We live in a public transit hell

Nice the train is only 15 minutes late? That's awesome - me riding any train in the US

Wait until you hear about Spanish trains.

Meanwhile in Japan: Train is 30 seconds late "here's a letter for your employer explaining why you were only 29 minutes and 30 seconds early for your 8 hour shift that will inevitably have an additional 8 hours of unpaid overtime tacked on to it."

Japan transit- Am I a joke to you?

American here: yeah, not far off.

funny but inaccurate
i live in vienna. the train comes so often, nobody bothers to check the schedule anymore. just wait 2 mins, enter, go.
- Same in Paris.
  "What do you mean I have to wait 4 minutes for the next metro?"
  
  Meanwhile in Belgium,
  "I don't know where or when will I end up after I board the bus back home from work"

Germany's known for having terrible rail. Probably on account of BMW lobbying.
- Really? As an American who had never ridden a train before, I was impressed by Germany's public transit. I remember wishing we had such systems everywhere over here.
  Honestly though, I'd prefer high speed mag-lev systems that run like clockwork.
  
  Germany's known for poor rail, America's known for no rail.
- BMW, VW and Mercedes. The German Bundesbahn was perfect then the CDU, CSU and FDP killed it due to lobbyism. Now, the politicians suck the cocks of the CEOs of the mentioned companies. SPD and Grüne always say that the Deutsche Bahn needs more money, but they had the chance between 98 and 05. Did they change something? No there was not enough money according to them.
  
  Not even the biggest thing that beautiful trio ruined. Their lobbying and Mutti Merkel's politics were the main contributors to the Hungary problem. So if you want to know why common defense policies get vetoed or why is the Ukraine response is a shitshow, the root cause is that VW needed cheap exploitable workers.

American here - I recently started taking the train to go to work! Previously I couldn't due to no trains scheduled for the return home trip after my shift was over, but after getting a new schedule, I got on board the train! So far in the past two months, I've already had a few instances of the train being delayed or missing it entirely. One day, the train was delayed by 30 minutes and stated they would be held for an unknown amount of time to put out a fire on the tracks at a station ahead - drove into work that day. Another day, the train was delayed by 5 minutes. Outside of that, I was late to the train by like 5 minutes and it left without me (still adjusting to early morning schedule).
So far, I like taking the train much more than driving the car.
- I’m Polish but I also made the switch to use public transport instead of my car, even though it’s not the cheapest once you’re not a student anymore. I feel better though knowing how much fuel I save by not driving in traffic for 1.5h 4 days a week. The other thing is that the money goes to the city so I will likely benefit from it in some way
  
  And you also get a little bit of time to yourself! I use it to study for certs.
- Of course the trains leave without you if you are 5 min late.
  It will leave without you if you are 30 seconds late. Hell, it will even leave if you are 5 seconds late unless they see you running and are feeling extra nice.
  
  Never said it shouldn't! Just means it's running on time. Like I said, I'm still adjusting to the early schedule.
- I owned a car in Toronto. I still took the train DT. Driving DT literally was longer then the train.

Some infantile meme about public transport while his regime has been helping genocide in Palestine and Syria for years.
This lib has got his priorities straight.
Also you've misspelled 'fakely left-wing' in your bio.
And, can you ban me here too fash?
- I think this level of derailing in a post about trains is irresponsible.
  
  Delay. Deflect. Derail.
  
  OP is a mod banning anyone opposing his regime appologetics.
  And I think your german fascist US bootlicking warmongering government is irresponsible. Worry about that

Meanwhile in Greece:
Oh no, the train has crashed into another train that was carrying illegal chemicals, costing 57 fucking human lives again.

Most of my country doesn't have trains. The only train on time goes to the airport, yes THE airport. Everything else is buss for train. And I purposely didn't mention the country but everyone from here knows it when they read buss for train.

You clearly havent heard of swedish trains.
The railroad here is a bad joke at this point, mainly due to shutting down the organization that was responsible for maintainence and shoving it into another agency that has no clue. As a bonus the new agency doesn't even do the repair work themselves but hires contractors at the lowest bidder. So stuff breaks constantly, which causes delays.
At this point just getting the rail network to "normal" standards would cost billions. Let alone expanding it to cope with current traffic levels.
- To be fair, most higher density areas in Sweden have fairly good infrastructure for public transit. The national railways are a disgrace, but that mostly affects long distance travel. Mostly. Short to medium distance commute works fairly well everywhere I’ve tried it.
- [cries in Swedish]
- Scandinavia has more in common with Canada when it comes to public transportation
  
  Canada has high speed trains?

