German rail operator Deutsche Bahn exchanged a series of passive-aggressive tweets with teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg after she tweeted what may have been a misleading picture.
The 16-year-old was just named Person of the Year by Time Magazine and was returning to Sweden after a climate conference in Madrid. Thunberg refuses to fly and therefore uses rail for travel within Europe even though it is much more time-consuming.
Thunberg posted a picture of herself sitting on the floor of a Deutsche Bahn train with the caption, “Traveling on overcrowded trains through Germany,” the climate activist wrote. “And I’m finally on my way home!”
Traveling on overcrowded trains through Germany. And I’m finally on my way home! pic.twitter.com/ssfLCPsR8o
— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) December 14, 2019
Twitter users promptly took Deutsche Bahn to task, criticizing the rail operator for overselling its trains and offering an overall uncomfortable passenger experience.
Small problem, though. Thunberg may have staged the photo and actually had a seat in first class…
Deutsche Bahn Sarcastically Responds to Thunberg
Deutsche Bahn responded sarcastically:
“Dear Greta, thanks for supporting us railroaders in the fight against climate change. We were happy that you were traveling with us Saturday in ICE 74.And that’s with 100% sustainable electricity.”
But in a follow-up tweet laced with shade, Deutsche Bahn added:
“It would have been even nicer if you had also reported how friendly and competently you were taken care of by our team in your seat in first class.”
Noch schöner wäre es gewesen, wenn Du zusätzlich auch berichtet hättest, wie freundlich und kompetent Du von unserem Team an Deinem Sitzplatz in der Ersten Klasse betreut worden bist. #Greta 2/2
— Deutsche Bahn AG (@DB_Presse) December 15, 2019
Thunberg’s response suggested that she had a seat and never suggested otherwise. She also lauded Deutsche Bahn for the full train.
Our train from Basel was taken out of traffic. So we sat on the floor on 2 different trains. After Göttingen I got a seat.This is no problem of course and I never said it was. Overcrowded trains is a great sign because it means the demand for train travel is high!
— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) December 15, 2019
Deutsche Bahn followed with a press release that actually raises more questions than answers, suggesting she sat in first class for part of her journey…but perhaps not all…
“Between Kassel and Hamburg, Greta Thunberg was…looked after in a friendly and competent manner by the DB train team at their first-class seat.”
Ok, but what about from Basel, where Thunberg indicated the picture was taken?
CONCLUSION
At first I thought Deutsche Bahn caught Thunberg in a hypocritical lie. I’m not sure that is the case; she may have been on the floor for a short duration of her journey. I write about it because it should caution travel providers from getting into Twitter disputes with high-profile figures. Whatever really happened, I don’t think this “spat” reflects well on Deutsche Bahn.
image: @GretaThunberg / Twitter
She’s got the old fogeys on the run; they all feel obliged to respond to everything she says or does. I don’t believe the train people were being malicious, merely ill-informed.
This girl is such a breath of fresh air; it’s wonderful to see…
I love trains, including crowded German ones…
oh my god, should I start how bad DB is? Their nasty response really tempts me to do so.
1. DB trains are constantly delayed for stupid or no reasons. If their trains get delayed all the time, can’t they just change the schedule??? I have taken them 4 times in late september and in each case it was delayed
2. Their customer service is notorious. Friendly DB staff? It only applies to the known figures. Normal citizens like us get exposed to uncaring and grumpy agents. Once my train was cancelled in Hamburg and I was told to go to their service center. I waited 30 min to get someone to help me after a long line but she didn’t speak english, so asked me to go back to the line and get another ticket. I explained to her that I waited 30 min but she keeps saying no english…The cancelled train was to copenhagen…In general, their agents do not know their own rules very well but keep acting like they know everything. One time, I was delayed and had to stay in the middle of the trip because the connecting train didn’t wait for late trains. The agent on the train said I can use the same ticket for the next day as long as it is the same route but next day when I am on the train, another agent said I had to buy a new ticket and get reimbursed by MAILING my bill to their office in frankfurt. Oh god, this is 2019, yet they do not do anything digitally. Everything has to be over mail! Plus contacting them over phone, you have to pay for every minutes you have a discussion with them and they are notoriously slow on the phone too
3. Ok, they claim they are contributing to the green initiative but DB has been criticized for their notorious pricing (similar to airlines) and drive people away to cheap airlines like Ryanair. DB is pretty expensive compared to other rail companies in Europe, so they should pause before they say something really obnoxious on their tweet
4. DB constantly oversells their ICEs on main routes, it is really bad. I feel really bad for old people or people with kids because often they keep looking for seats and I have seen so many people sittin on the floor like her. This is rather a common scene you see on ICE trains.
German Rail (Deutsche Bahn) ist incompetent in the extreme. The fact that you don’t speak German in Germany doesn’t reflect poorly on them, however. It shows that you automatically assume everyone in the world should speak English, and when (especially) Americans travel abroad, they are often faced with the fact that while English may be the lingua Franca in much if the world, it is not so everywhere. Perhaps you should have asked if someone in the line could help you; chances are, there would have been at least one person able to.
Stating that English is the lingua Franca and most Germans speak English anyway, and spoken most places… Germany is one of them. And from personal experience ( I have a PhD in German language) most Germans want to switch to English yet are nasty if you make a small mistake an even so, most don’t want to help translate anyway.
She is the trump of the left. The only difference is she is 16 and has not been accused of rape or been found guilty of running her foundation with corruption.
Love it when old white farts get all riled up on her account. Hope all of them get aneurysms.
Yeah, an angry autistic girl is your side’s savior. Good luck with that, debit.
