As a European I have to say, you are very optimistic about our train schedules.
The blind hope that somewhere in this world there is a functioning public transit system is all that keep me going some days. Let me have this
Tokyo I’ve heard. For sure not Europe. Halve of the scheduled trains didn’t run today in Belgium.
Japan is the MVP here. I live there and I literally have never seen a train not arrive exactly at the scheduled time. However “public” transport is privately owned so… Uh… Yeah, tradeoffs.
Given that it works so well, what are the negatives due to being private? Is it expensive to ride?
I’ve been in Vienna from time to time, and it’s pretty good, 365€/year for the pass that gets you buses, trams and subways with unlimited access and no turnstiles anywhere, you just go and enter
Schedules follow work hours and go from a subway every 2 minutes during peak hours to one every 15mins late at night
You have night line buses for weekdays and on Saturday night public transport doesn’t shut down
Coverage is good, you almost always have a bus or tram line less then 5 minutes of walking
There are bike sharing places with 20 bikes each ~1km apart and they cost 60 cents for half an hour, or e-scooters in the designed locations which are basically everywhere (but being owned by companies they cost so much more then everything else)
Honestly, the perspective of what constitutes a functioning public transit system depends a lot on what you have as a point of reference.
I’m portuguese but I lived in Germany for 5 months during which I used exclusively public transports and bikes. Central Europeans complain a lot about Deutsche Bahn and indeed during this time I saw a few strikes, delays and suppressions. However, transports were still much more reliable and much more frequent than I’m used too so I could never really consider it problematic, although my Central European friends complained a lot.
I take the light rail into work from the suburbs of Seattle into downtown. Trains run every 7-8 minutes. They’re expanding it in all directions now. Only downside is that a lot of homeless ride the train because it’s cold as heck on the streets. That’s a societal problem though, not an issue with the train.
As an American, this is exactly correct. The last time I tried to take Amtrak the train literally did not show up and they told us they had no way to contact it and didn’t know where it was. After waiting many hours with no change in status I finally gave up. The last time I actually rode Amtrak it was multiple hours late and cost about the same as a plane ticket.
Peak moments of MÁV (Hungarian State Railways)
- Soviet tractor overtakes train (2024): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5wkW1nKfJY
- Man in snail costume outruns train (2018): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WAY1sFM6yQ
- Passengers pushing the train to the station (2021): https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bNUWNxt-lyg
I think watching Jet Lag let’s you see the full breadth of transit systems pretty well, because the whole game relies on it. Japan is amazing. A lot of Europe is good enough that you can get around, some great and some not so great. The US is so bad I don’t think either team bothered taking a train when they did the show there.
Not to downplay any of the myriad problems here in the USA, but I think many of us are trying to believe that a better world is possible and this sometimes leads to unrealistic views of how much better things are abroad. Sometimes.
But I am hopeful that this country is increasingly humiliated for at least a couple of decades.
Japanese transit users: “Don’t worry, we can grab the next one. It will be here in 48 seconds.”
We deeply apologize that it took the train 49 seconds to arrive. We have prepared notes for your boss in case you’re late, and there will be a half page ad in tomorrow’s paper confirming our CEO has committed seppuku to atone.
I think you may have Europe confused with Japan.
Deutsche Bahn will definitely proof that public transit in the EU isn’t necessarily…. there? Working? …
Wait, you guys have trains?
Wait, you guys have trains?
Depending on whether the stars are right. Or whether you need to cross the tracks - there’s always one when you need to cross the tracks.
there’s always one when you need to cross the tracks.
This, but you ever notice that it’s pretty much never passenger trains? This efficient mode of transportation is largely designed for and used by industry rather than for travel or commute. The exception is within big enough cities like DC and NYC to get from one side of the city to the other or anywhere between. Sure there are some trains that go between cities, but they’re largely unreliable because passenger cars yield to industrial freight, and so people are less inclined to opt for them over planes or cars, and so there are fewer trains available to go wherever you’re going in the window you’re trying to go. So you book a flight instead.
