, probably a side effect from our country being so tiny.

[@allesklarklaus147]

Well the thing is.. For my drive to work, even if my train has no delay and with the ar I would sit in traffic for 15 minutes (which rarely happens).. I'm still faster if I drive myself. And I have to drive 10 minutes to the trainstation anyway. Or take the bus and wait forever. It's usually a 45 minute car journey and about 60km. Train is about 1 hour plus the 10 minutes driving to the trainstation. Plus walking another 10 minutes from the train station to work. And the train departure times don't fit all that well with my work schedule so I lose another at least 30 minutes every day just waiting around. (Could probably fix that by changing schedule).. So yeah, if I already lose 70 to 100 minutes a day I damn well get mad if I lose another 10. Yeah the train is a little bit cheaper but if I factor in my time it is bloody expensive. Yes, I live in a more or less rural area in germany. But people do actually live in rural areas as well.

[@topdollars2]

As a swiss train driver I can assure you that the timetables are not actually that elastic and the margin to catch up with delays is very little. On the railways any little problem will result in a delay and if the swiss railways are punctual is because every single piece of the puzzle works. And about the dirty stations: the railway companies and the various Gemeinde are working very hard to keep public spaces clean, but some people are just ill mannered. I will admit restrooms on ICEs are among the cleanest

[@lonestarr1490]

"I will admit restrooms on ICEs are among the cleanest" Given they're not out of order.

[@vrenak]

How dare the rain wash out filth on Swiss trains station walls, the utter nerve.

[@zooo131]

As i am a swiss train driver too and would be yery interested in a brief explanation from @rewbooss about his swiss railway experience. Maybe you could even visit a part/city in Switzerland near the German border and make a video about it. (E.g. Basel, Schaffhausen or Laufenburg (which has a swiss and german part and is divided by the river Rhine. Both cities even have their own railway station)). I would be delighted to see such videos in the future :)

[@ESUPhysicsBuckley]

Is it true that the time continuum of the entire universe actually runs based on the Swiss rail system? Because I surmise that it does... I travelled by the Swiss rail system exclusively for 8 days and hypothesize that if the Swiss rail system ever went down, then time itself might cease to exist. It's THAT good.

[@ft4709]

The problem is that whilst stuck in road traffic you can actually see the cars pilling up in front of you and thus find comfort in the fact that everybody but you is to blame for taking this particular road at this particular instance. The same is true for long distance bus services. However, when stuck in traffic on the rails you won’t spot any actual trains pilling up. Thus a rail customer is more likely to blame delays on the operator rather than the infrastructure, even though both rail and road are subject to the investment of the federal government. It doesn’t help that the DB logo (or any former state railway logo for that matter) is prominently featured on both the stations and the majority of trains. This is also part of the reason why it’s so goddamn hard to justify investment in new high speed lines whereas pretty much everybody will be on board with highway extensions: Railway traffic jams are invisible.

[@Soordhin]

That depends. Had it happen a few times last month that my regional train driver was making an announcement: Sorry, we have to wait a little bit until the ICE on our left has cleared the tracks ahead of us. Yup, we all could see the shiny new coal powered (Datteln IV anyone? Powering mostly ICE trains) train was just pulling out of the station.

[@franziska1007]

I think another big factor between car and train is clearly the distinction of being driver or being driven. You don't have any influence on the timetable of the train and whether they will be late (unless you're like actively blocking the door), meanwhile with a car you at least have the illusion of being the active part (even if you don't really have that much of a choice in taking the same street as everyone else) and you influence more factors (like actually starting a few minutes early) So in the end it's all about control and blame. You're more likely to blame some invisible train conductor than yourself and while you'll likely blame other car drivers for making you late, you are a lot closer to their situation and have a lot more insight into their actions and reactions. With planes, I've heard plenty of people complain but I'd guess it's not as present as most people don't fly daily so it's just a rarer occurrence and not the daily reason you might be late for work.

[@pocketdynamo5787]

Oh there's a way in that flying is way stronger ridiculed than riding the train. Just mention that you think about flying to or from Berlin. Loved your four Yorkshiremen impersonation! Hilarious!

[@klobiforpresident2254]

I'll instead board the train in Stuttgart 21.

[@vrenak]

When I interrailed, nack when I was young enough, I found a new appreciation for my own countrys railways, Denmark, as seemingly most others were significantly worse, though Dutch, and Swiss seemed about on par, and Germany only a smidge worse. Italy and Greece however... I think the timetables are merely suggestions to the traindrivers.

[@alfredvondrachstedt7129]

Everything is better in Danmark ;) I lived for most of my life in the border region between Danmark and Germany, I'm still jealous how good cycling infrastructure, trains and public services are. But that's also necessary because they aren't the best car drivers in the world, getting a licence is pretty easy.

[@LucaPasini2]

I think finally, in the last five years, regional trains in Italy have improved significantly, even if it highly depends on which region you're in. Most trains where I live (Emilia-Romagna) are brand new and run on time much more often than they used to. High-speed trains have always been confortable and fast, however they only run between selected big cities and are usually really expensive.

[@xaverlustig3581]

To be fair, Greece doesn't have that many railway lines to begin with.

[@vrenak]

@@xaverlustig3581 No they don't which means it shouldn't be that hard to run them on time, there's basically just interchanging in Athens, and connections abroad via ferry lines, and through Thessaloniki.

[@johncrwarner]

I use (or used before the pandemic) DB trains a lot I was commuting along the main Ruhr - Berlin route and it has been fine not perfect just fine. I can count on the fingers of one hand the times that the system on that part has failed catastrophically a suicide on the track, blown down power lines a rain storm leading to trees across the lines and the air-conditioning failure on an ICE that lead to hospitalisations Generally the commuter Regiobahn and Regioexpress services have been fine - often five or ten minutes late because the ICE trains take priority but I factor that in. Longer distance trips have been more problematic especially when a DB train is in a foreign land. Then delays have mounted up and up and we have spent a lot of extra time in Köln Hbf trying to make the next connection. I have noticed there is a reluctance on DB's part to apologise when something goes wrong and staff stop making announcements etc. This possibly makes things worse for the passengers.

