this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2025
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Genuine Question. Even if I look at hungarian Transport, and they to this day use trains from the UdSSR, they come more consistantly then the DB.

They are really Bad sometimes, with like 20 seperate prices: Theres the bayernwald ticket that only works in the alps, then theres the official ticket to the destination. Theres a special offer, but only in the very special APP. You can use a d-ticket, but look! Some random ass slum in the middle of the worlds ass dosent accept that, but it does the MVV zone Tickets. But then you need the MVV zone 11-M, a ticket to the beginning to the NΓΌrnberg zones, and a ticket for the NΓΌrnberg zones.

And yet this shit is better than americas rails? How?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 20 minutes ago

Public transport in the US is when they bring that big police box van to arrest everyone.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 hours ago

This is the true answer, hence I don't need to sarcastically form my own.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

Public transportation doesn't work in the endless suburbs and stripmalls we've built. It's too spread out, and we've been doing it for a few generations now. It's difficult for my countrypeople to imagine living differently, to imagine that our existence may not be their birthright.

People think nothing of living 20 plus miles from where they work or go to school, can't imagine a world where such a thing is a ridiculous notion. We could have all these nice things. People want a better world, a more functional city.

But ask people to change, to live a smaller life, and be prepared for a deluge of excuses and justifications. We all wake up and collectively decide the world we're gonna live in today.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 hours ago

In a lot of areas it's virtually non-existent. In my medium size'd city. A bus stop is about 2 miles away and comes every 50 minutes.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 hours ago

We americans have been conditioned to accept common means convenient.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 hours ago

Non-existent/Absolutely abysmal

[–] [email protected] 21 points 6 hours ago

Only large, northeastern, US cities have anything resembling real public transportation.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

It may be bad in Germany but its worse in the USA. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, which has better transit options than the rest of the country. But its limited just to the city of San Francisco itself and maybe some parts outside the city. I just came back from a short trip to Germany, where my family lives. They live in Kassel, a mid-sized city in the north central part of the country. Even a mid-sized city has an extensive tram network and bus system. And a monthly transit card doesn't cost as much. Getting to Kassel itself was easy by train, though the train was 1/2 hour late. I am very, very jealous of my family.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 hours ago

...i tried to live with public transit in marin county: just commuting to my job was three hours each way, with a very narrow window of opportunity for walking to a grocer at my transfer hub and no recourse on nights when i had to work late...

[–] [email protected] 11 points 13 hours ago

Where I live, there are literally zero public transit options. There are a few bus stops closer to the downtown area, but honestly I have never actually seen the buses that supposedly go there. Usually there are just homeless people hanging out at the bus stops. We do have a small Amtrak station, which is nice, I guess, but it's way more expensive than driving and takes 4-10 times as long to get anywhere. Then when you get somewhere, you have to figure out how to rent a car. And this is the largest city in my state; most places don't even have well-paved roads, much less public transit.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Who Framed Roger Rabbit is surprisingly historically accurate if you ignore all the cartoons

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 hours ago

If the 'toons represent the working class, then ignoring them is very appropos of what the politicians do.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (1 children)

I live in a smallish town with decent public transport in the US. Free, highly reliable busses that go to nearly every part of town and a couple of the connected suburbs as well. The locals hate it, I guess they're still mad it messed up traffic? Idk I just tell them if they hate the traffic so much use the free bus that is supposedly making their life so much harder.

This is abnormal in the US, having decent public transport. Its basically only available in MAJOR metro areas like NYC, LA, Seattle, Chicago. Most of the country barely has functional public transport, let alone reliable.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Please, tell me where you live!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 21 minutes ago

This is the way.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 14 hours ago

American Public what?

I kid. But it's damned bad. I used to live just south of a major city (Baltimore, 500k people) beltway and worked just north of it.

We have a "subway" that has 3 stops, between one single suburb community and an area that was the city center decades ago.

We have one Lightrail. It goes North/South through the center of the city. I was extremely fortunate to live and work within walking distance.

There's a commuter rail that just follows the freight rail tracks south and east, and tickets are expensive and the trains only run a couple of times a day.

I was 32km from work, via lightrail, it took at least an hour and up to 3 hours each way.

It was 60km to drive around the beltway, that took roughly 30 minutes

Bus coverage is pretty good in poorer neighborhoods, and nearly non-existent when the neighborhoods reach non-poverty level. You'd literally need to walk down an expressway to get to the nearest bus stop where I am now. No sidewalks anywhere.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 19 hours ago

To be fair, German public transport (and I admit that I've only taken it around Berlin) is about average for Europe. Better than Norway not as good as the Netherlands.

From my limited travel around the states I can say that availability of public transport varies a lot from town to town.

Local transport: San Fransisco has a lot of public transport and its pretty reliable. I spent over a week in Shreveport Louisiana and I only saw a bus once. maybe I wasn't in the right place at the right time of day but it wasn't everywhere like in a European city. I haven't been to New York, but I have a new Yorker friend who says the subway stations are essentially a place for homeless people to masturbate when they get banned from the library. The entire state of Wyoming doesn't seem to have any public transport.

