• JargonWagon@lemmy.world
    15·
    21 days ago

    American here - I recently started taking the train to go to work! Previously I couldn’t due to no trains scheduled for the return home trip after my shift was over, but after getting a new schedule, I got on board the train! So far in the past two months, I’ve already had a few instances of the train being delayed or missing it entirely. One day, the train was delayed by 30 minutes and stated they would be held for an unknown amount of time to put out a fire on the tracks at a station ahead - drove into work that day. Another day, the train was delayed by 5 minutes. Outside of that, I was late to the train by like 5 minutes and it left without me (still adjusting to early morning schedule).

    So far, I like taking the train much more than driving the car.

  • CrazyLikeGollum@lemmy.worldEnglish
    12·
    20 days ago

    Meanwhile in Japan: Train is 30 seconds late “here’s a letter for your employer explaining why you were only 29 minutes and 30 seconds early for your 8 hour shift that will inevitably have an additional 8 hours of unpaid overtime tacked on to it.”

    • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
      3·
      22 days ago

      Trains specifically are bad on shared lielnes because passenger trains are lowest-priority rail traffic, so you can get delayed for days at a time.

    • gens@programming.dev
      3·
      22 days ago

      European trains varie from “very good” to “a guy wearing a full snail costume outran a train”. True story that one, happened in hungary.

  • Vahenir@lemmy.world
    8·
    21 days ago

    You clearly havent heard of swedish trains.

    The railroad here is a bad joke at this point, mainly due to shutting down the organization that was responsible for maintainence and shoving it into another agency that has no clue. As a bonus the new agency doesn’t even do the repair work themselves but hires contractors at the lowest bidder. So stuff breaks constantly, which causes delays.

    At this point just getting the rail network to “normal” standards would cost billions. Let alone expanding it to cope with current traffic levels.

    • enumerator4829@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      21 days ago

      To be fair, most higher density areas in Sweden have fairly good infrastructure for public transit. The national railways are a disgrace, but that mostly affects long distance travel. Mostly. Short to medium distance commute works fairly well everywhere I’ve tried it.

  • randombullet@programming.dev
    7·
    21 days ago

    Deutsch Bahn would like a word.

    I often take my car because it’s so damn unreliable.

    Not once, not twice, but three times I’ve sat on a train for 2+ hours without moving within the past 2 years.

  • JackRider@lemmy.world
    5·
    21 days ago

    It’s funny, but after traveling around Europe, I’ve learned one important lesson: avoid booking flights with short layovers! If the transfer time is less than 3-4 hours, you’re playing a risky game. Delays happen more often than you’d think, and in some cases, flights get pushed to the next day due to ‘bad weather’ (or other mysterious reasons). Better to have a buffer than to get stuck at the airport overnight!

    • Olhonestjim@lemmy.world
      1·
      20 days ago

      Really? As an American who had never ridden a train before, I was impressed by Germany’s public transit. I remember wishing we had such systems everywhere over here.

      Honestly though, I’d prefer high speed mag-lev systems that run like clockwork.

    • Victor@lemmy.world
      2·
      21 days ago

      Is that the one known for its reliability and stuff? Like, seconds-granularity reliability?

      • bitMasque@lemmy.world
        2·
        20 days ago

        That very same one. It is also very fast and covers vast distances, yet the ride is smooth and comfortable.

        • Victor@lemmy.world
          2·
          20 days ago

          Awesome, would love to try it sometime in my life. I live very far away unfortunately.

          • bitMasque@lemmy.world
            1·
            20 days ago

            Same here; I live across the world. Usually, I mean. As a visitor in Japan however, I can confirm that their public transit system is every bit as convenient and efficient as we’ve been lead to believe internationally. Believe the hype.

            • Victor@lemmy.world
              2·
              19 days ago

              🥹 Really is one of my bucket list items, to travel to the far east one day. Preferably Japan. Seems very beautiful.

              • bitMasque@lemmy.world
                2·
                19 days ago

                I sincerely wish you good luck and hope you can make the trip someday! Visiting Japan has been a life long dream for my wife and I, and we are having an amazing time here. I only wish we could stay.

  • ramenshaman@lemmy.world
    4·
    22 days ago

    San Francisco Bay Area resident checking in. I think we have some of the best public transit in the US, which is pretty shit compared to most urban areas in Europe and Asia. Our trains come frequently enough and are generally on-time but the coverage is pretty bad. Public transit in SF can be pretty unpleasant though.