[@nlzaaf]

Loved the video! I’m Dutch and travel to and from Frankfurt (Main) on a regular basis. Of the past 20 times, only 5 trains where on time and I was 60+ minutes delayed on 12 of them. So no, that is not good! And when I get on the Regional train from Frankfurt (Main) to Rüdesheim, I have to step down to get on the train, and step down again to get off the train. Germans seem to find this absolutely normal and somehow “Barrier-free”. 🤦‍♂️

[@kikivoorburg]

I’m dutch and can confirm that most people complain about our railways here too. I mean we’re not Japan (sub-minute total delays my goodness), and we do have the occasional delay or issue, but I feel like the criticism is a bit harsh nonetheless

[@tomvandijk9706]

“Most people apart from maybe the Dutch, Japanese and Swiss have a problem with trains in their home country” here in the Netherlands the trains running late is a inside joke which almost the whole population is in on

[@purplebrick131]

I think what anyone should into account is that germany invests about 88€ per person per year into rail. That's not even half of Norways budget, a quarter of that of the Swiss. In the 4th largest economy on the planet. You get what you pay for, and DB has way too little capacity to operate at a standard like Japan. Delays aren't some miracle, they happen for a reason, and funding and capacity is a good place to start looking.

[@klobiforpresident2254]

Nah, delays happen so that the DB can have more money, clearly. Deferred maintenance? Hah, they're just too lazy to do it. No reason to shove more money down their greedy throats instead of actually fixing problems.

[@px6883]

Hmm, I wonder why that happens in a country with a huge car industry and a really corrupt party in charge for most of its existence

[@emilsinclair4190]

If we take a look at the difference in quality it is surprising that other spend so much and don't get much more.

[@martinfehrs7147]

Norway and Switzerland have more money per capita and they have less to build. Both countries have only about 6 million citizens to connect instead of 83 Million.

[@MTobias]

​@@martinfehrs7147 Yeah but both countries have way harder terrain and Norway is way less densely populated, meaning they have to build more km per person. Germany really ought to spend more on it's infrastructure, it currently spends some of the least money on it among all OECD countries.

[@ajfrostx]

German trains are OK, the only real problem is that Deutsche Bahn pretends they are perfect - and times most train connections too close together. I regularly take two regional trains with connection time of just 6 minutes - I lost count of times when my first train opened the doors just as the second one started departure. 5 minute delay isn't a big deal until you miss your connection and the next train is 1 hour away... Anyone wanting to travel from the south-west to the Frankfurt Airport on ICE usually has to change at Mannheim with 5-10 minutes connection time - usually missing the second train... and it was like that at least for the last 18 years. But the issue is still ignored by timetable planners. DB are also chronically incapable of finishing any construction on time - they scheduled closures of both my local lines for repairs one after another, but we ended up having no trains at all for 9 months because the work on the first line overran by a year and they did not postpone work on the second line. Yay for 9 months of slow replacement buses that don't properly connect with any onward public transport. Anyway, rant is over - they just re-launched line 1and line 2 should follow in a weeks time. Suddenly it feels like too much choice.

[@S404_44]

Deutsche Bahn doesn't schedule regional trains though

[@ajfrostx]

@@S404_44 well, I guess I shouldn’t use DB as a synonym for entire German railways! But in the end, I don’t care who does it - it’s the unpleasant end result that I care about.

[@TigruArdavi]

@@S404_44 Nonsense, of course they do. While there are many different providers of regional train services, DB Regio is still the single largest

[@S404_44]

@@TigruArdavi but DB Regio doesn't decide how to schedule trains. Train times and connections, which are supposed to work, are set by the authority of regional train services in the specific region. (And then, the rail company they selected, which can be DB Regio, applies for train paths at DB Netz, which can differ sometimes by a few minutes if an ICE is in the way; but in general, it's the "SPNV-Aufgabenträger" who decides when and how trains run and connect)

[@endlichdrin]

A reaction video is for when the creative team refused to work.

[@compphysgeek]

I'm German who always wanted to emigrate because I used to believe that everywhere must be better than Germany. Then I moved abroad and found out quickly that I was spoiled as a German and that Germany is by far not as bad as I thought. Anyway, I love Foil Arms & Hog, that German immigration sketch is one of my favourites

[@digitaleswerken]

The problem is how DB service is handling delays. Instead of telling you in advance that you will miss your connection and telling you about alternatives. They are telling everyone last minute. Drop you off the train and then let you figure out what to do next all by yourself.

[@teh-maxh]

Meanwhile in America, the nearest train station is 250 km away (straight-line distance).

[@Soordhin]

I was quite surprised when a colleague of mine told me the price for his year pass from Birmingham zu Manchester. I researched the Bahncard 100 first and it was actually cheaper than that year pass on just one route. And yes, of course i do moan and complain about Deutsche Bahn, and yes, it has cost me quite a bit extra when i had to drive 100km to catch a train home because they simply shut down a major train line without prior warning this summer (not related to the flooding), but all in all i do think the service is OKish. Even more so as i can travel very cheaply on the train as a worker in the travel industry (pilot, ICE 1st class €20 to €50), and of course i do have a year pass for my local public transport network.

[@londubh2007]

Glad you brought up Switzerland. I have yet to ride a German train. When I rode them they were efficient and on time. In fact just a little too efficient. There was no margin for error in changing trains. Sometimes you'd only have 7 minutes to get from one train to another in a station. Not too bad when the station is in a small village station. Bottom line, wear good jogging shoes and sprint when necessary. I've ridden on trains in Ireland and the UK. They weren't too awful, but all were still better than anything found in the US because passenger rail here just sucks.

[@PinHeadSupliciumwtf]

Didn't read any comment about it so far so I'll leave one mentioning it. I liked the skit/sketch.

[@sisuguillam5109]

FAH are 🥰.

[@MrHodoAstartes]

Yeah, it was funny and topical without being insulting, which is unexpected coming from B- ...the North Sea isles?

[@sisuguillam5109]

@@MrHodoAstartes they are from Ireland (Republic of).

[@Hand-in-Shot_Productions]

As an American who is interested in trains (and even has another, train-themed channel called SleepTrain456), I found this to be an informative video! Thanks for the information! Also, I find it makes sense that you mentioned the trains' delay as being 20 minutes, compared to the 4-hour delay you report from your car. After all, I am interested in trains partly _because_ they could alleviate traffic that would otherwise further clog the freeways!

