Public Transportation

While I have to admit that I can basically get everywhere in Germany via public transportation it is not a great experience. (And I don't come from a point of: "I was on holidays and look what they have.")

The Time Commitment

I have two main routes that I have to drive, to work and to uni. On both routes I am faster if I take the car. And I don't mean like a few minutes. On both routes it is about an hour faster.

In both cases I don't start or end how the German saying goes "irgendwo im nirgendwo" (somewhere where nothing is). It is the biggest campus in the capital city of my state and the industry complex of the city where I work, as well as a city with more then 35.000 souls. I life in the middle between work and uni which are more or less connected by a single train track.

uni----- change train ----------- home ----------- change train
                                                         |
                                                         |
                                                         |
                                                        work

In both cases the trip is around 2 hours. If you don't count delays. Counting delays even a five minute bus delay can extend the trip around half an hour. Or a five minute train delay forces you to walk 3 km or wait 30 minutes. And delays are something happening often. (Even following the definition of the Deutsche Bahn that says a train is only delayed after 6 minutes.)

On top of the regulare delays the track often gets repaired meening a trip of 15 minutes with train gets replaced by a crowded bus and a 50 minutes drive.

Cost

While the cost for using regional trains is ok at around 60€ a month including all reginal transportation in Germany. The cost for using everything else is to high compared to taking the car if you are more then one person traveling.

To name a few examples:
From my hometown to the captial of germany it costs 15€ for a day ticket. And it is around a 50km drive with the car. So at 6 L per 100 km and a gas price of 1,80€ per Liter you would pay 1,80€ for one person and 1,80€ for 4 persons.While adding not much more time to the trip if any.

At that point there is no reason to travel by train because you are most of the time as fast or faster by car then by train. You travel cheaper by car and you are more flexible when you travel (especially in remote regions).

The only upside for travel by train is the fact that every person can do what they want and nobody has to drive. And if you are lucky and the train is not crowded you have more space then in the car.

The people traveling with you

While the following does not apply to every person using german public transportation you have a lot of people who dont know how to behave and in my expierince most of the time they are german people and not foreigners.

To list some expamples:
From the people listening to loud music over the ones obviously beeing drunk. You have the idiots who think they are in there living room and put there feet (with or without shoes) on the seats. The homeless people begging or trying to sell some newspapers. The homeless people sleeping there or using it as a toilet (not the actual toilet).

Add to that the overcrowded trains at peak hours where you can be lucky if you can turn around yourself or even can get on the train. If you manage to get on there is a 50% chance that the airconditioning is broken and you can be sure that the weather is at 30°C. And lets not even talk about the toilets on the trains. They are eather broken or just plain dirty to a level nobody can understand.

Conclusion

With the german train you travel slower. Most of the time in more discomfort then by car. And that at a higher price then with car. And if the train is actualy significantly cheaper the time you spend is to high to use the train.

How to solve it

Starting with the problem of people, I have no idea. More police? That brings its own set of problems. More private security? Also multiple problems. I mean there is every year at least one article about private security beating some one up over a missing ticket (or beeing to slow to produce it) and looking not german.

The part about price and the infrastrukture. Easy, make the German Train a state owned company again. Not a state financed company that is private and win oriantated. Then use the many that is payed by the state and tax payers not for c-suite bonuses but for infrastrukture development. That would solve not only the price issue but also the delays. I mean the other countrys (our neighbors like austria and swizerland) also manage a punctual train.

The saying "Fünf Minuten vor der Zeit ist des Deutschen Pünktlichkeit" (Five minutes before the time is the german ontime.) would gain a meaning again in regards to trains. Not six minutes after the time is still ontime.