#train delays Germany

[littlebellesmama]

Deutsche Bahn Woes: Why Trains Are Often Late in Germany

When people think of Germany, they often imagine precision, efficiency, and punctuality. After all, this is the country known for its engineering excellence, orderliness, and structure. So it’s quite a surprise—sometimes even a shock—to find out that Deutsche Bahn, Germany’s national railway company, is notoriously unpunctual. For locals, it’s a running joke. For tourists and commuters, it’s a…

[crocodilerockingx]

He may had been a little touchy but only because he heard those things from his brother already. He knew what he was doing, and he felt so many things for this woman he had only known for a night. But that was what love was all about, right? Doing stupid things and fighting for the right thing. “Things like that happen all the time and have no meaning. Why would they have them now?” he asked, giving her a look. He then shook his head, rolling his eyes a little. “Thank you. And you may be quite okay yourself.” he said. He had his trouble finding the right words. “I just hope this will be our last stop before we finally head to Paris.” he frowned. 

@itsonlyhxman - cont.

[kitchensinksurrealism]

yesterday I was stuck on a train in the middle of nowhere for like 4 hours until help came to evacuate us at like midnight, and I accidentally made a load of friends with the people in my carriage even though I'll never see them again or some of them even know their names...

[ireallyamabear]

if i were to write a fic set in Germany how would you want me to go about it and what would you want me to know

oh man that is an incredibly BROAD question. uuuuuum ... maybe the most important thing is that the equivalent to *darling* is not *Liebling*. nobody says *Liebling* like that.

here are some great german fic settings are: - meet cute while waiting for the very delayed Deutsche Bahn train - doing FKK (=naked swimming) on a hot summer day on a lake, where you rode together on your bikes and also you brought a picknick and a cold Radler - historical AU where your characters were part of the RAF - eating Weißwurst together - meeting on german tumblr because you both ship those Kommisare from Saarland Tatort - moving in together and pretending you're a couple so you don't have to pay Rundfunkbeitrag twice

i'm also opening this up to the group of german mutuals that i know are lurking on this post. help a buddy out!

[ms-demeanor]

Regarding the last ask you answered: personally, my main problem with osteopathy is that, bc it can sometimes relieve some pain short term, it might delay actual treatment of it. While there is more of a medical training compared to chiropractors, they're not doctors either. Pain relief is important, of course, but it could lead to patients not seeking further care, and delays in diagnosis/treatment can have a significant negative impact in the long term. In my country at least, I've heard many people regularly go to an osteopath to relieve a pain that would come back after a few weeks, and it genuinely angers me so much, bc osteopathy can never actually help them get better. But osteopaths here are cheaper than specialised doctors, which is part of the reason why people go to them probably.

A lot of this is going to vary by country because of the different regulations that different countries have - I don't think that sort of thing is as likely to happen in the US because in the US osteopaths are very very very much not supposed to treat symptoms without treating underlying causes - but I can't speak to other places.

It kind of reminds me of how in Germany homeopathy is essentially considered mainstream medicine and is treated as such - different places, different attitudes.

But yes, if someone is not getting care because their provider is using their alternative specialty to gloss over a serious issue, that's extremely shitty and I hate it.

[diminuel]

I feel so utterly under prepared to go to Düsseldorf. Also I feel there‘s too much in my backpack and yet not enough.

I have my passport (I realized in time that my ID has expired last month), print outs of my tickets, money, my phone and charger and headphones.

And yet…! So many things could go wrong, especially with train delays.

Anxiety.

But I‘m just going to Germany. I know the language. I should be fine.

[rabnerd28]

Thinking about Starlight Express in the context of someone who lives in america and spending a lot of time on a train the past few days, the passenger/freight dynamic is kinda funny. Idk how it is in England or Germany but in the US the passenger train company (for most of the US) is Amtrak. However, Amtrak does not actually own the rails the passenger cars are on. They have to basically rent them from the freight companies, and have to share lanes. This means that the freight companies decide which trains take priority. Passenger cars are scheduled around them, and freight a good chunk of the time will take priority and cause a lot of delays.

So what I'm saying is, the coaches having beef with the freight is the most accurate part of the show from a US perspective. And I'm kinda going "Go off queen!" about it.

[creativepromptsforwriting]

Hi! Could you give meet uglies and cutes that takes place in public transport?

