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As a European, this article is outright bizarre, and makes me appreciate what we have much more. I will complain less about trains from now on.
by jwr 2y ago
As a European, this article is outright bizarre, and makes me appreciate what we have much more. I will complain less about trains from now on.
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago> makes me appreciate what we have much more. I will complain less about trains from now on European trains are lovely. But coming from New York, where our regional rail runs with Swiss on-timeness, the tolerance for delays in the U.K. and Germany is wild.
- gmueckl 2y agoI think most Germans see the train delays with silent resignation. The delays have been a constant for a long time now despite everlasting promises of improvements.
- stackghost 2y agoTrenitalia has entered the chat. Deutsche Bahn is orders of magnitude better. One time my wife and I were taking the train from Venice to Munich and they (Trenitalia) simply forgot half the cars somewhere.
- immibis 2y agoFWIW Deutsche Bahn is just one of many train operators in Germany. On my recent trip back from Köln to Berlin, I experienced a whole lot of delays in the Rhine-Ruhr region (on trains not operated by DB) and no meaningful delay on the enno, Abellio or DB Regio segments from there on.
- stackghost 2y ago>FWIW Deutsche Bahn is just one of many train operators in Germany I know but they're the only German operator I have significant experience with.
- immibis 2y agoIf you had a journey that wasn't entirely by ICE there's a good chance one leg wasn't DB. It's seamless - you still booked one continuous ticket through DB's website. This is opposed to the operators like FlixTrain which run entirely separate systems and can't be booked on the same ticket.
- grvbck 2y agoSame! Glad to see it wasn't just me. Trains here have been electric since 1920… EMU units have been a staple since 1990, though some routes still have locomotives of course. There is no lack of stupidity, however, at the system level. The state owns the rails and procures service from private actors who then manage the traffic more or less successfully. The booking systems are chaotic, the prices are high. It is sometimes cheaper to fly domestically, even though the door-to-door time is longer. Imagine if the U.S. could get their rail network together... Like really invest in proper, normal, modern trains. Not the tech bro vacuum tube nonsense.
- inferiorhuman 2y agoWhere's here? The UK and most of Europe, for instance, still has plenty of diesel service.
- genewitch 2y agoAre they diesel electric? I think that's what parent meant. Diesel engine driving electric motors (for torque and efficiency)
- inferiorhuman 2y agoI think that's what parent meant. Doubtful. Electric in EMU or in the context of Caltrain electrifying means pure electric traction power. In the United Kingdom I think they make some differentiation between a DMU (diesel-hydraulic, like an automobile with an automatic transmission) and DEMU (diesel-electric like a locomotive). There were diesel-hydraulic locomotives along the west mainline for a bit, but in general diesel-hydraulic locomotives were fairly uncommon. If it's being called electric it's not going to have a diesel engine of any sort.
- hashmush 2y agoSounds like Sweden, except the chaotic booking system. I don't think I've ever seen a diesel train, ever. In fact, for a long time I was (blissfully) unaware of their existence and the fact that they do exist still surprises me...
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- porphyra 2y agoFunnily enough the Caltrain Modernization Program has an amazingly detailed Wikipedia article --- even before the trains entered service, the article was vastly more detailed than articles about actually existing and more advanced train systems with greater ridership. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caltrain_Modernization_Program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caltrain_Modernization_Program