I visited the UK, which is my home, and the UK train system was amazing. Got multiple tight connections with zero delays. Far better than I’ve experienced living in Germany
Even Edinburgh-London is slow! It's a similar distance than munich-berlin, a train I often take. In germany these are sleek, clean trains that take just over 3 hours, with only one or two stops with the sprinter. The train in the UK takes around 5 hours, significantly longer. I can do 3 hours on a friday evening work and arrive not too late to then meet friends for drinks, you can't do that with 5 hours.
And not only ICE, it's the same experience with regional trains. I used to live in Baden-Württemberg and took a lot of regional trains. I didn't think I would miss it with the delays from the new central station that they've been building for what feels like forever but now I do.
There are many things that the UK does better than Germany but trains they manage to do even worse (or maybe its not that bad?)
The trains are better in the UK than in Germany
Would have been bearable if they would be at least fast, but they are not
End of term, Aberystwyth to Birmingham trains were regularly terminated on route at Wolverhampton.
Loose connections generally worked.