I was traveling Europe by train a couple months ago and iirc, only one train were+10 min late (Amsterdam -> Brussels). The rest were one or two minutes and in Spain were on clock all of them. Pretty good experience all around.
The ones I took in Germany were Ok, 5 min late max. I really like that you don’t need to show your tickets on the entrance of the trains and the ticket guy was really cool, there was a girl without ticket close to us and he told her that she needs a ticket and please go down the nest station and didn’t made a fuss around that.
I’m a foreigner and the last time I was in Germany it ended up being a nightmare of delays and me running across stations desperately trying to get out of Germany.
You might as well take a bike, that’s the distance I do twice a day with my trusty electrified LPP. With a good motor you won’t even feel the distance (I personally use a 85 Nm Virvolt motor).
I usually do take my road bike.
But the distance by bike is 22km, there’s a hill at the end, and temperatures were forecast to be 36°C when I get off work.
Normally it takes me an hour by bike, an hour by train and bus, or an hour by car (due to traffic, construction and looking for parking).
You were lucky.
Last time I took a train in Germany, after a 20 minute delay there was announcement that they have found the train at a different depot that where it was supposed to be, in the completely other side of Hamburg. Took another hour for the train to arrive at the station. Plus another hour or so delay in transit, since once your late you have to sometimes wait for other trains that aren’t late, or are stuck behind a regional train that’s much slower than the Inter City ones . The trip was nearly 6hrs total and was only supposed to be 3.5 hrs. (ok the return trip was on time, but still)
The last time I was in the UK a train left 2 minutes early. I was already on, but found this shocking. I can hardly imagine my white hot rage if I was running for the train and it left early.
I had that happen a few times. Get on the platform 10 minutes before departure, get on the train going to your destination, find out they run a train every like 8 minutes and this wasn’t the one I was supposed to be on.
I took an ICE in Germany and spent half the trip standing; even though I’d booked a seat, some ass was in it and pretended not to speak English until the conductor heard out my complaint.
It always depends to what you compare. I visited Germany twice for a total of about 15 days, taking trains mostly every day, and I don’t recall any major issues. I read online since my first visit in 2016 that it got much worse so I expected at least some issues when I went back in 2024, but it went well, either in RE trains or in ICE. Of course, it’s a very small sample and I’m Canadian, so anything more than five trains a day and not yielding to freight is just magical to me.
The tech start-up “Chuuchuu” has analyzed more than 17.3 million train journeys in Europe for the year 2025. The result: the delays added up to a total waiting time of almost 136 years. Germany’s trains are at the bottom of the rankings.
Hang on…
17.3 million train journeys
136 years / 17.3 million journeys = 4.13 minutes per journey.
It’s not anecdotal fallacy if the study you linked to shows that Amsterdam -> Brussels would be a train between the 2nd and 3rd less delayed countries at 93-88% of trains on time.
And I don’t see Spain in that list which is the other country mentioned.
Germany is known to have a shit train system, which brings the European average down by a lot. That doesn’t mean that your European train will be delayed. If you don’t touch a German (and apparently, italian) train, your experience will be way better than the average.
Since we are going by our experience, I’ll tell you that I recently took a train from Stockholm to Copenhagen and it was nearly 30min late. Not only that but the conductor was short on time for stops and left several passengers stranded due to station overrun. I was one of them.
I don’t understand wanting to try to convince people that the trains are without fault and completely reliable. Not only is it untrue, it’s also a dangerous precedent to set. We should expect them to be on time more often. It’s a service that is paid for and the train lines don’t always hold up their end of the deal.
It varies a fair bit between countries afaik. Netherlands I’ve never had to wait for a delayed train, though I am sure it happens occasionally. In Sweden however I have never had a train be on time.
I was traveling Europe by train a couple months ago and iirc, only one train were+10 min late (Amsterdam -> Brussels). The rest were one or two minutes and in Spain were on clock all of them. Pretty good experience all around.
Spain has a high variance on accuracy depending on where you are though.
Try Germany if you want shitty train service.
The ones I took in Germany were Ok, 5 min late max. I really like that you don’t need to show your tickets on the entrance of the trains and the ticket guy was really cool, there was a girl without ticket close to us and he told her that she needs a ticket and please go down the nest station and didn’t made a fuss around that.
They must have realized that you are a foreigner and put you on the one punctual train they had to leave a good impression.
