Just watched on tv a documentary about strikes a hundred years ago in the US. Facing the Rockefellers, Carnegies and alike. Police was shooting them down. That’s the US. Railroaders are on strike just today in Germany.

Yes and No. It’s a stupid privatization they did.

They privatized the railroad, but never sold some stocks. Now, it’s a private company owned by the state and subsidized by tax payers.

Indeed there are worse countries. I think of Cuba for example, where it’s more about „the train arrives this day.“

However, in German culture the notion of timeliness and efficiency is very strong. Our expectations to our railroad is high as it was quite on time the last decades. And it perfectly fits into our recent feeling of become mediocre as a country. There‘re so many challenges that where Germany falls behind other countries and isn’t in the top 10 anymore.

Part of the real causes of this trouble is that the railroad was privatized 30 years ago. Together with Deutsche Post (now DHL) and Deutsche Telekom. All those three went international. Two with success. Deutsche Bahn expanded into road freight quite heavily as there was opportunity to grow and money to make. They took the money granted for the rails and invested it into trucks. The German government is now in discussions to unbundle the company and split it into small „tasks“ so they focus on their main business. The Bahn deserved to be cut down into pieces. Not well managed.

Nice. Just received my parcels today for this fun. Can’t wait for tomorrow and toy around.