Deutsche Bahn’s once-admired service has descended into chaos. Whether decades of poor investment or the company’s unusual structure is to blame, it’s a huge headache for a coalition trying to meet climate goals

Deutsche Bahn’s once-admired service has descended into chaos. Whether decades of poor investment or the company’s unusual structure is to blame, it’s a huge headache for a coalition trying to meet climate goals

The sleek high-speed train is 10 minutes behind schedule when it slides into Cologne’s main station before continuing its journey north to Dortmund. The delay is now such a common occurrence that the train manager does not even both to mention it to disembarking passengers.

In late afternoon on an unremarkable weekday in this western German city, holidaymakers are hauling suitcases through the station, workers are commuting home, and the late arrival of Deutsche Bahn’s IC 118 from Innsbruck is no surprise.

It does cause annoyance, though: a glance at the departures and arrivals board prompts one middle-aged man carrying a backpack to swear loudly as he enters the station.

  • @[email protected]English
    1•1 year ago

    Your experience might be true, but to frame it as representative or real in any general way like you insinuate with;

    if you/they want people to switch up the way they do things, there needs to be an alternative that’s at least as good, but preferably better.

    is just disingenuous, you admit you live in a place with 4000 people, yet still you complain about transit. It fundamentally doesn’t matter because you are in the last couple of percent in terms of transit viability.

    That’s why it reads like propaganda because while the examples you give are likely true, the overall picture you paint is significantly worse than the lived experience of most people that use the system, because you consciously or accidentally collect examples that make it seem dysfunctional. It’s mismanaged and it could be much better but it isn’t dysfunctional.

    • @[email protected]English
      2•1 year ago

      You brought up towns <50k having train stations, and I was basically saying that simply because there is a train station (in the town next to mine, which has >20k population) doesn’t mean it’s great relying on it. I then also went ahead and gave you examples of bad experiences I had completely independent of where I live.

      What you say about “the picture I paint” is something I could’ve said about you the other way around. If I’m in the minority, how come there’s so much negativity towards public transit, and yes, also from people living in big cities? This leads to nowhere.

      The part you quoted is literally how people work, they pick what they think is best for them based on their own experiences.

      Anyways, I won’t elaborate further. I simply wanted to share my experience without having to justify how it’s not “disingenuous” or “propaganda”.