this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2026
38 points (95.2% liked)

Europe

10731 readers
1004 users here now

News and information from Europe ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บ

(Current banner: La Mancha, Spain. Feel free to post submissions for banner images.)

Rules (2024-08-30)

  1. This is an English-language community. Comments should be in English. Posts can link to non-English news sources when providing a full-text translation in the post description. Automated translations are fine, as long as they don't overly distort the content.
  2. No links to misinformation or commercial advertising. When you post outdated/historic articles, add the year of publication to the post title. Infographics must include a source and a year of creation; if possible, also provide a link to the source.
  3. Be kind to each other, and argue in good faith. Don't post direct insults nor disrespectful and condescending comments. Don't troll nor incite hatred. Don't look for novel argumentation strategies at Wikipedia's List of fallacies.
  4. No bigotry, sexism, racism, antisemitism, islamophobia, dehumanization of minorities, or glorification of National Socialism. We follow German law; don't question the statehood of Israel.
  5. Be the signal, not the noise: Strive to post insightful comments. Add "/s" when you're being sarcastic (and don't use it to break rule no. 3).
  6. If you link to paywalled information, please provide also a link to a freely available archived version. Alternatively, try to find a different source.
  7. Light-hearted content, memes, and posts about your European everyday belong in other communities.
  8. Don't evade bans. If we notice ban evasion, that will result in a permanent ban for all the accounts we can associate with you.
  9. No posts linking to speculative reporting about ongoing events with unclear backgrounds. Please wait at least 12 hours. (E.g., do not post breathless reporting on an ongoing terror attack.)
  10. Always provide context with posts: Don't post uncontextualized images or videos, and don't start discussions without giving some context first.

(This list may get expanded as necessary.)

Posts that link to the following sources will be removed

Unless they're the only sources, please also avoid The Sun, Daily Mail, any "thinktank" type organization, and non-Lemmy social media (incl. Substack). Don't link to Twitter directly, instead use xcancel.com. For Reddit, use old:reddit:com

(Lists may get expanded as necessary.)

Ban lengths, etc.

We will use some leeway to decide whether to remove a comment.

If need be, there are also bans: 3 days for lighter offenses, 7 or 14 days for bigger offenses, and permanent bans for people who don't show any willingness to participate productively. If we think the ban reason is obvious, we may not specifically write to you.

If you want to protest a removal or ban, feel free to write privately to the admin that applied the rule (check modlog first to find who was it.)

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
38
submitted 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) by Pip@feddit.org to c/europe@feddit.org
 

Flixtrain is on the move. The private German railway company plans to launch new routes across Europe and order 65 new trains for โ‚ฌ2.4 billion. We travel from Hamburg to Cologne to see what its service is like.

top 13 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[โ€“] unknownuserunknownlocation@kbin.earth 8 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

Ugh, this pisses me off. This Semi-Open market means you have the DB Fernverkehr which is not subsidized or anything, but it also has to service routes that are not profitable, so it needs to cross-subsidize, meaning the profitable routes are more expensive than they would be in an open market. So, ideally, you would want to close off the market, but no, we want competition everywhere. So we have companies like FlixTrain who then run the profitable routes, and leave the unprofitable routes to DB Fernverkehr, and then people wonder why their prices go up...

Hard to blame FlixTrain for taking advantage of the situation, though.

[โ€“] RidderSport@feddit.org 5 points 2 hours ago

Frankly this is a result of negligence by the federal government. The lawmakers could have legally specified areas that would be marked as essential and therefore exempt from Article(s) 12 (and 14) of the constitution. But they didn't which is why the Federal wheather service lost to Weather.com in front of the German Federal Constitutional court and were henceforth ordered to demand money for their app. An app that uses data collected and paid for by the taxpayer and that is also used by private weather websites.

[โ€“] Pip@feddit.org 1 points 4 hours ago
[โ€“] circledot@feddit.org 21 points 8 hours ago (3 children)

For Germany (and every country with public service) in the end that means: A private company for the lucrative connections. A publicly funded one for the rest. So capitalism as always...

[โ€“] redditmademedoit@piefed.zip 3 points 5 hours ago

Your scepticism isn't unfounded, but I think real world experiences are a little more nuanced. Where I live, the private option is often more affordable. But then again, the government owned train company is run for profit.

[โ€“] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 7 points 7 hours ago

Deutsche Bahn is getting subsidies for servicing unprofitable routes and still has been cutting back on those massively.

[โ€“] orochi02@feddit.org 1 points 5 hours ago

Flixtrain is usually Cheaper than ice trains

[โ€“] bonenode@piefed.social 11 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

I've been on a Flixtrain some years ago in Sweden, travelling to Stockholm. It was... ok. I mean, it is a train and it was on time. The seats however were the absolute worst to sit on.

[โ€“] brainwashed@feddit.org 9 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

Trains on time with places to sit is better than 95% of Deutsche Bahn Travel.

[โ€“] zaphod@sopuli.xyz 7 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Flixtrain has the same problem as DB when it comes to being on time. Unless it's a problem with the rolling stock, the problem usually lies with the railway infrastructure and previous delays. In Germany Flixtrain is on the same rails as DB.

[โ€“] Pip@feddit.org 1 points 4 hours ago
[โ€“] Maestro@fedia.io 4 points 7 hours ago

No shit. My wife had to travel with DB recently. The delays were so bad that she had to spend the night in a hotel. At least DB comped the hotel.

Do you know "Jet Lag: The Game"? They play travel games. DB's utterly terrible performance is a running theme anytime they play in Europe.

[โ€“] Pip@feddit.org 7 points 9 hours ago

Same here... It's the budget option.