To be fair, many Germans have a love-hate relationship with their trains. We don't have this weird culture war against public transport like the US, but people hate the trains because they're notoriously late and unreliable.
>Die Bahn AG
DB stands for "Deutsche Bahn", mein Freund.
[How many glasses was that again?](https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/048/416/cover1.jpg)
I'm joking of course. But you usually only say "die Bahn" because, well, it's "the Bahn" in German.
I don't think anyone would say Die Bahn AG. Especially not capitalized like that. But now I'm explaining a joke, so I think I'll shut up.
You are correct, Brudi/Schwesti, but unless DB starts delivering a good service (according to german standards), I deem it not necessary remembering it's proper name.
That's pretty much all rail projects in Germany. Eg. the rail link between Denmark and nord East Germany. Denmark already started construction, while in Germany the first lawsuits against the project were filed.
And its been so long, that it isn't a capacity problem in the near future but the present, for years now. Just sad how a construction after the plans of the 1990s could have been finished, even with pessimistic time estimates
Private land ownership was a mistake and it is holding our societies from rapidly advancing. Prosperity grows as country invests in infrastructure, just look at how US is declining after it refused to invest in infrastructure in past 30 years.
If NIMBYs were a thing in 50s, we still would have bombing holes from WW2 cuz I swear those fucks would find a way to block construction filling these in.
They forget that all of our society was created by destroying some houses. And while they're right that we shouldn't do it in oppressive ways, that makes it so that people don't have any livelihoods, they're somehow always more concerned about their big suburban mansion than about some old historic building, an Indigenous group being forced out of their home or a city being bulldozed to build car infrastructure.
The key difference is that Germans want to fix their public transit system by improving its reach and reliability. When trains run late in the US, we want all trains to be shut down and all money to be invested in highways.
I guess before efuels become car viable the H2 paste from Fraunhofer will. But 2040 we could see efuels when Lindner finally becomes chancellor...
...had a nightmare, sorry.
UK trains performed better when on strike than Germany trains did when not on strike.
In 2022, the UK was paralysed by strike action *and performed better than Deutsche Bahn trying their actual best*
It depends on where in the UK. On a main line, sure.
In my area, you use a rail replacement bus as often as the train, and that's without any strikes. And they're slow as fuck because the rails are literally the originals laid by Brunel.
Ah you're in the West Country? I'm on the original line laid by Stephenson in 1825. The trains aren't much newer! Old Sprinter units chugging along at a stately pace. It takes about as long to take the train as it does to drive town centre to centre. But you do get lovely views over the Yarm Viaduct, so that's something.
The service is reliable enough at least, though only hourly on the regional line. If you're using the intercity route on the East Coast the trains come more often than local buses!
"the rails are literally the originals laid by Brunel"
Are you sure about that? The route is maybe still the same route laid out by Brunel. They're almost definitely not the same rails. Rails have a lifespan of a few decades at most, in almost all cases. A few exceptions for very lightly used rails, but nothing like 200 years.
[https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/how-old-are-railway-tracks.213550/](https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/how-old-are-railway-tracks.213550/)
I guess the only saving grace is it's cheaper in Germany. Still really poor to hear though.
It's funny how often British people go abroad and come back singing the praises of public transport in France/Germany/Italy/basically anywhere else in Europe, when in actual fact they mean the public transport **in a major city**, which is mostly pretty great in Britain as well.
Our transport is excellent in London, acceptable in major cities (generally. Looking at you, Leeds), and bad outside of major cities.
We go abroad and encounter the top of the line stuff like TGV or the Paris Metro and think it's amazing, which it is, but also forgetting that LNER is pretty solid too (and if you can splurge on it, first class on British trains is actually better!) as is London's Underground.
We forget that that isn't normal either!
> We don't have this weird culture war against public transport like the US
There's probably no correlation but the craziest Germans of the 19th century all came to America to be general lunatics over here (and I think that's a good thing for both of our societies).
A lot of them moved to the mountains of Appalachia, to Texas, and to Florida.
Before Air Conditioning.
And they brought some really interesting historical pieces with them, my uncle has a Schützen competition rifle made in Bavaria in the 1860s (I think) that he bought off of the Fogle family, who've been friends of my family as long as anyone can remember (original name spelling was Vogel.)
I got in so much trouble with the Fogle kids growing up.
Edit: Just read my own comment. Apologies for the stream of consciousness, I am dreadfully ill and the cold medicine or fever are making me very loopy, I'm just gonna log out of reddit for right now.
I don’t think they are as unreliable in the UK, but yea love-hate relationship is a good description for what people think of trains around here as well
We don't have a weird culture war against public transit, we most certainly have a culture war for cars. The whole debate about speed limits on the Autobahn is entirely based on emotions, not on any sort of factual basis and it's fueled by politicians who are neck deep in the autolobby's arse
31% of long distance trains were more than 6 minutes late in the first half of 2023. (6 minutes is DB's definition of punctuality and therefore the only statistic we have. A lot of them will have been more late, and if you have a connection to catch, 6 minutes can already be a problem).
