Germany’s railways as a public good

We had a bit of a surprise when travelling through Germany on the trains this summer. I had assumed that German railways were excellent. I have German friends who sing their praises, and past experiences have been good. This year, all the legs of our journey through Germany ran slightly late. There were platform alterations, quite a lot of confused people. All the trains were busy and some quite over-crowded.

Since my wife speaks fluent German and loves to talk to strangers, it didn’t take lo...