Decentralized Public Transport - Can you really decentralize everything?

Today was a rough day in Germany. Storm “Friederike” is leaving a track of destruction in the country’s center. The Deutsche Bahn has canceled all journeys, no german flights left the airports.

And, of course, Sarah is right in the middle of this mess. I was actually quite happy to travel home after an extensive family holiday in Munich but, well, I am definitely not home. Right now I am sitting in a Frankfurt Hostel and am typing this text. I don’t even know, if I can travel to the Netherlands tomorrow. During the day, while several of my trains were canceled mid-journey and I had to switch between several trains, I was thinking about a way to prevent such troubles for people. 

And I came up with an answer: Decentralization! Well, at least that’s always the answer, isn’t it?

#DecentralizeEverything

Decentralizing the Internet, decentralizing money, decentralizing communication, decentralizing digital storage...but how on earth are you decentralizing public transport?

Simple question, simple answer: You don’t!
There are a couple of things that you just cannot decentralize. Period. For one, because it is already decentralized, or because it is to costly to decentralize it (costly in a sense of effort, not only money).In my opinion, (public transport) is already quite decentralized and it doesn’t really make (economical) sense to further decentralize it.Normally, as a consumer, you can choose between an abundance of means of travel, there are cars, taxi, trains (both short and long distance), urban public transport, airplanes, even bikes and your two feet (and, if you live in the right part of the earth, even camels or horses).
But still, I wasn’t able to travel 650km home. Why?

Because there are circumstances in the world that you cannot escape from. Storm Friederike is one good example for this.Though public transportation in Germany is quite decentralized (yes, I know there is just one private, yet state owned train company here, which also could be handled better but), a big event like this storm destroys all possibilities you had before.
Starting from where I began my journey in Munich, I had the choice between an airplane or the train. I chose the train. Choosing the airplane would have kept me in Munich for another day because most flights were already canceled in the morning.

My train (Munich to Cologne) was canceled in Stuttgart and all passengers had to leave the train and hop on another one. This train only brought me to Karlsruhe which is still very far away from my home. Me and the nice lady I met in Stuttgart hopped on the next train to Frankfurt, hoping that we might be able to catch a train to Cologne there, that the storm might be over by then. But no, when we arrived in Frankfurt the Deutsche Bahn decided to cancel all connection between Frankfurt and Cologne, which left hundreds of people stranded at Frankfurt Central Train Station. Now that I saw the images of german highways, I think they made the right decision.

In Frankfurt, I tried to find a bus that would bring me home but they also wouldn’t drive on my route due to uprooted trees and accidents on the highways. No cars for rent, more accidents happened. There is literally no way for me to get out of Frankfurt, I thought. My Facebook friends gave me so many Tipps on what to do, where to go. But nothing was feasible. Except one thing!

Stay in a freaking hostel and wait out the storm.

As you may see, as great as decentralization is, it is not the answer for every problem. Some things cannot be prevented with decentralization. And that’s ok.

The unexpected things make life exciting and different. Nobody wants to live in a perfect world (the machines in the “Matrix” learned that quite fast #filmreferences).
I will now upload this article and am excited for the vegetarian pasta we get at the hostel.

I hope the storm is over soon! Be safe!