I wish. My train home literally just got canceled. Gotta love summer time construction…
I’m a foreigner and the last time I was in Germany it ended up being a nightmare of delays and me running across stations desperately trying to get out of Germany.
Welcome to Germany!
Yesterday it took me 2h to get home from work by train.
The distance is 16km.
You might as well take a bike, that’s the distance I do twice a day with my trusty electrified LPP. With a good motor you won’t even feel the distance (I personally use a 85 Nm Virvolt motor).
I usually do take my road bike.
But the distance by bike is 22km, there’s a hill at the end, and temperatures were forecast to be 36°C when I get off work.
Normally it takes me an hour by bike, an hour by train and bus, or an hour by car (due to traffic, construction and looking for parking).
You were lucky. Last time I took a train in Germany, after a 20 minute delay there was announcement that they have found the train at a different depot that where it was supposed to be, in the completely other side of Hamburg. Took another hour for the train to arrive at the station. Plus another hour or so delay in transit, since once your late you have to sometimes wait for other trains that aren’t late, or are stuck behind a regional train that’s much slower than the Inter City ones . The trip was nearly 6hrs total and was only supposed to be 3.5 hrs. (ok the return trip was on time, but still)
How the fuck do you lose a train??
https://chuuchuu.com/2025wrapped
The UK makes German trains look good
The last time I was in the UK a train left 2 minutes early. I was already on, but found this shocking. I can hardly imagine my white hot rage if I was running for the train and it left early.
Can you be sure it wasn’t the prior train arriving and leaving so late that it appeared to be leaving early?
I had that happen a few times. Get on the platform 10 minutes before departure, get on the train going to your destination, find out they run a train every like 8 minutes and this wasn’t the one I was supposed to be on.
I took an ICE in Germany and spent half the trip standing; even though I’d booked a seat, some ass was in it and pretended not to speak English until the conductor heard out my complaint.
I have had that happen in China and Japan, but it was honest mistakes quickly resolved. What did they do after you showed your ticket?
Or Poland.
Either the train is or time, or just late by checks last few times 45 minutes to 3 hours.
It always depends to what you compare. I visited Germany twice for a total of about 15 days, taking trains mostly every day, and I don’t recall any major issues. I read online since my first visit in 2016 that it got much worse so I expected at least some issues when I went back in 2024, but it went well, either in RE trains or in ICE. Of course, it’s a very small sample and I’m Canadian, so anything more than five trains a day and not yielding to freight is just magical to me.
This is what we call an anecdotal fallacy. I’m glad the trains ran well for you. They do not on average. Have a gander online if you don’t believe me.
https://www.falstaff.com/en/news/sad-result-europes-trains-are-delayed-by-a-total-of-136-years#google_vignette
Gee, 136 years, that’s a lot. Let’s see:
Hang on…
136 years / 17.3 million journeys = 4.13 minutes per journey.
What is that fallacy called?
It’s not anecdotal fallacy if the study you linked to shows that Amsterdam -> Brussels would be a train between the 2nd and 3rd less delayed countries at 93-88% of trains on time.
And I don’t see Spain in that list which is the other country mentioned.
Germany is known to have a shit train system, which brings the European average down by a lot. That doesn’t mean that your European train will be delayed. If you don’t touch a German (and apparently, italian) train, your experience will be way better than the average.
Since we are going by our experience, I’ll tell you that I recently took a train from Stockholm to Copenhagen and it was nearly 30min late. Not only that but the conductor was short on time for stops and left several passengers stranded due to station overrun. I was one of them.
I don’t understand wanting to try to convince people that the trains are without fault and completely reliable. Not only is it untrue, it’s also a dangerous precedent to set. We should expect them to be on time more often. It’s a service that is paid for and the train lines don’t always hold up their end of the deal.
We are not going by our experience. I explicitly used the numbers that appear in the link you provided.
It varies a fair bit between countries afaik. Netherlands I’ve never had to wait for a delayed train, though I am sure it happens occasionally. In Sweden however I have never had a train be on time.
In Denmark roughly 25% of our trains are more than 3 minutes late or cancelled.
3 minutes? In many places that’s called “on time”. 😅
3 minutes is just the minimum to be counted as late.
In Germany that cut-off is 7 minutes, and our train service publically announced that their goal is to reach 50% trains below that next year.
Jesus. 50% is a damn low bar.
Western europe is pretty decent, but eastern europe is pretty much like this comic.
You didn’t come to the U.K. then?