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Comment by woodpanel | Hacker News Reader

As some comments here mention uncomfortable means of buying tickets across German transportation systems: I’ve been working on multiple software projects that tried to solve it and I can tell you that the reason is not sinister but rather that each system is funded locally. Which means it is subsidized locally and the need to cross those boundaries was always a luxury issue (by people like us - the E-Mail caste).

Even the juggernaut Deutsche Bahn (they handle public transport in almost every municipality) couldn’t break through these structures (eg the city of Munich just couldn’t be pressured to comply with their ticketing schemes).

In the end mandating it by the federal government was the only way. Although I’m curious who’s really benefiting from it: yes we solved the annoyances for the E-Mail caste, but the service quality itself will surely deteriorate by this measure.

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Its kind of ridiculous to call it a luxury issue. Its a luxury issue if you make it one. In Switzerland 85 year old grandmothers travel between cities to go for light walks. 15 year olds go to football tournaments in other cities.

Claiming that only some elite cast of digital nomads profits from it is utterly ridiculous. In Switzerland city to city travel is more common with trains then with cars, and a huge part of the population does it.

> but the service quality itself will surely deteriorate by this measure

If the government actually correctly invests in it then it doesn't actually, specially not long term. If anything it leads to more regular more frequent service on many routes.

Also most people end up buying demi-tarif card, to make travel affordable.

Although a great thing of Swiss trains used to be being able to switch trains quite easily between destinations, regardless of the train type.

No idea if that is still a thing nowadays.

> No idea if that is still a thing nowadays.

Yes very much so. Not just trains, buses, ships and so on.

The Fairtiq system is so freaking cool: check-in the app when you board any train/tram/boat/bus, do any kind of ride, of any length, duration and connection count across the country, check-out when done. Do this any number of times in a day. Get billed the best price (excluding one-off deals) at the end of the day.

This is almost as simple as beeping your credit card when boarding. I've been so spoiled by that simplicity, I can't stand using needlessly complicated ticketing systems these days.

Switzerland is barely a ninth of Germany‘s size in square meters and population. Plus, the whole German Intercity Rail System‘s north south axis goes through 2 choke points: Frankfurt and northern Bavaria.

> Switzerland is barely a ninth of Germany‘s size in square meters and population.

So its basically scales linearly. More land, more population. With the same tax spending there is no reason that Switzerland should be able to do anything that Germany is not able to do.

Nothing you said changes the fact that between cities you used to have different tariff systems and that people regularly travel between them.

The distance from Genf to Zürich is the same distance as many cities in Germany. Again, claiming its a luxury to go the the city 200-300km away is nonsense.

Just saying 'Germany is larger' isn't an argument, it doesn't change anything.

> goes through 2 choke points

So your excuse is that Germany is bad at planning and building their rail systems?

Switzerland has and had chock points to and yet that isn't actually a problem.

The reality is Germany has much better geography for rail compared to Switzerland.

Is that really true? The only people who need/want to regularly travel across local transit boundaries are tech people? That seems unlikely, especially nowadays.

Where did I write „tech-people“? Yes, all tech people are part of the E-Mail-Caste, but not all of said Caste are techies.

Basically everyone uses email, and you said "people like us", so the poor communication here is on your end. Please elaborate if you want to be understood.

Fair point, I thought this term is more known, but then myself had a hard time to Google it In response to the criticism. But I think this might be a good start:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33521917

> Many “unicorn” tech startups began with a few engineers and a product they wanted to sell, but over the past decade-plus, they have accrued a bloated bureaucracy of “equity”-minded h.r. activists, ESG-savvy consultants, affinity-group mavens, climate-change specialists, and many other email-caste hangers-on. Now that times are turning bad, tech companies can no longer afford to sustain a massive “court” of professional-class nobility, paying sinecures to sons and daughters of the good and the great who don’t know how to code or crunch numbers, but know how to write emails, hold useless meetings, and talk about diversity and inclusion.

I'm not trying to self-aggrandize here, but I'm bad at emails and good at code. I'm sure you can find a portion of HN users that fit the description but I don't think "people like us - the E-Mail caste" is the way to say it.

How about „people getting paid handsomely for writing things on computers for other people to read“?

(This includes mails, but also code or marketing etc. - eg people that didn’t have the slightest inconvenience during lockdowns compared to „essential workers“)

That term works okay.

But I still wouldn't say that group is the one that cares about crossing between transit areas.

I feel like you're not allowed to make up phrases like "E-Mail-Caste", not explain what it means, then get mad when others don't perfectly understand it...

What do you mean by email caste? Do you mean people with internet access?

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