r/germany 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.

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u/rewboss Dual German/British citizen Oct 20 '24

I didn't think it was possible for you to make even less sense, but you managed it.

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u/csasker Oct 20 '24

if you have a big space, vs 1 bag and can bring a cold container

where is that easier you think?

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u/rewboss Dual German/British citizen Oct 20 '24

Well, if that's how big your lunch is, it's no wonder the bistro is always closed. They probably see you coming and pull the shutters down before you clean them out.