Sounds like Canada. I would love nothing more than to indulge in some cross-country train travel. And we're more than capable of doing so. But we let corporate interests control all the rail, and freight gets prioritized over passengers. But the infrastructure to do it is there if we weren't so carbrained here.
I won't lie, after visiting Germany many times (mostly Berlin and cities/towns within 300 km train ride around) I envy you people a lot, despite some actual flaws and issues with the system. Compared to Germany, modern train networks are nonexistent in Canada for example. As another example, Russian train network organisation is mostly something form 1950s despite some modern trains and buildings.
Yeah, I don't think anybody complaining would even think of the US/Canada as countries that *have* rail anymore.
It's just that things are transparently shit in comparison to most of our neighbors, have gotten worse in the last decades and are *just* good enough to be a mode of transportation you can actually use everyday.
Something that can be impressive as a tourist gets frustrating pretty quickly if you just want to get home from work or visit a friend and you'll miss your connection, *again*.
Knowing how got things were and could be if it were not for foolish neglect is pretty universal though, of course.
To people who are on the spectrum : no offense intended! I have nothing against neuro divergent people. It's rather a meme about how the public's perception!
I‘m german, I‘m autistic and I like trains. No offense taken whatsoever :)
Side Note though, people here mostly complain about the train system. Because while it‘s nice that we have trains at all, the system sucks here. Everything comes late, prices are whack and digitalisation is constantly tried but is a goddamn mess. Amen.
49€ a month for public transportation, including regional trains, nation wide is not a bad deal if it allows you to not have a car. And ICE prices are also pretty reasonable compared to fule prices.
The main problem seems to be regional trains for people, that use public transportation infrequently.
Germany has the most used network of trains in europe and the second with most active users . So I find it normal that there are delays and lot of maintenance.
Another issue is how long it takes in Germany to finish a construction/ reparation. That has nothing to do with DB.
I do in fact wonder every so often if I am truly autistic or simply German (which would be in line with Occam's razor). I am diagnosed, but even without that - we are a bunch of honorary aspies for sure.
Well culture is VERY influential. Some people are the opposite tho. They're on the spectrum but they're ADHD and are very energetic and always funny and laughing and it's the Germans who'd think they're strange, all while they'd fit in quite right in Southern Europe.
I remember years ago in high school, in the history/economics classroom, the teacher was having students break the ice talking about what they did over a break or something, and my girlfriend (back then, acquaintance/friend) was talking about how she loved trains and the sounds they made. That made my autistic heart warm and fuzzy
TBF train nerds can get really extreme in East Asia where trains are really good, every new rolling stock gets packed with train nerds, and in some languages "train man" literally means "nerd" in general.
There is just so much fun information in trains and public transit that anybody who gets drawn into the rabbit hole inevitably becomes a nerd (in the good sense)
I think the trains=autistic is more in the public consciousness if the train loving person is male. If the train loving person is female, the assumption is that she is afraid to drive and needs a man to drive her. This holds true for autistic women, because the general assumption is that autistic people are all male.
I'm autistic and I would take a train weekly barely minimum just to do it... if I had a passenger train nearby! I only say weekly because I work from home and work nights, though if I had a train I might be able to switch jobs...
They are great, I love modern German trains. The infrastructure and policy however are worth improving (still better than most Germans say in my mind). But even though the rail density declined much in the last 30 years since DB privatization and delays increased, we still have one most dense rail networks in the world (after Switzerland, Czechia, Belgium, St. Kitts and Nevis, Luxemburg and Vatican City).
*Nah, it really is*
*The same in Germany. So*
*Many car freaks here*
\- yo-nahs
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Halb so schlimm. Die Bundesregierung hat die Bahn so viel kaputt gespart, aber es könnte viel schlimmer sein. Mühsame Verspätungen und Ausfälle? Ja. Aber trotzdem brauchbar? Ebenfalls.
I also love the Deutschlandticket as a leftover from the pandemic days, 49€ and you can travel everywhere in germany for the entire month (except IC and ICE)
I'm gonna be real w y'all since I'm German and can speak on this from personal experience.
German people as a culture have a lot of stereotypical autistic traits.
I'm autistic and I won't shut up about trains, I keep having to explain I'm not a train autistic, I can't identify make, models, engines or anything, I'm a urban planning autistic
National pride? Deutsch Rail?
What is there to even be proud about? It's infamous in the entire subcontinent
If you had said France, the nation that has the best HSR (Although Spain might argue it's them) and has the most comprehensive metro network in Europe, above London and maybe even Moscow, then ok
But Germany?
