German travel chaos blamed on lack of investment in railways
German travel chaos blamed on lack of investment in railways
Travellers advised to cancel journeys as heavy snow brings much of country’s rail network to a halt
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The saying "Die Deutsche Bahn hat 4 Feinde - Frühling, Sommer, Herbst und Winter" (transl: "The German railway has 4 enemies - spring, summer, autumn and winter") is fitting once again. Before the infrastructure was cut back, the motto was: "Alle reden vom Wetter - wir nicht" ("everyone is talking about the weather - we're not"): https://yewtu.be/watch?v=wvJAAzfK3Rk
It's because after privatization the DB (Deutsche Bahn) figured out that neglecting their infrastructure until it causes a crisis, causing the government to step in and pay for repairs is much cheaper (for them) than maintaining it properly in the first place.
Seriously, fuck the DB.Fuck the idiots that had the idea that the DB should be run like a private profitoriented company. Nurture, embrace, rebuild and improve the DB.
But the first few people that could say that their quaterly numbers were so much better argued that their quaterly numbers were so much better! How could you argue with capitalism?
I read somewhere that they prioritised cargo trains over passenger trains anyway when it comes to delays and service reliability.
Besides, what else? There is only one railway network and you gotta use it anyway no matter how trashy it gets.
They don't even need to compete for passengers.
Are you seriously arguing that infrastructure shouldn't be privatised while usage of said infrastructure could very well be?
Butterfly meme: is this socialism?
It's not just the railway. Munich Airport canceled all flights because of an ice storm. Roads throughout Bavaria are blocked due to fallen trees as well as snow/ice that hasn't been removed yet.
Bavaria's infrastructure as a whole clearly isnt prepared to deal with such weather events.
That's why their minister is hoping for climate change with higher temperatures :)
Unfortunately these events might even be connected to climate change. Higher temperatures allow for more humidity in the air leading to increased rain an snow fall. See also heavy rainfalls in Africa.
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Last I checked there were also some important connections that had been damaged by trucks this year, e.g. the one in Frankfurt between the south and the main station.
Well, since misery loves company, i feel a bit better about the Netherlands now. Our railways have sucked for ages. But its good to see its not just ours :)
I'm sorry, what? It may feel like they suck when there is a 10 minute delay on the train you wanted to take, but the Dutch railway system is one of the most reliable in Europe.
There is this one YT Series "Jet Lag" where three guys play catch in Europe using Trains. It's a lot of planning, checking what the travel options of the hunted one are, which trains he might take etc. It's a game of strategy, until they arrive in Germany at which point it litteraly becomes a clusterfuck of random trains.
We're not talking ten minute delays 😂 if only it was that good!
No. Ever since COVID came around things have gone down hill. And as a Dutch man who travels by train a lot, i can say in al honesty, reliable is not what i would call it.
And as i am typing this im in a train thats filled from top to bottom because the train before this one failed. So we're having twice as many people in the train. And oh, there's a whole bunch of trains that can't move because power failures someone down the line.
10 minutes you say.. 😂😂😂 well at least you made me smile :)
Bruh, your railways are like a million times better than the Deutsche Bahn! I always enjoy taking the OV whenever I'm in that beautiful country of your's.
Well, dont tell my boss. Our railway's shitshow means the company pays for my drivers license 😂
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Decades of underinvestment in the German railways have been blamed for chaos in parts of the country after heavy snow led to much of the network grinding to a halt.
Snowfall of up to half a metre in Bavaria, southern Germany, led to numerous breakdowns and prompted the cancellation of scores of trains, with signalling systems and electronic information boards frequently malfunctioning.
The head of the Railway and Transport Union, Martin Burkert, said DB was ill-equipped to deal with the weather as a result of years of underinvestment.
“The DB slogan ‘we travel in all weathers’ has lost its credibility,” he told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper, calling large parts of Germany’s rail infrastructure “creaking and dilapidated”.
The criticisms came on the back of figures published at the weekend, which showed that last month DB’s long-distance services fell to their least punctual level in eight years.
Partly to blame are extensive construction works being carried out across the network, a response to years of neglect of bridges, tracks and general infrastructure.
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