• JargonWagon@lemmy.world
    24·
    6 hours 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.

    • lud@lemm.ee
      71·
      2 hours ago

      Of course the trains leave without you if you are 5 min late.

      It will leave without you if you are 30 seconds late. Hell, it will even leave if you are 5 seconds late unless they see you running and are feeling extra nice.

      • JargonWagon@lemmy.world
        1·
        6 minutes ago

        Never said it shouldn’t! Just means it’s running on time. Like I said, I’m still adjusting to the early schedule.

  • Vahenir@lemmy.world
    16·
    8 hours 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·
      50 minutes 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.

    • LeninOnAPrayer@lemm.eeEnglish
      2·
      4 hours ago

      From my small experience as an a American. Netherlands had some really reliable transit. Never had a problem in France though definitely not as nice as Netherlands. Italy was definitely hit and miss depending on the city but loved the high speed rail from Naples to Rome. Germany was reliable during October Fest so I assume at least Munich is reliable if it was good at that time. Though I wouldn’t say I used much in Germany.

      Other countries I’ve been to but I’ll just list cities for these because I didn’t go much anyone else for them: Prague, Budapest, Vienna

      I can’t say there was a single country/city here that had transit that was worse than the best transit in the US. Was it all perfect? No. But compared to fucking Amtrak that literally has to stop for hours at a time while we wait for other freight trains to pass. Literally multiple times during a single train ride.

      Some countries may not be the first meme. But what major city in Europe has worse local transit than say Chicago or New York? Or worse heavy rail than Amtrak? Just honestly asking.

      I don’t think anything could be worse than Amtrak.

  • JackRider@lemmy.world
    6·
    9 hours 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!

  • randombullet@programming.dev
    162·
    11 hours 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.

    • Victor@lemmy.world
      1·
      4 hours ago

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

  • Ledericas@lemm.eeEnglish
    11·
    12 hours ago

    no fast railways in the US at all, hyperloop delayed cali long enough til trump was able to stop it in his first term. it would solve alot of employment locaitons issues like biotech, and tech hubs. which are situated outside of major freeways and highways and major metro areas, even cars have a trouble navigating to.

  • LordWiggle@lemm.eeEnglish
    46·
    19 hours ago

    Although there are many improvements to be made, like international euro rail connecting the capitals, better prices, a reliable DB and most importantly EU standard track system, I love our euro rails.

    But I’ve gotta confess, the fact the US train is called Marc is kinda cool.

    “Hey, I wonder where Marc is. Is he coming?”

    “Nah men, Marc is completely derailed again. He burned down an entire town and he’s toxic AF.”