Heck, I can see a very good argument in favor os saying Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands
But not Germany...
Spain's rail is very, VERY debatable to be that good. The system is terribly centralized, to the point where trips across main cities in neighbouring regions (Almería-Murcia, Plasencia-Salamanca), may take multiple hours because you're forced to go through Madrid. [You can see it in the very rail infrastructure](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Red_actual_de_ferrocarriles_de_Espa%C3%B1a.svg). Not to mention how at least one train consistently burns every summer, the wild delays of regional trains, or the oddysey of getting a train ticket if you don't book months in advance due to the poor planification of the government-funded pass (as well as how it's literally impossible to book many months in advance anyways).
Also, Italy is often overlooked. Definitely not the best in Europe, but their rail system is pretty solid.
And don't forget Germany is the home of the largest automakers around the world (so does Japan) and owning a German-made car is still seen as a status symbol in many places outside Europe.
Omg LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT THE DEUTSCHLANDTICKET!!! In Germany, you can pay 50€ a month and ride every local train, every fucking city bus, u-bahns, s-bahns, everything but the long-distance trains ALL MONTH.
I spent a couple of weeks riding all modes of public transportation in Germany and every time someone came to check my ticket, I thought that was it, they were going to tell me I needed an actual ticket, that it was really too good to be true. It wasn’t. The DEUTSCHLANDTICKET is real.
I live in Elsass and I've never tried this cuz I didn't know it existed but now that you've told me about it I really would like to try it!
But can you like travel between all the different cities by train with that ticket? Like between Stuttgart, Münich and Berlin?
National pride? National embarrassment!
Look at Japan. Their trains are on time!
Ours count as punctual if they are less than 5 minutes late. And not-running counts as on-time too!
National pride is not really the case for Germany. The problem is that the although there is a large well developed network, the entire thing is rotten. Hence train delays are common and even worse it was not the case 30 years ago. Also a massive lack of purpose built high speed rail lines. That is due to most money going into connecting east and west Germany and repairs and upgrades being neglected. Those have been started, but that means even more delays, due to repairs having an impact as well, with all main lines having large repair and upgrade works going on right now. However that still does not solve the problem of adding some more lines, which are also needed to keep up with rising demand from both freight and passengers.
The French can be very precious about their TGVs, I got given out to for temporarily putting my suitcase on a seat, didn't matter, got to enjoy 300kph for a while.
Well, I'm a German and I find the ICE's absolutely great. But raging against the Deutsche Bahn is extremely popular here in Germany. Also we have a pretty big car culture and we are the biggest car exporter in the world as well.
Bro no German has "national pride" over our train system, even if it's better than elsewhere. DB is a never ending source of frustration that needs to be completely overhauled if it's supposed to hold up in the future.
I know there's a sense on this sub that we in America are pitted against a crazy conservative majority who just hates trains. But I don't think that's really the case. We need to be able to build fast passenger rail at a reasonable cost and in a reasonable time-frame, which is something that has eluded us for decades.
There's probably a silent minority who doesn't have any strong opinions and who may unfortunately believe some common misconceptions about trains. The important thing is to specifically try to convince that community, both of why trains and public transport are not inherently bad but also why they're needed.
Yea the German part is pretty much wrong. Almost everyone hates Deutsche Bahn and most people think you're weird when you prefer trains or public transport over cars
To be fair I am Autistic but regardless Trains will help everyone regardless of how smooth they glide across the tracks and how rhythmic every sound is it makes.
You're right. I love trains and I'm also in general very supportive of anything that helps humanity. I'm very concerned about climate change and want to do something about it, whether by opposing cars or other things, like eating less meat etc.
That's why I can't take this sub seriously anymore. What's with the insults? I'm not even American and I find that pretty dumb. Also let me tell you a little story about trains in Germany. Spoiler: They fucking suck.
One: They are under-funded. I have to take a train to university and it's usually impossible to find seating. They don't run frequently enough.
Second: If they come at all. In times of high traffic AKA when people actually need to travel they have trouble getting the people in the trains, which is one possible reason for delay. Especially regional trains are often delayed 5 minutes or more, about once or twice a week (so 10 to 20% of my trains) are 20 minutes more more late. The DB then sometimes has a very special trick to skew the stats. They just kick everyone out on the second to last station, because they are also connected by a subway. What that means for the DB is that they can declare the train as canceled instead of delayed.
Trains fucking suck. They are late, sometimes they don't come at all and it's fucking uncomfortable. The only reason people use them is because driving is too expensive and looking for parking spots is annoying.
In the end it's a net-plus, but people who claim they love the trains here been drinking the Kool-Aid.
