THE GERMAN €9 EURO TRAVEL CARD EXPERIMENT: Success or fail ?
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- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
- There was a great deal of publicity around the German €9 travel card. It was valid June, July and August 2022, and so I decided to visit the Fatherland while this deal was on, and experience it's popularity. From empty trains to sardine cans, you'll see it all. There's S-Bahn, U-Bahn, various regional operators and even ICE trains, although they weren't included in the scheme.
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I’ve been on a “Deutschland-Tour” for three weeks and spent 3000€ for Hotels and food. Without the 9€ ticket I would have stayed at home…!
Ulm-München- Nürnberg-Erfurt-Leipzig-Görlitz- Dresden-Frankfurt/O- Berlin-Quedlinburg- Wernigerode-Hannover-Münster-Essen-Aachen-Koblenz and some other cities and towns… My first vacation in five years.
Thank you, Bundesregierung !
Used to take French regional trains I’m used to blocked train seats. Often the train personnel told the people to remove luggage from the seats and bikes for storage in the luggage-racks or overhead or under the seat…
P.S.: The ticket was for all modes of “slow transport “, including ferries and ships.
Btw; I dislike people streaming in a train before the others are stepping out ! Just stand by side the doors and wait !
The one thing that the countries of Europe have over the uk is everything is better
Just the improvement in pollution figures is sufficient reason to patronize this service . It was an experiment no doubt but they could use the data collected to fine tune the operation . Overall it seems the majority of the commuters were satisfied and willing to take up the offer. Finland is one of the countries which is looking to abolish or minimize private transportation- they have my vote . Thanks Scot.
I visited Germany using this special ticket and I used it!!! Well done Germany! I visited 3 cities and had a great time.
Just another great video. Love what you do and all the places you take us. Thank you.
I recognize this so well, looking at an ICE or IC train with a card which is only valid on regional trains :)
They could easily adjust this to make sure stations are not so busy at certain times. It was only a trial. Things go wrong and they can learn from it. I should imagine tourism would increase if this were implemented full time. Lots more revenue for towns and cities 👍
At 9 €, it was so hugely underpriced that the state hat to chip in billions a month to compensate for lost fares.
You can only learn and adjust or adapt a concept if the original concept is remotely sustainable - and 9 € a month for full national usage of local transports never was.
However, it created more disappointment at the end than people appreciated this debt-financed gift while it lasted.
I think it should have been priced at 29 € a month originally - that would have brought in almost three times the money, to most, it would have still been a no-brainer and it wouldn't have created excessive expectations of practically getting free transport forever.
I did Cologne, Mainz, Wurzburg and Nuremberg, maybe at the same time that you were there. I had a great time! The Wuppertaler Schwebebahn was also part of the scheme. The Germans I spoke with though, weren't all so enthusiastic with the deal. Imagine if your daily commute, for the three months of the summer, became overcrowded trains, running late, arriving on the 'wrong" platform etc. I am suspicious of the environmental benefits claimed as well. Sure me driving there, would have been worse, but I was only there... because of this cheap ticket. Sure many of the trains are electric.... but the Germans are generating electricity right now, through solar, wind.... err and coal....
It's an absolutely brilliant concept. It could well make a brilliant book for train lovers (appreciators) around the world to visit countries, especially with
good railway systems, and a plan great rail holiday by using trains. Come on Scotty, with your passion for train travel, and your contacts, you could be on
a winner here. Highlighting accommodation, things to see and do for all travel budgets. Advertisers would come forward to make it a truly viable paying
proposition. Good grief, I'm dreaming on your behalf here mate! Toot Toot!
Super video and your approach to public transport. What A good idea and I noticed our government is offering a maximum price of a bus journey to £2. Thank you for the video.
Great, many thanks.
Scott, and anyone else for that matter maybe interested to hear that here in Kent, England there will be FREE bus travel next weekend 24th and 25th June - god knows what that will be like, maybe horrendous,matbe great. I recall decades ago British Rail did a super cheap day and trains were dangerously overcrowded but showed you CAN get people to use public transport when its priced right
Excellent and a great topic. Thank you.
