3 ms·

for the people who wouldn't have inadvertently clicked on the website: it's not real money, it's a campaign to nudge the German provider to care about their inf

for the people who wouldn't have inadvertently clicked on the website: it's not real money, it's a campaign to nudge the German provider to care about their infamous delays

palata 8mo ago
I am pretty sure that they know about the delays. A nice thing about the Deutsche Bahn is that they exist. It's not the case in every country in the world. Sure, they can improve, but it seems possible. The French SNCF has improved a lot in the last decade, for instance.
- gzread 8mo ago
  This is true. DB trains get me from one point to another point, and in my experience, are usually not more than a few hours delayed end-to-end. Remember that if your train is delayed more than a certain amount (30 minutes?) you have the legal right to ignore the routing on your ticket and take any train you want, that leads towards the destination on your ticket. Consider it an adventure. The app can suggest alternative routes in real-time, and you can also ask at the info desk at any station that has one.
  - trueismywork 8mo ago
    Huge number of people use DB for regional transport for commute. They get affected by 10 mins delay since connections are missed
    - mafuy 8mo ago
      The free choice of train does take this into account. You just need a (single!) ticket that, overall, will expectedly suffer from a delay long enough.
  - mafuy 8mo ago
    Nitpick: Unless it changed, you cannot upgrade from regional to interregional vehicles. You can upgrade from IC to ICE, though, and in general, the free choice of vehicle on your route is very useful.
  - rsynnott 8mo ago
    > Remember that if your train is delayed more than a certain amount (30 minutes?) you have the legal right to ignore the routing on your ticket and take any train you want, that leads towards the destination on your ticket There's definitely a comedy docudrama in there somewhere.
- samiv 8mo ago
  You're actually not necessarily right. At this point here in the south of Germany not having DB would be an improvement. Now it exists and you might even try to take it just to be delayed and disappointed. You'll lose your money and they behave in their arrogant manner with impunity. Their customer "service" will definitely tell you how it's your own fault for having had the nerve to actually try to take their train. You might have even carried some dirt to the train for Christs sake! So yeah. Not having it would already be an improvement. You'd just shrug and move on and take an alternative transport. Even horse and carriage would be better.
  - palata 8mo ago
    I understand your frustration, and as I said they should improve (though that probably requires time and money). The SNCF shows that it is possible. > Even horse and carriage would be better. How does the existence of the DB prevent you from travelling with your horse and carriage? Your attitude doesn't seem very constructive, to be honest.
- throw899832 8mo ago
  > A nice thing about the Deutsche Bahn is that they exist. It's not the case in every country in the world. EU does not have a train monopoly. There are other train companies in Germany (FlixTrain, OBB, BRB...). And operators from other countries can also operate there, even French SNCF! DB is blocking slots on rail, that could be used by other operators. And they are not going to change because it is Germany.
  - pantalaimon 8mo ago
    All operators run on DB infrastructure. I recently experienced this with CD from Karlovy Vary to Berlin. It was snowing that day and inside of the Czech Republic I was enjoying the scenic view of the Egerland without any delays. But as soon as we pulled into Germany, the train came to a stop - problems with the rail security infrastructure, nothing the train operator has any influence on. We eventually arrived in Berlin with +1h delay.
    - throw899832 8mo ago
      > All operators run on DB infrastructure. Rails, buildings and train stations are in separate company (DB InfraGO), owned by DB. But DB has no monopoly on trains in Germany, any company can run trains there.
  - palata 8mo ago
    My opinion is that trains are a natural monopoly, they should belong to the government. Fine if some trains go through it (e.g. a TGV between Paris and Berlin).
    - zokier 8mo ago
      I can see rails being natural monopoly, but trains?
      - palata 8mo ago
        Well the trains go with the rails. It makes no sense to compete on the same rails...
tw-20260303-001 8mo ago
DB is a job program. Nobody at DB cares.
- okanat 8mo ago
  Surprising but train drivers and operators also like to go home on time.
  - philipallstar 8mo ago
    The problem people have is the trains don't get them home on time.
- littlecranky67 8mo ago
  For Deutsche Bahn, freelance contracting jobs in their IT famously always require 2+ years experience in train infrastructure companies as a hard requirement. Not joking, this is a common pattern in their job ads. Look at this ad, where they are looking for a Go/React/RabbitMQ expert: https://www.freelancermap.de/projekt/senior-fullstack-entwickler-golang-authentifizierung-bahn-erfahrung-m-w-d https://www.freelancermap.de/projekt/senior-fullstack-entwic...
  - joe_mamba 8mo ago
