Across Germany today....there are roughly 5,600 railway stations. It's an interesting statistic. Out of that....almost 90-percent of them are today 'unmanned'.
'Unmanned' means that there is a ticket-machine or two....some schedule-posters, and that's it. Within two miles of my house, there are two stations. One has been 'unmanned' for forty-odd years....maybe even going back to the 1920s. The other was a significant little station all the way up to the 1970s. They had a ticket office....a station manager.....and even a pub on the end of the building. In the 1980s, ticket-machines began to arrive and by the early 1990s.....the station manger job went away. Today, it's just a couple of platforms, two ticket-machines, and schedule-posters.
To get actual people or Bahn employees today? You have to be a significant station....with a minimum of hundred trains per day passing through. A town with just 10,000 residents? It probably qualify for actual railway employees.
I noticed today....via the early morning news....the Linke Party has been on the aggressive end, and suggesting that more of the stations need actual real people there. They want to force the Bahn into putting in more people. Added cost? More than likely.
Necessary? Well....this brings up an interesting image. On my Samsung phone, I have an app with the full schedule of local trains. I also have an app for researching railway schedules with cost for trips....for all of Germany. Buying a ticket with my discount (50-percent off) card? Yep, with another app, I can buy the ticket and just walk up to the station....with the App telling me the platform and time. Issues? The app will tell me if the train is going to be late, or cancelled.
Do we really need actual people at the stations?
Part of this story, as the Linke Party tells it.....is that there needs to be more security people around stations. True or not? Here's the funny thing. Most of these 90-percent stations without Bahn employees....are in rural locations where there just isn't any real trouble (even at 10 PM). The trouble-spots? Well....Frankfurt, Koln, Hamburg, Duisburg, etc. Yeah, the stations with Bahn folks, cameras, German police walking the perimeter, and lots of lighting.
Maybe it the political folks had spoken to urbanization and no-go spots.....this chatter would be interesting, and productive. But they are suggesting to go and hire up several thousand folks.....to patrol places where there's no trouble. A total waste of funding and effort.
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