Great video, it appears that you got the full experience of German regional rail. The train at 6:38 is in fact just a regular DB-operated regional service. Some lines/regions have been given names, so the RE9 line (the train in question) is also called the Rhein-Sieg Express. The same is true for the RRX lines, which share the branding and naming but are operated by different companies. That's why National Express has a different livery on the Rhein-Ruhr Express; all lines under that name run with rolling stock ordered by the local government.
I should also point out that the train at 6:38 is half the length it usually is, and even then the seats are barely enough during busy times. So I hope everyone that got on that train could deal with being uncomfortably close to lots of other people for a while.
I’ve written down my comments on a piece of cardboard 😂
Very interesting Scott 👍🏻
There is probably a sweet spot for a price that helps people but does not overload the system. I used the Thames Clipper last week and that had the same issue with loading and unloading passengers. It was 30 mins late arriving in Westminster from Greenwich due to having to let passengers off before any could board at each stop.
Good Video Scott! The €9 ticket ha been amazing, The upsides are obvious,but the downsides you highlighted well. The packed trains and I personally experienced many train cancellations. The Rolling stock on RRX routes are good and the German system of Route numbers is cool. You should of toured around Koblenz and The U-Bahn(Stadtbahn) in Köln. It’s strange seeing National Express running German trains,but cool as NE also use English language as well as German on the trains. Keep up the good work!!
DB run a lot of former BR franchises.
Great video Scott. I was hoping you'd make it to Wuppertal's Schwebebahn.
Great video! I wonder how our UK rail operators would cope with tickets that cheap?
A lot of them are not Uk owned so dont give a damn
Sounds good £9.00, they do look after the people,
Love Scott 👍👍👍
nice one scott 💪
Hey, just so you know, I'm sure the people in this video don't mind, but it's illegal in Germany to record strangers up close even in public as it violates their privacy rights. You should blur people's faces when their in the front of the frame before uploading when recording in Germany.
Sounds an interesting idea, but in the UK we already have overcrowding on trains and such a scheme would only worsen overcrowding. We need longer trains !
That shouldn't be an excuse to make it possible though.
Could we get double decker trains in the UK, like the one in the clip, or does our infrastructure not make it possible?
@@davidness5491 tunnels and overhead power supplies would be a problem, if as expected, the double decker trains are taller than normal trains.
They may also require more power than standard trains - not sure if all electrified lines can deliver the required power
@@andyyu5957
The UK has electrified with 25kv, so power shouldn't be an issue. Where there's overhead lines there should also be enough space for double deck trains. The issue is that even electric lines in the UK (with the exeption of HS1) were built with the UK loading gauge in mind. This means that trains need a narrow profile that tapers towards the top (so that they don't collide in superelevated curves), and thus that a double deck train couldn't use the space efficiently. I'm sure that this could be changed through infrastructure upgrades, but as things are now double deck trains in the UK would have all the same disadvantages as the do in mainland Europe, but with a far smaller increase in capacity.
Fail. Everything the government (any government) tocuhes in the marketplace gets distorted and the law of unintended consequences kicks in. I fully expect pro-State NPCs to disagree with me. In terms of the 9 eur ticket - very overcrowded regional trains especially in July, lack of staff, existing infrastructure issues. Look, for commuters it works but if you want to go anywhere long distance you simply cant take regional trains- it takes too long and the timetable is designed for you to fail (ie miss an important connection).
The idea behind the card was to help locals with their cost of living. As most travellers move regionally, that's why it was restricted to regional trains. In theory long distances could be covered, but patience would be required, and that wasn't the original plan behind the ticket.
06:47 🤣Top video Scott, really interesting, although the offer does appear to take away a lot of the pleasure of travelling! Love seeing Germany though, one of my favourite countries to visit.
For this reason, I chose to make a trip to Germany this summer.
9 euro ticket was an excellent idea. I traveled a lot(Berlin, Hamburg) in August.
Disadvantages: The trains traveled with delay, sometimes a missed transfer, no this is a change to travel in very good price in all of Germany.
