Sep 22nd, 2009 at 11:17 am
A Country After the Blogosphere’s Heart
Germany not only features supertrains that can carry you swiftly from city-to-city, but some of the trains in question—including the one I’m currently on—have Wifi. Admittedly, not the fastest connection I’ve ever seen but pretty useful nonetheless.
30 Responses to “A Country After the Blogosphere’s Heart”
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September 22nd, 2009 at 11:27 am
It’s really remarkable to ride a train across Germany. Last summer, I took the ICE from Berlin to Muenster (actually connected to a RB in Hamm for the final leg) and saw solar panels on top of farmhouses and rows of wind generators on hills, and we whizzed along smoothly in a fast train.
When I arrived back in Missouri in August, we drove from St. Louis to Kansas City, a shorter distance that took longer than our trip across journey. We saw strip malls, the occasional combination truck stop/McDonalds or Subway, and a lot of abandoned buildings. Zero wind generators, zero solar panels.
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:31 am
Jeebus, I should have hit preview before posting a comment that reads like an eight year old wrote it.
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:43 am
Fifty-five minutes, Frankfurt to Cologne on a day trip last year for me and the wife. Used to take about 2 and a half hours in the car on the speedy autobahns. Can’t understand why it has taken my countrymen in the states to come around to high speed rail.
And in our village between Frankfurt and Wiesbaden there are many houses sporting solar panels on the roofs. Wind generators everywhere.
Soon we will walk through town and eat dinner outside in the village square. The big question is Italian or Tapas? No chains here, so I guess I can’t ask for advice.
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:44 am
Is Wi-Fi uncommon on trains here in the States? The commuter rail here in MA seems to have it on most trains from what I can tell… though I don’t use it so I don’t know if it sucks or not.
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:46 am
Can’t understand why it has taken my countrymen in the states to come around to high speed rail.
Because we’re not so easily duped by socialist plots, assmunch.
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:51 am
“Germany not only features supertrains that can carry you swiftly from city-to-city, but some of the trains in question—including the one I’m currently on—have Wifi.”
No beer in the drinking fountains?
September 22nd, 2009 at 12:10 pm
My partner’s uncle has three taps in his kitchen sink; one of them is for beer that fits into a built-in kegolator where in the U.S. we’d have a disposal. Disposals, incidentally, are illegal in Germany, since pretty much everywhere has composting.
September 22nd, 2009 at 12:18 pm
I think a country after the blogosphere’s heart would be one in which all your base are belong to a small group of people.
September 22nd, 2009 at 12:19 pm
“Admittedly, not the fastest connection I’ve ever seen but pretty useful nonetheless.”
It’s amazing how quickly we get used to miracles, isn’t it?
September 22nd, 2009 at 12:21 pm
I wonder whether the size of the U.S. poses an additional barrier to HSR here. Not the obvious problem of Chicago and Los Angeles being farther from each other than Paris and Moscow, and with a lot less in between, but the very uneven density in the U.S. and there being a single nation-state spanning the continent. If the Northeast were a separate, roughly Germany-sized country of German density, it could spend Federal funds on HSR that would benefit all areas of the country. In the U.S., it doesn’t make sense to build HSR anywhere west of the Mississippi except for the West Coast and the “Texas Triangle”, so you have 40 Senators loath to spend a nickel on it. HSR is by its nature a regional project, and the size of those regions matches nicely with the size of France, Germany, Spain, etc., but poorly with the size of the U.S. as a whole or with the size of individual states. I guess IL, IN, OH, WI, MN, and MO could have parallel legislation and funding and execution of a Midwest HSR system, but this is a lot more complicated than being able to do HSR within a single political entity.
September 22nd, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Maybe some day when you’re older, Matt, you can do some real reporting!
Till then enjoy your paid-for junket!
Who knows? Perhaps they’ll give you and the other kids a toy choo-choo train as a souvenir, along with the other goodies they’re throwing your way!