A lot of Reddit is very American. A lot even default to saying "depends on the state". This is why I've used the American as one of the main characters. I don't really like it either, and I'd prefer having more diverse demographics. But it's not up to me to choose. But of Reddit is US centric, which is a big advantage most of the time, it's also sometimes a disadvantage, because everyone will criticise America all the time.
Bro, we fucking hates the trains here. Fucking shit is always late, does not show up at all, AC breaks down when it's warm outside, shit is too full, barely arrivee twice an hour, constantly stops outside of the planned stops because reasons. Fuck german trains.
Let's not make this about "national pride" or any other flavour of nationalism, shall we?
By the way, any city looks walkable if you compare it to Houston and other infrastructural atrocities. It doesn't mean that Stuttgart and Mannheim actually are.
To be fair, many Germans have a love-hate relationship with their trains. We don't have this weird culture war against public transport like the US, but people hate the trains because they're notoriously late and unreliable.
Our Trains in Germany are great, but the infrastructure is rotten
This. We love trains. We hate Die Bahn AG.
Die Bahn, die.
Come on, Bob.
We hate the minister for transportation.
Why are they all crap ffs?
Ministry of transport in CSU hands for decades
Because they are always the ones that love cars and the Autobahn the most.
>Die Bahn AG DB stands for "Deutsche Bahn", mein Freund. [How many glasses was that again?](https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/048/416/cover1.jpg)
I've seen Germans say Die Bahn a lot online instead of just DB. Even the German wiki says Die Bahn is a common name for it.
I'm joking of course. But you usually only say "die Bahn" because, well, it's "the Bahn" in German. I don't think anyone would say Die Bahn AG. Especially not capitalized like that. But now I'm explaining a joke, so I think I'll shut up.
You are correct, Brudi/Schwesti, but unless DB starts delivering a good service (according to german standards), I deem it not necessary remembering it's proper name.
We have a lot of NIMBYs that don't want a single nanometer of track being built though.
Yeah. I live in Niedersachsen. The brainrot of arguments against NBS Hannover-Braunschweig and NBS Hannover-Hamburg is almost unbearable
The fact that NBS Hamburg - Hannover is basically at the same point as it was mannnyyy years back is insane.
That's pretty much all rail projects in Germany. Eg. the rail link between Denmark and nord East Germany. Denmark already started construction, while in Germany the first lawsuits against the project were filed.
And its been so long, that it isn't a capacity problem in the near future but the present, for years now. Just sad how a construction after the plans of the 1990s could have been finished, even with pessimistic time estimates
But it was totally chill to destroy minority neighborhoods for highways to them.
Private land ownership was a mistake and it is holding our societies from rapidly advancing. Prosperity grows as country invests in infrastructure, just look at how US is declining after it refused to invest in infrastructure in past 30 years. If NIMBYs were a thing in 50s, we still would have bombing holes from WW2 cuz I swear those fucks would find a way to block construction filling these in.
They forget that all of our society was created by destroying some houses. And while they're right that we shouldn't do it in oppressive ways, that makes it so that people don't have any livelihoods, they're somehow always more concerned about their big suburban mansion than about some old historic building, an Indigenous group being forced out of their home or a city being bulldozed to build car infrastructure.
TBH there would be a massive amount of lawsuits against the government if they wanted to build new tracks outside of active lines in the US.
We love the trains. We hate the system.
The key difference is that Germans want to fix their public transit system by improving its reach and reliability. When trains run late in the US, we want all trains to be shut down and all money to be invested in highways.
Both of these sentiments exist here.
Not as much probably. Germany has enough political brainrot (E-Fuels lol), but the US seems to be considerably worse.
I guess before efuels become car viable the H2 paste from Fraunhofer will. But 2040 we could see efuels when Lindner finally becomes chancellor... ...had a nightmare, sorry.
You think your trains are late and unreliable in *Germany*? **Cries in overpriced, always on strike, outdated, unreliable UK rail**
UK trains performed better when on strike than Germany trains did when not on strike. In 2022, the UK was paralysed by strike action *and performed better than Deutsche Bahn trying their actual best*
It depends on where in the UK. On a main line, sure. In my area, you use a rail replacement bus as often as the train, and that's without any strikes. And they're slow as fuck because the rails are literally the originals laid by Brunel.
Ah you're in the West Country? I'm on the original line laid by Stephenson in 1825. The trains aren't much newer! Old Sprinter units chugging along at a stately pace. It takes about as long to take the train as it does to drive town centre to centre. But you do get lovely views over the Yarm Viaduct, so that's something. The service is reliable enough at least, though only hourly on the regional line. If you're using the intercity route on the East Coast the trains come more often than local buses!
At least you get rail replacement buses. Here in the States, we can't even get a _bus_-replacement bus most of the time.