Intercity transport: The greyhound busses are used almost exclusively by people who are not legally allowed to drive (full of meth heads and schizophrenic nuns) the drivers were obviously whichever mentally ill passenger was closest to the front when the previous driver overdosed. They'll do things like throw their hands in the air and say don't worry jesus is protecting us! That's if there is a bus between cities. There isn't a bus between salt lake city and park city next door for example. The trains have been reduced steadily to the point where the majority of us cities don't even have a train station.

So yes Germany has excellent public transport, with the exception of having to validate your ticket before you get on the train (That's an inefficient waste of time).

[–] [email protected] 20 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

I live in the largest city in a Midwestern state. To access amtrak (the only passenger rail in the us)I need to drive 3 hours to the nearest station.

The city is shaped like a lopsided clock. I live in the burbs around 1 o'clock. I work for a fortune 50 company headquartered at 10 o'clock. To take the bus to my job I need to take the bus downtown and wait for an out bound. This would take 90 minutes when I could drive in 25.

America has not made public transit a serious option unless you are in Chicago, NYC or DC.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Ooh, lemme guess: live in Westerville, work for JPMC?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 hours ago

Jpmc is at high noon.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 21 hours ago

My only option is the local city bus. For me to go eight miles straight east to where my work is, I'd have to transfer twice, go a couple miles north of where my destination is, and leave home at least two hours before my shift. By car, it takes less than 15 minutes.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

American public transport either doesn't exist or is considered to only be for poor people and migrant workers [sic].

The only place this isn't true is in a big city.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Once Kansas City had apparently a fantastic streetcar. Then the car companies bought it up and tore out the rails. Now we're getting a streetcar being built again but it's just doing downtown on one street. I'm not near the streetcar.

So I drive to work. It's 12 miles, about 30 minutes (or 20 miles, 30 minutes if I take interstate around the city... honestly this city is weird, EVERYTHING is 30 minutes away.) If I wanted to take the bus, the shortest time frame would be 1 hr 35 minutes... not including that I'd have to get halfway there to get to the first bus stop.

Cities... if I wanted to take the train, I can go to Chicago for relatively cheap using Amtrak... but gotta plan that 3 months in advance, and the 8 hour ride we HOPE doesn't get extended because Amtrak doesn't own the rails it's on. Flipside, driving is 8 hours. Other cities, St. Louis, Wichita, basically I have two train lines, one in state, and one cross country. If I want to go to Denver... it's not happening.

So to answer your question, I want you to try to imagine how bad you think our public transportation is. Then lower your expectations.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 13 hours ago

Exactly this. Public transport in KC is effectively non-existent unless you live in the middle of downtown KCMO.

Also as far as Amtrak goes, my biggest annoyance is that I can't travel with my dog via train. In Europe many train systems allow dogs with varying regulations and costs, and sometimes you have to buy your large dog a seat which I think is fair. Amtrak in the US doesn't allow large dogs at all. Now with no domestic airline flying large dogs either (they stopped that during Covid and never brought it back), my only option to travel with my dog is driving. I would happily buy him his own seat on a plane or train, and he's a certified good boy (CGC and SPOT-ON certificates) so he knows how to behave in public, but nope, not an option.

For me, not having a car will never be an option as long as I live in the US, not because I couldn't manage to get around without one, but because I like taking my dog on adventures and what little public transportation we have in the US is not dog friendly at all.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

So to answer your question, I want you to try to imagine how bad you think our public transportation is. Then lower your expectations.

Sounds like a line from a Terry Pratchett book

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

But they are expanding the street car! ……a few blocks north. ヽ( `Π΄Β΄*)γƒŽ

Also, Gladstone cancelled their bus contract entirely. If you want to take a bus in Gladstone, you have to call some weird company contracted by the city to drive you to the bus stop.

Everything is awful.

Edit: I just remembered. If you live in Blue Springs, the bus only comes twice a day. 6am and 3pm. If you take the bus, you ride for a few hours, get to work at 9am, leave work at 12pm to get back at 3pm.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I happen to be a prime example of how bad US Rail is this week. I'm taking my son from near Fredericksburg (the real one), up to Ballston for a summer camp. We have a couple options:

  1. Drive
  • Distance: ~70 miles one way, ~140 round trip
  • Time: 1 hour and 45 minutes one way, with traffic. ~3.5 hours round trip.
  • Cost:
    • 4 gallons (US) of gas @ $3.50/gal: $14
    • Wear and tear: estimate at 0.5 gas cost: $7
    • Parking: $11
    • Total: $32/day
  1. Virginia Railway Express (VRE) and Washington Area Metro (WMATA)
  • Distance: N/A
  • Time:
    • Drive to Fredericksburg station: 20 minutes
    • VRE (Fredericksburg to L'Enfant station) - 1 hour 20 minutes
    • WMATA (L'Enfant to Ballston) - 20 minutes
    • Total: 2 hours one way, 4 hours round trip
  • Cost:
    • Drive: we'll just ignore this, it's close enough to zero.
    • VRE: $23.56/person * 2 people: $47.12
    • WMATA: $3.45/person * 2 people: $6.90
    • Total: $54.02/day

So, for the low, low cost of about 1.68 times the cost of driving, we can take slightly longer to get to our destination and have zero control over our schedule, which makes the actual time devoted to travel considerably longer. We tried the public transit route last year, and it meant leaving earlier in the morning (about 30 minutes) to catch a train to get us there on time, and getting us home around 45 minutes later. And this is right around the US Capitol, which has some of the better transit options. Needless to say, we're driving this year.

