[okr]

Is there a similar ticket, flat for 50 Dollar per month, that takes you through the US? I wonder who pays for the real cost of the ticket, who cleans and repairs the trains, who invests in infrastructure and all that. I always wonder how the germans can pull this off for 50 Euro. Magic.

[panick21_]

> I wonder who pays for the real cost of the ticket

Everybody already has local regional tickets anyway. And most people can't be in more then one place at the time anyway. And most people stay in the same region most of the time anyway.

So really you are not losing much compared to having separate local region tickets in a system where the long distance trains are separated.

> who cleans and repairs the trains

The already existing organizations that have run the trains for a long time.

> who invests in infrastructure and all that

The government ...

> I always wonder how the germans can pull this off for 50 Euro. Magic.

Its not magic its just a transportation policy and taxes.

[Pamar]

Not sure I understand your point about

Everybody already has local regional tickets anyway. And most people can't be in more then one place at the time anyway. And most people stay in the same region most of the time anyway.

I live in Rostock. So if I want to go to Berlin or Hamburg (you know, where stuff like actual airports are) I am crossing "regional borders" even if it is a 200-250 km trip to each city

[panick21_]

Most people don't use regional services to travel long distances. And you pay for proper inter-city services.

The point is, if you are in Hamburg, you are no longer in Rostock. So you are only using regional services in exactly one place.

[ygra]

At least from Rostock to somewhat closer destinations you have both options. There's a bi-hourly IC to Hamburg or Berlin and another bi-hourly RE towards the same destinations. They're not terribly different in terms of travel time, but one is a regional train and one is an inter-city train.

Sure, long distances (I had to travel from Rostock to Tübingen last weekend) are typically not taken with regional trains (although you technically can; I did that as a poor student a few times, it just takes 16 hours instead of 10), but over medium distances (around 2–3 hours) you often have both options.

[netsharc]

Continental USA: 8 million square kilometer.

Germany: 0.35 million square kilometer.

On the point of the upkeep, locals know German trains are now legendary for unpunctuality and cancellations, so maybe it's not working. But the answer is obviously (trigger warning for the libertarians...) taxes.

The ticket came about because energy prices went crazy after their energy dealer Putin went crazy and warry, I think it was an attempt to motivate people to take public transport rather than have them moan about fuel prices going way way up...

[itsyonas]

> Continental USA: 8 million square kilometer.

> Germany: 0.35 million square kilometer.

This does not matter much, since most people do not travel across states, countries, continents, etc on a daily basis. Most people probably travel within a 50 km (30 mile) radius (travelling to and from work, daycare, school, shopping, etc.).

iirc, the average is slightly higher in the US, but this is probably more due to how the US has approached urban planning over the last century or so than to the size of the country.

> But the answer is obviously (trigger warning for the libertarians...) taxes.

I think many people forget the huge societal cost of owning and running cars, including infrastructure maintenance, crash-related deaths and injuries, health conditions caused by crashes, air and noise pollution, climate change, resource extraction, and time lost in traffic. In other words, the savings from reducing these social, health, and environmental costs could easily finance the ticket. A study estimated that a modal shift of 10% to public transit could save Germany about 19 billion Euros a year (https://foes.de/publikationen/2024/2024-04_FOES_OEPNV.pdf).

[fxwin]

fyi regional trains (which the deutschlandticket is valid for) are very punctual, it is the long distance/ICE trains that are always late/broken, and you cannot ride those with thw deutschlandticket anyways.

[bajinga]

no they are not. source: i am german and i use regional trains occasionally

[fxwin]

thats great, but they are on time 85% of the time vs long distance trains' 62%

https://www.deutschebahn.com/de/konzern/konzernprofil/zahlen...

see my other comment too

[yorwba]

If you take a train to work five days a week and it's "on time" (not delayed by 6 minutes or more) 85% of the time, you'll be late on at least one day most weeks. Hardly very punctual.

Personally, I think they should just abandon timetables, run trains as fast as they can, and if you need to be somewhere by a certain time, you give the planner a target reliability and it uses a probabilistic model of the entire system to tell you when to leave so you can arrive on time (0 minutes delay, or earlier) with that given probability.

[fxwin]

true, the actual word used is less important to me than the distinction between long distance trains and regional trains, since those get conflated quite a bit in this discussion.

[panick21_]

Most local and S-Bahn trains in Germany are pretty decent, data is pretty clear on this. Its not Swiss level but still pretty good. Nothing compare to ICE.

[ngruhn]

not sure what you count RB/RE as, but they are absolutely broken as well in my experience.

[rumplecat]

The german trains, even at their worst, are so much better than anything in the US. Complaining can also be a sport in Germany. Take a ride on Njtransit or the NYC subway to appreciate the difference. Or try to get anywhere in New Jersey without a car. In many parts of Germany, you can get almost anywhere conveniently with only public transportation.

[panick21_]

I can't say what your experience is and what 'absolutely broken' means. There is data on these things. I can only tell you what the data says. Could be you are in region that is worse then others. Or your definition of 'absolutely broken' is different then most peoples.

[mdavid626]

Are you crazy? I use local trains daily and they are everything, but punctual. Also, S-Bahn? Worst service ever.

[fxwin]

idk what to tell you except that your personal experience does not generalize, see https://www.deutschebahn.com/de/konzern/konzernprofil/zahlen...

the regional trains run by regional orgs rather than db get similar results, e.g. bwegt in baden württemberg or beg in bavaria

https://beg.bahnland-bayern.de/de/aufgaben/kontrollieren/pue...

https://vm.baden-wuerttemberg.de/de/mobilitaet-verkehr/bahn-...