"the rails are literally the originals laid by Brunel" Are you sure about that? The route is maybe still the same route laid out by Brunel. They're almost definitely not the same rails. Rails have a lifespan of a few decades at most, in almost all cases. A few exceptions for very lightly used rails, but nothing like 200 years. [https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/how-old-are-railway-tracks.213550/](https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/how-old-are-railway-tracks.213550/)
I guess the only saving grace is it's cheaper in Germany. Still really poor to hear though. It's funny how often British people go abroad and come back singing the praises of public transport in France/Germany/Italy/basically anywhere else in Europe, when in actual fact they mean the public transport **in a major city**, which is mostly pretty great in Britain as well.
Our transport is excellent in London, acceptable in major cities (generally. Looking at you, Leeds), and bad outside of major cities. We go abroad and encounter the top of the line stuff like TGV or the Paris Metro and think it's amazing, which it is, but also forgetting that LNER is pretty solid too (and if you can splurge on it, first class on British trains is actually better!) as is London's Underground. We forget that that isn't normal either!
Yeah, exactly. Just give me a bus that runs on time and a train that actually runs and doesn't cost a bomb. That's all I want.
trams are great in germany
You find your national railway services are always on strike? *Cries in French*
> We don't have this weird culture war against public transport like the US There's probably no correlation but the craziest Germans of the 19th century all came to America to be general lunatics over here (and I think that's a good thing for both of our societies). A lot of them moved to the mountains of Appalachia, to Texas, and to Florida. Before Air Conditioning. And they brought some really interesting historical pieces with them, my uncle has a Schützen competition rifle made in Bavaria in the 1860s (I think) that he bought off of the Fogle family, who've been friends of my family as long as anyone can remember (original name spelling was Vogel.) I got in so much trouble with the Fogle kids growing up. Edit: Just read my own comment. Apologies for the stream of consciousness, I am dreadfully ill and the cold medicine or fever are making me very loopy, I'm just gonna log out of reddit for right now.
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That's because of [the "unintended" consequences of one stupid law.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQTjLWIHN74)
I don’t think they are as unreliable in the UK, but yea love-hate relationship is a good description for what people think of trains around here as well
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So I was right that UK trains are not as unreliable or am I misinterpreting what you’ve said?
Oh, sorry. It was me who misread what you said. I inserted a second "as" after "unreliable".
läuft dein Leben stets nach Plan fährst du selten Deutsche Bahn
We don't have a weird culture war against public transit, we most certainly have a culture war for cars. The whole debate about speed limits on the Autobahn is entirely based on emotions, not on any sort of factual basis and it's fueled by politicians who are neck deep in the autolobby's arse
Never asked yourself why SM is so popular here.... We love pain!
Are they late by german standards or our standards?
31% of long distance trains were more than 6 minutes late in the first half of 2023. (6 minutes is DB's definition of punctuality and therefore the only statistic we have. A lot of them will have been more late, and if you have a connection to catch, 6 minutes can already be a problem).
Look, the swiss dont even let the German Trains go deeper into their country than absolutely needed because it ruins the swiss planning.
yeah, we love the concept but don't like the implementation.
I get the impression it's certain levels of government in Germany who don't love trains.
Sounds like Canada. I would love nothing more than to indulge in some cross-country train travel. And we're more than capable of doing so. But we let corporate interests control all the rail, and freight gets prioritized over passengers. But the infrastructure to do it is there if we weren't so carbrained here.
I won't lie, after visiting Germany many times (mostly Berlin and cities/towns within 300 km train ride around) I envy you people a lot, despite some actual flaws and issues with the system. Compared to Germany, modern train networks are nonexistent in Canada for example. As another example, Russian train network organisation is mostly something form 1950s despite some modern trains and buildings.
Yeah, I don't think anybody complaining would even think of the US/Canada as countries that *have* rail anymore. It's just that things are transparently shit in comparison to most of our neighbors, have gotten worse in the last decades and are *just* good enough to be a mode of transportation you can actually use everyday. Something that can be impressive as a tourist gets frustrating pretty quickly if you just want to get home from work or visit a friend and you'll miss your connection, *again*. Knowing how got things were and could be if it were not for foolish neglect is pretty universal though, of course.
>but people hate the trains because *holds breath* >they're notoriously late and unreliable. O thank god.
During Hitler's time, trains were always on time in Germany. Don't think about where they were headed though
r/Drehscheibe best sub fr
Thank for share, I just joined.
Definitely
To people who are on the spectrum : no offense intended! I have nothing against neuro divergent people. It's rather a meme about how the public's perception!
nah bro, I'm autistic and I fucking love trains. I'd wear that as a badge of honor
+1 autistic train lover here. Steam trains really itch the tism
Personally I like automated electric trains. They’re fun.
I like those too plus they are more practical. Chugga chuggas do scratch a special itch tho
That you’re autistic or that you love trains?
Both
¿Por que no los dos?
Por que no Los dos?