Hi, sure :)

Meet Cutes/Uglies: Public Transport Edition

the only place for their luggage on the train is the overhead bin and they struggle so much that someone gets up to help them

one of them has a ticket that allows another person to ride with them, so they invite a random stranger to use their ticket, requirement for this is that they have to stay together for the whole ride

an engine failure is the reason why a 100 people get stranded at a little train station in the middle of nowhere, all trying to find their way home

sitting next to each other on a long bus/train ride and starting to talk about anything and everything

the train has a two hour delay and they start to bond over their annoyance

it's rush hour, the bus is completely full and the only way to not fall is to cling to the person closest to them

sharing a taxi, because they need to go to the same place

calling the conductor on the train, because the other one is sitting on the seat they booked and doesn’t want to move

there is nothing worse on a train, then when someone close by starts to make really loud phone calls for hours on end, talking about private issues without shame

it's their first time on a ferry, but it's the only way to get to the other city and sorry to the other passengers, but they get incredibly sea sick

almost as bad is when the person next to them starts unpacking their food and it's probably yummy, but it smells a lot and they will tell them that

the rails are being repaired, so they have to use rail replacement buses to get to the next train station, but they have to work together to find out how to get there because there are no signs and nothing makes any kind of sense

when the bus makes a sharp turn they suddenly find themself on the lap of a stranger

their seat neighbour is watching a Netflix show with subtitles, so they start to watch too and get invested

I'm using public transport daily and I have a love/hate relationship with it. I've just come back from a trip where the train was late for 2 hours and there was no AC at over 30 degrees. Still love to have the option to just go anywhere without having to use cars.

- Jana

PS: Schienenersatzverkehrshaltestellen (rail replacement coach stops) in Germany are notorious for being difficult to find and hard to navigate. I definitely met other frustated and lost people like that before.

[the-rainbow-of-doom]

I love international train travel in Europe because the trains will be on time and come with wifi and you're having a good time. And then the train enters Germany and you won't have any internet and the train has immediate delay. German austerity is the death of good infrastructure.

[officialkendallroy]

sometimes taking the train in germany feels like one big saw trap. every single train today was and is at least 25 minutes delayed. it's 30°C outside and they're not putting on the ac. it's so crowded and full and there's no fresh air. next thing you know a puppet on a tricycle is rolling past you and an old man on the intercom is telling you to turn on the ac you have to drill a hole in your skull

[alpaca-clouds]

Public Transport COULD Be Great

Americans visiting Europe, especially those more left-leaning Americans, will always be so impressed when it comes to our public transport. And it does not matter where they visit here. Netherlands? "Amazing Public Transport!" France? "Amazing!" Germany? "Amazing!" Even in the UK they will be impressed.

And I kinda get it. While once upon a time the US made a conserted effort to get people moving via train, that has been almost two centuries ago and by now they just decided that people having cars is making more companies more money, so who needs cheap public transport? And while I personally actually kinda liked the public transport on the east coast while I was visiting the US... Yeah, I am well aware that the east coast (especially the area between New York City and DC) is not quite representative for the US.

However, here is the thing: If you ask most Europeans about their public transport... Well, we'll complain as well.

Because they fucking ruined it!

See, here is the issue, in a lot of parts in Europe, at some point or another the government privatized some or all of the public transport. This hit some countries like the UK especially hard, but Germany was hit also quite a lot.

Because of that a lot of things happened that happened when you try to use capitalist logic onto something that cannot work under capitalism.

For example a lot of rails have been removed in areas where it was not "cost efficient" to run trains. Or if they have not been removed, they are at least no longer used. In Germany you will find that in the area where I am living (North-Rhine-Westfelia) we have somewhat good running public transport. Meanwhile a friend of mine is living in former East Germany. And something you gotta understand about former East Germany: After the reunification a lot of people from East Germany tried to move away from there, thinking they would do better in "West Germany". So you will find a lot of mostly empty villages and towns there. And you know what does not pay under capitalism? Right: Running trains to fairly depopulated villages and towns. So... This friend is forced to use a car all the time. Because the next train station that is actually still in use is 45 minutes by car away.

Sure, technically there is a bus running through her village... It comes 3 times a day mondays to fridays, 2 times a day on Saturday and not at all on Sunday. Also to reach the aforementioned train station, the bus connection would take her almost two hours.

Now mind you: There is a train station about 10 minutes by car from her. But that one has not been in use for almost 20 years. Because, again: It just does not pay. It is not profitable for the company, so it is no longer in use.

And here we get to the issue: Public transport is an amazing thing... But we see again and again, that it really only works in those cases where it is state-run and paid for with taxes. As soon as it is privatized it will just not work. Because, well... In general public transport really is not a thing that will be paying for itself. It is fairly expensive, and to keep it profitable you need to keep raising the prices. (As a German: Believe me, I know!)