Which eu countries? Most of eu countries are on second meme
- On the contrary, when I lived in the US on Long Island, a part of the country where people warn life without a car is impossible, I had a great transit experience. Buses were generally on time, modern and equipped with live tracking, and the trains were great too.
  I know LI’s relative poor transit options are mostly in comparison to other areas in the Northeast, which is a densely populated region. I imagine my experience would be totally different in the Midwest or the Prairies. And that’s especially true for trains – LI is awesome in that regard
- From my small experience as an a American. Netherlands had some really reliable transit. Never had a problem in France though definitely not as nice as Netherlands. Italy was definitely hit and miss depending on the city but loved the high speed rail from Naples to Rome. Germany was reliable during October Fest so I assume at least Munich is reliable if it was good at that time. Though I wouldn't say I used much in Germany.
  Other countries I've been to but I'll just list cities for these because I didn't go much anyone else for them: Prague, Budapest, Vienna
  I can't say there was a single country/city here that had transit that was worse than the best transit in the US. Was it all perfect? No. But compared to fucking Amtrak that literally has to stop for hours at a time while we wait for other freight trains to pass. Literally multiple times during a single train ride.
  Some countries may not be the first meme. But what major city in Europe has worse local transit than say Chicago or New York? Or worse heavy rail than Amtrak? Just honestly asking.
  I don't think anything could be worse than Amtrak.
  
  You mentioned 4 - 5 EU countries, even major cities. You are missing other 22 countries. Not going too far like mentioning Romania, but have you ever tried Renfe en Madrid? Hehehe it fails many times

Wait until you hear about German trains.
- Can't be late if it doesn't arrive at all.
- 600 Minuten Später
  
  Also quasi pünktlich
- Portugals trains joined the chat
- Wait till you hear about Bulgarian trains
  
  You guys have trains?

As a European I have to say, you are very optimistic about our train schedules.
- Not to downplay any of the myriad problems here in the USA, but I think many of us are trying to believe that a better world is possible and this sometimes leads to unrealistic views of how much better things are abroad. Sometimes.
  But I am hopeful that this country is increasingly humiliated for at least a couple of decades.
- The blind hope that somewhere in this world there is a functioning public transit system is all that keep me going some days. Let me have this
  
  Honestly, the perspective of what constitutes a functioning public transit system depends a lot on what you have as a point of reference.
  I'm portuguese but I lived in Germany for 5 months during which I used exclusively public transports and bikes. Central Europeans complain a lot about Deutsche Bahn and indeed during this time I saw a few strikes, delays and suppressions. However, transports were still much more reliable and much more frequent than I'm used too so I could never really consider it problematic, although my Central European friends complained a lot.
  
  Tokyo I've heard. For sure not Europe. Halve of the scheduled trains didn't run today in Belgium.
  
  I take the light rail into work from the suburbs of Seattle into downtown. Trains run every 7-8 minutes. They're expanding it in all directions now. Only downside is that a lot of homeless ride the train because it's cold as heck on the streets. That's a societal problem though, not an issue with the train.
  
  Japan is the MVP here. I live there and I literally have never seen a train not arrive exactly at the scheduled time. However "public" transport is privately owned so... Uh... Yeah, tradeoffs.
  
  Ukraine wasn't completely horrible... before 2022 :(
  
  I've been in Vienna from time to time, and it's pretty good, 365€/year for the pass that gets you buses, trams and subways with unlimited access and no turnstiles anywhere, you just go and enter
  Schedules follow work hours and go from a subway every 2 minutes during peak hours to one every 15mins late at night
  You have night line buses for weekdays and on Saturday night public transport doesn't shut down
  Coverage is good, you almost always have a bus or tram line less then 5 minutes of walking
  There are bike sharing places with 20 bikes each ~1km apart and they cost 60 cents for half an hour, or e-scooters in the designed locations which are basically everywhere (but being owned by companies they cost so much more then everything else)
- If you're German, RIP in peace.
  