[@twertygo]

I read a comment from a German on the video and the creators answered "they are more on time than our trains" (or something along those lines). And as a German myself, I had a hart time believing this and I have yet to be convinced. Because I live smack in the middle of the Ruhrpott, you know, a conglomerate of big cities interconnected by many trains (and other infrastructure. My weekly trip to the next town over is covered by four different mid-distance-trains. And I have to start my trip planning to catch at least one train early, because I geniuenly only arrive "as planned" every three to four weeks. And in addition the trains will often pick up delays within the two stops it takes me to get there, even if they came in on time. I know, I also have lived a life with the trains being on time, but similar to your argument about swiss trains: it is quite easy to be on time if the train is the only one using the tracks. And with Trams/UBahn there is no hope of memorizing the schedule. I cut Trams a bit of slack because they will encounter car traffic and most infrastructure prioritizes cars over everything, but even U Bahns don't arrive on time or even when predicred on digital info screens! To convert me, I really, really need examples (and/or data) of how trains are less reliable elsewhere. Because I cannot rely on trains being on time and a train not showing up is not a big surprise either.

[@sarah8919]

Foil, Arms and Hogg are Irish, and let me tell you our train system is worse now than it was 100 years ago ... No that's not an exaggeration have a look at a train line map 2020 versus 1920. It's very difficult to go anywhere except major city to major city by train. Trains between the 2 biggest cities Dublin-Cork only run hourly between approx 7am to 8pm and that's it. No night trains. My brother is a train driver in Ireland and he could count on one hand the amount of on-time arrivals he's had. Trains are also slower than buses on most routes because our motorway network is better than rail network. Ive been on German trains, over huge distances and they were all on time, and everyone had a seat, what a novelty! At highest travel times (pre Covid) were Friday and Sunday evenings when students are on the move. People who have paid for a ticket stand for 3+ hours, toilets are out of order and refreshments cart cannot get through the crowd. I don't think people even realise how lucky they are to have a functioning system.

[@lexipip8563]

Your Monty Python Yorkshire Men applied in this video topic is brilliant !

[@HalfEye79]

The thing with trains is: Almost everybody went by train themselves or waited to pich someone up who did. So, there is a lot of possible bad experiences. But it is by far rarer, that a person went by airplane. I, myself went never by plane. So, the possibility of bad experiences is rather low. And the driving-by-car part? Well, people like to complain about the traffic, too. And the experience goes more to avoiding this part of road at certain times.

[@gwaptiva]

Very good call: Your analogy is spot on, and your argument same: German trains are certainly better than some (*cough* British Rail *cough*) and behind some others. Local (S-Bahn and RE) are generally fine, even though the frequency could do with a bump up, certainly in and around Hamburg, but not terrible. Long distance trains just really lack the capacity they'd need to be much better.

[@boahneelassmal]

I agree. Been using railway services for the past 9 years and yes, I had the occasional cancellation and delay (the majority of those on Fernverkehr [ICE]) but i always arrived where i wanted to go in a pretty timely manner and pretty reliably at that. What I think is the biggest issue the DB has ist customer communication. Recently a train i desperately needed to catch was being cancelled by making the inbound train end one station earlier, leaving me stranded at another train station. If another train hadn't been delayed by 20 minutes they (the service team and DB themselves) as well as I would've had massive problems. I had no money on me to take a cab and later get my money back from the DB. So everything was hanging on this one delayed regional stopper to ferry passengers to their ICE train. Mind you: the scheduled departure was Frankfurt Airport. Yes, they actually went ahead and effectively cancelled the stop at Frankfurt Airport... Now, all of this wouldn'T have been half bad if it had been communicated properly, but, surprise: it wasn't. A couple of people had already left the plattform when they made the announcement that we are supposed to tke this regional stopper but not just that, the announcement cam 5 minutes prior to its arrival. Now, sure that would be enough, if you knew, you'd reach the ICE considering the departure at Frankfurt Airport and the time it takes to get to the new departure station, but even for that the regional stoppre had been 10minutes overdue. If you can, avoid Fernverkehr, they are plagued with delays (although it's very nice using them if everything works out fine) and if you can, take regional trains. They are, in most cases, much, much, _much_ more reliable than Fernverkehr. (punctuality statistics: 50% Fernverkehr 90+% Regional trains)

[@luisa9999]

I agree. Last year I needed to get to Stuttgart Airport to catch a flight. Normally that's a two hour trip in a regional train. The train was canceled due to "storm" (there was no real storm. It was windy at best and it was the night before - if the railways were properly maintained there wouldn't have been any problem). We tried to find a different option, the only one was to take an ICE to Augsburg, where you could take a different ICE to Stuttgartt. We got to Augsburg , then a few minutes before the other train was supposed to arrive we get the info that it would be 10 Minutes late. Fine, no problem. 10 turned into 20 and then 30 then 4 hours. The point is, they must have already known way before the 10 minutes late info that the train would never be there at that time because it wasn't at the previous stops either - if it takes 30 minutes to get from Munich to Augsburg and the train isn't even in Munich when it's supposed to be in Augsburg already, the train is at least 30 minutes delayed and not 10. Same thing with our cancelled train, the one we wanted to take in the first place. According to the app it was still running on time just a few minutes before we left for the train station. What happened? Did it spontainously combust? I don't think so! We could have found a different option for travel if we had gotten the info earlier!

[@boahneelassmal]

​@@luisa9999 It is a pain. It feels like they have a d[x] dice with seceral reasons for delays / cancellation and when one of those happens then they make use of these dice.... With train cancellations, I always give them the benefit of the doubt of it maybe breaking down (which, I might add, would still be emberassing and not acceptable) somewhere on the way but generally, yes, I agree, they (should) know pretty early on whether a train is delayed (and if so by how much) or whether it's going to be cancelled. And I do genuinely believe they do, because the app, I had on my blackberry, the info was always (no exceptions) spot on to the exact minute. There is a brilliant video about how many different API the DB uses / offers and the different information you can access through them (not each API offer the same data), so I suspect that there is (or was, the app stopped working some time ago) a specific API which offered the dataset which was the most accurate but.... anyways, you can see where I'm going I genuinely think they themselves have no clue where which info is being accessable and they have multiple places they need to update the info themselves which then again leads to inaccurate, delayed and incomplete information being communicated.... Anyways.... did you get your flight at Stuttgart at least?

