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submitted 4 months ago by meldrik@lemmy.wtf to c/europe@feddit.org
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[-] Imperor@lemmy.world 133 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Anyone who might be surprised that Germany is so low here, Germans are always surprised people think it would be very high.

There is a simple reason, too: Auto-Lobby. Our car manufacturers are very powerful in politics and public infrastructure is heavily underfunded.

Funnily enough, highways and other roads are also crumbling, so good luck to the car makers when there is less and less road to drive those precious machines on.

[-] poVoq@slrpnk.net 73 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I would say the root cause of the DB issues is rather the failed attempt to privatise it, which caused ~~years~~ decades of infrastructure underinvestment to cook the books to make it look more attractive to private investors.

But of course the strong car lobby also played a role in that.

[-] GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip 13 points 4 months ago

This is the main reason. While the car lobby is no doubt dangerously powerful they are also heavily dependant on the cargo department of DB. A massive amount of industrial commodities is moved by the railway network and not the ubiquitous trucks. If they worked to defund the railway infrastructure they would eventually hurt their own supply lines.

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[-] Strider@lemmy.world 16 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Additionally, the number presented is most likely too high, since it's more important to tune the numbers than to provide good service.

Example: a late train can be taken out of service and replaced, or even not. Voila! Not late anymore.

I wish this wasn't the reality.

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[-] dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net 11 points 4 months ago

The American auto industry effectively killed trains here. I’d love to have often-late high speed trains instead of “you want to go from Texas to Chicago? Fly, drive, or go fuck yourself.”

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[-] ValiantDust@feddit.org 86 points 4 months ago

Fun fact: German ICEs (high-speed trains) are not allowed to enter Switzerland if they are delayed too much so they don't disrupt the Swiss schedule. This year more than 10% were not allowed to continue.

[-] FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone 72 points 4 months ago

It’s super funny because at swiss train station they always say

“Train X is delayed by Y minutes, this is due to delays in France/Germany and not the Swiss railways” on the megaphone LOL

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[-] AchtungDrempels@lemmy.world 17 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Yeah, but the integrated timetable for Germany is just around the corner. 2070 😭

[-] rtxn@lemmy.world 14 points 4 months ago

The Swiss railway network is nuts. From Not Just Bikes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muPcHs-E4qc

[-] 30p87@feddit.org 9 points 4 months ago

I went to switzerland two times via train the last few years (usually I go with my dad by car), and both times this happened. Once we had to sleep there overnight, because after we got in with another train, there were no more trains through the mountains.

[-] Schmuppes@lemmy.world 53 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

German long distance trains are 64% on time because up to 5 minutes delay are not counted for the statistics and guess what? Trains that never arrive (due to being way too late to continue their journey or because of technical problems on the trains or track system) are not included in the statistics either!

[-] leisesprecher@feddit.org 51 points 4 months ago

The infamous Scheuer-Wende.

For the non germans: say a train is supposed to go from Munich over Hamburg to Kiel, and then return back to Munich. If that train accumulates so much delay that it could not even start the return trip on time, it might just stop in Hamburg, dump all the passengers, and turn around heading to Munich.

Now the skipped stops don't count as delayed, since the train never stopped there, the train is on time again for the return trip, and hundreds of passengers are pissed off and stranded somewhere they never wanted to be.

[-] Schmuppes@lemmy.world 21 points 4 months ago

"Wir bitten Sie, die Unannehmlichkeiten zu entschuldigen."

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[-] Numenor@lemmy.world 49 points 4 months ago

Ah yes, the 12 countries of Europe.

[-] Sternout@feddit.org 12 points 4 months ago

Yeah Is Slovenia the worst in europe or 12th best? Most probably it's just random which countries are in the graph.

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[-] Pringles@lemm.ee 35 points 4 months ago

In Belgium trains are considered on time when up to a 6 minute delay, but what really schews the statistics is that cancelled trains are not counted. Even so, the number in this overview is completely incorrect. It was 87,5% on time in 2023.

[-] bob_lemon@feddit.org 10 points 4 months ago

I'm pretty sure Germany uses the exact same logic.

