<story><title>Germany&apos;s terrible trains are no joke for a nation built on efficiency</title><url>https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/oct/14/its-the-same-daily-misery-germanys-terrible-trains-are-no-joke-for-a-nation-built-on-efficiency</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>saiya-jin</author><text>It boggles my mind how such an efficiency powerhouse can be that bad.&lt;p&gt;I live in Switzerland and although I am not involved in trains, what Swiss do aint magic, just simple following the rules, and rules they do. Maybe even less efficient than Germans at the end.&lt;p&gt;I really dont see any difference with Germany on the ground, yet when I look at Germany&amp;#x27;s politicians and their actions, at least the public part leaves a lot to be desired. Rather then the question becomes how come this country is actually economically so successful? Certainly not due to perfect environment for private businessess.</text></item><item><author>christkv</author><text>Start looking at public infrastructure works in Germany and you’ll a series of massive cost overruns and hugely delayed delivery times. Airport in Berlin is a classic.</text></item><item><author>sschueller</author><text>They should be embarrassed because Switzerland assumed the Italian part would be the one not finished on time and even helped a bit financially on that side to make sure it gets done. No one ever thought the Germans were incapable of getting it done. They are still buying land! Meanwhile Switzerland dug the longest train tunnel in the world. Italy is completely done as well and cargo imports are now shifting to the south instead of through the north.</text></item><item><author>bradley13</author><text>There are many international routes where the same train continues from Germany into Switzerland, and then possibly into other countries. Germany has gotten so unreliable that Switzerland is stopping this practice on some routes, because late German trains have a knock-on effect throughout the system.&lt;p&gt;So now, the German trains stop at the first Swiss station, when they finally arrive, and people gave to switch trains.&lt;p&gt;Germany is also years behind on their commitment to getting cargo on trains. Switzerland built a rail tunnel especially for trans-European traffic, but Germany is apparently incapable of getting cargo onto trains.&lt;p&gt;It ought to be mortally embarrassing for the supposed industrial powerhouse of Europe. But that&amp;#x27;s OK, they are building more autobahn.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>sschueller</author><text>Germany has privatized a lot of infrastructure and what happens is as expected. The only way to make money is to cut corners, unlike a state which gets that &amp;quot;value&amp;quot; back in its economy growing due to go infrastructure, private industry can&amp;#x27;t make profit that way.&lt;p&gt;The profit in infrastructure is economic growth and optimizations of people&amp;#x27;s mobility. This can only be done by a state. A state can still mess it up but it is the only entity that can do it.&lt;p&gt;Good luck getting a &amp;quot;Taktfahrplan&amp;quot; working if you have to rely on private rail companies optimizing for every last dollar and having the locomotives catch fire blocking lines for hours. When the Fung Wah Bus breaks down for the 10th time on the way to NY it doesn&amp;#x27;t block all traffic but with rail you don&amp;#x27;t have the luxury to drive around it.&lt;p&gt;The extensive damage in the Swiss Gotthard Base Tunnel was caused by a bad wheel from a foreign rail company that cut costs to a point of running rail cars with wheels that have way too many km on them.</text></comment>
<story><title>Germany&apos;s terrible trains are no joke for a nation built on efficiency</title><url>https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/oct/14/its-the-same-daily-misery-germanys-terrible-trains-are-no-joke-for-a-nation-built-on-efficiency</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>saiya-jin</author><text>It boggles my mind how such an efficiency powerhouse can be that bad.&lt;p&gt;I live in Switzerland and although I am not involved in trains, what Swiss do aint magic, just simple following the rules, and rules they do. Maybe even less efficient than Germans at the end.&lt;p&gt;I really dont see any difference with Germany on the ground, yet when I look at Germany&amp;#x27;s politicians and their actions, at least the public part leaves a lot to be desired. Rather then the question becomes how come this country is actually economically so successful? Certainly not due to perfect environment for private businessess.</text></item><item><author>christkv</author><text>Start looking at public infrastructure works in Germany and you’ll a series of massive cost overruns and hugely delayed delivery times. Airport in Berlin is a classic.</text></item><item><author>sschueller</author><text>They should be embarrassed because Switzerland assumed the Italian part would be the one not finished on time and even helped a bit financially on that side to make sure it gets done. No one ever thought the Germans were incapable of getting it done. They are still buying land! Meanwhile Switzerland dug the longest train tunnel in the world. Italy is completely done as well and cargo imports are now shifting to the south instead of through the north.</text></item><item><author>bradley13</author><text>There are many international routes where the same train continues from Germany into Switzerland, and then possibly into other countries. Germany has gotten so unreliable that Switzerland is stopping this practice on some routes, because late German trains have a knock-on effect throughout the system.&lt;p&gt;So now, the German trains stop at the first Swiss station, when they finally arrive, and people gave to switch trains.&lt;p&gt;Germany is also years behind on their commitment to getting cargo on trains. Switzerland built a rail tunnel especially for trans-European traffic, but Germany is apparently incapable of getting cargo onto trains.&lt;p&gt;It ought to be mortally embarrassing for the supposed industrial powerhouse of Europe. But that&amp;#x27;s OK, they are building more autobahn.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>stratom</author><text>Germany is simply investing to little.
Last year Switzerland invested more than 3 times the amount per person (413€) in rail infrastructure compared to Germany(124€).
And the years before Germans spent even less. They increased the budget already  by 40% from 2021 to 2022.</text></comment>