[@luisa9999]

@@boahneelassmal I wish I had that kind of app. And yes, we had to take a taxi from the main station to the airport and we got really lucky because we got through security super fast but we made it just in time to catch the plane

[@xaverlustig3581]

3:00 Planes are typically on time, at least more so than public transport. Admittedly for most people a delayed plane isn't such a problem because they're on holiday so they don't need to be on time, which tints the perception a little.

[@Fragenzeichenplatte]

I always wonder what it means for a plane to be on time. The moment it lands? The moment you can leave the plane? Or when you're finally exiting the airport? There can be quite some time in between those points.

[@rewboss]

Plane timetables don't have to be drawn up to an accuracy of 1/10 minute as train timetables in Germany are. Instead, the schedules are designed to give planes more time than they actually need, so if everything runs smoothly and they have a tailwind, they can even arrive earlier than expected. But delays aren't all that uncommon. I was once stuck at an airport for over an hour longer than expected because two things happened: first, an issue was found with the jetbridge so the plane had to be moved to a different gate; and second, a thunderstorm passed over the airport at the exact same moment, so all the planes on the ground were ordered to stop. And you have to first get to the airport and you have to plan to be there and checked in 90 to 120 minutes before takeoff. No, I didn't think that was necessary either, until that one time they put on an extra security check between the departure lounge and the gate and, even though I checked in 2 hours before departure, I only just made it to the gate minutes before it closed.

[@Fragenzeichenplatte]

@@rewboss Yeah I think people often forget about the part where they're traveling to the airport, going through security and then waiting at their gate. Just by the way flying works this will add at least an hour to your flight. And if you have check in luggage it's at least 2-3 h.

[@xaverlustig3581]

@@Fragenzeichenplatte It's true takeoff and landing times are given in a confusing way. "Departure" actually means the time the gate closes. A more useful time for passengers would be the time boarding begins. Likewhise "arrival" typically means landing time. It would be more useful to indicate time of deplaning. The times for security checks before departure and luggage carousel after arrival aren't under control of the airline, so I can't blame them for not indicating those.

[@Fragenzeichenplatte]

@@xaverlustig3581 It's not the fault of the airline but it's relevant for the travelers. They can double the total travel time.

[@Alinor24]

Thank you fellow FAH fan for suggesting that.😊 And of course thank you rewboss for this informative video.

[@HansBezemer]

Well, in Holland the train stations are fairly clean - I wish I could say the same about the trains. Especially the toilets - if they're not closed at all. But in my youth cancellations were unheard of, while now they're quite common. We would watch the BBC news with amazement - so many cancellations?! How could that be? They were also pretty punctual - a few minutes delay not counting. Nowadays I tend to take a train earlier to be pretty sure I get there in time. Planning a trip has obviously been made significantly easier. In the old days you had to figure out your trip door-to-door using half a dozen of illegible timetables. But we can thank the penetration of computers for that more than anything else. What also amazes me if I want to buy a ticket from a vending machine in Germany. In Holland, you just chose your destination, class and ticket type. Even in the push button time (yes, physical buttons!) a regular commuter could punch that in within a second or two. In Germany I get a litany of (IMHO) completely superfluous questions - which is quite a feast when pressed for time. To give you an example - I used to travel quite a lot between Venlo and Mönchengladbach Hbf. If I bought my tickets in Venlo, I could get myself a five pack (in those days) in one minute flat. If I bought them in MG, I was frantically pushing buttons, hoping I was finally at the end of the ordeal. C'mon! I just want a single trip to Venlo, straight away!

[@samanson7463]

Recently rode a train from Vienna to Prague. Great experience.

[@Raider_MXD]

I highly recommend this video regarding the punctuality of long distance trains in Germany: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZqPFanachNuioM0 That guy mined data generated by Deutsche Bahn and came to interesting conclusions

[@ESUPhysicsBuckley]

I have been visiting Germany (from the USA) on and off since 1992 and have always found the German trains and public transit in general to be far superior to anything that the US has to offer. The summer of 2022 was the exception, but I generally excused that because of the overcrowding caused by the 9 Euro ticket. I have since spent 8 days in Switzerland travelling by train (and cable car and funicular, etc.) and I can say that I literally set my watch twice by the train leaving times. There was not a single train more than a minute early or late in leaving or arriving. That is a lot for a country like Germany, which has 10 x the population and several times the area, to live up to! When I come back to the USA and take a train into NY City, it feels like I'm back in the 1960s. So... quaint.

[@ElectronTinkerer]

A common problem when travelling by train is that you usually book a long range fast train (in Germany this world be an ICE) together with a seat reservation, starting in a bigger city. You have to go there with a minor connection. If this connection is 10 minutes late, you will miss your main train and the whole trip is messed up. You have to re-plan everything on the fly, lose your seat and will probably miss the appointment that was the reason for the trip in the first place. And that is the main reason why trains running late 20 minutes are a major pain.

[@barvdw]

You can play with the planner to get some more connection time ;) Standard, I'll make sure I have at least 20-30' time to change onto an IC(E). BTW, there's no Zugbindung on regional trains, so you can just hop on a previous (or the next) regional train. I once had a Sparpreis Aachen-Leipzig via Paderborn, all regional trains apart from the IC from Halle/Saale, I overslept, and just bought a new ticket from Halle to Leipzig, using the Sparpreis to Halle. If you buy your ticket in the app, you can transfer your reservation to another train, too, when delayed, on the condition there are still seats available, of course.

[@ronin667]

I think the difference between German railway services and those of many other countries is that we Germans still expect theirs to be reliable. People in other countries probably have mostly adapted to the brokenness of their railway system. As someone who used to commute from a small town to a major city on a daily basis, I can't count the times when I was late for work or came home late at night because of some major technical failure. I'm not talking about trains being 20 minutes late. Trains were overcrowded because 2 of the 3 cars the train was scheduled to have were broken and couldn't be replaced in time. Trains were cancelled because personnel didn't show up. Trains couldn't go to the planned destination because the switches were broken. Trains were delayed for hours because broken trains were blocking the rails. Trains are cancelled because it's too hot. Trains are cancelled because it's too cold. Things like that used to happen at least once a week. But the real problem isn't that trains are unreliable, it's that you don't get information about what is happening. Anyone who uses German trains on a regular basis is familiar with the sequence of automatic delay announcements: It starts at 5 minutes, then goes to 15, then 30, then 60, then to cancelled. On the other hand, I know of countries where people camp next to the station because the most precise information you get about when your train arrives is "around Thursday". So I think we could have had it worse.

