Germany's train service is one of Europe's worst. How did it get so bad?

Re:Germany's train service is one of Europe's worst. How did... by delichon on Saturday December 13, 2025 @08:49AM (#46254487)

> But they’ll stop choosing the train, and over 20 years you’ll find that everyone has moved to private vehicles or alternate transportation methods.

This is a country with a $2.68 per gallon gas tax, compared to $0.51 on average in the US (€0.60 v. €0.11 per liter). This is partly justified as nudging people to use less carbon intensive transport. That nudge works a lot less well when the lower carbon alternative is painfully worse than your car.

https://brilliantmaps.com/gas-petrol-taxes-us-ca-eu/

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Re:Germany's train service is one of Europe's worst. How did... by leviliebvin on Saturday December 13, 2025 @08:54AM (#46254510)

Car ownership is pretty expensive. But holistically speaking it's not more expensive than the Deutschland Ticket, because it gives you access to cheaper housing options that you wouldn't be able to live in if you depended solely on public transport.

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Re:Germany's train service is one of Europe's worst. How did... by delichon on Saturday December 13, 2025 @08:59AM (#46254540)

Can confirm for the US too. I live in a rural county with zero public transport, but when I tell city friends what the lot cost and the property tax on it, they have to hold back tears.

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Re:Germany's train service is one of Europe's worst. How did... by seba_dos1 on Saturday December 13, 2025 @11:30AM (#46255751)

You should rather compare with rural friends with access to public transport.

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Re:Germany's train service is one of Europe's worst. How did... by bombcar on Saturday December 13, 2025 @10:01AM (#46254989)

There's a way to combine those, and some countries have it done well (I believe this includes Germany) - you have a rail network that is good enough that you have small stops on feeder lines in rural areas; if you want to be rural you can be a mile from a train that gets you to a moderate-sized city where you can get the fast train.

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Re:Germany's train service is one of Europe's worst. How did... by jack_tripper on Saturday December 13, 2025 @08:59AM (#46254537)

>This is a country with a $2.68 per gallon gas tax, compared to $0.51 in the US.

Irrelevant comparison since US is a widely different animal to most European countries.

It might be expensive compared to the US, but Germany is still one of the countries with the most affordable income-to-cost ratios for car ownership in the Eurozone, so car commuting is incredibly common, especially for those not living in densely populated metro areas.

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Re:Germany's train service is one of Europe's worst. How did... by systemtest on Saturday December 13, 2025 @09:01AM (#46254552)

From what I can see online, two-thirds of Germans use a car to commute to work.

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Re:Germany's train service is one of Europe's worst. How did... by jack_tripper on Saturday December 13, 2025 @09:14AM (#46254642)

Well yes, not difficult to see why. Germany is quite big and quite sprawled, and given how expensive home ownership is in big metro areas people choose commute longer in exchange for affordable housing.

And also the government gives you tax rebates for your fuel expenses the further you have to commute for work which is a double edged sword.

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Re:Germany's train service is one of Europe's worst. How did... by dmix on Saturday December 13, 2025 @09:00AM (#46254544)

So you’d pay roughly $40 in tax to fill a sedan in Germany vs $7 in America at 15 gallons?

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Re:Germany's train service is one of Europe's worst. How did... by naian on Saturday December 13, 2025 @09:08AM (#46254599)

Not sure about Germany but in Spain tax on petrol is 44%. At current prices for petrol (1.3€/l) you need to pay around 78€ to fill a sedan (assuming 60 litre deposit) of which 34.3€ will go to the government.

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Re:Germany's train service is one of Europe's worst. How did... by wiredfool on Saturday December 13, 2025 @09:30AM (#46254751)

Damn. We're at 1.80 here and I just spent 105 eur. Now, that did go 800km in a 7 seat people mover...

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Re:Germany's train service is one of Europe's worst. How did... by bombcar on Saturday December 13, 2025 @10:02AM (#46254994)

Cars and minivans get very very competitive if you are running them full most of the time.

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Re:Germany's train service is one of Europe's worst. How did... by usrusr on Saturday December 13, 2025 @02:21PM (#46257112)

(*) certain two seater cars not included

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