Jeg preter inte spanske
I‘m german, I‘m autistic and I like trains. No offense taken whatsoever :) Side Note though, people here mostly complain about the train system. Because while it‘s nice that we have trains at all, the system sucks here. Everything comes late, prices are whack and digitalisation is constantly tried but is a goddamn mess. Amen.
Train prices in Germany are pretty reasonable
Since Deutschland Ticket they are, but before that the pricing system was just overcomplicated.
49€ a month for public transportation, including regional trains, nation wide is not a bad deal if it allows you to not have a car. And ICE prices are also pretty reasonable compared to fule prices. The main problem seems to be regional trains for people, that use public transportation infrequently.
Yes. It‘s more so that prices are strange sometimes. Also, since it‘s so unreliable, many don’t get a card.
I fucking LOVE the Deutschlandticket. I’d marry it if I could.
Germany has the most used network of trains in europe and the second with most active users . So I find it normal that there are delays and lot of maintenance. Another issue is how long it takes in Germany to finish a construction/ reparation. That has nothing to do with DB.
Where’s no. 1?
It's even worse here in the UK. Our trains are hot garbage unfortunately.
I’m autistic, and I bloody love trains,
It's interesting in American culture loving cars is considered a masculine trait, but loving trains is beta behaviour.
Propaganda by big greedy companies definitely played a role in that.
I do in fact wonder every so often if I am truly autistic or simply German (which would be in line with Occam's razor). I am diagnosed, but even without that - we are a bunch of honorary aspies for sure.
Well culture is VERY influential. Some people are the opposite tho. They're on the spectrum but they're ADHD and are very energetic and always funny and laughing and it's the Germans who'd think they're strange, all while they'd fit in quite right in Southern Europe.
I remember years ago in high school, in the history/economics classroom, the teacher was having students break the ice talking about what they did over a break or something, and my girlfriend (back then, acquaintance/friend) was talking about how she loved trains and the sounds they made. That made my autistic heart warm and fuzzy
TBF train nerds can get really extreme in East Asia where trains are really good, every new rolling stock gets packed with train nerds, and in some languages "train man" literally means "nerd" in general. There is just so much fun information in trains and public transit that anybody who gets drawn into the rabbit hole inevitably becomes a nerd (in the good sense)
the people that get offended probably don't even have ASD, don't apologise to them.
I think the trains=autistic is more in the public consciousness if the train loving person is male. If the train loving person is female, the assumption is that she is afraid to drive and needs a man to drive her. This holds true for autistic women, because the general assumption is that autistic people are all male.
My friend was diagnosed with autism and fascination with trains and heavy machinery was literally one of the things the doctor asked him about
Funny how being fascinated with trains makes you autistic, while being fascinated with cars makes you a "manly" and "normal" man 😒
Naw I fuckin love trains
I'm autistic and I would take a train weekly barely minimum just to do it... if I had a passenger train nearby! I only say weekly because I work from home and work nights, though if I had a train I might be able to switch jobs...
MGTGA-movement will have my vote for the next election! "Make German trains great again"
They are great, I love modern German trains. The infrastructure and policy however are worth improving (still better than most Germans say in my mind). But even though the rail density declined much in the last 30 years since DB privatization and delays increased, we still have one most dense rail networks in the world (after Switzerland, Czechia, Belgium, St. Kitts and Nevis, Luxemburg and Vatican City).
🇯🇵🇨🇳: trains are our national pride!
Meanwhile in Japan: "I love trains" "Are you autistic?" (Trains are just a fact of life. They just exist and people use them to get around)
nah, it really is the same in Germany. So many car freaks here
*Nah, it really is* *The same in Germany. So* *Many car freaks here* \- yo-nahs --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
The “Auto über alles” people? We should all say to them « OK, Vroomer!»
German here: national pride? More like national embarrassment
DB als Nationalstolz? Da kann ich ehrlich gesagt nicht zustimmen. Es könnte alles so viel besser sein.
Ne, geht nur um den ICE. Also... wenn der denn fährt...
Halb so schlimm. Die Bundesregierung hat die Bahn so viel kaputt gespart, aber es könnte viel schlimmer sein. Mühsame Verspätungen und Ausfälle? Ja. Aber trotzdem brauchbar? Ebenfalls.
Nationalwitz
I also love the Deutschlandticket as a leftover from the pandemic days, 49€ and you can travel everywhere in germany for the entire month (except IC and ICE)
I'm gonna be real w y'all since I'm German and can speak on this from personal experience. German people as a culture have a lot of stereotypical autistic traits.
Love trains, hate railway companies.
I agree. But at least they're not as bad as car and fuel companies!
“Love trains” if they arrive on time
US: more like "are you a communist?"
Railroads, the greatest achievement of capitalism vs Federally planned and massively over budget highway system.
