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Comment by pmoleri | Hacker News Reader

While I agree I want to point out that I find reliability and punctuality far more important than price when it comes to get people into public transport. Germany probably excels at both, but it not the same for other countries / cities.

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As if! Deutsche Bahn is late all the time, some WWII bomb is found and the track goes through the evacuation zone, someone blocks the trains door from closing because he wants to finish smoking his cigarette, train stops on a turnout track because of course freight trains are more important, people on the rails, fallen tree after a storm, etc etc. Of course compared to other countries our trains are probably still pretty punctual, but it's still annoying when you are stuck at the station for an hour when your whole trip only takes 45 minutes otherwise.

Especially the WWII bomb thing is annoying, because they tend to find one every few weeks when there's construction near the tracks.

And strikes that leave you hanging at Frankfurt Airport with no option to commute at all for three days and more

An hour delay is a few times a month event for Amtrak’s NEC (the best line by far) and that’s with no bombs. And the DC metro... My 26 minute subway ride regularly takes 30-35 minutes, and that’s after a year of single tracking and shutdowns to perform upgrades.

It's a meme that American transit sucks. But some is very good. Seattle's light rail has been great even though it doesn't go everywhere yet. You might be surprised.

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