    Why is that an issue? It's a freelance gig, so you are free to ask for whatever requirements you want. But I remember being interviewed for a cybersecurity job at Siemens's Trains division and the german guys there started grilling me on some obscure cybersecurity standards used by the rail industry, even though that was never in my pentest resume and it's something that can be learned on the job. Germans really hate hiring people who don't 100% fit a job description no matter how impossible it is. No wonder their economy is stagnant, when it's based on HR box ticking instead of aptitudes.
    - gzread 8mo ago
      It's a problem because they don't get good employees and then they don't work well as a company.
fnordian_slip 8mo ago
It's incredible that about 80% of people in this thread seem to be commenting without having looked at the website. In defense of Deutsche Bahn, countries with comparable infrastructure but more reliable transport have put in about twice as much money per capita for the last 30 years at least. Also, it went through a pseudo-privatisation back then, which hasn't helped (just private enough to focus on quarterly profits by letting bridges decay so that they have to be rebuilt or repaired in a few years, just public enough that they have to serve a lot of non-lucrative areas by law). I have to admit I'm rather biased as I work there, but I would say most employees do the best they can with the hand they're dealt. It's just that politicians dealt them a really bad hand. And if Germany were to properly invest in infrastructure from now on, there's so much stuff that has to be repaired that reliability would go down even more in the next decade or so (seriously, this is not something you could fix in a year or two, even with hundreds of billions).
- tomalbrc 8mo ago
  > It's incredible that about 80% of people in this thread seem to be commenting without having looked at the website. It’s almost as if people are tired of having betting shoved down their throats.
- CaptainZapp 8mo ago
  > In defense of Deutsche Bahn, countries with comparable infrastructure but more reliable transport have put in about twice as much money per capita for the last 30 years at least. Why is that "in defense?" When you let your infrastructure rot away since the 90s of the last century for something as complex as a train network by brutally underinvesting. Then you seriously fucked up. There's nothing to defend here.
  - sveme 8mo ago
    I think the defense is that it's the fault of the politicians (CDU/CSU, actually), as they are the ones allocating funds towards train infrastructure. The Deutsche Bahn is state-owned in all but name (which was one of the major fuckups of the last red-green government).
pantalaimon 8mo ago
The problem is the infrastructure. There is already the Generalsanierung under way, it will take a decade and secure the status quo. A lot of delays are due to rail corridors being at capacity, but overboarding bureaucracy makes any improvement there a generational project. Hamburg - Hanover has been discussed for decades with strong opposition from NIMBY groups with no solution in sight. But even if there is no opposition things take ages. E.g. for restoring the 2nd track and electrification between Cottbus and Görlitz the plan is now to finish the project by 2041. This is absolutely insane for 100km of track that were removed as WW2 reparations. And looking at previous projects it's unlikely to finish in time. The new S-Bahn track in Berlin between the main station and Gesundbrunnen was supposed to open in 2017. It got delayed over and over and is now finally scheduled to open by the end of this month - just a delay of 9 years. And that's with an interim station because the real station at Hauptbahnhof wasn't finished in time - and no intermediate stop, that's now also in the planning phase and will mean the line will have to be interrupted again in the near future
- zelphirkalt 8mo ago
  When Generalsanierung is over, they can start again right away. That's just the maintenance/running cost. What is needed is building turnout tracks and other stuff to avoid delays. The delays turn people away from riding trains, or buying tickets. We want to combat climate change, but our train service is so bad, that people prefer to drive 4-person cars, alone, for hours, during which they need to be paying attention to the road at all times, instead of sitting in a train and relaxing, or getting stuff done, that they can do during the ride. There is something fundamentally wrong.
khafra 8mo ago
I wonder how hard it would be to get a court ruling or new law that DB is required to bet on every arrival, and make their bets public in easily-digestible formats like .csv I'd really like to see that happen for the S-trains, as well--DB loves nothing more than continuing to project an on-time arrival on the station board, as the time of departure comes and goes and other trains arrive and depart.
Aissen 8mo ago
Thanks for the context. Since I'm not interested in betting, I had not clicked on the grey on white About link at the bottom, which says: > All the trains, delays, and data on this app are real.But the money isn't – because for that I'd need to move to Malta. Or Cyprus. Or Schleswig-Holstein.
hardlianotion 7mo ago
That is the only disappointing aspect of the site. It's genius.

