Nowadays, it also means balaclavaed, secretive, lawless, paramilitary disappearance "police".

Hey, if that’s what it takes to get the Americans to build high speed rail.

Morally-repugnant statement.

Recently took some of these in Germany, was a pretty pleasant experience!

It was a bit odd how the ticket prices seem to fluctuate a lot over there based on timing (like 20 EUR if you buy half a week ahead of time, closer to 40 EUR nearer to travel date, at least in my case) but I much preferred taking the train over flying.

For every train, there is a fixed number of tickets per price category. So sometimes, you can still find cheap tickets ("super sparpreis") a day before because thag specific train didn't have many bookings:)

Like a train ticket that spans the year break (depart December 31, arrive January 1).

The price concept discussed above applies to long-distance trains. Local trains are still different, especially if you have the "Deutschlandticket" (germany ticket) you can just hop on any local train you like.

Dynamic pricing based on availability is much more efficient, which is a good thing.

I don't believe in "efficient" pricing being a good thing.

Railway systems with flat pricing and no stupid games are such a relief.

Okay then you need to accept some combination of higher average prices and sold out peak travel times.

> Aw hell they picked up on that stupid American capitalist crap?

Surge pricing is not an uniquely american concept.

They follow a similar system like plane tickets.

Depending on the train you get, either you get a really nice travel, or some experience that doesn't reflect the plane like price ticket, and might leave you with some bad taste regarding train traveling.

Having canceled trains, crowded ICEs, either due to missing reservations as they are optional and anyone can get into one provided valid ticket, or because passagers from a canceled ICE needed to jump into an already crowded one, missign connections by 5m, being stuck in the middle of nowhere, only some WC work across the whole train, they decided to not have a wagon bar on a hot summer day,.....

The fun of train traveling, all great when stars align.

And also not the organization currently force-relocating innocent civilians to detention camps.

I wonder if the Germans will end up having to rename the train system at some point.

> I wonder if the Germans will end up having to rename the train system at some point.

You are vastly overestimating the relevance of this issue for the German public discourse.

Of what issue - the reliability of trains? It’s pretty high, db is a laughing stock.

A high speed pr stunt isn’t much interest sure.

It might be almost inconceivable for many Americans, but the daily lives of people in other countries doesn't revolve exclusively around America's internal politics…

You know, now that I think about it there is a conspicuous absence of organizations with the initialism SS despite the letters being so common. Maybe they will!