> And despite it all, the complaints are so numerous because the number of passengers and the number of trains is also so numerous! If a train on a track with 3 trains a day in France gets delayed, there will be no knock on effect on any other train. A delay to a train on a track with 3 trains every 10 minutes in Germany will have a much larger impact.
Okay sooo…explain japans nearly flawless record of trains? The whole country is littered with them.
This guy did a single train trip and experienced no delays there and has decided this is the factual experience for the entire history of the rail line. This joke became a joke for a reason. What an absurd article.
I’ve never experienced a delay on a delta flight in my life (having flown the for almost every flight) but that doesn’t mean they don’t have delays.
I'm not sure if most people know but you need to distinguish between two kinds of trains here.
The Shinkansen system is rarely late, that is true. Part of the reason for that is that they are running on their own, isolated tracks. Downside here is that they are quite expensive. Flights between, let's say Tokyo and Osaka, are often faster and cheaper.
The trains that normal people take every day to get to work, are, depending on city and line/owner of course, partially late every single day during rush hour. They don't even show the time or kind of the next train that will come.
The commuters of course know this and just leave the house a bit earlier, so in practice it's not a huge problem.
> because the number of passengers and the number of trains is also so numerous!
I don't think the author's hypothesis, that complaints scale with utilisation, holds.
Germans travel fewer kilometers per year per capita by passenger rail than Japan, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, France and Korea [1]. The two topping that list–Japan and Switzerland–also have exceptional systems.
For context, the trip taken by the poster is the longest possible rail journey within Europe:
> In August 2026 a new cross border passenger rail connection opened between Tornio in Finland and Haparanda in Sweden. This then allows an uninterrupted rail journey from Kemijärvi in Finnish Lapland to Lagos in Portugal, the two places furthest apart in the EU that can be connected by train. I, Jon Worth, the person who worked this out, aim to be the first person to complete the whole trip, and set the first record time for this journey.
They can't just add 20 min to the arrival time on the schedule, so I do it in my mind. I just assume a bit of delay, like any reasonable adult when doing any trip and just don't have that negative vibe, where you say "not on time, again". For me DB is still the best way to cover long distances in Germany.
> like any reasonable adult when doing any trip and just don't have that negative vibe
When you've gotten accustomed to a system that actually runs on time, like the Swiss rail or New York's LIRR and Metro-North systems, it's grating to go back to padding every journey like that.
Berlin started investing $10+ billion a year in Deutsche Bahn, mostly starting last year [1], the same year "Deutsche Bahn’s punctuality fell to the lowest level recorded in the 190 years" [2]. That investment figure should double this year [3].
Ignoring the pathetic state German rail fell to in the last twenty years is silly. That said, the problem seems to have been recognized with a path to returning to a solid state by the 2030s.
I think there are two main issues with trains in Germany. The first one is delays. It happens indeed more often than what I experienced with french trains, but I could handle this honestly.
The second and bigger problem is that it seems like Deutsche Bahn never took their probable delays into account when planning your trip.
How many times did I get a connection 15 min after my arrival?
If you know your network is prone to delays, why do you keep putting travelers in this situation?
Even worse, when your train is late and you miss your connection, there's not so much information about the available solutions.
It always feels like it's a exceptional weird issue.
They do take it mostly into account for IC(E) journeys and some regional trains.
You will usually have an announcement like "Alle Anschlusszüge werden weiter erreicht werden" oder "Zug nach $ort wartet auf uns" here.
It just doesn't propagate to traffic within a federal regional (Bundesland) a lot which sucks but is somewhat understandable (the frequency there is supposedly high enough although connected journeys kinda break this).
Good point. Also there's no train from my house to the station, so I have to find alternative transport. How dare people criticise trains only where bad train services exist?
> And despite it all, the complaints are so numerous because the number of passengers and the number of trains is also so numerous! If a train on a track with 3 trains a day in France gets delayed, there will be no knock on effect on any other train. A delay to a train on a track with 3 trains every 10 minutes in Germany will have a much larger impact.
Okay sooo…explain japans nearly flawless record of trains? The whole country is littered with them.
This guy did a single train trip and experienced no delays there and has decided this is the factual experience for the entire history of the rail line. This joke became a joke for a reason. What an absurd article.
