Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Deutsche Bahn apologised for allegedly making Greta Thunberg sit on the floor for part of her journey, while travelling on an overcrowded train in Germany.
Greta Thunberg in first-class Twitter spat with German rail firm
Deutsche Bahn says activist’s tweet implied she had not been offered a seat on journey home
Kate Connolly in Berlin
Mon 16 Dec 2019 05.51 AEDTSwedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has been criticised by a German rail firm for what it said was her implication that she had spent a journey without a seat on an overcrowded train.
The teenager tweeted a photograph of herself looking pensively out of the window of her German train on Saturday, writing: “Traveling (sic) on overcrowded trains through Germany. And I’m finally on my way home.”
Greta travelled by train from the COP25 UN climate conference in Madrid via a climate protest in Turin, Italy, on Friday. She is due home in Stockholm to celebrate Christmas with her family after a year travelling the world by rail, sea and road to highlight the threat of global heating.
Traveling on overcrowded trains through Germany. And I’m finally on my way home! pic.twitter.com/ssfLCPsR8o
— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) December 14, 2019…
Greta later clarified her position, by suggesting she never said there was a problem, because overcrowding shows how popular trains are.
It could have been worse. If Greta was attempting to travel through France, they’re all on strike, though there has been some talk of interrupting the strike during the Christmas holiday period.
And if Greta was attempting to travel long distance by train in Britain, my personal experience there’s a good chance she would have been sitting in a puddle.
At least that German train floor looks clean.
Update (EW): Some people have suggested Greta travelling on the floor was a publicity stunt, perhaps there was a seat available.
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Deutsche Bahn have publicly stated that Greta purchased a first class ticket for this journey.
Yep, and those are reserved seats.
joining the dots….this is a stunt. If so, what does she want to achieve? Is she cracking up?
I heard the hall she spoke in at the conference as about 2/3 empty. Maybe it’s all getting to her?
Terrible case of child exploitation. But that’s what they do.
Agreed, this is child abuse and the oh so progressive Swedish authorities should be doing something about it. They are doing nothing for Sweden’s image.
“HOW DARE YOU?! – I should have been given a private car!”
Maybe she got the idea from this:
A mother put her four-year-old son on a pile of coats on the floor of a hospital emergency ward. He was photographed, and the photo was circulated to these propagandists, who duly made them headline news.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/12/15/what-the-boris-landslide-means-for-the-climate-debate/
Check out twitter link. Her photo of the “crowded train” has ONE likkle girl in the whole view. It is apparently rather crowded by the enormous amount of baggage she has with her.
First class tickets , $15M world class racing yachts and Tesla cars, she is certainly giving us a good example of the lifestyle we should all adopt as soon as possible.
The others were around the corner lined up against the wall.
The truth about Gretas train journey:-
https://www.dn.se/nyheter/varlden/tyska-tagbraket-reste-greta-thunberg-pa-golvet-eller-i-forsta-klass/
Speaking of bananas . . . I think Greta’s pseudo-event roadshow is just about over in 3–2–1 . . .
Update (EW): Some people have suggested Greta travelling on the floor was a publicity stunt, perhaps there was a seat available. – article
Yeah, another attention-seeking behavior posted online to get sympathy. No sympathy from me. I took commuter rails daily to and from work and if there were no seats, you stood in the aisles.
What a load of baloney this teen is promoting. “Oh, pity me!! (I have a 1st class ticket, but I have to make a statement.)
Anyone wonder just how long she sat there? Yeah, me, neither.
Corbyn tried a similar trick in the UK, but got found out when photos showed there were empty seats available.
In a different article on this subject it was revealed that the Lying Loony Limo Liberal Loser had a first class seat and yet staged the floor photo op.
I would vote for staged, publicity stunt, particularly as she was offered a first class ticket.
If I remember correctly, Germans limits the amount of luggage that can be carried on to a train, similar to an airplane.
There is limited storage on the train and they do not want people dragging piles of luggage through the train.
This train is NOT crowded.
No other person is there!
I have seen crowded German trains.
Looks very overcrowded. All those people standing there, crammed in a small space…
Oh wait….
She was offered a 1st class seat.
Little brat.
Not offered : bought. Spoilt brat daughter of bourgeois swedish family travels first class everywhere : racing yachts, Tesla cars and first class tickets. Just setting a good examply you understand.
the truth about Gretas train journey:-
https://www.dn.se/nyheter/varlden/tyska-tagbraket-reste-greta-thunberg-pa-golvet-eller-i-forsta-klass/
A physically healthy 16 year old could stand, welcome to the real world.
