Comment by jotm | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jotm | Hacker News Reader

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When I lived in the UK, I thought 30 minute delays two days per week were the worst thing ever.

After living in Germany... British railways seem like an enterprise level SLA.

Tickets with a short expiration time (2 hours... why?), hour(s) long delays, sudden last minute platform changes (you need to use the underground passage full of people), trains just disappearing off the screen with no notice after being delayed several times (I mean, come on!), incredibly rude controllers who just seem like they really want to throw you in prison for not having a ticket (oh yeah, that's a thing, take that Brits!), shoddy rail and frequent stops in the middle of nowhere (or 100 meters from your station), trains that make the Pacers seem like Cadillacs (OK that was one time, not sure where they pulled that pos from)...

I kinda see why Germans hate Deutsche Bahn :D

It’s bad right now. In August only 57% of German long distance trains arrived less than 6 minutes behind schedule. 23% had more than 16 minutes delay. IIRC that’s not even counting canceled stops.

Wait till you get to travel Polish trains - 120 minute delay suddenly becoming 240.

It got better as personnel seems to be more friendly than 10-15 years ago.

Train! You were lucky to have a train! We used to run on the rail, all twenty-six of us, no sitting spots, 'alf the floor was missing, and we were all 'uddled together in one corner for fear of falling.

I caught a train in Poland once, trip to Krakow in 2006 - the train froze to the track half a mile from the station at 3am, god knows where with nothing else in sight (may not mean much, visibility was very low), so we all had to walk to the station and wait until another train happened to stop at it going the direction we wanted.

This literally describes my british rail experience. My local trains are operated by DB.....

I loved the Pacers there was something so democratic and comfy about the version with the rows of seats on them with no headrests. Lovely train.

That seat arrangement was because they were converted British Leyland buses.

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