[@MrGollum27]

I completely agree that in switzerland especially the IC trains are extreeeemely slow. so annoying. S-Bahn Zürich is nice though.

[@LarsEllerhorst]

My personal experience is: They are horrible when I enter the train and are getting better after having some beers in the Bistro waggon, beats car driving or flying.

[@cycklist]

Germans who think that their trains are bad would be horrified by the state of the UK's at the moment.

[@Quark0611]

They're always too late! Last August from Aachen to Zürich HB: 2.5 hours delay. Last weekend ftom Aachen to a small village above Lübeck, again 2hrs later, and this, because my last train is only running 1x per 2 hours. Nice confort, especially in long distance trains. But not running on time. And I'm not German. I'm living in Belgium. Trains aren't better here either.

[@actua99]

As a Dutchman who's tried to book railway journeys across the UK, I think I'd confirm that... In the Netherlands, you tap in to the provider and tap out when you leave them (final destination reached or transfer to another one), and prices are set by distance traveled. You get a small fee to get a paper ticket and there's day/weekend tickets, but that's about it. In the UK, each TOC has its own system with its own site, discounts can happen depending on when you book, how you book, the time and date you're booking for, the number of people, the value of the pound, the position of the moon and stars and the mood of Boris effing Johnson.

[@SiqueScarface]

(Yorkshire accent): Lucky man! Only four hours in a traffic jam! When I was trying to get from Stuttgart to Dresden for Christmas 1990, we entered the traffic jam at Stuttgart and left it in Dresden on Easter 1991! Seriously, German trains are good. They are clean, they are comfortable, and if they break down, at least you have a decent chance to survive. And the schedule is no dogma. (I remember, when in 1995, the old Eilzug was replaced by the Regionalexpress, the relation Stuttgart-Tübingen also got new bilevel rail cars, a type of rail car, that was very common in East Germany, but completely unheard of in West Germany*. I was at the platform about to mount the train, still with that new-train-smell, and a young woman was asking me, if this really was the Eilzug to Tübingen, and where you could get the right ticket for that type of train.) * Yes, I know, LBE, 1930ies yada, yada, yada...

[@wolfsruhm]

i think the problem with germanies pulic transport is, that the timetables are cut a bit too tight, and also the expectation of the people that the trains/busses/trams rides have to be flawless. And also have to admit, albeit being aware that those expectiations are far too high, i fell short of them myself quite a few tims. In general said trains/busses/trams are punctual (sometime s Too punctual, aka too early), and when you can plan your day around the fact that they are. But there will be instances when they are not, and we human beings have a massive negative bias, or in other words, we tend to remember negive things, especially about tasks and occurences that are normally not of note, so the idea that our trains are terrible is much easier ingrained on us

[@eltfell]

In my country (Germany) the train is not made out of cardboard or paper, but out of steel, but it doesn't go at all, because it is cancelled for no reason.

[@j.lietka9406]

You gotta do a taste review of Jakobs, Eduscho, Dalmeyer (or Dalmayer), and Tschibo kaffees!

[@roberth.5938]

Thanks for mentioning the hilarious monty pythons four Yorkshire men sketch

[@RozzmanLists]

You know you've turned German when you find yourself disecting a silly joke 😀

[@Testgeraeusch]

Car ownership and daily commutes to work are state subsidised in germany, so for millions a daily commute by train is about the same cost or even more expensive than commute by car if you only consider gas prices. Therefore, the illusion self determination (as in, "i will not get stuck in traffic") and slightly to drasticly reduced travel times (on paper in some cases, but that's what matters) lead to the need for simple justification of the own choices of using the car every day. And such mental input is generated from the biggest newspapers (and the biggest "newspaper") in germany, many celebrities and the ministers of transportation and traffic themselves for decades. Nobody wants germany to think about DB as something good that could be improved upon as that would question the abundance of cars in cities, and we can't have such thoughts because.

[@Macodra89]

well, pretty decent wasn't an option in your poll so I had to pick 'they suck' because they're definitively not awesome#.

[@ncr4ever198]

Most people I know just hate on trains as an excuse not to use them and go everywhere by car. More often then not they also havent used a train in ages. But its just so mainstream in germany to hate the trains. Our train network certainly has its Problems. And their are lines that a just cursed to fail every day in some way. But mostly it works just fine, but as you said with trains people never forget the one bad experience they had.

[@LarsPW]

There is not any comparable railway network to that in Germany somewhere in the world. But it does still not match even the current challenges of a decarbonized mobility. Have a look on maps from 1950 and on one of 1900 - it had been incredibly dense. In the 1920s the Deutsche Reichsbahngesellschaft (DRG) was the biggest employer in the world with ca. 5 Million employees.

[@edenviews]

Well thought out tribute sketch. I almost remember that sketch, but I would show my age...That was when trains were trains and Yorkshire folk were Riding them!!

[@Inkyminkyzizwoz]

I thought of you when they mentioned that bit in the video!

[@moritzl7065]

You know what's funny: I'm watching this video on an ICE between Mannheim and Frankfurt, bound for Berlin and my train is currently 68 minutes late lol In all fairness, I think I know why trains get a much worse rap for a 20-minute delay than flights or a traffic jam. Especially for planes, they are timetabled with buffers in them. E.g. Berlin-London flights are timetabled as 2 hours even though it actually only takes 90 minutes. People also factor in arriving 1-2hrs before departure at the airport and leaving 30-60mins after arrival for baggage. So there is bigger "mental leeway". Same goes for the car, where the long-distance driving times are not fixed, people tend to just say "around 5-6 hours of driving". On the other hand, a train timetable says "Mannheim depart 16:28, Berlin arrive 21:24" automatically giving passengers the feeling that they can tell their friends that they can meet up for dinner at the station at 21:30.

[@rewboss]

I noticed earlier today DB seems to be having a bad day. ICE services on the Frankfurt-Nuremberg line were between 15 and 60 minutes late.

[@eisikater1584]

I have one or two suggestions for you, Andrew: - How to fire a wood stove in Germany - How you better not talk to a chimney sweeper

[@EnbyFranziskaNagel]

How not to talk to a chimney sweeper: You have a very nice company van. Would be a shame if someone set fire to it.