MJE VK5ELL.
It’s a long way to Sweden from Germany … just saying
Depends if the toilets are out of commission 🙂
LOL..coffee on screen…Where’s the Workers Compensation Board when you need them to be enforcing public safety. And yet, probably 97% of these poor folks survive the ride home from work.
I hazard to guess that the high speed version has fewer passengers.
That IS the high speed version.
Greta Kardashian will do whatever it takes to keep the media talking about her.
Because – “if there’s one thing worse than people talking about you, it’s people NOT talking about you”
(Oscar)
Does overcrowding in public hospitals also show how popular they are?
Maybe it’s just a service that is offered below cost to the user and subsidized by OPM so there’s no incentive to offer a bed or seat?
Doesn’t matter whether it is train, plain, bus seat or a hospital bed.
To be clear, 140-160 million Americans are quite happy with their medical coverage from the jobs, both for union collective bargaining delivered coverage and non-union employees. The actual health care is delivered by private networks of hospitals competing for those coverage contracts. Competition works. Never doubt that.
If I want a guaranteed seat on a commercial airplane from Phoenix to Stockholm, I simply would pay for it. I have multiple carriers and multiple classes of service to choose from. Each competing for my money.
Greta apparently wants equal misery for all. AKA, socialism.
“plane” duh my bad.
Too quick to hit post comment. I still miss edit.
The train was overcrowded because an earlier service was cancelled. Surely you have flown enough to know a seat on a plane leaving when scheduled isn’t guaranteed at all.
I’ve never sat on the floor of a commercial plane which I have a booked seat.
Have you?
Greta’s train is paid for with huge OPM subsidies in Europe. Like Wind and Solar power. They will provide it when they can. And when they can’t ???????
Sitting on the floor of a 10-hour train ride sucks.
Sitting in the cold, dark of a 14 hour cold winter’s night, night-after-night because green OPM failed to provide enough electricity from “Green energy” can be deadly.
Oh dear! Seats on aircraft are allocated, esp at the pointy end, just in case they have to scrape your remains form a seat. You will then be identified by the passenger list. Trains are a bit different.
Not quite. The allocated seats on most flights will be helpful in such situations, but you leave the impression that this is a requirement. As a fan and frequent user of Southwest Airlines, where seats are not allocated, I know this isn’t the case. Not to mention, I have been on other carriers, and if not full, often choose to sit other than my assigned seat.
That might be true in the US, certainly was when I flew L.A. To New York in 2003 but not all countries and carriers permit that, for instance the UK, Belgium, New Zealand and Australia in my experience.
Or was it overcrowded because all the French trains were shut down?
Um. If all the French trains are cancelled, how did St Greta travel from Spain to Italy? France seems to be in the way.
Duker, have you ever been on a plane where you had to sit on the floor because all the seats were filled? didn’t think so.
Subsidized (with OPM) public transportation at work.
A picture:
https://images.app.goo.gl/WY6vGMMKu54E9XSHA
A video:
Ha, you beat me to it. I wanted to suggest she catch some Indian trains, but on second thoughts I wouldn’t even think of it for her. They are hard.
Maybe, if she just said ”crowded” instead of ”overcrowded”
She seems to say a lot of things she doesn’t actually mean.
Well, the ’against wall’ thing was probably not about butchering but just discutering. The Swedes don’t like executing people. They lost their last war 210 years ago. Got rid of their king, and acquired a new French one.
The winner in that war continues being troublesome and while they don’ t have a cezar any more, their president behaves like bloodthirsty one. Known also by the left as the man behind Trump, and by the right the man who bribed Hillary to get uranium. We Europeans tend to call him the pompouse dictator with a military budget exceeding his gross personal product.
I would hope that you and your family never use ssi, medicare, medicade, liheap, hud (which helps house elderly and disabled), tanf (child care assistance, the emergency food and shelter program, job corps, foster care title IVE, adoption assistance title IVE, community health centers, child care food program, etc. etc. etc. I mean seeing as how those are all socialist programs it would kind of make you a p.o.s. hypocrite if you or your family ever used them.
She has an awful lot of luggage, but that twitter pic has the look of being staged (a bit like Corbyn’s fiasco a couple of years ago).
In my young days it was considered the height of bad manners for a young person to occupy a seat if adults were standing.