September 22nd, 2009 at 12:59 pm
Some people are misguided about Euro HSR.
HSR doesn’t connect EVERY city, just major ones.
Yes, they crunched the numbers to know where the traffic is. Yet so many idiots in the US seem to think HSR lines will be built between places like Salina, KS and Sioux Falls, IA.
Boston-NY-PH-DC, of course. SF-LA-SD, of course.
BTW, Germany is a federal system – states just like the US and the state railway can’t just ride (roll?) roughshod over them.
September 22nd, 2009 at 1:13 pm
That would be those trains that push the average German ticket price 50% above the European average.
Fifty-five minutes, Frankfurt to Cologne on a day trip last year for me and the wife. Used to take about 2 and a half hours in the car on the speedy autobahns. Can’t understand why it has taken my countrymen in the states to come around to high speed rail.
Because the connection did cost 6 billion to build and the maintenance costs/environmental impact is also higher than for slower routes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cologne%E2%80%93Frankfurt_high-speed_rail_line
I even took the old route 2 years ago. For late booking that connection was ~ 20€ Cheaper, beautiful countryside alonge the Rhine. Most train travel is in essence free time, i dont understand why people are enthusiastic about throwing arround billions to add another minute less on a train.
Sometimes you get the feeling the median German has to work one hour longer to save 1 hour travel time with those super high speed connections.
September 22nd, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Germany? Oh, noes — Jonah was right?!!!?!?!!
September 22nd, 2009 at 1:29 pm
I actually do agree with Matt here. I would gladly trade the German social welfare system for our own. Any day of the week. Maybe after that, we can tack on the French higher education system. Then, as far as I’m concerned, we can call it a day. We’d have given those with the ability to succeed an accessible path to get there and made sure that those who do not can not fail too badly.
That’s a system that enables success and gives people the ability to try for it without ruining themselves.
September 22nd, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Clark — You’re too hard on yourself. I thought your two short paragraphs were quite evocative. You must have been a very bright 8 year old.
Being a daily DC Metro commuter and occasionally taking Amtrak it doesn’t take much to make me nostalgic for the U Bahn or the Deutsche Bahn.
Given the general contempt and neglect in the US for public transportation it’s not much of a surprise that the Germans do it so much better than we do. But they also build much better roads. Why is that?
September 22nd, 2009 at 2:03 pm
It’d be nice to see that kind of wi-fi and public transportation meld in the States but I don’t know of many areas that would be considered connected outside of metropolitan areas.
September 22nd, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Amtrak has tested wireless internet on the Acela Express, but has yet to roll it out.
As for roads, Germans build better roads because road building receives more funding there. What a socialist hell-hole..
September 22nd, 2009 at 2:55 pm
BTW, Germany is a federal system – states just like the US and the state railway can’t just ride (roll?) roughshod over them.
The U.S. is more federal than most federal systems–intuition based on how things work in the U.S. is not a reliable guide to how they work elsewhere.
In Germany, there is no state income tax, or state sales tax or VAT. The only taxes levied by states are certain small excise taxes. 95% of taxes collected in Germany are federal, and some of this money is disbursed by the federal government back to the states–the rest is spent by federal ministries.
On the other hand, the federal government in the U.S. collects barely half of all taxes.
German states have less constitutional power than U.S. states, and they have less power of the purse than U.S. states. And every state (including the city-states) in Germany but one has at least one line in excess of 200 kph within its borders. So for governmental as well as geographical regions, high-speed rail in Germany is a national project.
September 22nd, 2009 at 3:00 pm
That would be those trains that push the average German ticket price 50% above the European average.
Citation? If “European average” includes Eastern Europe and especially European Russia, I’m surprised it’s only 50% higher. Are these prices per journey, or per kilometer? Does it include commuter rail?