  A German intern came to our american city and was flabbergasted that the trains here ran consistently.
  I had a laugh since I always assumed it'd be the opposite.
- As an American, this is exactly correct. The last time I tried to take Amtrak the train literally did not show up and they told us they had no way to contact it and didn't know where it was. After waiting many hours with no change in status I finally gave up. The last time I actually rode Amtrak it was multiple hours late and cost about the same as a plane ticket.
  
  But, I bet the train didn't fall apart in air, and didn't crash because of overwhelmed ATC
  
  Like, you lost the train? Did you look under the couch?
- I think watching Jet Lag let's you see the full breadth of transit systems pretty well, because the whole game relies on it. Japan is amazing. A lot of Europe is good enough that you can get around, some great and some not so great. The US is so bad I don't think either team bothered taking a train when they did the show there.
  
  It's funny (and accurate) that they keep getting fucked over by Deutsche Bahn.
- Peak moments of MÁV (Hungarian State Railways)
  Soviet tractor overtakes train (2024): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5wkW1nKfJY
  Man in snail costume outruns train (2018): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WAY1sFM6yQ
  Passengers pushing the train to the station (2021): https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bNUWNxt-lyg
- I hear Italian trains are very timely?
  
  Especially regionale ones used by people to commute for work
- As an American, I would say the same...except about the American train schedules.

Japanese transit users: "Don't worry, we can grab the next one. It will be here in 48 seconds."
- "in precisely 48 seconds"
  
  We deeply apologize that it took the train 49 seconds to arrive. We have prepared notes for your boss in case you're late, and there will be a half page ad in tomorrow's paper confirming our CEO has committed seppuku to atone.
  
  Spock: Forty eight point three seven seconds, Captain.
- And if your female, you'll get something else grabbed for free!
  
  *except on one of the all-female trains

Me When My metro train (Santiago) doesn't immediately arrive as soon as i touch the platform.

Deutsch Bahn would like a word.
I often take my car because it's so damn unreliable.
Not once, not twice, but three times I've sat on a train for 2+ hours without moving within the past 2 years.
- working as intended. for several generations, the car lobby fills the management of deutsche bahn.
  https://www.kontextwochenzeitung.de/politik/311/bahnfeinde-im-bahnvorstand-4259.html
- UK National Rail and the Franchise system: those are rookie numbers!

Although there are many improvements to be made, like international euro rail connecting the capitals, better prices, a reliable DB and most importantly EU standard track system, I love our euro rails.
But I've gotta confess, the fact the US train is called Marc is kinda cool.
"Hey, I wonder where Marc is. Is he coming?"
"Nah men, Marc is completely derailed again. He burned down an entire town and he's toxic AF."
- MARC is unfortunately only a regional train for Maryland, and he is very limited on the weekends.. The national passenger train system is called Amtrak.
  
  Oooh, is he Swedish?
- Well at least Marc never comes prematurely.
  
  Just wait until BORT’s date with METRA, the sexy sounding voice assistant of trains
- Don't forget BART and DART as well.
  
  should have named them BORT and BURT
- marc this, marc that, I don't believe your train-boyfriend exists, mary. prove it or stop talking about him.
  
  He live in Cananda you wouldn't know him...

So that's what a train looks like

...that's the shanghai maglev
edit: it was built by siemens though, so get a few euro wank points.
- It's a nice train, that must be like the capital of Europe?
  
  Don't give Xi any ideas

no fast railways in the US at all, hyperloop delayed cali long enough til trump was able to stop it in his first term. it would solve alot of employment locaitons issues like biotech, and tech hubs. which are situated outside of major freeways and highways and major metro areas, even cars have a trouble navigating to.

I think you may have Europe confused with Japan.
- Deutsche Bahn will definitely proof that public transit in the EU isn’t necessarily…. there? Working? …
  
  It's definitely better than nothing but it doesn't feel better than nothing.

