2010-12-14

izard: (Default)
2010-12-14 01:38 pm
Entry tags:

German trains vs Russian trains: my personal stats on punctuality.

I've traveled about 120000km in 2006, 2007 using Russian railway system. That was more then 70 trips. So I have an extensive experience and stats, may be only a bit outdated. Out of those trips about two or three were delayed by around an hour or two, and around ten were delayed by 10-20 minutes. It was all about the same experience time-wise, summer or winter. I also witnessed a slow but constant improvement of general trip quality, convenience and good enough customer care.

I've taken few trains in Russia this year, it was a pleasant experience and they were punctual.

I can't help not to compare this to my experience with Deutsche Bahn.

While I cannot complain to the quality and punctuality of S-Bahn and U-Bahn, long distance trains here are not punctual at all according to my experience. So far I've only used those four times since I moved to Germany, but out of these four times they were never on time. One was delayed by 30 minutes and was packed at 200% of it's capacity (it was ICE), other was late by 55 minutes, remaining two were delayed by 1 hour and 55 minutes.

Looking forward to gather some more stats on German trains. May be I am just unlucky.

P.S. I don't write that from my experience long distance trains in New Zealand are more punctual only because in New Zealand THE long distance train IS more punctual.