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As a foreigner living in Germany for the best part of a decade, I tend to agree with the article that the situation is not dire but, at the same time, it does n

As a foreigner living in Germany for the best part of a decade, I tend to agree with the article that the situation is not dire but, at the same time, it does need work. The train situation is a good starting point: an industry that used to be great and has been in slow decline for years without anyone doing anything other than shrugging and saying "well, that's how it is" or "yeah, but we are still better than X". I cannot speak for major macroeconomic trends but, as an individual, I can say that getting a doctor's appointment, an apartment, internet (not just the speed, but also getting the actual connection), a mandatory appointment at the "Bürgeramt" (and don't get me started on my citizenship application!) and (of course) traveling by train have been getting slightly more frustrating every year. I know some of it is part of wider, world-wide tendencies (thanks, AirBnB), but it's also fair to recognize that the German government is getting asleep at the wheel. I actually appreciate that the government tends to err on the side of caution, but I also have to recognize that there's a line between "caution" and "paralyzed". I don't need to pay my taxes with Venmo, but I do need an apartment that I can actually afford to rent.

Semaphor 3y ago
The train situation is also a great example of how to get some of the worst parts of private and public. It was privatized, but is 100% owned by the government … And FWIW, getting an appointment (both doctors and Bürgeramt) has been getting better and better every year here. Bürgeramt is now fully online, you can even pay by credit card, I’ve had an online diagnosis with a skin doctor that my health insurance paid for via OAuth, I can now have other appointments via websites. This was Partially driven by COVID, partially because it’s simply advancing.
wink 3y ago
The train discussion is often interesting with people who have lived somewhere where trains/public transport is spotty at best or nonexisting. Sure, it's nice to be able to take a train, but if my experience is that I'm never on time and also not sure if it will start or arrive at all, what good does it do? I don't want to miss my flight in another city, so am I gonna take the train? Or the one before that? Oh, I was taking the first one of the day, that's bad luck.
- iiiieu 3y ago
  It's also a great example because the public perception is heavily biased. If you look at the statistics, the vast majority of trains come on time. And have working AC. And are actually quite pleasant to travel with. It's fantastic how much train connectivity exists in Germany. But a few cases of delayed or canceled trains, pushed in the media since it's easy to beat that horse, thankfully picked up by opposition-party-of-the-day (often those that were in government just a few years prior), and everybody talks as if no train is ever on time. And you can expect that car industry lobbies like that development too, without starting conspiracy theories here. (Tbh, if I was PR responsible for a car company, that's where I'd direct some funds..)
  - tga 3y ago
    > the vast majority of trains come on time In 2022, only 65,2% of German trains were on time. In some regions, that ratio was under 50%. https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/wirtschaft/puenktlichkeit-bahn-2022-100.html https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/wirtschaft/puenktlichkeit-bah...
    - iiiieu 3y ago
      Which was acknowledged and dramatically increased since then. https://www.deutschebahn.com/de/konzern/konzernprofil/zahlen_fakten/puenktlichkeitswerte-6878476 https://www.deutschebahn.com/de/konzern/konzernprofil/zahlen... Within 5 minutes was at over 90% in july 2023 and within 15 minutes was around 98% in july, and it was even higher in the beginning of the year. But you don't get that as front-page news.
      - probably_wrong 3y ago
        You are being misled by misleading data. The "Total passenger traffic" (Personenverkeher) values (which are the ones you quote) are calculated in some opaque way designed to hide the fact that "Long distance traffic" (Fernverkeher) are really bad. More importantly, every single indicator in that page is going down, not up, and they are all worse now than they were in January 2022 [1]. [1] http://web.archive.org/web/20221209074309/https://www.deutschebahn.com/de/konzern/konzernprofil/zahlen_fakten/puenktlichkeitswerte-6878476 http://web.archive.org/web/20221209074309/https://www.deutsc...

Semaphor 3y ago

The train situation is also a great example of how to get some of the worst parts of private and public. It was privatized, but is 100% owned by the government … And FWIW, getting an appointment (both doctors and Bürgeramt) has been getting better and better every year here. Bürgeramt is now fully online, you can even pay by credit card, I’ve had an online diagnosis with a skin doctor that my health insurance paid for via OAuth, I can now have other appointments via websites. This was Partially driven by COVID, partially because it’s simply advancing.

wink 3y ago

The train discussion is often interesting with people who have lived somewhere where trains/public transport is spotty at best or nonexisting. Sure, it's nice to be able to take a train, but if my experience is that I'm never on time and also not sure if it will start or arrive at all, what good does it do? I don't want to miss my flight in another city, so am I gonna take the train? Or the one before that? Oh, I was taking the first one of the day, that's bad luck.

iiiieu 3y ago
It's also a great example because the public perception is heavily biased. If you look at the statistics, the vast majority of trains come on time. And have working AC. And are actually quite pleasant to travel with. It's fantastic how much train connectivity exists in Germany. But a few cases of delayed or canceled trains, pushed in the media since it's easy to beat that horse, thankfully picked up by opposition-party-of-the-day (often those that were in government just a few years prior), and everybody talks as if no train is ever on time. And you can expect that car industry lobbies like that development too, without starting conspiracy theories here. (Tbh, if I was PR responsible for a car company, that's where I'd direct some funds..)
- tga 3y ago
  > the vast majority of trains come on time In 2022, only 65,2% of German trains were on time. In some regions, that ratio was under 50%. https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/wirtschaft/puenktlichkeit-bahn-2022-100.html https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/wirtschaft/puenktlichkeit-bah...
  - iiiieu 3y ago
    Which was acknowledged and dramatically increased since then. https://www.deutschebahn.com/de/konzern/konzernprofil/zahlen_fakten/puenktlichkeitswerte-6878476 https://www.deutschebahn.com/de/konzern/konzernprofil/zahlen... Within 5 minutes was at over 90% in july 2023 and within 15 minutes was around 98% in july, and it was even higher in the beginning of the year. But you don't get that as front-page news.
    - probably_wrong 3y ago
      You are being misled by misleading data. The "Total passenger traffic" (Personenverkeher) values (which are the ones you quote) are calculated in some opaque way designed to hide the fact that "Long distance traffic" (Fernverkeher) are really bad. More importantly, every single indicator in that page is going down, not up, and they are all worse now than they were in January 2022 [1]. [1] http://web.archive.org/web/20221209074309/https://www.deutschebahn.com/de/konzern/konzernprofil/zahlen_fakten/puenktlichkeitswerte-6878476 http://web.archive.org/web/20221209074309/https://www.deutsc...