I do not need to take Deutsche Bahn tomorrow, with their planned strike. I take a regional train to/from Cologne each Wednesday for class, and all other trips to visit Cologne are usually occasional and optional on the weekends.
Last weekend I had a long distance ICE train trip already booked and paid for, so I needed to take the train or bus to/from Cologne on Friday and Sunday night. Friday was ok and trains were almost empty but Sunday was absolute chaos with trains running 90 min late and the boards not displaying arriving trains. Fortunately I know the bus routes very well around this area and it is possible (although longer) to take the bus completely and to bypass all trains.
What I do not understand here--coming from normally pro-union Philadelphia, where a strike actually means all operations cease and it will go on as long as it has to--how they expect to win this one when 20% of the workers are not striking and will continue operations, (as lackluster as they may be).
As a transit rider, I can certainly recognize how important you are if I cannot get a ride at all, in particular for a longer time period. You suddenly realize and appreciate what you do not have when it is completely gone. This pseudo-strike with its partial schedule only serves to irritate me as I can still get a train but with an unknown schedule, I must look at the website to see if this is one of the scheduled strike days, and it makes service even poorer than normal with sporadic trains and no announcements.
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3 comments:
GDL isn't trying to signal its value or usefulness to you but rather to DB.
Your personal experience is only relevant insofar as it's relevant to DB.
As this is Germany, I doubt my personal experience is relevant to any company, as the customer is an unneeded, extra hindrance here. (Excluding some local small family run businesses.)
That is very very true, heather. I completely agree. I would even go as far as saying that in Germany, the customer is an annoyance.
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