Basically, if you were a traveler on the German bahn system this summer...on the ICE trains...where the temperatures climbed to 150-odd degrees in some cases onboard the trains....then you stand to get a payment if you complained.
From this weekend's news...the Bahn says they will pay out 2.7 million Euro to the 23,000 folks who complained and suffered.
Basically...it comes out to around 115 Euro each ($140 roughly).
You have to imagine this scene...you climb aboard on the train in the midst of July, and you expect some chill in the interior. The door closes, and then you realize there's no chill. Within three minutes, your temperature in the cabin is around 120 degrees. Then you start to sweat.
You gaze at your watch...there's 18 minutes before the train stops next and you could get off. You have a bottle of water with you and you take three big gulps. You pause to think over how miserable you feel.
Five minutes go by, and the temperature has climbed another ten degrees. You would like to take off your shirt but that would be undignified. As you start to arrive at the next station...you are thinking whether you can make the remaining 32 minutes on the train until your final destination, or you should just get off to regain your body temperature. As a true German, you accept the heat and keep seated. Another 32 minutes will pass in this 130-odd degree cabin before you reach your final destination.
For this suffering....you get a lousy 115 Euro? That's it? AMTRAK would have paid over $5k per passenger and then had lawsuits to ask for $100k. And a German stands to accept the 115 Euro, then put it into his savings account to make 1.5 percent interest...that's the sad part about this. No matter how you twist it...a German knows how to suffer and just accept it.
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