If you have HSR that can compete with airfares, people will start taking the train to go 250 miles rather than fly. So if you’re adding a bunch of fast, competitive-with-flying trains, of course the average price will go up, since all you’re doing is adding premium tickets. The relevant comparison is how expensive trips of the same duration and speed are in Germany versus elsewhere.
September 22nd, 2009 at 3:01 pm
doh! on closing the bold tag.
September 22nd, 2009 at 3:28 pm
The ICE is reasonably priced if you buy your tickets ahead of time when the fares are up to 80% reduced. And you can get a BahnCard 50, which gives you a 50% discount, for a couple hundred euros/year.
The high fares are there for business travelers who often travel on short notice and have inflexible schedules.
September 22nd, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Please, there are not enough prophaganda institutes in Europe to come up with an idear like using price per travel minute instead of kilometer. I think those numbers include commuter trains. And no i cant find the article that had this 50%. So i do remember that the article specifically pointed out that Germany and the UK were the most expensive in all Europe. So that includes such formidable high salery country rail systems as the Suiss or the French as cheaper.
Germany is not much of a high speed rail vs train place. Most trips are from places without airport to places without airport and/or shorter distances. Also theres lots of room to make rail faster than planes for a lower prices than whats sometimes invested now. And sometimes its probably just time to let go and let the planes do it if high speed rail looks just very expensive due to unfortunate geography (many hills and people in between the cities which means lots of money for tunnels, bridges, noise reducation. That explains partly why the French are cheaper with their big city to big city with nothing in between connection. The French just run their taines irregular schedule yield managment style there without careing about connecting trains which makes the trains 75% full instead of 50% in Germany on connections that are faster and cheaper to build than German high speed rail.
September 22nd, 2009 at 4:42 pm
“The high fares are there for business travelers who often travel on short notice and have inflexible schedules….”
Is that related to my post or just general information”? I know the Bahn price system quite. That does not change that the average price paid by real travellers in Germany is on the higher end or that it is often very economical to skip the wlan connected ICE for a regional train or IC. And of course that would be even more economical if Deutsche Bahn would stop to change their connections in a way that makes longer trips without ICE use harder and slower.
Let me give an example: Should someone that earns 20€ a hour in Nuremburg really take the new super fast ICE to Munich for a day trip to the Oktoberfest or should he just get a Bayernticket?
September 22nd, 2009 at 5:10 pm
He should get a Bayernticket, but what’s your point?
The ICE is a premium service. You pay extra to get to your destination faster and in a nicer train. I don’t see any problem with that, it’s the same in most other countries.
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:15 pm
” Maybe after that, we can tack on the French higher education system.”
You mean have a low-rent free system for the plebs , and the Grande Ecoles for the elite?
I can’t believe anyone would want to imitate the French higher education system, personally.
Higher education, technology and immigration are main things the U.S. does *well*.
September 22nd, 2009 at 8:03 pm
The difference between the US and France is that many people in France actually try hard to make grand école acess as independent of social background as possible. Not that they suceed…
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:49 pm
Germany? Oh, noes — Jonah was right?!!!?!?!!
Nicely done.
September 23rd, 2009 at 5:02 am
True, German rail travel has gotten pretty expensive, mostly due to the former boss Hartmut Mehdorn’s mad take-no-prisoners drive to privatise the rail system. Thankfully, scandals and the recession have nixed all plans, as service on rural routes just kept getting worse. For all of the attention that the HSR net draws, it’s the commuter rail lines and the “S-Bahn” nets that need the most attention.
The Deutsche Bahn is recovering from a folly of trying to compete with air travel, instead of expanding on and improving their local service. A slew of stations and lines have been closed for being unprofitable, and too little attention was paid to making the rail net attractive to transporting goods. Still, despite the missed opportunities, the situation is still better than in the USA, and even the UK is re-nationalising their rail network.
September 24th, 2009 at 9:20 am
I was on a bus in Malaysia last winter that had WiFi.
Granted, it was a KL-Singapore express, but still. A bus.