for the people who wouldn't have inadvertently clicked on the website: it's not real money, it's a campaign to nudge the German provider to care about their infamous delays

palata 8mo ago

I am pretty sure that they know about the delays. A nice thing about the Deutsche Bahn is that they exist. It's not the case in every country in the world. Sure, they can improve, but it seems possible. The French SNCF has improved a lot in the last decade, for instance.

gzread 8mo ago
This is true. DB trains get me from one point to another point, and in my experience, are usually not more than a few hours delayed end-to-end. Remember that if your train is delayed more than a certain amount (30 minutes?) you have the legal right to ignore the routing on your ticket and take any train you want, that leads towards the destination on your ticket. Consider it an adventure. The app can suggest alternative routes in real-time, and you can also ask at the info desk at any station that has one.
- trueismywork 8mo ago
  Huge number of people use DB for regional transport for commute. They get affected by 10 mins delay since connections are missed
  - mafuy 8mo ago
    The free choice of train does take this into account. You just need a (single!) ticket that, overall, will expectedly suffer from a delay long enough.
- mafuy 8mo ago
  Nitpick: Unless it changed, you cannot upgrade from regional to interregional vehicles. You can upgrade from IC to ICE, though, and in general, the free choice of vehicle on your route is very useful.
- rsynnott 8mo ago
  > Remember that if your train is delayed more than a certain amount (30 minutes?) you have the legal right to ignore the routing on your ticket and take any train you want, that leads towards the destination on your ticket There's definitely a comedy docudrama in there somewhere.
samiv 8mo ago
You're actually not necessarily right. At this point here in the south of Germany not having DB would be an improvement. Now it exists and you might even try to take it just to be delayed and disappointed. You'll lose your money and they behave in their arrogant manner with impunity. Their customer "service" will definitely tell you how it's your own fault for having had the nerve to actually try to take their train. You might have even carried some dirt to the train for Christs sake! So yeah. Not having it would already be an improvement. You'd just shrug and move on and take an alternative transport. Even horse and carriage would be better.
- palata 8mo ago
  I understand your frustration, and as I said they should improve (though that probably requires time and money). The SNCF shows that it is possible. > Even horse and carriage would be better. How does the existence of the DB prevent you from travelling with your horse and carriage? Your attitude doesn't seem very constructive, to be honest.
throw899832 8mo ago
> A nice thing about the Deutsche Bahn is that they exist. It's not the case in every country in the world. EU does not have a train monopoly. There are other train companies in Germany (FlixTrain, OBB, BRB...). And operators from other countries can also operate there, even French SNCF! DB is blocking slots on rail, that could be used by other operators. And they are not going to change because it is Germany.
- pantalaimon 8mo ago
  All operators run on DB infrastructure. I recently experienced this with CD from Karlovy Vary to Berlin. It was snowing that day and inside of the Czech Republic I was enjoying the scenic view of the Egerland without any delays. But as soon as we pulled into Germany, the train came to a stop - problems with the rail security infrastructure, nothing the train operator has any influence on. We eventually arrived in Berlin with +1h delay.
  - throw899832 8mo ago
    > All operators run on DB infrastructure. Rails, buildings and train stations are in separate company (DB InfraGO), owned by DB. But DB has no monopoly on trains in Germany, any company can run trains there.
- palata 8mo ago
  My opinion is that trains are a natural monopoly, they should belong to the government. Fine if some trains go through it (e.g. a TGV between Paris and Berlin).
  - zokier 8mo ago
    I can see rails being natural monopoly, but trains?
    - palata 8mo ago
      Well the trains go with the rails. It makes no sense to compete on the same rails...

tw-20260303-001 8mo ago

DB is a job program. Nobody at DB cares.

