That's not an accurate representation of the service at all. I'd say it's a lot closer to, say, New York City's subway service: something people love to hate, but that is, despite some flaws, quite successful, especially in comparison. The trains being full, literally, littoraly (to the coasts), or figuratively also calls to mind Woody Allen: "Nobody goes there anymore–it's too crowded".
All trains, even regional ones, also have heating and cooling. And while Acs tends to be underpowered and is broken more often than it should be, I don't remember heating, which is much simpler anyway, to have similar problems.
It's more often one section with broken ac and not the complete train; I assume the drivers have AC even when passengers dont. You can try to move to an adjacent car (which are then correspondingly that much more packed). I've experienced it in both NYC and Boston in the last few years.
I wonder if these trains have air conditioning. Berlin might not need it, but if you had a subway train without air conditioning in NYC for example, the passengers would boil. So that might explain it.
It's impossible to have actual AC on the trains, there's simply no space, and there's no real way to make space. Furthermore, you have the issue of venting the hot air 20m underground.
You need some thick skin spending so much time in regional trains. It has become so bad in crowded areas that I'm always super happy once it is over. Nevermind delays, trains being canceled, or standing in freezing temperatures at some random trainstop because the train broke down.
People here don't really get upset about trains being even ten minutes late. That's normal.
And as far as safety is concerned, when every seat is full and there's already very little seat-to-seat distance, the aisle is crammed with people face to back with nothing to hang on to, and the vestibules are all full to the point that people are standing with nothing to support them if the train brakes hard, that is a crammed train. Dangerously so -- indeed, often illegally so.
And this is quite normal, routine and unexceptional at commuter times, and that is not talking about the underground, where it is routine to be packed in to the point that someone's nose is against the window (mine was, yesterday).
I'm sure there are trains elsewhere that are worse. There's nothing I can do about that; it doesn't really change my observation.
(I'm not sure there's a really good point about gratitude here, either, when the people paying for these services where they don't get a seat have to take out substantial loans to afford the annual ticket, whereas you can travel from Cape Town to Johannesburg, with a sleeping car berth, for about 20% more than the amount it costs me to travel an hour into London at off-peak times. But that's a separate point.)
Western and Indian trains without air conditioning aren't the same -- in the Indian ones (at least 2nd AC and below) the windows can be opened, and often are. The wind blows away everything but the faintest aroma of cooking food.
I caught an uptown C without air conditioning tonight. It was hot, but not as hot as the stations, and I got a seat. It happens, but not very often on that line.
Yup. Being on a train is only a location not an activity. Like any other location it can be made more or less comfortable, I've been on a train where the heating failed; and one that was so crowded you could hardly breathe (last train home for the night so nobody was willing to miss out) but I've also been comfortably asleep in bed; eaten a decent (not award winning, but certainly reasonable even for a restaurant that wasn't hurtling though the countryside at a hundred miles per hour) meal; and watched some good movies on Netflix.
It bears mentioning that prior to 2015 it was not this bad.
In the early 2000's it was common to easily get a seat. I recall the main lines that seemed crowded were the 456 line.
Around 2008 or 2010 they canceled a few lines, reduced bus service, and more. To me what smelled fishy was that the prior year, they had a budget surplus and gave everyone free trips on a Christmas weekend.
Add to that there were less homeless back then, and then complete the picture with the number of homeless people sprawled out in a heap on several seats on a crowded train, and you start to see how people are questioning why they live here.
What's interesting to see is sometimes during rush hour, and if you see a train car that seems less crowded you avoid it either because
a) it's summer and the A/C died in that train car
b) you have a homeless or crazy person harassing people or sprawled out, except exuding an unusually strong odor that day.
From the looks of it, this chap was travelling around in first class. Which would probably give a slightly different impression of train travel... I suspect he also wasn't travelling at peak times when trains are at their busiest and most unpleasant.
To some extent, I agree that trains get a lot of criticism, and only some of it is deserved. But some of that criticism is very deserved...
I find it pretty unsettling how many people are raving about travel by train. If your standards are insanely low then I suppose you can say the food is good, dining with random people is fun and the cabins are comfortable.
Did a trip on Amtrak last June. Coastal Starlight, Empire Builder, and California Zephyr over 12 days staying in a roomette on each leg. Room was small but comfortable. Meals were ok. Scenery was boring to spectacular. Downside was each train was late. It was slow. The cars were dirty, very dated and when underway, bounced around worse than a rodeo horse. It was very noisy at night with the stops we made and train whistles blowing seemingly constantly.
Amtrak at night is quiet, generally pretty empty, and very civilized. Nothing at all like an intracity bus or subway. But I think many Americans would never even give it a chance. Maybe that's why it's so nice...
All trains, even regional ones, also have heating and cooling. And while Acs tends to be underpowered and is broken more often than it should be, I don't remember heating, which is much simpler anyway, to have similar problems.
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