Again people in Germany are a step ahead, Thank you :)
Ivaylo/Bulgaria/Sofia
In 2019, our small town of 30k lowered the city bus fares from €2.10 to €1. It costs the city about €40,000 more a year. In some months the revenue was higher than before!
Reminds me of the £5 go anywhere ticket on Scotrail in the late 80's.
I was working the Fort Willy sleepers that day. I could barely get into the station at 05h30 for the 05h50 dep. I had to chuck people out of the sleeper corridor. And my guards compt. And, because we were working with dilapidated Mk 1's, I had to stop them sitting on the mail bags. The incoming day stock off the Inverness sleepers were tied onto us and the loco was up the tunnel. We had to be banked up the tunnel and at Craigendoran we lost traction. Punters were getting out and walking beside the train. Should have been double headed. Crossed at Garelochhead instead of Spean Bridge. Train arrived about four hours late. The mismanagement couldn't find enough busses to get everyone home.
The exercise was never repeated
All public transport in Luxembourg has been totally free for a few years (except first class train seats)
I wenr with the 9€ ticket down to Görlitz in old DDR (GDR) from Rostock and Berlin in July. Not so crowded as I thought it would be. A short trip into Poland and Czech Republic before going back to Dresden. Down to Munich via Chemnitz, Hof and Nuremberg. Further on to Lake Bodensee and then up via Stuttgart, Frankfurt and Cologne. "Linke Rhein-strecke". Dortmund, DÜsseldorf and Bremen via some RE-Services and via Hamburg to Rostock and the ferry to Trelleborg in Sweden. RE1 - "Hanse Express" from Hamburg to Rostock was not at all crowded but the trains from Frankfurt up to Cologne were ! Exactly as in the video Ohh,,, I also went to see the Wuppertaler Schwebebahn !
Wow impressive. 👍👏
@@V8VORLICH About 400€ for 13 days
Nice New haircut Scott, is that a £9 haircut..?. Looks a lot better short and tight, takes years off your look 😉
Ha ha! It was well overdue. :-)
I travelled from Berlin to München with it :) 11 nice hours
Another great video mate keep up the amazing work also the trains in Germany put our trains to shame in the UK as they look amazing thanks again for sharing. I am also from Scotland as well
Loved the 9€ ticket.
Went from Cologne to Aachen 2 times.
Im hyped for the 49€ ticket.
Hope Germany safes the Train, but the Car Lobby is very strong
I used the 9€ tickets, but it was a horrible experience, because the trains were so crowded. No fun at all.
I had to laugh when I saw National Express mentioned a train operator. So German passengers are paying money which ends up coming back to the UK !? Makes a change from the nationalisation brigade in this country banging on about UK passengers subsidising German railways!
NE (and NL) have got some of the SBahn franchises - not the most lucrative. DB run much of our former BR freight services. They seem to get a much better deal than we do.
DB run services in the UK, France and the Netherlands (and others), whilst the Dutch and French national operator as well as UK firms run trains in Germany. And it's this way across Europe. I suppose in some way this might make sense; personally it just appears unnecessary.
The money goes to a German subsidiary of National Express. It's not the UK mother ship running this service.
If theres one thing I love about Germany.. Its the quality of Sausage you get there.
I was often in Cologne and Düsseldorf This time,visited some friends. Next Year they bring out the 49€ Ticket,also a good deal...
Does the 49 € card include more regional trains or more intercity, or is it the same regional train category for me money?
@@lorettaray8317 no its the same but more expansive and not to buy easy ...
To ride the buses which is the only mode of public transportation in Toledo, Ohio in America it costs $1.50 one way or $3.00 dollars two ways. You can buy a monthly pass for $45.00 or a weekly pass for $15.00 or you can buy a day pass for $3.00 and it is good for 24 hrs.
Would love to do this for a month of travelling around Germany, staying a night or so in some places and moving on. Could get to see a large part of the country, maybe next year when I might be able to do this.
Great idea, but clearly needs some tweaking to make it work more smoothly. i hope they do sort it out and other countries follow suit.