okanat 8mo ago
Surprising but train drivers and operators also like to go home on time.
- philipallstar 8mo ago
  The problem people have is the trains don't get them home on time.
littlecranky67 8mo ago
For Deutsche Bahn, freelance contracting jobs in their IT famously always require 2+ years experience in train infrastructure companies as a hard requirement. Not joking, this is a common pattern in their job ads. Look at this ad, where they are looking for a Go/React/RabbitMQ expert: https://www.freelancermap.de/projekt/senior-fullstack-entwickler-golang-authentifizierung-bahn-erfahrung-m-w-d https://www.freelancermap.de/projekt/senior-fullstack-entwic...
- joe_mamba 8mo ago
  Why is that an issue? It's a freelance gig, so you are free to ask for whatever requirements you want. But I remember being interviewed for a cybersecurity job at Siemens's Trains division and the german guys there started grilling me on some obscure cybersecurity standards used by the rail industry, even though that was never in my pentest resume and it's something that can be learned on the job. Germans really hate hiring people who don't 100% fit a job description no matter how impossible it is. No wonder their economy is stagnant, when it's based on HR box ticking instead of aptitudes.
  - gzread 8mo ago
    It's a problem because they don't get good employees and then they don't work well as a company.

fnordian_slip 8mo ago

It's incredible that about 80% of people in this thread seem to be commenting without having looked at the website. In defense of Deutsche Bahn, countries with comparable infrastructure but more reliable transport have put in about twice as much money per capita for the last 30 years at least. Also, it went through a pseudo-privatisation back then, which hasn't helped (just private enough to focus on quarterly profits by letting bridges decay so that they have to be rebuilt or repaired in a few years, just public enough that they have to serve a lot of non-lucrative areas by law). I have to admit I'm rather biased as I work there, but I would say most employees do the best they can with the hand they're dealt. It's just that politicians dealt them a really bad hand. And if Germany were to properly invest in infrastructure from now on, there's so much stuff that has to be repaired that reliability would go down even more in the next decade or so (seriously, this is not something you could fix in a year or two, even with hundreds of billions).

tomalbrc 8mo ago
> It's incredible that about 80% of people in this thread seem to be commenting without having looked at the website. It’s almost as if people are tired of having betting shoved down their throats.
CaptainZapp 8mo ago
> In defense of Deutsche Bahn, countries with comparable infrastructure but more reliable transport have put in about twice as much money per capita for the last 30 years at least. Why is that "in defense?" When you let your infrastructure rot away since the 90s of the last century for something as complex as a train network by brutally underinvesting. Then you seriously fucked up. There's nothing to defend here.
- sveme 8mo ago
  I think the defense is that it's the fault of the politicians (CDU/CSU, actually), as they are the ones allocating funds towards train infrastructure. The Deutsche Bahn is state-owned in all but name (which was one of the major fuckups of the last red-green government).

pantalaimon 8mo ago

The problem is the infrastructure. There is already the Generalsanierung under way, it will take a decade and secure the status quo. A lot of delays are due to rail corridors being at capacity, but overboarding bureaucracy makes any improvement there a generational project. Hamburg - Hanover has been discussed for decades with strong opposition from NIMBY groups with no solution in sight. But even if there is no opposition things take ages. E.g. for restoring the 2nd track and electrification between Cottbus and Görlitz the plan is now to finish the project by 2041. This is absolutely insane for 100km of track that were removed as WW2 reparations. And looking at previous projects it's unlikely to finish in time. The new S-Bahn track in Berlin between the main station and Gesundbrunnen was supposed to open in 2017. It got delayed over and over and is now finally scheduled to open by the end of this month - just a delay of 9 years. And that's with an interim station because the real station at Hauptbahnhof wasn't finished in time - and no intermediate stop, that's now also in the planning phase and will mean the line will have to be interrupted again in the near future

zelphirkalt 8mo ago
When Generalsanierung is over, they can start again right away. That's just the maintenance/running cost. What is needed is building turnout tracks and other stuff to avoid delays. The delays turn people away from riding trains, or buying tickets. We want to combat climate change, but our train service is so bad, that people prefer to drive 4-person cars, alone, for hours, during which they need to be paying attention to the road at all times, instead of sitting in a train and relaxing, or getting stuff done, that they can do during the ride. There is something fundamentally wrong.

khafra 8mo ago

I wonder how hard it would be to get a court ruling or new law that DB is required to bet on every arrival, and make their bets public in easily-digestible formats like .csv I'd really like to see that happen for the S-trains, as well--DB loves nothing more than continuing to project an on-time arrival on the station board, as the time of departure comes and goes and other trains arrive and depart.

Aissen 8mo ago

Thanks for the context. Since I'm not interested in betting, I had not clicked on the grey on white About link at the bottom, which says: > All the trains, delays, and data on this app are real.But the money isn't – because for that I'd need to move to Malta. Or Cyprus. Or Schleswig-Holstein.

hardlianotion 7mo ago

That is the only disappointing aspect of the site. It's genius.