Not to mention that company policies will lead to weird stuff happening with the trains. Here in Germany? Well, the biggest train company (that is kinda partly state-owned, but not state-run, so it is run under capitalist ideas) has promised their investors that the trains will not be as delayed as before. But given the piss-poor state in which the rail network is, this is just not feasible. So, what will they do? Simple! If a train gets too delayed they will just cancel it. Will that fuck everyone travelling over way more than letting the train delay for 20 minutes? Yeah. But they do not care. They only care about the investors.

And this is the general issue.

For public transit to work, you need to design the transit network to serve the people - and not to make money. Because it does not matter that there are only some old people left in some depopulated little town in eastern Germany or western England... Those old people deserve to be able to get from their depopulated little town to the next big shopping center and cultural center as well.

As long as you do not design the stuff with those people in mind...

Sure, it is better than no public transport. But it still sucks.

[sroloc--elbisivni]

very funny to me that every time i’ve taken an international train in Europe that passes through Germany and is also delayed at some portion of its trip the train company makes sure to let you know The Germans Are At Fault

[daveedmee]

commuting to work in Germany via rail be like:

→ construction work on your direct route for the third time in half a year

→ replacement busses are either unpunctual because the bus driver rather gets a kebab at 7 in the morning, takes their mandated break with no other replacement bus or they just don't come at all

→ so you start your journey with a different route and three different transfers an hour earlier than needed "just to be safe"

→ first train gets cancelled, but u still have 30 minutes of your safety net time

→ second train comes on time but departs with a 15 minutes delay because some other train is occupying the rail

→ you arrive at the transfer station with 1 minute transfer time and your next train departing from 9 platforms away from the one you arrived at

→ you obviously don't make it so you wait for 30 minutes on the platform using up all your "just to be safe" time

→ station display malfunctioning so it just says "please note the loudspeaker announcements"

→ you check the official app and everything seems to be in order

→ you check the app 20 minutes later, still everything in place

→ 15 minutes later still no train

→ you open the app again and apparently the train departed 5 minutes ago from a different platform, no announcements at all

→ you wait another 30 minutes and are now too late for work

and that's how you double your commuting time from 1.5 to 3 hours just on your way to work

needless to say I am on the train right now, incredibly pissed off and too late for work

[alexalblondo]

When you have a change window of 15 minutes … but your train is delayed … so you’ll miss your connection… except the connection is also delayed… so you make it with time to spare … then you’re in Germany

[chiililisatoo]

Black Butler Theory

this is my current theory on how the twins parents were killed :-

Points to Note :-

1] in s1 the filler has ash and angel and the sewing of bodies and revival of dead in the same arc and in the manga the queen's butler's main focus , francis midford , and bizarre dolls in the same arc in the campania arc -

2] francis tells lizzy that the wife of the queen's watch dog needs to be strong enough to protect her husband --- rachel phantomhive being a sickly weak woman cannot possibly protct vincent --- also francis is crying - the only time in the manga we see francis cry is in this scene --- also in a scene bfore this scene we see her argue with vincent about something vincent decided to do about the twins , his sons

3] there is a man in the satanic cult who looks like the fat diedrich when the twins are first taken to that cult hall

4] the sickly twin looses his sickness after being maltreated at the cult and being drugged too

5] vincent is a twisted dude who makes creepy plans with people around him from the weston school arc ---

THIS IS MY THEORY :

Francis Midford killed Vincent Phantomhive by attacking rachel first and they both die by her strong and precision strike to their hearts in one strike -------

BUT here is why the twins were kidnapped :-

so my theory in chronological order is as follows :-

1] Vincent did not like queen victoria's rule and thus kept his estate's persons from aiding in her projects as seening the delayed london bridge

2] Vincent had business in germany and france --- germany via diedrich and france via undertaker as undertaker was at france before he met dierich as seen in green witch arc

3] vincent had a very special idea in mind for o!ciel --- this is my theory --- vincent planned for the raid on the phantomhive manor and the manor being burnt down ---

the attack would start ---

the tanaka , vincent and rachel would struggle against very powerful military men --- sent from germany to attack the queen's watchdog and take the intel he had collected on them from the manor and burn it down to remove the scraps --- this is the story vincent would feed to the queen

in reality vincent arranged with these men before hand to attack the manor and in the chaos kidnap the twins ----

so once the twins are kidnapped they would be in that damned cage satanic cult where diedrich from germany ha smuggled special chemical drugs/medicines which are to heal o!ciel of his illness after a few days at the satanic cult and drug use on the twins --- o!ciel would be found "dead" - as his weak body succumbed to the torture and the drug use and vincent would "bury" as seenin book of murder type empty casket when infact he would be at anadvanced treatment facility en route / in germany with diedrich and healing there in cognito --- andhe would be trained there by diedrich and perhaps even undertaker - as undertaker is doing so now to cause the germans/french or both to infitlrate and conquer britain ---

