No, that the train being only seconds late is a Japanese thing. In Europe we have anything between “No Train Today” to “Train passed through the station without stopping”
I lived somewhere with good busses. When the bus drove by without stopping (after dark, an hour before service was supposed to end) I felt like choosing violence
I was early to the train station with my coworker. We met a lot of people still waiting for the train before ours on the same platform. Suddenly, that other train was dropped from the display and replaced by our train. Seconds later, their train simply rushed through on a different track.
I’ve heard of those trains. Or rather I saw one in a movie about a train that had to “speed” around a city keeping its “speed” over 50 and if its “speed” dropped, it would explode. I think it was called… “The Train That Couldn’t Slow Down.”
No, the train just skipped a station, and our train, going in the same direction, was coming in almost on time a few minutes later.
It was a bit crowded, though, and of course they lost their seat reservations.
Or Swiss, but certainly nowhere else in Europe.
It really depends on the part of the US. Amtrak is very reliable in the north east. Lot of the commuter train services are quite good as well. Subways and metros are pretty good in most of the north east as well.
Amtrak is much more limited in its coverage on the west coast, but still ok from what I’ve heard. BART in the SF area has good ridership although it needs some more investment, LA is doing some big expansions right now as well.
Chicago has a good but a bit old transit system as well. The Amtrak from NYC/DC to Chicago is a long but pleasant ride, about 18 hours; but this is to be expected given that the distance is 1146 Km (714 miles) which is about the same as Brussels to Warsaw, and most of the routes for that appear to be about 18 hours as well.
I’ve heard some rumblings about projects in the Pacific Northwest, but it’s not really something to write home about as it stands. Needs more investment and not to have the projects price gouged by contractors.
Some mid sized cities and towns all over the country will have decent bus services, some even a light rail or two, but it’s a coin toss.
The South West, Mountain west, South East and Midwest (outside of Chicago and the twin citiest) absolutely atrocious, like, you are basically screwed if you don’t own a car. Like there are a few example of decent local transit systems in particularly big cities but their ridership and coverage are pathetic given the size of the cities and there aren’t any plans for serious expansions on the scale that needs to be happening. Regional rail is just… hope you like a 2 week train ride where you’re spending half the time waiting for 40 mile long trains full of gravel to pass.
Slovakians: “Our train was less than 2 hours late AND didn’t crash, awesome!”
Edit: Some context
Trains are frequently late.
As for crashes, some timeline and pictures:2025-10-13 - Jablonov nad Turňou
2025-11-09 - Pezinok
2025-12-09 - between Liptovský Mikuláš and Liptovský Hrádok
Just a few meters from crash
2026-06-05 Krpeľany
South American transit user: “there’s a train?”
It’s for tourists only and you can’t ride even if you could afford it
I can guess which seats are soaked with pee, too!
And I didn’t see anyone pissing or masturbating!
Well then what was the point of even using the train?
Where else will I get my free needles?
Japan…
In my experience the MARC is pretty reliable. And mostly empty.
Not that I disagree in general, but funny to me to choose that one specifically.
Orphan crushing machine ass post