£14.45 to travel around Dundee for a week... bearing in mind Dundee is only 67km squared... drop in the pond... man we get ripped off here.
Oh and while people who don't use public transit may claim it had no benefit to them... Taking that many cars off the road will have meant they would have spent a significantly less amount of their time being traffic in a traffic jam...
Yes that's an aspect that is usually ignored by the petrolheads ...improved public transport helps personal transport
Interesting to see still masks are still required in Germany and how busy trains are. Trains late in Germany? That is a surprise. Thanks for the video.
Masked fools !
Not a surprise at all. German railways are notorious for their delays, and often it is true. The 9-Euro-Ticket obviously made things ten time worse, due to overcrowding and longer dwell times.
The national rail network in Germany is nothing special. The local rail networks are what is so impressive about public transport in Germany.
23 cities have some kind of local subway, subway/tram hybrid network or a suburban railway with a few subway stations under the town centre and over 30 further cities have a tram network.
Local rail networks are very dense. Living less than a 5min walk from a subway station or tram stop with a departure every 10 minutes is quite an ordinary thing in Germany. Wuppertal even has a hanging monorail.
It's also normal for kids and students under 25 to pay monthly for a ticket that let's them use all local rail and bus in their city and the surrounding region.
Great Skaughtisch accent!
8x Berlin-Warnemünde 🤩🥳😍 1x Umweg via Schwerin, gab Verspätung mit der S-Bahn, haben es so noch nach Berlin geschafft,da der Zug in Schwerin warten musste. Merci an db und ODEG , super geklappt😘
I hope that they repeat this offer next year. It seems like a good time to travel on the ICE trains if you are going on a long distance journey.
they repeat IT in August,Its a German Insider information ✌️
Just think, this is something that is not possible with the private UK trains operators I think; it really needs to a public entity for this to work.
Many opearators are private as well
I had to smile when you confirmed that there's no catering on regional services - I thought - "Would he expect a restaurant car on his line to Bolton?????"
Maybe not, but pre-Covid, some Scotrail services had a catering trolley service. Thinking back, a trolley service probably wouldn't be easy to implement on a double-decker train with steps! :-)
regional trains can be something of a mixed bag in terms of distance travelled- for example London Northwestern services even going as far as London Euston to Liverpool would still be just regional trains- and absolutely on a journey of that length there should be some sort of onboard catering
I was there on the last day, just arrived into Offenburg from Paris for a week in the Schwarzwald. Train was about 25 minutes late and absolutely packed! Lessons to be learned sure, but how wonderful, can you see this ever happening in the UK? It's why I like Germany, they care more about their citizens, even though it costs a lot of money.
I'm Dutch and I used it twice for filming. without it probably 0 times. So it creates traffic is what I conclude out of my 1 person research
They should do this in the UK but maybe just applicable to off-peak times
As far as I know nothing similar will be offered here in Italy. I'd certainly take advantage if it were. I drive most of the time but love travelling by public transport; unfortunately it's just not viable where I live in central Italy with the exception of rail travel. I love watching your videos and since subscribing a few months ago I'm working my way through all the old ones. Thanks Scott.
I was based in Berlin in the mid 80s and did a few British Military Train guards, from West Berlin through east Germany to West Germany, It even had a 4 star restaurant on it. Was a long old day around 16 hours for us guards. (Only 4 guards - 2 in the front carriage and 2 at the rear - we were issued with SMGs (Sub-Machine Guns) with 9 rounds of ammo each). Not sure that would have stopped the Russian hoards getting on the train if they wanted. Also used to see the Russian army transport trains, yep just cattle trucks no seats and all the soldiers looked Mongolian.
Of course it's obvious---lower the price and people will use public transport. Thank you for this---hope you enjoyed yourself!
Great train services in Germany. Even without a 9 Eur deal their train ticket prices are so much cheaper than the UK, probably because the UK public don't make a stand on the prices they are willing to pay and end up subsidising the fares of the citizens in Germany, Netherlands, France and anyone else who owns a UK travel franchise
And I would guess another factor is that the railway is subsidised much more in European countries than in the UK.
That’s privatisation for you.