At least this was vincet's plan

BUT vincent had discussed this plan with francis ans tanaka ---

tanaka was to pretend he knows nothing and play along with vincent and francis was to do the ame when she arived for the twin's birthday party ---

this we know whenfrancis says this cult thing is far too cruel on the younger sickly spare

vincent though seeing r!ciel's addiction to o!ciel does not reveal this whole to the young boy but he is trained to face difficulties by vincent - as vincent meas for r!ciel toc arry ont he role of the queen's watchdog of the phantomhive line

but francis of the marquis family is hired by the queen and well she is more pro english --- she is to stop vincent;s attempts to overthrow queen vic''s rule of britain -

thus she has trained in her training to r!ciel pro english queen's watchdog ness

whenshe cries to lizzy that a wife to watch dog should be able to protect hims its because

she francis is soon going to kill her brother the queen's watchdog due to a mess he got himself into with germnay and france while exectuing queen's orders --- so first she confirms vincents intentions and when she hear's what he plans to do with the twins --- she decides she needs to kill vincent asher allegiance lies with queen vic or britIain

so r!ciel has been indirectly trained by vincent for kidnapping for that fateful day and francis has raised pro britain ideologies in him and taught him to fight and both put into him very strong pro queen's watch dog ideologies - but r!ciel is siding with vincent in his mind as he fears francis

SO on the day of the 10th birthday of the twins -

vincent is waiting for the raid with rachel -

francis arrives and with her rapier thing runs them both through their heart aiming forrachel whom vincent shields they both thus in shock at francis's betrayed bleed to death

francis thenleaves the roomand joins tanaka as if nothing happened and the raid starts

r!ciel suspects something to go wrong in vincent's plan as he has spent time intraining with francis and ets this idea that she may betray vincent --- just like how o!ciel betrayed him previoulsy from where he gets the idea -----------

so r!ciel goes to chekc on vincent due to the delay in vincent's plan as he told to r!ciel and finds the parent dead he takes the ring and goes to fight frncis whom he is convinced is the murderer of his parents ---

tanaka is shocked to see r!ciel furiously attack francis and does not know what to do

he sees o!ciel run towards him and tells him to stop as seeing r!ciel aggresivley attacking francis is too much for him --- as he may mistake either the aunt or his brother cuased the other dead bodies in his head

after that francis attacks tanaka from behind --- and the twins are kidnapped as per vincent's plan

twins reach the cult - diedrich arranged for the smuggled from germany advanced chemical drug use -----------------

and are drugged and tortured

but unknown to diedrich vincent is dead and cannot collect the twins early and meet diedrich to smuggle off the real alive body of o!ciel and replace with one of the dead kids in that cult and bury that flase body and bury his sickly son off --- o!ciel would then live in germany as diedrich's bastard son with a new name and new life as per vincent's plan

but vincent is dead and francis fails to track the twins early enough or does not care to track them as its best for her iff they both die and dont resurace as queen's watchdog to spare her kids the trouble with the queen

thus r!ciel is killed as we know it

btw the diedrich at this point is already fat because of his business with germany vs britian being lead on by vincent as always

and then the story contieus as we know it --- tanaka once he recovers at thehospital probably puts the 2 and 2 togehter tht francis killed vincent - but was commanded by vincent to do nothing against anyone not even the queen himslef so he serves his masters o!ciel and r!ciel from the side lines

once o!ciel recovered with a new identity undertaker was to train him and vincent would train r!ciela nd the 2 brothers would at one point face off againt each other inthe gemrnay+france vs britain pre war things

so tanaka is on the side

francis is silent and does not face r!ciel immediately

diedrich is fond of o!ciel as his once planned adopted son

claudia phantomhive probably died of a medical procedure gone wrong after which vincent met the sickly rachel anddeveloped antagonism with queen for not giving proper healthcare and other things to eople as she the queen lives in the memories of albert and has lost sight of britian - according to vincent

francis and others - feels o!ciel surviving with a false name is destiny - as planned by their revered vincent phantomhive