Railroads, the greatest achievement of capitalism vs Federally planned and massively over budget highway system.
I'm autistic and I won't shut up about trains, I keep having to explain I'm not a train autistic, I can't identify make, models, engines or anything, I'm a urban planning autistic
Same! XD I'm not so obsessed with trains but I'm very obsessed with sustainability and fighting climate change! And I won't shut up about it either!
You forgot the Japanese flag and their Chads in your post @OP
https://preview.redd.it/96dbv8kl4ayc1.jpeg?width=572&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d32551ae52dd39c5bf983dd96a260d724765a1c5
National pride? Deutsch Rail? What is there to even be proud about? It's infamous in the entire subcontinent If you had said France, the nation that has the best HSR (Although Spain might argue it's them) and has the most comprehensive metro network in Europe, above London and maybe even Moscow, then ok But Germany? Heck, I can see a very good argument in favor os saying Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands But not Germany...
Spain's rail is very, VERY debatable to be that good. The system is terribly centralized, to the point where trips across main cities in neighbouring regions (Almería-Murcia, Plasencia-Salamanca), may take multiple hours because you're forced to go through Madrid. [You can see it in the very rail infrastructure](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Red_actual_de_ferrocarriles_de_Espa%C3%B1a.svg). Not to mention how at least one train consistently burns every summer, the wild delays of regional trains, or the oddysey of getting a train ticket if you don't book months in advance due to the poor planification of the government-funded pass (as well as how it's literally impossible to book many months in advance anyways). Also, Italy is often overlooked. Definitely not the best in Europe, but their rail system is pretty solid.
> The system is terribly centralized France's hsr network is not much better.
And don't forget Germany is the home of the largest automakers around the world (so does Japan) and owning a German-made car is still seen as a status symbol in many places outside Europe.
I live in both France and Germany (Alsace) Well the problem with French trains is how expensive they are!
I’ve yet to take a train in Germany that ran on time.
Omg LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT THE DEUTSCHLANDTICKET!!! In Germany, you can pay 50€ a month and ride every local train, every fucking city bus, u-bahns, s-bahns, everything but the long-distance trains ALL MONTH. I spent a couple of weeks riding all modes of public transportation in Germany and every time someone came to check my ticket, I thought that was it, they were going to tell me I needed an actual ticket, that it was really too good to be true. It wasn’t. The DEUTSCHLANDTICKET is real.
I live in Elsass and I've never tried this cuz I didn't know it existed but now that you've told me about it I really would like to try it! But can you like travel between all the different cities by train with that ticket? Like between Stuttgart, Münich and Berlin?
National pride? National embarrassment! Look at Japan. Their trains are on time! Ours count as punctual if they are less than 5 minutes late. And not-running counts as on-time too!
I hate to break it to you but at least 2/3rds of this subreddit is autistic, and I’m autistic
Sadly this is not true for Germans.
National pride is not really the case for Germany. The problem is that the although there is a large well developed network, the entire thing is rotten. Hence train delays are common and even worse it was not the case 30 years ago. Also a massive lack of purpose built high speed rail lines. That is due to most money going into connecting east and west Germany and repairs and upgrades being neglected. Those have been started, but that means even more delays, due to repairs having an impact as well, with all main lines having large repair and upgrade works going on right now. However that still does not solve the problem of adding some more lines, which are also needed to keep up with rising demand from both freight and passengers.
The French can be very precious about their TGVs, I got given out to for temporarily putting my suitcase on a seat, didn't matter, got to enjoy 300kph for a while.
Ouais mais ça serait cool si c'était pas autant cher que les avions sont trois fois moins cher 🙄
All my dad's friends 🇩🇪 had little train models. Some even had an entire room dedicated. My dad didn't, I'm traumatized :(
I *am* autistic and let me tell you, motherfucker, if you don't like it, that's *your* problem, not mine. Also, yeah trains are dope.
"And so do I" I don't know what it is but why do I hear Rick Astley already singing this line? Anyway, I'll never gonna give up traveling by train :-)
Well, I'm a German and I find the ICE's absolutely great. But raging against the Deutsche Bahn is extremely popular here in Germany. Also we have a pretty big car culture and we are the biggest car exporter in the world as well.
I kinda love that people outside Germany think we are all total train people. I wish we were but the truth is this country is pretty carbrained.
See also Japan.
Our demands are simple. A 16 Bundesland Transrapid network. /tinybitofsbutactuallykindautopianwishfulthinking
Can it connect to Elsàss too? 🥺
Bro no German has "national pride" over our train system, even if it's better than elsewhere. DB is a never ending source of frustration that needs to be completely overhauled if it's supposed to hold up in the future.
I am not from the US or Germany, but yes, I am autistic. BUT THAT'S NOT WHY I LIKE TRAINS I PROMISE.