7:37 I was unaware National Express operated trains in DE.
We Germans tend to 'reserve' two seats with our bagpack, kitchen sink or whatever comes in our mind because there is no other legal way, to do it. It's not possible to buy a second ticket to have two seats. Even on ICE and IC services, you CAN book a second seat reservation, but as soon as that train starts moving and no real person sits in that seat, the reservation is gone and anyone can come and sit there.
Deutsche Bahn makes very clear that their top priority is safety and that means that as many people as possible have to get a seat in their trains. And putting our bags on the seats next to us to have some privacy and space is basically our way of civil disobedience.
Deutsche Bahn COULD only sell tickets that are bound to a seat reservation, even on local trains. It's the 21. century and the technology is there. This would allow those of us who want to use two seats to buy two and use both, but this would probably mean that a lot of people wouldn't get a ticket, because there are far to less trains and far to less seats on a couple of lines during rush hour.
I have holidayed several times in the Black Forest area and the guest house gave me a free travel pass valid for local buses and trains (except ICE trains) which covered a fair bit from Freiburg in the north, and to Basel and to the Swiss border in the south.
love your adventures Scott, that would be really minted in the uk that travel card but only larger cities i guess would rerally benefit or probably get it. as its regional even if our new formed BCP got it my 9 quid travels would be really limited. anything beyond Sandbanks is Purbeck council ran, and anything beyond Christchurch well that is another county council altogether as its Hampshire. would be great if gov did a whole uk valid card but i doubt that is ever gonna happen to many fat cats want the cream. hopefully they do county cards rather than city ones.
A little additions/insigts.
The RRX trainsets (Desiro HC RRX by siemens) are owned by the regional railway authority... NRWs plan with the RRX scheme is by 2030 to deliver an interweaved rail network in the whole federal state of NRW...
Since 2019 these trains are leased to be operate by national express Rail Germany and abellio Rail NRW (after Abelio Germany a subsidiary of dutch state railway operator and its subsidiaries went into administration in 2020) the operation was awarded as operator of last resort to national express till the end of 2023. that is the current awarded timeframe for NX Rail Germanys operation rights). The RE services run in nx livery are run on class 442 emus (Bombardier Talent 2) units since 2015 .
A similiar sheme with centrally owned rolling stock exists in Baden Würtemberg (BWegt) consisting of DB Regio, Go-Ahead Baden-Würtemberg and SWEG.
The different red trains RSX, SPNV Nord, S-Bahn Frankfurt are operated by DB Regios subsidiaries those are not by itself another operater rather brands of the regional subsidiaries of DB Regio...
DB Regio has ccurrently this Subsidiaries
DB Regio Baden-Württemberg
DB Regio Bayern
DB Regio Mitte (incl. S-Bahn RheinNeckar)
DB Regio Nord (incl. DB Regio Schleswig-Holstein)
DB Regio Nordost
DB Regio NRW
DB Regio Südost
S-Bahn Berlin
S-Bahn Hamburg
S-Bahn München
S-Bahn Rhein-Main
S-Bahn Stuttgart
Regionalverkehre Start Deutschland GmbH
DB RegioNetz Verkehrs GmbH.
They introduce a permanent 49€ per month ticket beginning in May. It’s not 9€ but then - still quite reasonable for a whole month!
Does the 49 € card include more trains?
@@lorettaray8317 No, only regional trains, trams and bus services.
wow amazing. I pay £75 for a month bus 🚌 pass...
It’s incredibly rude to occupy a seat with your belongings when it’s apparent someone needs it!
You must live in utopia if you haven’t seen that.
Perhaps the UK Government should think about this once they have enough trains to cope
hi scott i have just discovered your channel and have been binge watching I also saw a video where you came to where i live Milngavie! love your channel I woul also be interested in you rating the 5 main stanard class services across scotland
Pity our government won't do anything like that. Train operators in the UK are rubbish anyway . Here in Wales we're run by Transport for Fails lol. I thought the video was great though .👍
in the absence of sufficient rolling stock to meet demand, I have to think that a repeat of this would need to be at a higher price to try and manage demand... and with prices as low as this, there is room to try at a higher price without all the demand disappearing at once...