HOW DARE YOU! :))))
You say that as if Trump were far-right…
Trump, and now German trains, just keep giving her visibility. Let the girl do and say what she wants, these dummies all buy into it
@Ken. What you describe has been my experience as well, which is also why I’m renting a car for my 3 week trip to Germany next week. My family is only visiting cities, so a train would have been ideal, but the Bahn prices are nuts … so much so that an E-Class wagon and paying for Hotel parking will still cost half of what 3 of us would pay for a 6 city vacation.
I’d love to see the Bahn ‘get it together’. There is so much potential to be better.
You or your travel agent is utterly incompetent. Deutsche Bahn öfters National and international fares as low as €19.90, if you book far enough in advance and know how to book using Sparpreise. While Deutsche Bahn ist grossly incompetent in many, many ways, it is no more so than any British rail company or Amtrak (snicker) or Via Rail.
… of course, some of us remember when DB was reliable, prices were not exotic, and IRROPS handled easily. Now, you put them on the same level as Amtrak or post-Thatcher rail in the UK. That, by the way is my list of “I will fly to avoid the expense and inconvenience” rail lines. It shouldn’t be that way. Rail can be so much nicer than flying.
The girl is a fing idiot retard. Go back to school u whinny b…
Greta is a complete hypocrite and moron. Even if a small part of her journey was spent sprawled on the floor, the fact remains that most of her journey was spent in the comfort of first class and thus her posting of this picture is just her trying to say curate an image of “suffering” for the sake of the climate. She should be arguing against things like first class, the existence of which constrains capacity for others who want to ride the “overcrowded” trains.
“Do as I say, not as I do”
Basel-Göttingen is quite a larger distance than Göttingen-Hamburg. She’d have been without her reserved (and paid for) seat for the majority of the trip.
While there is definitely a message about climate change that needs to be conveyed and heard I’m not sure a precocious sixteen year old is a credible messenger.
I don’t either support Trump’s stance on her but not many years ago she would have had her legs smacked and been made to stand at the front of the class with her nose against the wall. For some reason now the world hangs on every word she says. In her case, I’d rather the former than the latter.
Greta’s response seems accurate. DB routinely oversells its high-speed trains, because unlike Trenitalia and SNCF, seat reservations are not mandatory.
This is partly wrong as reservations are included mandatory in first class tickets. Thus first class can hardly be oversold.
I cannot believe how many people have misunderstood this situation.. she mentions overcrowded train AND finally going home, not BUT. AND. Which implies she isn’t disgruntled about being on the floor just merely making a statement. As she clarifies later that she applauds overcrowded trains because its better for the environment. I have a friend who is on the spectrum and people always mistake what she says, making her out as sarcastic when really she’s just stating a fact. There’s no hidden agenda and if someone had told her that this post would imply otherwise she would have no doubt changed it accordingly. Neurotypicals always think those on the spectrum are brats, it’s despicable. Let’s also not forget she’s SIXTEEN years old. She’s still a child and doesn’t need to be bullied by DB and others alike. Shame on them.
Greta’s Twitter post on her recent train trip through Germany has caused quite a stir-up and left neither her nor DB unscathed. Or shouldn’t I rather say that the respective social media teams, especially that of DB, have lost some feathers?
Her image shows the daily reality of ICE high-speed travel in Germany. In 2nd class, she would share the space with many more people and pieces of luggage. Popular routes are constantly overcrowded. The question is: Why do people put up with it? Going by car isn’t much better. You get stuck on the Autobahn with your rental car. Speed limit-free travel.
Yes, seat reservation is up to you. Keep in mind that many people here use trains often more like a tram, even ICEs. Take Stuttgart – Frankfurt: Booking a 1:20hour-train journey 2 days ahead? Rather not. Handicapped travellers have assigned spaces. The DB app is stopping the sale of tickets if the train is full.
Complaints about the ticket structure by people who readily accept it from airlines sound a bit strange. High prices are only part of the story. There are many super savers around, but you have take the train you book. In this day and age booking is usually done via the DB Navigator app, available also in English.
Why is DB in such a desolate stage? Private, but 100% state-owned, it suffers from incompetent and interfering politicians. Many years, the car industry ruled the roast. It’s slowly changing. Kerosene is still not VAT-taxed in Germany, DB long-distance tickets are subject to the full (= 19%) VAT, though this will change, making it a bit cheaper. The infrastructure (rails and signal boxes) is often simply too old and bound to fail, the rolling stock not much better. These – now air travellers listen carefully – has been the work of mainly one man: Hartmut Mehdorn, former CEO. His goal was, to bring DB onto the stock market at the cost of a reliable and robust train service. He is responsible for many line closures, something DB now wants to change this again, because ‘we need every meter of tracks’. After his tenure at DB, he was CEO at Air Berlin (now bankrupt!) and the still unfinished Berlin Airport. DB is still suffering from his decisions.
Comparisons with other networks fail: The Swiss network is much smaller. The French and Japanese highspeed trains run on their very own network.
While being a hard critic of DB, I am also supportive and feel sorry for the staff, which is often friendly, though not always perfect in English. Oh yes, we have these morons. And we have trains, which simply cannot run, because there is no staff.
Anyone wants to fulfill his/her childhood dreams, DB is accepting applications now.
She needed to conform his seat when she bought the ticket. I think she know that and who were with her, they also knew it. DB bahn best is best in Europe.
Her post appears to have been trying to garner a bit of sympathy, and IMO it has backfired.
So, it means that from now on, when the DB trains are full, you will automatically get a first class seat, with nice service. Let’s hope for more full trains, then!