[@berendbrowny]

Dutch trains are not very good at the moment as well, there is a shortage of people who control the signals which causes busy train routes to be not operational for sometimes 8 hours long

[@raquelfernandez5533]

The reason why so many people hate on the trains is that a large part of the population relies on it to get to work and it's just not dependable, neither do you understand the reasons for the unreliability. You can choose to always get out 30 mins early. But that means in 5 out of 10 cases you will be early. In 3 out of 10 cases you will be on time and in 2 out of 10 cases you will still be late. Plus, the train system varies greatly within the country. I worked in the Ruhrgebiet (work in different city than live) and it has the worst train delays in the country.

[@denzzlinga]

The reasons are "everything". Lack of staff, old trains falling apaprt, new trains not working properly yet, infrastructure failing, too many trains and too few tracks, people getting run over by trains, sabotage, attacks on railway staff, lorries crashing into low railway bridges, idiots working on the railway that have no clue what they are doing and therefore causing delays and chaos, etc etc. And the railway system is so big and so complex, that at least one of those inadequacies occur every day...

[@paha4209]

Korea also has a better train System than germany though i can only speak for the KTX. Imo Austria also has a better train system than we do. As for why people are upset at trains being delayed and not planes or getting stuck in traffic: you can avoid quite a bit of traffic if you arent completly unlucky. As for planes people dont fly that frequently and have usually less connections they need to get. Deutsche Bahns refund policy is awful as well.

[@jammycakes]

The big difference between trains and other forms of transport is commuting. When you are spending a tenth of your income and a tenth of your life on the trains, you will inevitably end up hating them much more than you would if you only ever used them once or twice a year to go on holiday.

[@rewboss]

And yet people who spend a tenth of their lives in cars don't inevitably end up hating cars.

[@atraindriver]

​@@rewboss That's because those people use their cars for other things and have nice trips as well as boring/depressing ones, whereas most commuters only use trains for the dreaded commute, so there isn't the balanced viewpoint of trains that there is of cars. And of course t doesn't help that the entirely unbiased media (which entirely coincidentally gets lots of money from car adverts) repeatedly tells everyone how awful trains are and has done so for over a century. Not that the UK railway helps itself, of course. After 30 years in the industry I've long since concluded that too many railway managers see both trains and passengers as an irritation getting in the way of their preferred business of empire building and creating ever greater piles of unnecessary paperwork. I'm told most railways across Europe suffer the same problem. :(

[@rolandropnack4370]

I say, that was quite an entertaining piece of yours, by jove!😁 Now to the serious stuff: the point about our trains is not that they are so bad compared to other countries. The point is they are much worse than they once were. "Deutsche Pünktlichkeit" was literally invented by the fledgling german state railways back in the days before the unified Kaiserreich, when trains might cross a dozen borders with even more local time zones, and meet with trains of several other companies on terminus. German railroads always took their pride in punctual and reliable service. Until socialist mismanagement eroded the east-german "Reichsbahn" into a heap of rubbish kept rolling by iron-willed and dedicated personell, and west-german "Bundesbahn" transformed from a state task to a stock owned private company that took over the "Reichsbahn" as well and tried to cover their own mismanagement by transferring the best locos from the east to the west. Meanwhile we were no longer "Beforderungsfälle" ("cases of transportation"), but customers, and were no longer experiencing all the Gravitas you would expect a german state clerk to handle his duty with, but this lies-to-your-face-type nonservice so typical for big companies who just want you to hand your money and shove off. And so even the lightest winter breeze lets stop trains in their tracks, train stations are overcrowded, whole cascades of delays deny people their trips for hours and prices go up while service goes down. This has nothing to do with sh*tty UK or US or wherever trains, just with a railway being a trainwreck of its former self.

[@McGhinch]

Yes I remember "Alle reden vom Wetter. Wir nicht." Back then trains were usually on time, and along came Mehdorn. He didn't invent it, but he certainly improved the "Kaputtsparen"-method.

[@TadeuszCantwell]

My German friend who corrected me when I said their trains are punctual in the '60s and said National trains are generally fine, while local trains are terrible.

[@aaronwhite1786]

I would definitely love to see the German reaction to Amtrak in the Midwest.

[@modelleicher]

Well we're Germans if the time-table says 12:58 we expect the train to be there 12:58 if it is just 2 minutes late its late and late is bad doesn't matter by how much.. lol. No but I think we all know that Airports suck and planes and weather don't mix and we all know that travel by car can't be planned to minutes because other drivers and accidents.. But trains run on a strict shedule they are all planned out there is no valid reason why they should be late as often as they do other than bad planning.. and I guess that just infuriates people :D

[@ronalddevine9587]

If anyone is looking for bad train service, I invite you to the USA.

[@untruelie2640]

I just discovered Foil, Arms & Hog a few weeks ago and now your are reacting to their latest video? Is this a conspiracy? oO

[@mdoerty13]

I could have written the same comment. Also, this was one in a series of “immigration” videos done by the troupe.

[@cb7560]

I think German trains are excellent, cheap, fast and clean and the network is very comprehensive in what is a big country. I'm English by the way, but have lived in Zurich, Hamburg and France so talk from a position of a user of all of the systems. The English system is a disgrace and vastly expensive. The Swiss system is great, but Switzerland is a small country, and as you say, some of the stations need a scrub! It is also expensive unless you have a railcard. In France, the TGV is great but try to getting to some more out of the way areas of France and they are nowhere near as well covered by trains as in Germany. A friend of mine from Hamburg used to complain endlessly about how the quality of the German system had declined since 1990, but a year of commuting on Southern in the UK brought him to his senses, and he now loves German trains and will hear nothing said agent them! Something I've noticed is that a lot of the complaining is done by former, middle aged West Germans who grew up using a rail system in a much smaller country than modern Germany! I think that there is something in this. What do you think?

[@VanOri]

I hope once this pandemic is actually over that more people will use the train again... the traffic around Cologne has actually worsened and that is an accomplishment

[@yorgunsamuray]

That Four Yorkshiremen parody though....

[@rainer8682]

Mich würde ja mal interessieren wie die allgemeine Meinung bzgl der Bahn vor der Privatisierung war Oder in anderen Worten finden wir die bahn seit der Privatisierung schlimmer oder waren wir schon immer so negativ

[@andreymaslov1641]

it did surprised me a lot that russian railways, really rotten with nepotism, are actually much better in keeping the timetables than pretty much any railway I used anywhere else. Even in Switzerland I experienced really huge delays, Czechs nicknamed their railway operator čekat dlouho = to wait a long time, Finnish VR is famous for it's delays due to unexpected weather conditions (!?). Deutsche Bahn is by far not the worst among others, of course, but still I am surprised that delays are pretty normal.