As an American, I don't have access to trains, buses, bike lanes, sidewalks or even a shoulder on the road. The last time I tried to walk home from the tire shop two miles away, three people stopped to offer me a ride because it is that dangerous. I live inside the 275 loop that runs around Cincinnati.
- Yeah, my “Public Transit” option on google maps is entirely greyed out. This is my daily commute to work:
  
  It’s always entertaining to see the Europeans go “lol just ditch your car, it has to start somewhere” like it wouldn’t require me to move my entire family across town, (and pay 3x as much rent to live in the city…) Like I don’t even have the option of taking public transit, because there are no connecting lines between my home and my job. Literally none. The nearest bus stop is almost as far away as my job, and it’s in the opposite direction.
  And to be clear, that 2+ hour walk would be on a highway with no sidewalk. I’d be dead on day 1. If I wanted to avoid the highway, the walk would be closer to 4.5 hours; The highway is the only direct path.
  
  That's so sad that it's just greyed out lol. Even google maps is like, nah you're fucked dude
  
  require me to move my entire family across town, (and pay 3x as much rent to live in the city…)
  Do it.
  (I'm an American BTW.)
- I live in Utrecht, one of The Netherlands' larger cities. I don't even have a car anymore. I can reach any place in the city by cycling in 15min max. Planning a trip with Google maps often shows cycling to be as fast or even faster than by car. Amsterdam by train is 30min, train leaves every 10min. I can take my bike in the train or take a public transportation bike from any train station. Cars are stupid.
  
  How easy is it for you to take your bike on the train in that area? I was visiting Utrecht recently and was really surprised they only allowed 2-3 bikes on the entire train (off peak hours too).
  
  I lived a year in Nijmegen when I was younger, and later another year in Duesseldorf, so what you're describing isn't foreign to me. But where I live now there are no options other than car. If you don't own one you need a friend with one or an Uber.
- I did this math recently. To walk to work would take me either a 2 hour walk, a 17 minute drive, or a 45 minute bus ride.
- Transit outside the actual city, of any kind, is pretty abysmal.

It's funny, but after traveling around Europe, I've learned one important lesson: avoid booking flights with short layovers! If the transfer time is less than 3-4 hours, you’re playing a risky game. Delays happen more often than you'd think, and in some cases, flights get pushed to the next day due to 'bad weather' (or other mysterious reasons). Better to have a buffer than to get stuck at the airport overnight!

You haven't seen Croatian rail then ;)

I'm literally riding the Shinkansen in Japan right now as I come across this meme.
- Is that the one known for its reliability and stuff? Like, seconds-granularity reliability?
  
  That very same one. It is also very fast and covers vast distances, yet the ride is smooth and comfortable.

Wait, you guys have trains?
- Wait, you guys have trains?
  Depending on whether the stars are right. Or whether you need to cross the tracks - there's always one when you need to cross the tracks.
  
  there's always one when you need to cross the tracks.
  This, but you ever notice that it's pretty much never passenger trains? This efficient mode of transportation is largely designed for and used by industry rather than for travel or commute. The exception is within big enough cities like DC and NYC to get from one side of the city to the other or anywhere between. Sure there are some trains that go between cities, but they're largely unreliable because passenger cars yield to industrial freight, and so people are less inclined to opt for them over planes or cars, and so there are fewer trains available to go wherever you're going in the window you're trying to go. So you book a flight instead.
  I'd take a long train ride over a road trip any fucking day. I don't understand anybody who would rather drive than chill and read a book or play games or watch movies or nap.
  
  Got it, always cross the tracks
- Oh yeah, we have so many trains. They go everywhere, we have a very comprehensive network of them
  Oh wait... Did you mean passenger trains?
- We have trains that have lethal derailments every year or so.
- fast ones, we have slow ones, that are often on edge of collapse.

The problem with trains is they are public (under)founded. The rich and powerfull with political influence don't want working public transportation because less carsales, oil, gasoline etc.
Which explains why Musk prevented a high speed train in the US with his hyperloop. We all need to buy EV"s which have most of the downsides of traditional cars.
When we could have clean, fast and comfortable public transportation.
EDIT: Spelling.
- That's not a problem with trains; that's a problem with the rich and powerful having political influence.
  
