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Comment by Sakos | Hacker News Reader

None of this is true though?

Regional trains are as clean as any other trains. ICE really aren't that nice (and I find it hard to accept the price difference on that basis - the only reason why I'd ever take ICE is because I don't feel like taking 5 hours to travel from Cologne to Berlin).

They can be crowded around the times people are commuting, but otherwise they're not that crowded and it's easy to find a place to sit. If you're using the 49 Euro ticket to check out places nearby, there's no reason to believe you'll end up in a crowded train. Just make a tiny bit of effort not to take a train at peak times.

They're only particularly noisy if, I don't know, there's a big game locally and people are drinking on the trains. Even in a full train when everybody's going to or coming from work, people are really fucking quiet.

I'm not sure what your angle is, but I'm not sure why you're misrepresenting the state of German regional trains.

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> Regional trains are as clean as any other trains. ICE really aren't that nice (and I find it hard to accept the price difference on that basis - the only reason why I'd ever take ICE is because I don't feel like taking 5 hours to travel from Cologne to Berlin).

I'm not saying regional ones are crap, just that in my experience ICE trains have been always cleaner than regional ones.

> They can be crowded around the times people are commuting, but otherwise they're not that crowded and it's easy to find a place to sit. If you're using the 49 Euro ticket to check out places nearby, there's no reason to believe you'll end up in a crowded train. Just make a tiny bit of effort not to take a train at peak times.

That's what I wanted to say. But again, compared to ICE, regional trains are "more" crowded (e.g., in peak times you see people standing and you can't barely move. I hardly see that on ICE)

> They're only particularly noisy if, I don't know, there's a big game locally and people are drinking on the trains. Even in a full train when everybody's going to or coming from work, people are really fucking quiet.

The more people, the more noise. Nothing particular about Germans/Germany. This is a human thing. So, taking into account the peak times, I think this is just pure common sense.

> I'm not sure what your angle is, but I'm not sure why you're misrepresenting the state of German regional trains.

My main point was that with the 49 euro ticket, one cannot travel as comfortably as one may think across Germany: mainly in terms of time.

> The more people, the more noise. Nothing particular about Germans/Germany. This is a human thing. So, taking into account the peak times, I think this is just pure common sense.

You'd think so, but they actually are really fucking quiet. Do I have to make a recording for you? People generally don't talk that much on trains, at least in Germany. Do you even live here? MOST people are on their phones, listening to music, just waiting for their next stop, or trying their best not to interact with anybody around them.

> My main point was that with the 49 euro ticket, one cannot travel as comfortably as one may think across Germany: mainly in terms of time.

If your point was about time, you would've said so and I would've agreed. Instead you went on an unnecessary and inaccurate rant because you seem to have a bug about regional trains that I don't get.

Regional trains are fairly comfortable much of the time, and the vast majority of the non-peak regional trains I take are great and the only complaints I would have are all the delays (due to flagging investment in rail infrastructure over the past 30 years), not the trains themselves. I'm not sure what else you want for 49 Euros per month for access to the entire country. Before, we got to pay 10, 20+ Euros per ticket. It's an amazing step of progress.

The experience can differ drastically between cities / regions. In Munich, most people are indeed silent except for Oktoberfest when all hell breaks loose at Hackerbrücke. In Berlin, most are also silent, but sometimes a dude with a trombone casually joins the train and starts blasting on a normal tuesday. :P

Some local networks have modern, nice trains. Others still operate designs that are from the late 60s and sound like a circular saw (e.g. the old S-Bahn trains or the Metro system in Munich). Some have nice seats and toilets in their S-Bahns, others have no toilets and super hard seats. Some have modern, high platforms with barrier-free access, others still use very low platforms and small diesel-powered carriages from the early 80s. Some operators clean the trash inside the train regularly during the day, others... don't. Some networks / lines are at (or even severely over) capacity, some are not.

There is no universal "german public transport experience", IMO. Maybe GP just lives in a region with old and neglected rolling stock. :)

Long-distance trains are (almost) all operated by DB Fernverkehr and thus there aren't such extreme differences.

> In Berlin, most are also silent, but sometimes a dude with a trombone casually joins the train and starts blasting on a normal tuesday. :P

Can confirm, buskers on my previous commute, somewhere on the Ringbahn near Landsberger Allee.

I've practically lived inside German trains, had my business meetings with more people inside them (there are wagons for that btw) and wouldn't define them as noisy.

When someone is rude, others will call them to attention. Big exception is bar wagon when there is some soccer match, nevertheless that is only on that part. Elsewhere you'd find silence being respected.

Trains can mostly be quiet even if sometimes there are people who are louder than usual. It happens sometimes. I wouldn't characterize regional trains as loud.

> People generally don't talk that much on trains, at least in Germany.

Go to München around Oktoberfest. (or other regional fair in Bavaria).

Expat in Germany since 2014, no car.

I can attest that I had a few trips where I could not sit anywhere for at least 75% of the trip.

Some were on RE ... but not all. It can happen also on ICE, albeit is less probable.

There is a trick. Travel with a metal/rugged luggage like Remowa and then you can sit on the luggage when that situation happens.

Who expected comfortable travel all over Germany for one month only paying 49 euros?

Our local public transportation communter card costs twice that lol

Your point about the ICE is quite valid. ICE is nice, but if I compare price and what I get for it between ICE 1st class and the green car on a Shinkansen, it's like night and day.

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