Every time I travel with Deutsche Bahn.. 🚄

[guepi@mamot.fr]

@Gina maybe they are trying to imitate the french SNCF 😅

[tcit@framapiaf.org]

@guepi @Gina DB is leagues ahead SNCF in terms of delays, you have no idea. They have like only 62% of their trains on time. You can never count on a connection.

[silhouette@dumbfuckingweb.site]

@Gina severely underfinanced infrastructure and personnel compared to cars. I call it the conservative effect.

[jonasgraphie@mastodon.social]

@Gina

What do you expect for a railway system which often runs above 100 % rated capacity and has been financially neglected for a long time?

[silhouette@dumbfuckingweb.site]

@Gina fwiw regional trains actually run decent enough.

it's just the long-distance connections that are a mess.

[hook@toot.si]

@Gina, if you've got some time to waste, perhaps the pain shared in this talk might make you feel a little bit better:

https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event/CHB7UJ-hackertrain-to-fosdem-2026/

[sybrand@social.lol]

@Gina Things aren't going your way either. First the hotel room, now the train again. 😞

[beaufils@mastodon.social]

@Gina @guepi

SNCF is not that bad at all contrary to the feeling we can have, and especially with respects to their means.

That may change soon with the ideological, and stupid, competition enforcement our politicians are imposing to it.

[beaufils@mastodon.social]

@Gina @jonasgraphie as in all European countries it seems.

Ultra-liberal economy ideology at work

[geraintllanfrancheta@hachyderm.io]

@Gina there is, as always, no easy answer and no easy fix. a) we are a "hub" country aka "junction" in Europe since the beginning of time (cp the many wars since the middle ages) - a trillion external effects from neighbouring countries which moght cause delays (UK ans Japan are islands ...) b) there are some geographical specialties aka bottlenecks in very populated and top business areas along the rhine (solutions known c) we are no 3 GDP country with very solid environmental, participations laws (which i am proud of). Things take time. E.g. BER MUC high speed train.

[thomasmarangoni@fosstodon.org]

@Gina I had an delay of 10h, while traveling to FOSDEM because of Deutsche Bahn. I needed to take 5 trains and one bus, instead of one train.

[cstross@wandering.shop]

@Toasterson @Gina Brit who has travelled on DB as well as the British post-privatization network here: this is EXACTLY right. The UK privatization was made attractive to investors by skimping on maintenance for a few years (to offer them cash inducements once they bought the pig in a poke). Said investors turned their noses up at the resulting sickly porker and stayed away. Upshot: DB now has a huge backlog of technical debt.

[tobtobxx@fosstodon.org]

@Gina Idk, last year we needed to take the train from Hamburg to Rostock, and it went really well, both ways, no significant delays. One connection was overfilled, but the DB app warned us. All in all, quite passable. And I'm Swiss, so my expectations are high.

[toasterson@chaos.social]

@cstross @Gina Fun side fact. The Rail ways are now Operated by the British private companies that left Britain. At least that's what we found out in FOSDEM dinner talks between Brits and Germans.

[geraintllanfrancheta@hachyderm.io]

@deshipu @Gina the Dutch railway system is tiny, only having 2 neighbouring countries bringing external effects ... ES and IT might be worthwile comparing (IT has large waterfronts, ES largely scarce populated regions though ...).

[gina@fosstodon.org]

@thomasmarangoni 10h, I would have had a meltdown 🫠🫠

[deshipu@fosstodon.org]

@Gina It's a trade-off. Someone made the decision that austerity is more important than the system actually working. And yes, overall it costs more, because all those failures are costly, but you can't blame them for unpredictable random events, can you?

[gina@fosstodon.org]

@sybrand lol all minor inconveniences, as long as I make it there it's all fine.

[schmidt_fu@mstdn.social]

@Gina
Hi Gina, we've all been there, and we're deeply sorry 🙏
Deutsche Bahn has been privatized (with the promise of efficiency...) and held by the state ever since. From being an essential service for all citizens, it is now expected to "make profit" and from there, things got worse.
What doesn't really make it better: it's seen as competition to German car makers, and thus it's politically toxic to invest in it.

[sandzwerg@chaos.social]

@Gina our, mostly center right to right, governments of the last decades underinvested into the train infrastructure for decades. Like at least since the privatisation of the DB in the 90, maybe longer. Now the rails, switches, overhead lines, bridges and especially the signal boxes all need maintenance. They now started doing more serious maintenance work on some lines but that is impacting the timetable as well.