What do Germans think of British trains?

15 comments

1. No, German trains are often not on time. Around 40 % of long-distance trains are delayed 6 minutes or more. That’s the point Liam is making in the video – Germany has a reputation as orderly and punctual, but the trains are not living up to that.

   Still, I don’t think the average German has much of an opinion on British public transport.

2. Lol, German trains are famous for not being on time (compared to other countries in Europe). I lived in Italy, Germany and the UK and I can tell you that as of today (2023) Italian trains are the best of the bunch: cheapest, fairly on time and good network. German trains are second (they are more expensive than Italian trains imo and not always on time). However, trains in the UK are the worst of all. Tickets prices are insane unless you book advance tickets, travel at the oddest time, for a service that is shoddy at best. I’m not claiming Italian trains are amazing, but at least they come at a fraction of the price of UK ones for a somewhat similar service.

3. My only opinion on british trains: The loading gauge is so narrow that every train looks like a subway

4. >From what I understand about trains (and public transport in general) in Germany, they are typically on time. (If this is worng please forgive me)

   Insert laugh emoji

5. I lived in the UK for most of my adult life and bought into the whole “trains on time”, “Vorsprung durch Technik”, “efficient country” bullshit there. Moved to Germany 7 years ago and if anything, the trains are even worse here, technologically and especially in terms of digitalisation Germany is a couple of decades behind the UK and due to an unwieldy, under digitalised bureaucracy, this country is massively inefficient.

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   https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/oct/14/its-the-same-daily-misery-germanys-terrible-trains-are-no-joke-for-a-nation-built-on-efficiency

6. You are aware that Liam is British (English I believe) and making these entertainment reels purely on stereotypes? He moved to Germany and is deliberately exaggerating for the comedic effect. And it obviously works.

   Yes, our long distance trains are pretty much never on time but that doesn’t mean we respect other countries for not succumbing to the automobile lobbies and instead funding public transportation the same way we don’t get respect for the Autobahnnetz.

7. I have no opinion on them at all and would assume the same is true for most Germans. The only foreign countries’ rail systems that I’ve heard some Germans have an opinion on are France, Austria and Switzerland, who are all direct neighbouts.

   Also, German trains don’t exactly have a reputation for being on time here, there a kind of the counter example people will offer up when someone doesn’t stop talking about “German efficiency”. LiamCarps shorts are funny and I enjoy them as well, but they indulge in clichees quite a bit and aren’t meant to be factual either way.

8. German train service is famously awful, as in they never arrive on time, if at all, prices are high and any potential investment into the perceived core business is rather spent outside Germany on other companies and services. So in this regard, UK is the railway-trash-TV for us, as they still achieve to be slightly worse.

9. The time when German trains were on time is long gone.

10. I lived in the UK for 5 years, and now I’m living in Germany (I am French). I only travel by public transport. And I like Liam’s videos.

    Trains in the UK are way more expensive and connect small towns a lot less than in Germany. About delays and cancellations, in the UK, I travelled one weekend per month with a 2h train (the town where I lived to London, and return), and I travelled with a long distance train on one single occasion. I’d say a third of the trains were delayed or cancelled, and we often had big technical issues that required replacement buses (waiting for the bus, then travelling with the bus, which takes longer). Not to mention the strikes.

    France and Germany mock their national railway companies often, there are memes about the delays, etc (and German trains are more delayed than French trains). But from my experience, the German trains are not disastrous in comparison. And they are definitely cheaper!

    Before I moved to the UK I had not heard much about trains in the UK, except the Hogwarts Express bridge in Scotland.

11. German trains are notoriously unpunctual ，sometimes delayed, sometimes cancelled, for various reasons: extreme weather, building sites, accidents of a tree falling on the railway or somebody making a suicidal attempt on the railway ,strikes, defects ,etc. So this guy in the video is shocked at “on time”.

12. I’ve been on a train in the UK maybe 5-6 times and that was always pleasant. Made a good impression but I only saw a few lines, not the whole network so I won’t assume it’s all perfect.

13. > From what I understand about trains (and public transport in general) in Germany, they are typically on time. (If this is worng please forgive me)

    Lol, the biggest laugh of the day, German trains are infamous for being late.
    But to be fair:

    1. It was not always like this. Until the late 1970s, German trains were actually very punctual. My Grandpa even had a saying “Ah, you are on time like the Bundesbahn!”. But then two things happened: A. German politics shifted to favor cars and their infrastructure over trains. B. In the 1990s, train operations were partially privatized and this was massively botched. They created a profit-oriented company with a quasi-monopoly owned 100% by the German state, which combined the worst of both worlds. Since then, train infrastructure has been decaying, service quality suffered and there is a severe lack of employees. While simultaneously still losing billions of Euros over the years.

    2. Trains on a local level (commuter trains) are actually not that bad. It is the long-distance trains that are terrible, mainly because the infrastructure is lacking. Long-distance trains often have to share their tracks with local trains and there are few alternative routes to overtake a slow, local train or to circumnavigate construction / damage sites. So delay tends to build up over the route.

    Regarding British trains, I think most Germans are unfamiliar with them and don’t have any opinion.

14. >From what I understand about trains (and public transport in general) in Germany, they are typically on time.

    How to trigger half of Germany

15. You’re mixing up Switzerland and Germany.

    Swiss trains are on time, reliable and you can easily reach nearly every corner of the country by public transport.

    In Germany the government didn’t really invest much in the rail infrastructure.

    The rail network is already near max capacity and has many bottlenecks. Regional trains, high speed trains and freight trains often share the same tracks.
    So a tiny train issue near some small village in the middle of nowhere can cause delays in all of Germany.