[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.

[netsharc]

It's probably worse if it was once reliable and now not, compared to if it's never reliable: if it's never reliable, you've been trained to have a huge safety margin and backup plans, if it's reliable and suddenly it messes up, you're thrown in a new situation and have to think "Shit, what do I do now?". Probably very stressful, and it leads people to avoid the service altogether.

Although apparently NYC subways used to be better too.

[twixfel]

what’s going on in New York is irrelevant. The trains in Germany are largely bad. Bad enough that I don’t use them unless I have to. Once they’re at that stage it doesn’t matter how much worse they get for me, I still won’t use them.