[-] smb@lemmy.ml 12 points 4 months ago

trains that are "cancelled" are not counted in germany, at least by train companies and politics, everyone else counts them as betrayals. sometimes trains are cancelled officially, just to arrive later with the same engine, wagons, staff and guests but under another train number just to not show up as that bad delayed any more, because its officially (renamed to) another train then!! that seems to happen on very few routes only, however, trains that are late would regulary never arrive at their final destination but be told to turn around and skip some stops to catch up with their time schedule at those stops the train is counted as cancelled => which is not counted then. bonus: the company knows the delay sometimes hours before that turn around to skip some stops, while people at those stops are left olone thinking that train will arrive until shortly before it should arrive only to be told that it will never arrive. sometimes trains show up as arriving in 2 minutes, then 1 ... then now ... and its gone! ... without any train passing by (mainly at remote locations with only 2 platforms or trams do that regulary too) guess those ghost trains are good for statistics, counts as in time, but does not use any space nor repairs, neither energy, and cannot be delayed by broken tracks or engine failures, also company does not have to pay for the driver of ghost trains. sometimes when the arrival platforms are changed for a train, someone through the speaker says, the train will arrive on platform 7, while the displays show it to have been changed to platform 2, and you have 1,5 minutes to get it after the first note from the company (bonus: sometimes both platforms told to you are wrong, then the train arrives (maybe) on the original platform that is empty bcs all ran to either 2 or 7)

when visiting other countries in europe, nearly everywhere i love how good public transport works (maybe in spain not that much) but in gemany its way too many lies delays, absurd rules a.s.o.

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[-] IndustryStandard@lemmy.world 25 points 4 months ago

TIL Train punctuality is the art of lying with statistics

[-] BenchpressMuyDebil@szmer.info 23 points 4 months ago

In Germany's defense, if you miss a train connection due to delays, you just board the next connection without needing to have your ticket re-issued for another connection, which is cool.

But the joke is real, I was coming back from Spain to Poland by train recently and everything was fine, until my VERY FIRST STATION IN GERMANY where I got my first delay.

[-] BruceTwarzen@lemm.ee 9 points 4 months ago

I just read that every 10th train voming from Germany into Switzerland is late, and they don't wait anymore, because they mess up the rest of the route.

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[-] massive_bereavement@fedia.io 22 points 4 months ago

The punctuality of trains in CENTRAL Europe.

Zugfinder doesn't cover it all.

[-] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 21 points 4 months ago

What's funny to me is that the Dutch people I know complain about their trains as much as the Germans I know.

[-] Vincent@feddit.nl 22 points 4 months ago

People really underappreciate trains in the Netherlands. Not only are they relatively punctual (even in a worldwide ranking), but having that in addition to having a dense schedule is really pretty impressive. In that sense, only Japan truly has us beat, I think.

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[-] PonyOfWar@pawb.social 9 points 4 months ago

From my experience, their problems are just of a different nature. Dutch trains are punctual, but the carriages are often in a filthy state.

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[-] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 18 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I already commented here, but I think this deserves its own comment. I'd like to see how this stacks up against Japan and China. I can already tell you how the US stacks up. On top of fifty-to-seventy years of rail underinvestment, the freight rail companies have been deliberately fucking with Amtrak for years now by making their trains too long to fulfill their legal obligation to pull off onto side tracks and yield to passenger traffic. And yes, you read that right, the vast majority of Amtrak's alignments are shared with freight rail.

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[-] gandalf_der_12te@lemmy.blahaj.zone 18 points 4 months ago

I am suspecting that the major reason why trains are so often so late in germany is because the car industry saw itself threatened by effective public transport.

I have absolutely no proof to back up this claim. I'm not even sure that it is that way, but it's the only explanation i can offer for why the germans can't have a working railway system.

[-] negativenull@lemmy.world 15 points 4 months ago

UK: hold my room temperature beer

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[-] FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 4 months ago

This stat is kind of weird. Punctuality is defined differently in every country.

In Switzerland 3+ minutes delay is counted as unpunctual, while france needs a 15+ min delay. I think in Austria it is 5+ min but unsure. So these numbers aren’t really comparable because they aren’t defining delay the same.