I’d take a long train ride over a road trip any fucking day. I don’t understand anybody who would rather drive than chill and read a book or play games or watch movies or nap.
This, but you ever notice that it’s pretty much never passenger trains? This efficient mode of transportation is largely designed for and used by industry rather than for travel or commute.
Yet massive amounts of goods are shipped long-distance via truck anyway, clogging up highways and polluting far more per-ton and per-mile moved.
Truly the worst of both worlds! USA! USA! USA!
As an American, I don’t have access to trains, buses, bike lanes, sidewalks or even a shoulder on the road. The last time I tried to walk home from the tire shop two miles away, three people stopped to offer me a ride because it is that dangerous. I live inside the 275 loop that runs around Cincinnati.
Yeah, my “Public Transit” option on google maps is entirely greyed out. This is my daily commute to work:
It’s always entertaining to see the Europeans go “lol just ditch your car, it has to start somewhere” like it wouldn’t require me to move my entire family across town, (and pay 3x as much rent to live in the city…) Like I don’t even have the option of taking public transit, because there are no connecting lines between my home and my job. Literally none. The nearest bus stop is almost as far away as my job, and it’s in the opposite direction.
And to be clear, that 2+ hour walk would be on a highway with no sidewalk. I’d be dead on day 1. If I wanted to avoid the highway, the walk would be closer to 4.5 hours; The highway is the only direct path.
That’s so sad that it’s just greyed out lol. Even google maps is like, nah you’re fucked dude
To be fair, Google Maps sucks ass in this regard. If you ever visit Europe, never EVER trust it for public transit information. Always look on the native apps and websites. Google Maps regularly offers me routes that either don’t exist anymore, not at that time or day of the week, unnecessarily require a group taxi somewhere or are simply extremely inefficient. Instead of a 95min travel it wanted me to go for a route that took 145 minutes the last time (luckily I knew it was bullshit).
Even FOSS apps that may acquire travel data through rather novel means will provide more accurate information than the billions of dollars available to Googles car heads.
I live in Utrecht, one of The Netherlands’ larger cities. I don’t even have a car anymore. I can reach any place in the city by cycling in 15min max. Planning a trip with Google maps often shows cycling to be as fast or even faster than by car. Amsterdam by train is 30min, train leaves every 10min. I can take my bike in the train or take a public transportation bike from any train station. Cars are stupid.
I lived a year in Nijmegen when I was younger, and later another year in Duesseldorf, so what you’re describing isn’t foreign to me. But where I live now there are no options other than car. If you don’t own one you need a friend with one or an Uber.
Damn, that sucks. I never have to worry about traffic, I have no time delay when traveling during rush hour by bike. More people on bikes means less cars, less traffic jams. I don’t understand why other countries move away from cars, there are only benifits and no downsides switching to a stronger public transit and cycling infrastructure. It unclugs traffic so businesses have faster travel times, there are less accidents, the city is cleaner, there is more room to build as there is less need for parking space, road maintenance is cheaper, the cities get a better feeling for being in as people are invited to be in the streets instead of their cars. There’s more room for greenery, which has a mental benifit as well as rainwater management. Kids can play on the streets safely again instead. It’s not hard to do. Rotterdam was rebuilt after the second world war when it was wiped from the map by German bombing. They built it up like American cities, completely car focused. They completely changed it to bike friendly because of accidents and clogging, making a very shitty city a very nice one.
How easy is it for you to take your bike on the train in that area? I was visiting Utrecht recently and was really surprised they only allowed 2-3 bikes on the entire train (off peak hours too).
I avoid rush hour because people are annoying. I usually have no issue with bringing my bike, most of the times there are a few bike areas on each train and when it’s 5 instead of 3 while people can still pass the hallway no one would care about it. But it’s just as easy to use a bike from NS (national railway), they are at every station and it’s cheap. A folding bike is free to take by train, I might buy an electric one in the future.