It just shows costs of public transport if at the correct price cab save the environment.
How do you enter the ID on the ticket machine if you have a passport ?
Hi, could we know where you got the stats at 01:20 from?:)
The Northern Rail £1 per ticket for a single journey is a genuine offer. You can make decent trips at good times. That said a government led scheme would be interesting and at least worthy of attempting given the carbon reduction statistics. Also the pure enjoyment of getting out and about, from which the less well off may be excluded, should be factored in.
Even people who didn't travel by public transport benefitted because there was less road traffic and less pollution
I travelled from Aachen to Hamburg on that ticket annoyingly I was 3 hours late but the trains were all full
That said it was a Friday
Absolutely nothing to ask someone is there someone on this seat.
I would be more than happy if I could get from north Wales to the north of Inverness for £7.00 (off peak return with railcard £117 at the time of writing) even if it did 9 hrs!
Terribly overfilled trains.
I tried it in Germany in July for a day trip in the Ortenau district, as we were staying in Strasbourg (which is served by the Ortenau S-Bahn) We travelled all the way to Baden-Baden (including to get local bus 201 to the town centre and back) and Offenburg by train, but had to take the train from Kehl, as the €9 tickets was not valid from Strasbourg and a one way ticket from there was at least 5 times as much.
The train between Appenweier and Baden-Baden though was appallingly busy and was dying of heat inside
With Strasbourg being in France, Even a short Train journey across a international Border will always be more expensive even if it is a few stops A local or Long distance train makes no difference.
Cos Strasbourg is in France!
nice one john why not try the free train travel in catalona from sept. to december.... brian d.
I would most certainly have taken advantage of this if I still lived in Germany.
I hope the UK are seriously looking at this, though I doubt they will!
Germany has a government budget surplus. That means they collect more money in taxes than they spend, so they can afford it.
The UK has the most debt out of pretty much any country in the world, except maybe America, and every year that debt is getting more because not enough money is collected by taxation. This means this will never happen in the UK.
Well maybe in 100-200 years if things change. But of course right now, the UK is still paying off its 2nd world war debt, not to mention 20 more years for covid debt...
@@marioluigi9599 it certainly doesn't help that the UK government is forgiving billions wasted on VIP PPE contracts, while making the rest of us pay for it!
@@toranshaw4029 Loool PPE??? Don't make me laugh. That's not the worst of it. The worst is that they're paying about £100 billion to gas and electricity companies who have hiked up their prices for no reason, other than that companies from other countries are also putting up prices.
But there's no reason why electricity produced by a wind turbine in the UK should suddenly cost so much more. It's nothing to do with russian gas. The operating costs of the turbine remain the same, but the UK government still indebted the country for it, while these energy companies are making so many billions literally in profit which they get to keep for their own pockets. They call it an "energy crisis", but really it's a massive energy cash cow for the energy producers. They love that it happened and Putin is their hero
@@toranshaw4029 I mean think about it, it's not like anything like a natural disaster happened or anything like that. No. All that happened was Putin put up the prices, and so everyone else did too, although they shouldn't be doing it because average people suffer from it. They only did it because they can. Without Putin's gas, there's less competition, so now they no longer have to sell at low prices and can literally just arbitrarily raise the price.
And now the country is even more indebted because of it. That's the kind of political system we have. It's pathetic, so never mind the PPE. The government puts company profits and "the free market competition" above people's lives. So it literally shows what slaves they are to the corporate world. No spine, nothing. So much for "democracy". If we really had democracy, do you really think the will of the people was to allow these companies to pocket all that money after they raised the prices just because they suddenly can?
No, I don't think that's the will of the people. So that shows you, we don't even live in a democracy. If it was a democracy, all those profits would go straight back into the people's pockets, and not put the country into debt. Literally what happened was, the energy companies found a way to actually steal from the treasury. Free money for them and the government was all too willing to provide it. At least the PPE companies actually produced something new. Energy companies produced nothing new, except higher prices because they had no more excessive competition in their market
Some sort of this experiment will run on Spain from september to december: free train transport on commuter and regional trains (you pay a fee when you "buy" the ticket, the fee will be reimborsed if you've done certain number of trips at the end of period).