Funny you should mention her luggage David, she has apparently been travelling for a year on many forms of transport including fairly cramped sailing craft. Seriously.
Megs said that Greta was traveling on a “fairly cramped sailing craft”.
Cramped? Are you serious? The catamaran she she hitched a ride on is an Outremer 45, with a loa of 48 feet and a beam of 23 feet. Here’s the brochure:
http://catamaran-outremer.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/oy_book_45.pdf
Regards,
Bob
P.S. Megs. The Outremer 45 has a minimum of 8 berths.
https://www.boat-specs.com/outremer-yachting/outremer-45
When Greta sailed from the U.S. to Spain, there were 4 adults and a toddler aboard. They were NOT cramped in the slightest.
Regards,
Bob
Yeah I get it Bob, but wasn’t their six of them on board and did you see her luggage? Maybe I just need to meet some seriously rich people to see how they live.
Is that all her luggage? And is it all made from fossil fuels?
When I was 15 ,I’m 58 now,I sat behind one of my idols Frank Gifford and his wife Kathy ,not an idol.They were traveling to LA,by plane, for Monday Night Football.Thruogh some small talk I found out that they were going to be there for the game and fly out the next day.So fast forward to baggage claim and there they are waiting at the carousel collecting their bags.Frank had 1 bag that looked like he had owned it since college.Kathy on the other hand had no further than 16 bags.Let me say that again,16 BAGS for A ONE night stay.I was dumbfounded.All I could think of was this woman couldn’t figure out what to wear for diner so she brought half of her wardrobe with her.
On the other end of the spectrum my best friend from HS traveled the world for 2 years out of a small backpack he ust to use to carry his school books in.
So 6 bags for a 6 month journey isn’t all that bad,I’d say it was about average, I just don’t want to be the one to wash all that dirty laundry.
And of course they are derived from fossil fuels. Sustainable materials cost to much ie leather and cotton and are not as durable. So help this climate warrior out and buy her some Louis Vuitton luggage so she can properly virtue signal the world.
Wonder how crowded the trains will be when there are no cars or planes.
Only the elite will be allowed to travel.
Zil lanes. Silly gretins.
Yep, there will not be a single luxury, like Robinson Crusoe, as primitive as can be.
“though there has been some talk of interrupting the strike during the Christmas holiday period.”
The train unions have their credibility on the line on how much pressure they put to stop Macron. They will not back down easily.
On the other hand, train workers have families and want to be able to do a Christmas dinner too!
If they’re on strike, describing them as workers is not exactly correct. 🙂
“Les syndicalistes ont tellement l’habitude de ne rien faire que lorsqu’ils font grève, ils appellent ça une journée d’action”
Coluche
Union members are so used to never do anything, when they go on strike, they call that a day of action.
Greta was caught out telling porkies. She did have a first class seat and was even given celebrity passenger treatment. Has Greta managed to derail the Thunberg express?
There is a suggestion that one of her connecting trains was cancelled and for part of the journey she was unable to get a seat.
Just for once (this almost hurts!) I think we’re getting a glimpse of a normal teenage girl glad to be going home even if she isn’t sitting quite as comfortably as she had planned. I think her face tells the story. Let’s cut her a bit of slack. This time!
No!!
Newminster
Cut her some slack 😐 Seriously?
There is a suggestion she just lied. I believe her … lies were stupid.
The truth about Gretas train journey:-
https://www.dn.se/nyheter/varlden/tyska-tagbraket-reste-greta-thunberg-pa-golvet-eller-i-forsta-klass/
Come on, she’s an angst ridden teenage girl. Where else would you find her but sitting on a floor, no doubt singing sotto voce in the hope that someone will notice her unbearable suffering.
A picture is worth a thousand words.
I’m very surprised most of these comments are 1st person perception.
She just crossed the Atlantic Ocean, attended the COP mess, stopped, as invited, to several Countries, and is finally headed home for the Holidays.
The snapshot is reflective staging or simply a moment captured in time after a long journey. Who took the photo?
Greta is the posterchild for ClimatePhobia. This is the takeaway!
I believe the BBC have had a team following her travels quite closely. Comment from professional photographers suggests this was carefully posed. Note the lack of other passengers in the corridors of the “crowded” train.
You can’t see the corridor in that shot, however, if you look at the video which does show other people standing in the corridor and one sitting on his suitcase.
https://www.dn.se/nyheter/varlden/tyska-tagbraket-reste-greta-thunberg-pa-golvet-eller-i-forsta-klass/
The issue was in the morning new in German TV today.