I’ve never experienced a delay on a delta flight in my life (having flown the for almost every flight) but that doesn’t mean they don’t have delays.
I'm not sure if most people know but you need to distinguish between two kinds of trains here.
The Shinkansen system is rarely late, that is true. Part of the reason for that is that they are running on their own, isolated tracks. Downside here is that they are quite expensive. Flights between, let's say Tokyo and Osaka, are often faster and cheaper.
The trains that normal people take every day to get to work, are, depending on city and line/owner of course, partially late every single day during rush hour. They don't even show the time or kind of the next train that will come.
The commuters of course know this and just leave the house a bit earlier, so in practice it's not a huge problem.
> because the number of passengers and the number of trains is also so numerous!
I don't think the author's hypothesis, that complaints scale with utilisation, holds.
Germans travel fewer kilometers per year per capita by passenger rail than Japan, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, France and Korea [1]. The two topping that list–Japan and Switzerland–also have exceptional systems.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_rail_usag...
Japan has institutionalized perfectionism.
If autism was a country. (I say that with the deepest affection for both autists and Japan.)
Just go to https://delaybahn.com/en and build your opinion on the data.
https://delaybahn.com/en/?fromId=A%3D1%40O%3DK%C3%B6ln+Hbf%4...
Click the "+30 min (28/30 days)" tags to see the delays of the last month.
For context, the trip taken by the poster is the longest possible rail journey within Europe:
> In August 2026 a new cross border passenger rail connection opened between Tornio in Finland and Haparanda in Sweden. This then allows an uninterrupted rail journey from Kemijärvi in Finnish Lapland to Lagos in Portugal, the two places furthest apart in the EU that can be connected by train. I, Jon Worth, the person who worked this out, aim to be the first person to complete the whole trip, and set the first record time for this journey.
They can't just add 20 min to the arrival time on the schedule, so I do it in my mind. I just assume a bit of delay, like any reasonable adult when doing any trip and just don't have that negative vibe, where you say "not on time, again". For me DB is still the best way to cover long distances in Germany.
> like any reasonable adult when doing any trip and just don't have that negative vibe
When you've gotten accustomed to a system that actually runs on time, like the Swiss rail or New York's LIRR and Metro-North systems, it's grating to go back to padding every journey like that.
Except when you have a connection and you miss it cause it's 12 min after your supposed arrival.
Berlin started investing $10+ billion a year in Deutsche Bahn, mostly starting last year [1], the same year "Deutsche Bahn’s punctuality fell to the lowest level recorded in the 190 years" [2]. That investment figure should double this year [3].
Ignoring the pathetic state German rail fell to in the last twenty years is silly. That said, the problem seems to have been recognized with a path to returning to a solid state by the 2030s.
[1] https://www.ft.com/content/6f719dcd-1df0-4b45-af3b-b08ff5485...
[2] https://www.ft.com/content/72839510-58de-4291-bf25-f3a34f0a5...
[3] https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/mytent_t/items/917467/en
I think there are two main issues with trains in Germany. The first one is delays. It happens indeed more often than what I experienced with french trains, but I could handle this honestly. The second and bigger problem is that it seems like Deutsche Bahn never took their probable delays into account when planning your trip. How many times did I get a connection 15 min after my arrival? If you know your network is prone to delays, why do you keep putting travelers in this situation? Even worse, when your train is late and you miss your connection, there's not so much information about the available solutions. It always feels like it's a exceptional weird issue.
They do take it mostly into account for IC(E) journeys and some regional trains.
You will usually have an announcement like "Alle Anschlusszüge werden weiter erreicht werden" oder "Zug nach $ort wartet auf uns" here.
It just doesn't propagate to traffic within a federal regional (Bundesland) a lot which sucks but is somewhat understandable (the frequency there is supposedly high enough although connected journeys kinda break this).
From my own experience, i have never been anywhere on time with german railroads
The only solution for Germany is to elect a strongman to make the trains run on time. You might even call it the Final Solution.
The "delay to end all delays"
Good point. Also there's no train from my house to the station, so I have to find alternative transport. How dare people criticise trains only where bad train services exist?