I noticed this story from the weekend.....the Munich Philharmonic wanted to send a clear message that they support climate-friendly travel. Instead of using a plane, or bus.....they wanted to use the climate-friendly Bahn (railway) system.
They were supposed to play in Berlin this weekend.
Normally, with the high-speed ICE trains.....you can make the trip in about four hours. I'm guessing here, but the 'crew' probably had two hours minimum built into the schedule, and some bus to haul them from the station over to the hall in Berlin.
Well.....various things failed, and there were an extra four hours of delay. The live performance still continued, but at a fairly late time.
This is the key problem in selling the Bahn as climate-friendly.....as long as you don't care about the time business.....then it's a positive deal in climate-chatter. The minute you suggest that a 90-minute trip should only take 90 to 120 minutes (with some slight delay).....you start to mandate delays are a problem.
Locally, around the Wiesbaden-Frankfurt-Mainz area.....I probably ride the Bahn thirty times a year.....with most of the scheduled trips taking place and no problem with delays.
Four years ago, I agree to get my wife down to the Audi plant to pick up her new car. This meant a railway trip. I had three 'legs' to this trip (Wiesbaden to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Nuremberg, Nuremberg to Ingolstadt). It's safe to say the first train was halted for 15 minutes, and we failed to make the scheduled connection. Second train.....various minor delays.....so we failed to make the new connection at Nuremberg onto Ingolstadt. In the end, we were about 2 hours later than planned.
About a decade ago, I had something in Frankfurt scheduled. About halfway on this short 30-minute railway trip....it stopped. Driver got on....very 'sorry', and just said we'd be delayed. Ten minutes later....another such message. Another ten minutes....another such message. We sat there for about 35 minutes....not moving. Lot of grumbling going on....train was fairly crowded....this was around 8 AM. Finally, we took off.
This hype about selling you shameless travel.....that it's all climate-friendly? I can buy this to a marginal degree. But if you have problems like this on a daily basis.....the public sentiment goes a critical level. Most people aren't agreeable to sit on a non-moving train for 30 to 60 minutes. They also don't want to arrive at some marginal station, to find their connection has left already, and there's an hour before the next possible train runs.
1 comment:
Unfortunately once you privatise anything it turns to shit. Corporate rent seekers come in and take the profits and cut the quality of service.
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