In commuter is valid for all the stations in the area you are in
In regional you are fixed to a A to B stations.
I am off to Spain next week and it doesn’t apply to single journeys.
@@andrewlong6438 Exactly. As in Germany this is a special pass, not a direct discount on single journeys. Also the regular passes of public transport will be cheaper until december, those with more time of use will recieve more discount (a full month pass will have more discount than a 10 journey pass)
Nice video Scott ……. In U.K. , this would be out of the question. We are here to take your money.
i want to be like you when I get older
hope it is offered next summer!
Thanks for sharing amazing video
Yes I did the €9 in July. Trains south of Koln very busy. It was "fun" negotiating bottlenecks like Koblenz too. But by zigzagging routes it was possible to avoid changing at those stations so keeping ones seat for longer!!
I hope the UK do it also. Christmas would be great.
Interesting video
You must have a fair amount of patience Scott to endure journeys such as that. It reminded me of being crushed on the peak time Lanark to Glasgow train where you had to cling to a pole (pole dance) or keep your feet via stepping on others toes. The €9 travel card seems worth a try here, when normal service is resumed..?
Scott another fabulous video
U could easily get that stuck in the train doors 😅 sorry iv had a bottle of wine lol
Thanks for the video Scott. One question - you kept stating the points of information as "factoids" - which means "an item of unreliable information that is reported and repeated so often that it becomes accepted as fact". Can you elaborate further on why you believe the statements released by the government were unreliable?
I define factoids as simply small facts - nothing to do with reliability
They should call it the "hobo railpass"
Sounds like something an American might say. There are hardly any “hobos” on German trains, even when they’re super cheap.
This is a Rosetta Stone of a video. Well done Scott! I don’t think the UK would introduce it because it would smack too much of “communism” (ironically).
It’ll be a seen as anti brexit “losing sovereignty to Germany” can’t make our own ticket prices bull
We have just returned from a planned train trip around Germany. Cologne, Berlin, Dresden and Munich. Came home at great expense to us after the Cologne stay . The trains were the worst we have ever experienced and we travel extensively in France, Spain , Italy and Poland.
A train from cologne to Koblenz was compressed from 8 carriages to 2 without warning and we couldn't force our way back on. Every train was late. And dangerously overcrowded to the point where it was difficult to get on.
You're right about the bags on seats and their very poor manners.
Thanks for the video, Scott. We love them.
The bags on seats happens in plenty of European countries. Indeed the €9 is for the slow trains not the zippy ones.
@@johnmc3862
I agree that the problem of bags on seats can occur in other countries too but usually people quickly move them when they see you are standing and even apologize. This did not happen in Germany.
To reply to your second point, most of the problems of lateness and overcrowding we encountered were on the ICE trains, not the regional (9 Euro) ones.
Nice analysis Scott. Thank you.
You need to be assertive in Germany
I did use one ticket too, but for local public transport only. So not to make long trips. The delays in Germany are a concern: till a few years ago Germany was known for the high quality of it's train services, but it is in decline: only 61 percent of the long-distance trains are running on time right now, and that is not good... to say the least. Main cause is not the "€9,00 Ticket". It has all to do with money shortage for maintenance and investments. Then the price: to me just €9,00 per month to travel in almost all means of regional public transport in an entire country is not reasonable: it is just too cheap. It would be o.k. when this was the price for a dayticket or so. Then it would been a win-win ticket: reasonable price for passengers and reasonable income for the public transport companies. Example: in november I will be in London for a few days and when TfL was offering a dayticket for €9,00 (about 7 pounds) for everybody travelling in the greater London area? That would be a good deal.
Germany has a big public spending surplus. They should spend it on trains then.
@@danearl8607 good one
Back in the 90's you could get the Wochen-end" ticket which cost 30DM , saturday 00:00 to sunday 23:59 on regional trains. i made it from berlin to paderborn ( with big stop in Madgeburg )