  Agreed. Politicians should prioritize trains and public transport more. And bicycles while we're at it.
- Trains need to be public or you are gonna get a second DB (it enshittifies for some time now ;.;)
  
  DB is still 100% owned by the federation, it's only organised privately. Trouble is they expected it to turn a profit, to do that DB had to run its infrastructure into the ground, invest abroad, get into fucking trucking, you name it. Don't get me wrong there's nothing wrong with operating rail/road interface warehouses, but when a rail company is building a logistics warehouse without rail connection you know something's deeply fishy. Meanwhile, the Autobahn network got plenty of tax money pumped into it. And those DB profits.
  The failure is 110% political, decades of car-brained infrastructure ministers, "but won't someone think about the car producers and their workers". Bipartisan issue. In US terms: UAW and Blackrock vs. Amtrack. Guess who's winning the lobby battle, difference being in Germany people actually like trains.
  
  I'm considering it should be a private company where the state/city is the majority owner.
  Also i'm guessing that the public transport only makes sense in cities, and inter-city. Not so much on the countryside in small villages. There cars are more efficient.
  
  Agree 100%. But where I live politicians always seem to focus more on giving tax cuts than maintenance and improving trains. The people should not accept it, but.. Tax cuts!
- Which is why he ~~prevented~~ delayed a high speed train in the US. To my knowledge, they are still constructing it.
  Just checked: it's still underway. 119 miles currently under construction. From Bakersfield to Madera, with most of the rail near Madera completed.
  
  Good to hear! Didn't know that. Good news.
  
  Because everyone dreams of ending up in Bakersfield...

As an American living in a region with halfway decent (by American standards) public transit, I feel like I hear more comments aligned with the European side than the American side. If public transit has literally any downsides, that's justification enough to drive for so many people.
- if public transit isn't very good at eating me out, I need to buy a ford T1000 P!E!D!E!S!T!R!I!A!N!M!U!T!I!L!A!T!O!R! and roll coal.
  
  Baby, people call me a 2-8-0 Locomotive. I can take you places that you never thought of.
- Although the US and Europe are nearly identical in area, Europe's population centers are far more uniformly distributed. Big cities in America are mostly around the edges, with a vast, sparsely populated area in the middle. Most intercity train service in America is in that fringe, where the spacing between cities is more like in Europe.
  
  Sure, intercity will never work in the US. Except on both coasts. And upper Midwest. And in a couple mountain and high desert areas. Dammit, that’s like 70% of the population
  
  And yet we don't have true hsr in the northeast, where the big cities are...

Deutsche Bahn has entered the chat.
- Too early
  
  As a DB user: "ha!"
- DB doesn't hold a candle to VIA Rail. Germans and Europeans in general like to mock DB, and with reason, but as a Canadian, I'm still so very jealous of DB.
  Due to [these] restrictions, 80 per cent of trips suffered delays of more than 10 to 15 minutes in February between Quebec City and Windsor, where the majority of Via trains operate. In January, 67 per cent of trains were late on the same corridor. Delays have been even greater between Quebec City and Ottawa this year, affecting 94 per cent of trains last month and 86 per cent in January.
  
  DB uses this novel trick to avoid delays: they simply don't count trains that don't run at all as delayed. And then they also sometimes cancel trains for being delayed. They simply turn the train around before reaching it's final stop so at least it's somewhat on time running the other way.
- 50 minutes late due to a door malfunction.

Portugal is in America 😂😂😂😂😂 and it’s gotten way worse since the pandemic

I am here to represent the germans. The country where the only thing we agree about is, how fucking shit our trains are
- I havent seen one company where "train didn't come" isn't a valid excuse for bring late. Like, no further questions.
  
  I was late for a hair appointment because I missed the bus, and I swear they wrote it down in my file because every time I went back, for the next year they were like "So... Did you come by bus today?"
  Also yeah no problem if your train doesn't come once - but if it happens more than once it's going to reflect badly even though it's out of your control. You'll start to get the comments "You should take the earlier one!" I travelled by bus with 2 transfers to college and it was ROUGH.
  
  There's a classic that Irish rail used to pull out of their bag of shite excuses until they got slagged to death over it:
  Leaves on the track.
  No joke. C'mon now lads. In fairness though the train service in Dublin and inter-city is pretty reliable and reasonable.

Where is this magical European place with trains that are only .5sec delayed? Our public transit authority considers train "on time" if they're no more than 20min late...and still, less than 80% of trains are "on time"...
- compared to my area where we don't even have busses, trains are a dream
- Austria, apparently.