undertaker thus trains o!ciel too but also pits him against r!ciel --- also how vincent envisioned the fates of the twins --- witho!ciel surprised to find r!ciel as the queen watchdog ciel phantom hive ashe would have beend fed the story whenhewakes up at diedrich's in germnay that the rest of his family is dead --- which is why all the involved prtiels feel o!ciel surviivng as he did is destiny --- but none want to tell him the truth as was also per vincent's advise to them and to save their own shame and skins from messing up in that fateful month -----------

but that fatefulday a third party known to only vincent and ndertaker --- this was a blood transfusion strenghtended human whowas saved atdeath's door --- human saved via blood transfusions and not a bizarre doll --- this is the person who holds o!ciel before he is kidnapped and the one who kidnaps the twins and puts the mansion on fire and hands them to the low chain of human traficckers - as per vincent's plan - most likely polaris

So francis killed vincent and rachel on queen's orders or as noblese oblige to britain assheis marriedto a marquis and probably shares very strong pro britian sentiments

Thoughts ?

[trainsinanime]

Tram de Liège

After a lot of delays, the new tram line of Liège, Belgium finally opened today, bringing this mode of transport back to the “glowing city” after 58 years. So obviously I left work early and travelled through two countries to check it out.

The line had been planned since the late 2000s, and just about everything about it had been controversial, from its existence to its PPP financing model (which got ruled illegal by the EU not once but twice until they finally got it right) to its construction and delays.

As it stands, the line is almost 12 kilometers, almost all of it at the western bank of the river Meuse, with a single short branch over the river to Bressoux, serving the Expo Centre and also the depot. Three sections are wireless, and trains travel through them on battery power. Personally I think that’s at least two too many; wires would not have massively disturbed the view of the Pont Atlas or the new station quarter at Liège Guillemins, the city's striking main railway station.

As usual for these types of projects, a lot of city spaces got extensive renewals as part oft eh tram project, and between you and me, they were urgently needed. Liège has not always been a very nice city. In places, these improvements have meant reducing space for individual motor traffic and adding bike lanes. However, a number of new bike lanes are just the dreaded “share arrow” on four lane roads; this could be better.

Extensions at either end to Seraing and Herstal (yes, the one from the guns) are possible and some construction started back in 2023, but they got cancelled in 2024 due to high costs.

Costs are a major issue here. The line was very expensive, with a final bill of 530 million euro. In comparison, the line T9 in Paris, probably not a city with low construction costs, has a similar length and only came to 480 million euro (both figures include rolling stock and a dedicated depot and workshop, and come with the caveat that my French is atrocious and I may have misunderstood French Wikipedia here). So the Liège Tram is not quite crazy expensive, but definitely expensive.

The trains seem and feel very French, but are actually from Spanish CAF, part of the Urbos family. They are 45 meters long, 2.65 meters wide, fully low floor, with wide open spaces for standing passengers and persons with reduced mobility, but relatively few seats (though the seats all have USB charging ports).

Today, operations were fairly rough, I’m not going to lie, with lots of breakdowns and issues. I travelled the entire network, and ended up in two trams that just randomly stopped for ten minutes, presumably while the driver was trying to fix some issue. As a result, while headways are supposed to be good, actual headways were essentially random. On a more regular level, I would say signal priority is not yet handled perfectly, there are a number of places where trams had to stop due to red traffic lights.

Ticketing also left me baffled. I think I had a valid ticket, but I’m not actually sure. The Dutch-Belgian-German border region has a special day pass, the Euregioticket, valid in all trains and buses in the regions of Aachen (Germany), where I live, Maastricht (Netherlands) and Liège. But all documentation for it predates the tram, so there’s no point that actually says it’s valid on trams. The ticket validators on the trams certainly couldn’t tell me. Half of them were out of service anyway. And for the others, I have no idea how to get them to read a QR code on my phone, if they even have a camera for that. They’re supposed to, according to an employee of the operator I spoke with at a station, but I certainly didn’t see it. What the validators do is magically open the wallet app on my phone, which would probably have scared the shit out of me if this hadn’t been something I’d seen before. Some types of chip card readers for public transit just do that, apparently, regardless of my phone's settings. It was probably fine, I guess?

But don’t let the negativity fool you. The line is on track to be a huge success. Many of the trains I was in were rather full. Not quite packed, but definitely well used. A lot of that is probably people just trying it out (I noticed several people who did the same end-to-end-and-back runs as me), and a lot of it is that people are forced to use it, since the bus network was changed do that many bus lines now end at tram stops. But still, this clearly will be the backbone of the city for many years to come.

Now let’s hope my own city of Aachen manages to do the same before too long. We need more trams in this world.