[xxmarkuski]

> This caps capacity and reliability.

Karlsruhe: The local operators have severe quality issues, in part due to this concept. There are like four points in the city where issues impact the whole network. The rolling stock is very bad compared to the other regional trains running in Baden-Württemberg (no/bad ac, flaky internet, no sockets, bad seating). The trains have way too little capacity, I’ve seen incidents, where they run three coaches (which they don’t do often, they are too long to enter the city), where people could not get in anymore. Some of the stations in the surrounding area are absolutely mental (Durmersheim for example), you have to walk over rails where ICEs and cargo goes through. Some trains are split or merged when leaving or entering the city, but it always causes delays. When trains can’t use the heavy metal rails and thus not leave the city due to ICEs getting priority, a lot of inner city traffic can be affected. The cooperation between the different infrastructure operators is also a source of problems.

Do not take Karlsruhe uncritically as an example where this model works well, yeah sure average numbers make it look good, but the reliability is complete ass. KVV always manages to surprise me on how bad it gets.

[littlecranky67]

Do not forget the number of accidents with cars as the tram trains mingle with car traffic in the more remote villages. Sure, technically the tracks are separated from streets, but every so often cars cross anyways or park etc. Those delays propagate to inner-city schedules.

[iggldiggl]

> Sure, technically the tracks are separated from streets, but every so often cars cross anyways or park etc. Those delays propagate to inner-city schedules.

I don't follow your point. It's not like the inner-city tram lines are all perfectly segregated from road traffic and no accidents ever natively happen inside the city limits.

[iggldiggl]

> Some of the stations in the surrounding area are absolutely mental (Durmersheim for example), you have to walk over rails where ICEs and cargo goes through.

That's not the fault of the tram-train system, though - without the tram-trains, you'd still have the same platform access situation if you wanted to take the heavy rail regional train instead.