I really want to be able to take transit, but it's basically dead in the US. Earlier this year, I needed to go to Boston for work. Catching a train from Washington, DC to Boston meant an 7 hour train ride (using the "high speed" Acela line) at ~$500 round trip. Flying was 1.5 hours and cost ~$300 round trip. Wanna guess which option I used?

Basically, all of the incentives are stacked against transit options in the US. Except within certain metro areas, driving or flying is always cheaper and faster. Yes, inside those metro areas, public transit can be great. I used to work in Washington, DC and used the VRE I mentioned earlier to get there and then WMATA or the Capital BikeShare to get to my office. That was great, since I didn't have to drive into DC every day, which sucks big donkey balls. But it probably wasn't cost effective and wasn't really time efficient either.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (1 children)

I think Americans have a somewhat distorted view of what trains do.

I live in Sweden's second biggest city, and visit Stockholm the capital regularly as I have family there. I can tell you that the price for flying often is cheaper than the train, and the train takes about 4 times as long to arrive to Stockholm. But I can't think of a single person I know that doesn't take the train to Stockholm from here.

There's more to travel than the number of minutes on the mode of transport. There's getting yourself to the airport here, and from the airport in Stockholm. There are security checks in airports that take time and are often frustrating. There's the crammed space where you sit very uncomfortably. There's the bad air in the plane itself. Planes are just a frustrating exoerience. The train takes me from the train station at the center of my city to the center of the destination, it's spacious, it's comfortable, you can move around in a train, you can even do a lot of work during the trip if you want to. Trains are a pleasure to ride, planes are a pain. So just looking at the ticket cost and travel time on the transport mode itself ignores the many advantages trains have over planes. Hell, even my dog is always with me on the train, while he'd be staying at home if I was flying.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 15 hours ago

As a Dutchie, I was amazed at the night trains in Sweden and Finland.

Especially Finland was crazy: 92 eur for two in a private sleeper to get from Helsinki to Lapland (with interrail) is nothing compared to a seat in the sleeper train from Amsterdam to Vienna (50+ eur p.p. for a six person dorm).

Although coming back it's weird that we whine about the Dutch railroads. Those are crazy reliable, I must never realised.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

American public transport

The what now?

I mean, it's three words. You can put any two of them in a sentence. But not the third.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

American Public? Public American?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

Er, I think they mean:

American public (we exist)

Public transport (not much here)

American transport (cars)

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago

i mean, can you get where you want to go, and back, by transit? if so it's kilometers better than most american transit.

eta: wait, you're talking rail specifically? then if you have any passenger rail, that's already way better than most american cities.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

Come to Greece we will make you cry

(3 whole lines of metro (U-Bahn) and buses that come once every 30 minutes)

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago

I live in a bigger US city that does have a metro. It’s not bad for doing longer trips in certain directions, when it’s working. But it breaks down at least a few times a year, and if you have to make a transfer to another train to make it to your destination, it’s often literally faster to walk.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Hell, I've heard of Americans coming to Vancouver Canada and being pleasantly surprised about our public transit. We don't even technically have a proper heavy metro, and the SkyTrain is classified as automated "light" metro, AKA the kind they have in tiny German towns that are too small for heavy metro or S-bahn, AKA basically the same as an airport peoplemover but built out for a metro area of 3 million people.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I live in an area know for having some of the better public transport in the states. My drive to work is about 25 minutes. I can bus to work, but it takes almost three hours and three separate busses, and then I cannot bus home after work.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 22 hours ago

I live in an area that also has decent bus coverage with stops all over, although I've never actually taken the bus. I can't take the bus to work because there aren't stops where I need to go. I also attend school 19 miles away, and depending on traffic it's anywhere from a 30-45 minute drive. Last year my car broke down and I looked into taking the bus to school for the few weeks I would be carless. It would have been a 5 1/2 hour trip each way, I would have had to take 3 or 4 buses, transfer between 2 different companies, and I would have had to walk several miles in between stops to get from the first bus company's stop to the second's. Realistically, I couldn't have even left on time to make it to class or gotten back home while the buses were still running, even if I wanted to waste my life riding buses. I worked an extra 100 hours of OT that month to pay for my rental car.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

It's pretty much non-existent

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

At least y'all have a system to be fucked up.

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