[@Inkyminkyzizwoz]

How about doing a reaction to their latest sketch of the exchange student in Germany? Perhaps this time it might be an idea to look at some reaction videos first to get an idea of what they're supposed to look like

[@ohh_mega2042]

It's almost like the german national tenet of punctuality no matter the circumstances paired something out of ones control maybe interfering with that, is making people angry

[@bokeronct]

I've used long distance and short distance trains in several countries: Spain, France, US, UK, Switzerland and Germany. Spain is great at long distance (specially high speed), US is ok (I guess), the UK is... well, it is (next!), France TGV was great, Switzerland was as expected, on time and Germany was... oh dear. My first experience took me to Freiburg for a job interview with a huge delay on the way back and has gotten me stranded quite a few times in my work commute (yes, I took the job) due to various reasons. I haven't commuted that much in other countries though, but Germany has left me with the feeling that you might need an alternate way back. Also, if you're taking an ICE, don't schedule another train less than 60 minutes after your scheduled arrival if you want to be on the safe side. Some routes are tricky, and the way from Basel to the north via Freiburg and Offenburg can get problematic.

[@ajfrostx]

The Rhine Valley line (Basel > Freiburg > Offenburg > Karlsruhe) is a known pinchpoint on German railway system - with issues ranging from not having enough tracks (ICEs share them with local trains) and most junctions being flat… because of that it is also not high speed, despite having ICE trains. There is a long running (since the 90s) program to extend and upgrade the line, but it is really slow and won’t be completed until 2040s.

[@ajfrostx]

I frequently travel on local branch lines (to Strasbourg, to Schwarzwald, and to Elztal) and they all have flat junctions. Recent Elztalbahn upgrade didn’t deliver more frequent trains because there are no available slot on the mainline.

[@Deltarious]

Snails?! You were lucky! ;)

[@nlpnt]

Japan; The train's one minute late, it's late. - - Germany; the train's ten minutes late, it's late. - - Britain/Ireland; the train's only late if it's over an hour late. - - America (Boston-NYC-DC corridor); the train's only late if it's over two hours late. - - America (the rest of the country); There hasn't been a train since 1953.

[@fariesz6786]

i used to whine about the trains a lot but that has since mellowed. they are indeed quite fine. there's only one thing that i just can't get over, and that is the attitude of most service providers (not only but including the DB) to seemingly start every single day with the mantra “nothing can go wrong. nothing will go wrong. being prepared will just distract us from following the plan.” sitting somewhere and having to wait 80 minutes for a replacement bus is a minor nuissance. not knowing whether there'll be a replacement of any kind and if you are getting home at all, especially when travelling as a chronically ill minor, meanwhile is anxiety-inducing. however i have to say: japan didn't do it much better. allegedly the japanese don't use sarcasm but saying the phrase _touchaku shimashita_ “we have arrived” when the place you have arrived at is the one you started from, to me seems a lot like sarcasm.

[@franny5156]

I always thought german public transport was bad until I came for Ireland were the bus was 1 1/2 hours late and I didn't even get a refund

[@edspace.]

Would anyone like to see Rewboss do a full version of the 4 Yorkshire Man Sketch based on people complaining about the trains in their countries?

[@Herzschreiber]

Well I think our steady complains come from comparing "today" with "back in times". I am old enough to remember times when 97% of the trains were absolutely punctual. So when complaining about a delay, it might happen because "there is something which once worked and now is getting worse and worse".

[@raythevagabond3724]

Switzerland has trains? I thought you have to climb from one end of a street to the other. Oh, yeah, right, I forgot, they build tunnels through the mountains ... and are suprised when they end up in Italy and that everything is so darn expensive in Switzerland. Well, someone has to pay for the railways to Italy. At least you get not just half way up a mountain with a train like in Austria. Was this close enough to british humour?

[@ErklaerMirDieWelt]

My theory is that German trains are not more or less punctual than any other trains. The difference lies in the perception. Following rules is a pretty big part of German culture. So if your timetable says the train arrives at 8:15 and it arrives 5 minutes late, German passengers are pissed because someone somewhere broke a rule and it's them that have to suffer the consequences.

[@hurtigheinz3790]

1:45min You left out the number 1 option: "I'm German and I can't complain."

[@KakaoHammerhead]

The humor is on point in this video.😄

[@MalloonTarka]

When I complain about German trains I'm certainly not comparing them to trains in other countries. Heaven knows trains in most countries are so bad they're generally not even considered as a practical means of transport, except for long distances or for backpackers. Nor am I comparing them to other means of transport, which are certainly often worse. No, when I complain, it's purely on the merit of what I am promised and what is delivered. I have to take a train earlier (1/2 hour) several days a week than the one I would like to take, because that one is late by at least 5 min 30% of the time (conservately). The changeover time to the next train I have to catch is only 5 min, so 30% of the time I would be late by at least 1/2 an hour as I wait for the next one, which is unacceptable. This is in the very early hours of the morning, where an extra 1/2 an hour of sleep would be very appreciated. When you factor in how late trains are, you have to factor in the time spent waiting on them to arrive normally too. Far be it for me to espouse the virtues of cars, but they can go at any time. You don't have to wait for them, nor do you regularly have to choose between arriving far to early or arriving late. I wish it was better, because public transportation is essential for tackling climate change, and part of my frustration is certainly based on how much better it could be is the trains were competently run/not underfunded, but the lion's share of frustration is just how consistently inconsistent the trains are. They're unreliable. Flying is terrible, but at least it's consistently terrible - you almost always know what you're getting into, and even if they are late it's generally on days when you can afford to be.

[@pixoontube2912]

As a German, I think many people complain about the Bahn because in contrary to other nations with worse train service, we actually have the resources to establish an even better network like in Switzerland or Japan. So basically, it feels like so mutch wasted potential. It just feels bad knowing that so much money is pumped into a new fancy Autobahn while most rail routes are subject to neglegence or decay. I'm from Heidelberg, and the corridor between Heidelberg and Mannheim is very busy. One can still see that the route once featured quad track, but now its a bottleneck, because two tracks have been abandonned. And then, I still haven't talked about the endless bureaucracy impeding any progress. Seriously, it's no longer an inconvenience, it's embarassing. Austria and Switzerland are already constructing (and have partially completed) NEAT routes, whilst Germany is still stuck in planning and everything will take at least 25+ years until it us finished. Great, by that time, earth is already 2°C warmer, so forget about the Verkehrswende! And all just, because some pensioners are scared of trains running in their village.

