Last night, via 'Hart Aber Fair' (Hard But Fair public forum show on ARD public TV, 9:00 PM)....the topic was the railway service. Title of the show? 'Too late, too bad, too expensive'.
I probably watched about 20 minutes of the show. Frankly, nothing really surprised me, and the topic has been on my mind for a decade now.
Since I retired (2013)....up until Covid....I was making two or three trips each month to historical sites every month. I had a chance to see every positive and negative of the German rail system.
Sometimes, the toilets work....sometimes they don't.
Sometimes the AC unit works.....sometimes it doesn't.
Sometimes, you can make a 3-hour trip with no late episodes. Sometimes a 3-hour trip turns into six hours, and you give up on whatever you were going to see or visit.
The problem is.....you just don't know how things might turn out. You might make eight trips with no issues, and suddenly find yourself 'dumped' at some station because of maintenance issues, and a two-hour wait for the next train.
After a while, you learn that certain large stations (Frankfurt, Hamburg, or Berlin) are not places to hang around. You don't feel that safe.
The problem with this public forum show? You simply lay out the issues, and the fact that they can't be resolved.
On the other side of this? It's still an economical way of getting from X to Y. You can still believe that in 90-percent of cases.....for a 3-hour trip, it'll get you there within 30 minutes of the original destination time advertised.
Do I still use the Bahn? Yeah....but with reservations. The 49-Euro ticket made it more crowded......the continuing failures of the AC unit for the fast trains ought to be fixed....and one has to accept problems as part of the 'total' package.
Did I feel this way in 1978/1979.....when I first arrived in Germany? I had this really positive feel for the railway system in those days. No AC unit.....you had windows open and hot dusty air flowing into the cabin. You sipped a cool beer while riding to your destination, and if you were 45 minutes late.....no big deal. Yeah, the sandpaper-like toilet paper was an issue, and clean-up crews probably only cleaned cabins once a week in those days.
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