It's not like a BMW is more reliable.
- Every BMW comes with a complimentary jar of blue electrical smoke. 💨
  
  Does the blue electric smoke at least stay inside the jar while I'm leasing it?
- Yeah, but you can be stuck in traffic in your BMW without needing to interact with the poors!
- What the actual fuck are you talking about?
  
  BMW's are famously known to be in the workshop more often than on the road. My friend's BMW had a type of self-cleaning oil. All he has to do is top off the oil once a month. Just ignore the stain on the parking lot, it's not oil.
  
  It's a common stereotype in America, I guess periodic inspections are too expensive and they skip them.
  In Germany BMW are considered quite reliable. Expensive to maintain but reliable.

American public transit varies widely, ranging from better than driving to comically horrible.
- European trains varie from "very good" to "a guy wearing a full snail costume outran a train". True story that one, happened in hungary.
  
  Here's the video proof
- Trains specifically are bad on shared lielnes because passenger trains are lowest-priority rail traffic, so you can get delayed for days at a time.

I thought authoritarianism was supposed to at least make the trains run on time. Or maybe the dictator will just edit train schedules with his sharpie if anybody dares to ask.
- The origin of that saying, the trains in Fascist Italy, were basically never on time. But the fascist government put great effort into telling people that, at long last, they were running on time, so it stuck.
  Narratives dig deeper into cultural consciousness than reality itself.
  
  So it'll be the sharpie then.

San Francisco Bay Area resident checking in. I think we have some of the best public transit in the US, which is pretty shit compared to most urban areas in Europe and Asia. Our trains come frequently enough and are generally on-time but the coverage is pretty bad. Public transit in SF can be pretty unpleasant though.

Man, I wish we had a working maglev train over here.
- As a taxpayer you really don't.
  
  Guess what, I am a taxpayer and you can't tell me what I "really don't" want. Do you think i have come here from the stone age to not know that infrastructure and services cost money?
  
  The estimated cost of construction of the maglev line in Japan is a bit less than 10% of the yearly U.S. military budget. The Northeast Corridor is about 10% longer, so let's round that to 11%. And I would be surprised if that infrastructure would not be used at least partially 100 years after construction.
  Keep in mind that the proposal is to buy the technology from the SCMaglev people, which is something IIRC they indicated they were supportive of doing.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Maglev
  It's currently stuck in an indefinitely paused environmental review as far as I can tell, due to no one caring about it I guess

American't build a railway system worth a damn.
- We already did!…And then we tore it down to make our interstate highway system. Any remaining tracks turn into museum exhibits we call “rail trails”.
  
  That's just sad.

"Ah! Here comes my train."
Train speeds by and doesn't stop
"Drat! Just missed it. I am Brian and this is a very old joke."

ah yes when you get to the station and the announcements say "the next train to so-and-so has been cancelled, sorry for the inconvenience" Always a fun day

american trains look better and nobody will ever pry that fact from my cold dead hands.
- You clearly need to look at more train pictures
  I am sure there are magnificent american trains but some american trains are probably ugly too
  My point is: beauty is not bound by borders and there is so much out there
  
  all the euro trains look like futuristic renders of trains, american trains make me feel happy.
  euro trains will simply never compare, also the E bell goes hard, and you will never take that away from me.
- Have you seen the trains in the Netherlands?
  
  can't say i have, but im assuming it's safe to say they look pretty boring.

Big Money Wasted

BMW (Big Metal Willy)

Buying BMW E46 with LPG is always a good idea. Small car (according modern standards) with great driving fun. Somehow you need to get to the train station, especially in rural areas.
- I don't get why you're being downvoted. Rural area's can be a pain to reach. Especially with luggage.
  
  Probably because of the reputation of BMW drivers in the US. And the reputation for cost and frequency of maintenance and repairs in the US. A lot of people have a thing against beamers.
  
  Or small kids
  
  Because people here hate cars and cannot appreciate the value of a good drive

Unless you're living in austria or switzerland (which technically isn't europe but lets roll with it), you will never have trains on time.
- What continent do you suppose switzerland is part of then? Africa?
  
  Well, we're in the mountains above Europe, I guess.
  
  I quite obviously wasn't talking about the country.
- It absolutely technically is Europe. If you meant the EI, then only Switzerland is not part of the European Union, Austria is.
  
  I am well aware. The part in brackets only referred to switzerland.