[@denzzlinga]

The secound pair of tracks between Mannheim and Heidelberg was the freight line going to Heidelberg freight station. Wich has been abandoned decades ago, and so were the tracks leading there. They didn´t have a purpose anymore.

[@pixoontube2912]

@@denzzlinga Interesting to know. But still, more freight on rail would also be better.

[@RaffiTheQuokka]

did google really not tell you that in a reaction video, you're supposed to show the video and your reaction at the same time? :P

[@px6883]

I think a lot of Germans also hate the trains because they used to be much better before they were privatized. At least thats what my dad told me, I wasn't alive back then

[@rewboss]

Back then the trains were more punctual, but they were also slower and less frequent. There were also fewer electric trains: electric trains are better in many respects, but more susceptible to ice, snow and fallen trees as these things damage the overhead wires. Of course, German trains aren't completely privatized. DB has only one shareholder: the government; and it basically has a monopoly on long-distance traffic. I find it interesting that a lot of people argue that the solution is to renationalise the railways, while a lot of others argue that the solution is to properly privatise the railways and make different operators compete.

[@riptidemonzarc3103]

Germans seem to be addicted to telling the world that everything about Germany is terrible, even though most things here are much better than almost anywhere else in the world. It is a disorienting experience sometimes.

[@alihorda]

yes and no. I had positive expectations about German public transport judging from my own country's terrible one.. then I moved to Germany and I cry back my country in this topic..just no comment. but many things are good ofc, but transportation isn't

[@Soguwe]

The thing that's so terrible about German trains isn't about them being late. It's the prices. And if I have to sell a kidney to or book an overnight ride 2 years in advance just to visit my grandma, the least I can expect for that much money is a delay-free experience

[@nur0din]

In regional and when spontanious, sure it is expensive. But you can get from one end of Germany to another with ICE, which are mostly on time, in unter 30€. For Example from the MV countryside to Cologne I took 6 hours 40 minutes and paid 25-29€ for one trip. Try that with a car.

[@niall123]

German trains are amongst the cheapest in Western Europe in my experience. Trains in the UK, Ireland and France are much more expensive. Austria and the Netherlands are also cost more. Swiss trains are better but they are extremely expensive. Italy is probably the only Western European country I've been to where they are also cheap. I haven't really taken trains in Spain and Portugal so can't comment on them. Do people who complain about German train prices not ever travel on trains in other Western European countries?

[@lonestarr1490]

@@nur0din Yes. But that's the Super-Sparticket of which there are only limited (and completely intransparent) quota, thus you have to book about 2 to 3 weeks in advance in order to get one, and there's no cancelation possible. And seats have to be booked separately.

[@alihorda]

Well about prices.. apparently I bought the wrong ticket (I used the app, so I bought the recommended one.. no comment), I was fined for 60 euros, which I couldn't pay in person at the customer center because they didn't speak in English. funny thing is, I have been using the same ticket type for months and they didn't have a problem with it. now I bought the same ticket again and I wasn't fined lmao

[@ft4709]

They’re really not pricey at all. If anything they’re way too cheap atm, otherwise we wouldn’t be seeing overcrowded long distance trains on a regular basis, even during a global pandemic. We‘re running the world‘s 4th busiest high speed rail system on an overcrowded network that can barely handle current demand, yet passenger numbers keep rising and rising and we’re still debating whether or not we need a new line between Hamburg and Hannover when the answer to that question should be really f*cking obvious. For some reason people seem to believe that this is all some sort of massive conspiracy by Deutsche Bahn and will just magically disappear once DB ceases to exist or once we artificially lower ticket prices. And for some reason people praise the French TGV which is by far the worst offender in terms of non-transparent pricing, made even worse by mandatory seat reservation.

[@tomrichardson651]

Agreed. At least you trains (unlike where I live in the Western U.S.). I have ridden on German trains and I thought they were great.

[@HenryLoenwind]

In most countries, people want rail service to be better; in Germany, we expect it to be better...

[@Narethian]

Indeed a good topic to get some germans fired up in the comments. I see it very much like rewboss there are problems we should try to fix but nothing is perfect and honestly it is an old joke by now. In my own experience it can vary from good or decent to utterly ridiculous. There are certain connections "known" to be bad but only people that suffered them know this. What bothers me the most is not that there are problems. It is the way DB (Deutsche Bahn) communicates with their customers. Oh and for some reason they are always "surprised" by the cold weather. I'm very curious about how well my experience will be on christmas. I hope everything works out fine.

[@eljanrimsa5843]

The percentage of people who think their country's trains suck is one of the fundamental constants in the universe. It's always 55% regardless of country and state of the trains.

[@emiliajojo5703]

These guys are so good!

[@KaisaKylakoski]

Thank you!

[@John_Weiss]

Germans: Our national train service is terrible! USA: Hold my beer…

[@jaimehyland2250]

You're absolutely right about German trains, by the way: these days they're nowhere near as reliable as the international stereotype would have it, but they're a lot better than Germans think they are.

[@BlackAdder665]

Jeder, der, wie ich, in der DDR aufgewachsen ist, kann über die Meckerei über die Bahn nur lachen. Uns gehts gut, hört uff zu heulen!

[@downhilltwofour0082]

It's not that German trains suck, it's that having personal schedules you must maintain sucks!

[@ramr7051]

Hahaha, that last bit got me.

[@karinland8533]

I like the German trains and I commute by train.

[@Skoell1983]

Sorry, but every German saying that German trains suck has never taken a train in a different country other than Germany. When I had an intern in Milton Keynes in the UK many years ago, I once took the train to London at the weekend to see the city. The next Monday I talked to the British colleagues about my trip and one said "You took the train? You must be a brave man." It seemed that the British Rail system is so underfunded, that taking the train is an adventure. ;)

[@randomjasmicisrandom]

Any German complaining about their trains need to come to the UK. Going up or down the country is okish, but any journey cross country is nightmare. The ticket system is a joke and the cost astronomical. That said, DB do own part of it!