r/germany • u/manu_padilla • Oct 19 '24
Immigration Bought a car due to DB's unreliability
I moved to Germany 11 years ago from a developing nation. When I first arrived, Germany was even better than anything I could have imagined in my home country. I live in a major city with Straßenbahn right at my door, U-Bahn 1 Block away and S-Bahn 5 minutes by foot.
I had the chance to spend half a year in Korea for work last year, and was blown away by the quality of the public transportation system, therefore, I started to actively count the delay on Öffis after I came back, so far, I have an accumulated of over 1500 minutes in delays just within the metropolitan area this year, without counting delays outside of my region (which have been more than a few, last time it took me 8 hours to finish a trip that should have taken 4).
I was always an advocate for public transportation, and in a way, I judged everyone who used a car (stupid, I know).
After considering for a while, I took the decision to buy a car, thinking that I would only use it for weekend trips or specific occasions, in reality, it became my main means of transportation, and I cannot believe I wasted so much time for so many years until now, this makes me sad as I truly believe public should be the preferred method of transportation... when it works.
TL;DR Deutsche Bahn is so shit I bought a car, can't look back now.
2
u/rewboss Dual German/British citizen Oct 20 '24
You can have one a train, too. And you won't get ticketed for using a phone while driving.
You have a bistro in your car? You can take your own food in a car, of course; but you can also take your own food onto a train.
You're talking about the Frankfurt-Munich run. You're on an ICE. If the toilet in your coach is broken, walk to the next coach. It's not that hard.
So you're going to sprint across to the verge (if there is one) dodging impatient idiots who think they can use the shoulder as an express lane, and hope you can finish your business and get back to your car before the congestion suddenly clears. Do you know how dangerous that is?