[efournie]

Germany's long distance trains are comfortable but the reliability of the Deutsche Bahn is abysmal. In 2023, more than one third of their long distance train were delayed, a metric that has been going down for quite a while. My own experience is much worse, with three out of five long distance trips canceled without notice and a fourth one replaced by a voucher for a 450km taxi ride.

In a country the size of Germany clamoring to have an environmentally oriented politic, train should be a convenient alternative to both car and airplane but unfortunately the train network is a joke.

[traceroute66]

> a fourth one replaced by a voucher for a 450km taxi ride

When can I move to Germany ?

In the UK if your train gets cancelled its either:

    1. "Tough shit. Suck it up buttercup"
    2. The infamous Rail Replacement Bus Service

Most of the time option two doesn't even get offered.

So yeah, you would not find me complaining if the train company offered me a taxi voucher if my train was cancelled !

[cmplxconjugate]

In 2018 I spent ~£6300 on train tickets for personal holiday travel all over the UK. Of that, almost 50% of it was refunded due to meeting requirements for partial refunds due to delayed/cancelled services.

After that experience, I purchased a car and motorbike and I will never be convinced to give up my independence in exchange for that abysmal service. It was completely morale breaking. What's worse is I then worked in Japan during 2019 and experienced some of the best service I could possibly think would be reasonable. It's hard to defend in any form the absolute depressing state of the UK rail service.