[hannob]

It's not really controversial in Germany, and largely the case.

The problems lie elsewhere. IMHO there are two major problems with public transport in Germany. One is underfunding, which causes a lack of reliability, and plenty of lines that are overused. The second is complexity. Each local transport association has its own ticketing system, and they really like to make them complicated. The 49 euro ticket is a step in the right direction here, as it is one ticket for most (unfortunately with a few exceptions...) local public transport.

[redprince]

> It's not really controversial in Germany, and largely the case.

Well... sort of, but the incentives are broken. Simplified version of what has happened so far: In 1994 the Deutsche Bundesbahn was fused with the eastern Reichbahn and converted into the Deutsche Bahn AG. The German state is the owner of this company but the corporation is run as it were publicly traded. Getting it onto the stock market at least in part was a goal but the last attempt was scrapped after the 2007 financial crisis.

The results of privatization were quite destructive though. In an attempt to make the Deutsche Bahn AG more profitable, cost cutting measures were implemented. The led to a sharp decline of rail transport service in rural areas. Furthermore expensive railway switches on main lines were dramatically reduced in numbers, hampering the ability to route traffic around disturbances on a track. The rest of the infrastructure is less maintained and more likely to be run until it wears out. People have accused the Deutsche Bahn AG that they are skimping on maintenance as a cost saving measure, because new construction to replace broken infrastructure will be paid by the state, but maintenance is not and thus cutting into the profits.

The DB AG has been mismanaged for at least 30 years and it shows. If I had one wish, I'd really would like to see the DB AG aspiring to the punctuality and general quality of service offered by the Swiss Federal Railways.

[cbmuser]

Japanese railway is all privatized and easily beats everything they have in Switzerland.

It's not a matter of private vs. public.

[panick21_]

Japanese railway don't easily beat everything in Switzerland. If you look at rural service Swiss service is often just as good or better and more punctual.

Japanese punctuality numbers are inflated because their high punctuality of their high speed trains that run on dedicated separated infrastructure. In fact, large reason that punctuality in Switzerland suffers is because international trains that mess up the schedule (looking at you Germany).

And unlike Japan Switzerland is also world leading in using railway cargo transport, that also has to share the same infrastructure.

But in general, its not just about public and private, that a simplified vision. Its something for politicians to talk about rather then talking about the actual details of the system.

While Japan is privately operated, its certainty still under public control.

In fact in Switzerland there are quite a few railway companies for both cargo and people using the same infrastructure. Some of them are semi-private or owned by local governments or a mix of other organizations. The Semi-Private Post office runs its own trains for example.

[rippercushions]

It's hard to overemphasize just how fucked up public transport ticketing in Germany is. As a simple example, you're a tourist in Cologne for a few days, what's the best ticket if you're planning to travel around the city and take a day trip to the nearby city of Wuppertal (but across the Verkehrsbund boundary, alas) to ride the famous monorail?

[Demonto]

It's just stupidity.

It should have no issue at all to align German wide but they never did it.

The Munich MVG for example is doing an experiment were you can pay by an app from some us company were you just start and stop your journey with a button and the app gives you the best price.

They could have instead just created some German wide software company sponsored by all the local public transport agencies and just do it themselves.

It's ridiculousl that modern problems are often not technical problems:-(

[tfourb]

The issue is not the lack of technical expertise. The structure of the German public transport system is very localized, due to its historical growth. local networks are often owned by the municipalities that they are serving, the actual busses are sometimes provided by private companies on contract, the national railway carrier has contracts with state governments and certain local entities for specific services, national, state and local governments are subsidizing various services, etc.

I completely agree that it is a mess, but it is not really easy to solve with so many stakeholders and so many (sometimes conflicting but valid) different priorities at stake.

[cbmuser]

> They could have instead just created some German wide software company sponsored by all the local public transport agencies and just do it themselves.

But that already works with the »DB Navigator« app by Deutsche Bahn.

You can buy tickets for many local public transport companies. No need to download a custom app.

[cbmuser]

> One is underfunding, which causes a lack of reliability, and plenty of lines that are overused. > The 49 euro ticket is a step in the right direction here, ...

Errm, you do see the contradiction here, no?

The 49 Euro ticket is actually heavily subsidized which means more tax payer money is wasted that could be invested into the infrastructure of public transport.