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Formatting and language conventions
For articles about Germany, please use the 24-hour clock to show times, e.g. 09:00-12:00 and 18:00-00:00. Please show prices in this format: €100 and not EUR 100, 100 euro or 100€. Please use British spelling (colour, travelled, centre, realise, analogue, programme, defence). Phone numbers should be formatted as +49 XXXX XXXXXX. |
Laughing stock?
[edit]Can anyone confirm the claim that "the country's rail network is now Europe's laughing stock"? It seems like hyperbole to me, or political sloganeering. Ground Zero (talk) 17:29, 9 September 2025 (UTC)
- the boss of Deutsche Bahn (who will leave his job early once a successor is found) says of the company that "it is in its biggest crisis in 30 years" (the company was created 31 years ago.) Punctuality has fallen from ~80% in 2017 to ~60% in 2024.
- source:
- https://www.dw.com/de/wann-f%C3%A4hrt-die-deutsche-bahn-wieder-p%C3%BCnktlich/a-72059024
- The reputation of Deutsche Bahn amongst people not living in Germany suffered in particular during Euro 2024:
- "Start of overhaul project follows Deutsche Bahn becoming butt of jokes at Euro 2024 due to unreliability of services"
- source:
- https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/15/germany-close-key-rail-corridor-overhaul-train-network-deutsche-bahn Griffindd (talk) 07:25, 10 September 2025 (UTC)
- Sounds reasonable. Thanks. Ground Zero (talk) 11:02, 10 September 2025 (UTC)
PostIdent
[edit]We want to mention them because? I've never had trouble getting cellphone service in Germany and have been here 4 times since 2013, and I'd never heard of PostIdent until it was just added. Everyone has an address, even if it's a hotel. Ikan Kekek (talk) 11:21, 17 March 2026 (UTC)
- Postident is an identification system by the Deutsche Post. In contrary to identification in Aldi or shops of the big brands (Telekom, Telefonica, Vodafone) you are free to decided which plan you want to have.
- Moreover Postident supports most passports, here is an official list: https://www.deutschepost.de/dam/jcr:2f2c2ca3-f3c3-40a2-911e-4916dc1af7ef/dp-postident-ausweisliste-filiale.pdf
- When I was a tutor at a German university I often experienced trouble with other identification methods, students from Japan, Azerbaijan, China or Taiwan were rejected in stores and by identification via videocall like WebID, with Postident there was no problem.
- In addition I want to raise the question whether we should really recommend people to get pre-registered SIM-cards. They could have been in use for phone scams, and if someone gets caught with these nubers they would at least be interogated for a while. I doubt that they would be imprisoned, but it's definitely not a nice experience during a trip. ShuaiXuesheng (talk) 13:16, 17 March 2026 (UTC)
- I currently have a Telekom plan. There was a choice between different plans. I remember that 3 were advertised at the store. Ikan Kekek (talk) 17:50, 17 March 2026 (UTC)
- Upon a short check the Telekom offers five plans online. When they already reduced your choice to three in the store it's likely that the method is similar in stores of Telefonica and Vodafone stores. So we are talking about a choice of 9-15 plans with the big providers. With postident you can choose these 15 plans but just mentioning the big supermarket brands from Edeka, Rewe, Aldi, Lidl, Norma, Kaufland and Netto this already makes 7x4=28 plans more.
- Big advantage on the supermarket plans is that you can switch your plan to 0 Euro standard fee, so you could use it for one month, go back home, and use it for your next trip in eight months or two years later without additional costs. Your Telekom plan doesn't offer that any more, since about 2022. Furthermore you can decid even before you start your trip which plan you want since you can make your choice at home in your sofa where you have time to deliberate. You can register and do the postident in the airport. Travelling from Munich airport frequently I know that there is no store from Vodafone, Telefonica or the Telekom, but a Postident is possible in the post office there.
- Post offices that offer postident are also much more frequent than provider stores. 8500 options to do a postident vs. roughly 3000 provider stores.
- I think these arguments together with the fact that postident accepts much more passports than Videoident or the shops of Telekom, Telefonica and Vodafone themselves should speak for itself. ShuaiXuesheng (talk) 18:47, 17 March 2026 (UTC)
- For the record: they didn't reduce my choices; they merely had posters for 3 or 4 of their plans, from what I remember. I couldn't get a Telekom plan online because doing so required already having a German phone number. Ikan Kekek (talk) 20:06, 17 March 2026 (UTC)
- Ok, and how do we go on now? I have given you a bunch of arguments, you haven't provided any argument against it but haven't agreed to implement the Postident process yet.
- Do you need any more evidence? Why are you still sceptic? ShuaiXuesheng (talk) 20:24, 17 March 2026 (UTC)
- I didn't delete the information you added to the article. Ikan Kekek (talk) 20:43, 17 March 2026 (UTC)
- Alright, have a nice rest of your day. ShuaiXuesheng (talk) 20:46, 17 March 2026 (UTC)
- I didn't delete the information you added to the article. Ikan Kekek (talk) 20:43, 17 March 2026 (UTC)
- For the record: they didn't reduce my choices; they merely had posters for 3 or 4 of their plans, from what I remember. I couldn't get a Telekom plan online because doing so required already having a German phone number. Ikan Kekek (talk) 20:06, 17 March 2026 (UTC)
- I currently have a Telekom plan. There was a choice between different plans. I remember that 3 were advertised at the store. Ikan Kekek (talk) 17:50, 17 March 2026 (UTC)