[-] PonyOfWar@pawb.social 25 points 4 months ago

Zugfinder seems to use a consistent definition of anything below 5 minutes being punctual. So those are in fact comparable values.

[-] FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

oh nice! I assumed it was taking from national statistics.

Having lived in both Austria and France, I would definitely have guess Austria be more punctual than france.

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[-] CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world 10 points 4 months ago

Can we please stop excluding the UK from these charts? Its still geographically European and acting like it isn't just feeds the brexiters... also because it'd be funny to have a country with -37 as its punctuality value on here.

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[-] telllos@lemmy.world 10 points 4 months ago

Bitching about the cff/sbb is a national sport in Switzerland

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[-] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 10 points 4 months ago

So you say Slovenia’s trains are slovenly?

[-] Orbituary@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Where's Japan?

Edit: yeah, I'm dumb. Wasn't paying attention.

[-] nokturne213@sopuli.xyz 38 points 4 months ago

Last time I was in geography class, it was located in Asia, not Europe. Things have changed in the world since then, but I do not think this has. Hope that helps.

[-] Valmond@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago
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[-] remotelove@lemmy.ca 9 points 4 months ago

Japan is just east of China, across the Sea of Japan and a hair north of the East China Sea. You can't miss it.

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[-] jenesaisquoi@feddit.org 8 points 4 months ago

happy swiss noises

[-] Got_Bent@lemmy.world 8 points 4 months ago

Dad, who has the most punctual trains?

The Swiss! Watch!

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[-] Haaveilija@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago

In Finland the national railway company "Valtion Rautatiet" is abbreviated "VR", which gets sometimes jokingly(?) opened as "Venaa Rauhassa" which can be roughly translated to "wait in peace"

[-] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago

how did germany come to this, they have such a rep for keeping shit orderly, investing in infrastructure etc. did the merger of east and west back in the 90s fuck things up or?

[-] geissi@feddit.org 14 points 4 months ago

how did germany come to this

Neoliberal policies: austerity fetish, privatization of public infrastructure and the expectation that rail has to be 'profitable' led to massive under-investment.

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[-] sparkle@lemm.ee 11 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Germany has an extremely strong automobile lobby. They're very dependent on the car industry. So politicians taking the money from these companies, which is a lot of them, sabotage infrastructure programs, and instead pump more money into cars. Similar issue to America really, and it's an issue caused by America having a massive presence in Germany and playing a big role in West German law & reconstruction.

Former East Germany generally has significantly better urban design & public transit infrastructure than former West Germany, but the government neglects the east part of the country as well as implementing the car-ification I mentioned before, plus the AfD (basically the modern Nazi party) is becoming in-charge there, so it's getting worse over time.

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[-] Melchior@feddit.org 9 points 4 months ago

A bunch of stuff. First of all the merger between east and west german railways happened in 1994 that was due to a lot or rail connections having to be rebuilt and a number of high speed lines were built or improved to Berlin. That however cost a lot. Then the German government was thinking about privatizing the railways. To do that a stock company was formed with the goal of turning a profit. So they stopped maintaining tracks and avoided new investment as much as possible for quite some time. In the meantime both passenger and freight railway demand in Germany increased a lot, while very little to no new track was opened. Also the ICE service was increased and unlike most everywhere else, it is run for the most part on improved old track and not new lines. Regional rail and freight run at roughly the same speed, if you consider the regular stops of regional rail. HSR runs faster, so other trains are either in the way or they have to move to the site.

As a result most of the German mainlines are at capacity or above it. As in there is demand for more trains, but the tracks do not have the capacity for it. So if anything goes wrong on any train, it results in a traffic jam, which causes delays for everybody else on those sections. However since long distance trains go through the entire country, nearly all of them do have to cross those sections.

The obvious solution is to built more railway and especially add high speed rail lines in parallel to the current lines. However NIMBYism is strong in Germany and when combined with a strong car lobby, it makes building new lines nearly impossible. Every single project ends up in a decades long planing stage, with mulitple law suits and even with construction you end up with stops, due to legal problems. For the most part the construction work is doing just fine, it is really just politicans being corrupt.

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this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2024
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