As a European I have to say, you are very optimistic about our train schedules.

Japanese transit users: "Don't worry, we can grab the next one. It will be here in 48 seconds."

I think you may have Europe confused with Japan.

Wait, you guys have trains?

As an American, I don't have access to trains, buses, bike lanes, sidewalks or even a shoulder on the road. The last time I tried to walk home from the tire shop two miles away, three people stopped to offer me a ride because it is that dangerous. I live inside the 275 loop that runs around Cincinnati.

Although there are many improvements to be made, like international euro rail connecting the capitals, better prices, a reliable DB and most importantly EU standard track system, I love our euro rails.

But I've gotta confess, the fact the US train is called Marc is kinda cool.

"Hey, I wonder where Marc is. Is he coming?"

"Nah men, Marc is completely derailed again. He burned down an entire town and he's toxic AF."

Deutsche Bahn has entered the chat.

...that's the shanghai maglev

edit: it was built by siemens though, so get a few euro wank points.

The problem with trains is they are public (under)founded. The rich and powerfull with political influence don't want working public transportation because less carsales, oil, gasoline etc.

Which explains why Musk prevented a high speed train in the US with his hyperloop. We all need to buy EV"s which have most of the downsides of traditional cars.

When we could have clean, fast and comfortable public transportation.

EDIT: Spelling.

American here - I recently started taking the train to go to work! Previously I couldn't due to no trains scheduled for the return home trip after my shift was over, but after getting a new schedule, I got on board the train! So far in the past two months, I've already had a few instances of the train being delayed or missing it entirely. One day, the train was delayed by 30 minutes and stated they would be held for an unknown amount of time to put out a fire on the tracks at a station ahead - drove into work that day. Another day, the train was delayed by 5 minutes. Outside of that, I was late to the train by like 5 minutes and it left without me (still adjusting to early morning schedule).

So far, I like taking the train much more than driving the car.

funny but inaccurate

i live in vienna. the train comes so often, nobody bothers to check the schedule anymore. just wait 2 mins, enter, go.

I am here to represent the germans. The country where the only thing we agree about is, how fucking shit our trains are

Where is this magical European place with trains that are only .5sec delayed? Our public transit authority considers train "on time" if they're no more than 20min late...and still, less than 80% of trains are "on time"...

Wait until you hear about German trains.

Which eu countries? Most of eu countries are on second meme

As an American living in a region with halfway decent (by American standards) public transit, I feel like I hear more comments aligned with the European side than the American side. If public transit has literally any downsides, that's justification enough to drive for so many people.

It's not like a BMW is more reliable.

You clearly havent heard of swedish trains.

The railroad here is a bad joke at this point, mainly due to shutting down the organization that was responsible for maintainence and shoving it into another agency that has no clue. As a bonus the new agency doesn't even do the repair work themselves but hires contractors at the lowest bidder. So stuff breaks constantly, which causes delays.

At this point just getting the rail network to "normal" standards would cost billions. Let alone expanding it to cope with current traffic levels.

Meanwhile in Japan: Train is 30 seconds late "here's a letter for your employer explaining why you were only 29 minutes and 30 seconds early for your 8 hour shift that will inevitably have an additional 8 hours of unpaid overtime tacked on to it."

Deutsch Bahn would like a word.

I often take my car because it's so damn unreliable.

Not once, not twice, but three times I've sat on a train for 2+ hours without moving within the past 2 years.