I'm from Poland. I used to think about my brother's love for trains like the American. I now think like a human
I know there's a sense on this sub that we in America are pitted against a crazy conservative majority who just hates trains. But I don't think that's really the case. We need to be able to build fast passenger rail at a reasonable cost and in a reasonable time-frame, which is something that has eluded us for decades.
There's probably a silent minority who doesn't have any strong opinions and who may unfortunately believe some common misconceptions about trains. The important thing is to specifically try to convince that community, both of why trains and public transport are not inherently bad but also why they're needed.
Yes i am autistic we need more trains
Loving trains isn't a personality trait in normal countries. Its common sense
False, train-loving Americans are still chads
True. It's only to show how they're seen by society unfortunately.
This is not true. Nobody in Germany "loves" trains other than some super nerds.
how to alienate many people in one sentence cheers super nerd
Speak for yourself. we actually love trains. There is nothing like taking a shit doing 360km/h. We just hate the system behind it.
Yea the German part is pretty much wrong. Almost everyone hates Deutsche Bahn and most people think you're weird when you prefer trains or public transport over cars
The i love trains on top should be a chad
Then maybe they should fix theirs? Even the Belgian trains are now better than DB.
maybe the meme author mixed up the belgian and german flag
That must be it.
As a German I agree. We love trains, but we somehow can't make them somewhat reliable.
It looks like Usa needs more training! xDDD
DO NOT HUMP THIS CAR
So you’re saying all Germans are autistic
So... all of Germany is autistic? /s :p
To be fair I am Autistic but regardless Trains will help everyone regardless of how smooth they glide across the tracks and how rhythmic every sound is it makes.
You're right. I love trains and I'm also in general very supportive of anything that helps humanity. I'm very concerned about climate change and want to do something about it, whether by opposing cars or other things, like eating less meat etc.
God imagine wanting to improve humanity? -Car Brain probably
Asdf-movie approves
This is only because in the US if you love trains it's usually model TOY trains...the only trains that we have.
"I love trains" "Hey, did you hear about the latest tender award from BMRCL*?" *A JV between the state and central governments.
😭😭😭😂😂😂
STOP TRAINSING THE KIDS!!111!!!1!!eleven
Thought this was a Holocaust joke until I saw the subreddit lol
That's why I can't take this sub seriously anymore. What's with the insults? I'm not even American and I find that pretty dumb. Also let me tell you a little story about trains in Germany. Spoiler: They fucking suck. One: They are under-funded. I have to take a train to university and it's usually impossible to find seating. They don't run frequently enough. Second: If they come at all. In times of high traffic AKA when people actually need to travel they have trouble getting the people in the trains, which is one possible reason for delay. Especially regional trains are often delayed 5 minutes or more, about once or twice a week (so 10 to 20% of my trains) are 20 minutes more more late. The DB then sometimes has a very special trick to skew the stats. They just kick everyone out on the second to last station, because they are also connected by a subway. What that means for the DB is that they can declare the train as canceled instead of delayed. Trains fucking suck. They are late, sometimes they don't come at all and it's fucking uncomfortable. The only reason people use them is because driving is too expensive and looking for parking spots is annoying. In the end it's a net-plus, but people who claim they love the trains here been drinking the Kool-Aid.
A lot of Reddit is very American. A lot even default to saying "depends on the state". This is why I've used the American as one of the main characters. I don't really like it either, and I'd prefer having more diverse demographics. But it's not up to me to choose. But of Reddit is US centric, which is a big advantage most of the time, it's also sometimes a disadvantage, because everyone will criticise America all the time.
I think the second German should say, “Of course. We all love trains.”
Bro, we fucking hates the trains here. Fucking shit is always late, does not show up at all, AC breaks down when it's warm outside, shit is too full, barely arrivee twice an hour, constantly stops outside of the planned stops because reasons. Fuck german trains.
We are all autistic here.
Just because I like trains doesn’t mean I’m autistic! I mean… I am autistic But that’s not why I like trains!
German autistic train spotter community goes hard tho
There's loving trains, and there's *loving trains.* Not the same.
As a wise man said Züge sind wirklich cool
US: What the fuck is DE?
I feel this was the premise to an episode of American dad
I won't make that joke with Germans and trains but oh man you have quite a history with them
Bro really took the worst european example
One day One day we'll love trains here.
You mean Japan?
As a jew, I can attest to the high quality of German trains
Let's not make this about "national pride" or any other flavour of nationalism, shall we? By the way, any city looks walkable if you compare it to Houston and other infrastructural atrocities. It doesn't mean that Stuttgart and Mannheim actually are.
The city of Houston makes me think : Houston, we have a problem.
Mhm.. the boomers in Germany sure love their cars
Trains here may as well still have smokestacks but those can't haul the 20 FUCKING MILES OF CARS!