That is how rich spoiled kids wanting to be in the limelight are.
My parent were not particular poor either, but despite that, we could always adapt to any situation and be thankfully friendly to others. I would wish for her to think about President Trump’s words trying to chill a bit and enjoy her privileged high society circumstances.
Apart from that, have a nice Christmas Greta, and you do not need to feel bad about the petroleum based presents you may receive and give. The presents may be good for the soul, but will not change the weather in Stockholm one bit. – Ha en bra Jul
The railway company say that she had a first class seat which used, except for two occasions when she went and sat on the floor outside of first class and had her photograph taken.
Where is the crowd ?
Looking at the picture, I see only a shameless brat posing for a scam :
German Rail responding to Greta tweet: “Thank you for travelling with Deutsche Bahn… It would have been nice had you acknowledged how well and competently our team treated you in your First Class seat.”
https://twitter.com/PeterRNeumann/status/1206200930879840256
Perhaps the picture of her alone was taken after the others were removed and lined up against the wall.
For someone who claims to be woke, and cares deeply for the environment – she has an awful lot of luggage. And where are all these people filling the seats so she had to sit on the floor? I don’t even see any seats in that picture, even occupied ones. My money is it’s just another stunt to impress the lemmings.
Some of the baggage probably belongs to her minders.
As someone who has traveled on plenty of overcrowded trains in Germany, including sitting on the train floor on the very line she was on, I’m going to believe her that it was overcrowded. The train personnel probably recognized her as a VIP midway and upgraded her to 1st class.
She bought a first class ticket. she wasn’t upgraded.
I have just got back from Austria by air, but often travel by train within the continent, once there. It is generally a very pleasant experience and more interesting than a plane. Clearly there are times when it is much easier, quicker or cheaper to fly.
One big problem with trains is that the journey is often convoluted if you want to travel long distances and the route needs some working out and often becomes expensive and extended.
So both forms of transport have their merit and Greta was obviously making a point in much the same way as the unlamented Corbyn sat on the floor of a Train here in the UK to make a political point even when seats were available.
I don’t get your point about long distance train travel in the UK Eric. You would reserve a seat in advance. I have never sat on the floor in a puddle.
tonyb
“You would reserve a seat in advance.”
You obviously aren’t Jeremy Corbyn who staged a similar stunt.
I haven’t traveled Deutche Bahn since the early 80s when I was stationed in Bad Kissingen. It was always very nice and clean, pleasant rides.
I travelled extensively across Europe on a 1 month interrail card. The art was finding overnight couchettes that took you somewhere completely different without having to find a room for the night. But some trains definitely got overcrowded, standing in the corridors only for many hours, particularly in Italy. Not a problem in Germany though.
Attention seeking diva.
Anyone still trying to claim that she has any kind of mental disorder. All this attention seeking really shows how uncomfortable she is and how she wants to isolate herself. all this travelling around the world absolutely screams of someone who needs things to continuously to be in order to stop them from panicing.
she has a disorder like i have 8 legs.
Custom-tailored pants then?
GT is of a generation that has never had to go without ANYTHING. I grew up without electricity sometimes, not because of environmental issues, no, it was striking coal miners and power workers. I grew up when so many “workers” went on strike the country almost went bankrupt. When I was young, I used to watch the 747’s stream across the skies over south east England and wondered what it looked like from within the cabin, actually seeing the condtrails. I saw this while flying from LA to NY in 2003. And now we have 16 years olds telling us it’s OK to “go without”. Greta, please, go without or go away!
I just saw the picture in her tweet. This is what you espouse, get used to it Greta!
I take it wasn’t a steam-train, then.
The Bundesbahn made a point of the fact that they purchase only “renewable” electricity. Perhaps that’s why their trains are less reliable these days.
First class 😐 I am actually sick and tired of reading about this vile spoilt girl! She is repetitive, boring, uneducated and has yet to state one single fact about the weather climate…
First she has multi million pound yachts take her to the usa and back to spain, then a fossil fuel made EV drives her around! Five flights back to europe and four or five back to the usa for the first boats crew, then one flight for her second boat trip, now she has the cheek to complain about a packed train 😡 I truly wish the media would grow tired of her and destroy her “climate scam”…. And trains are made/maintained by fossil fuel products and energy, maybe she should have stayed in school and got a education.
“got a education.”
Now that’s unfortunate.
If foolish Ms Thunberg policies are implemented she will not find a train to travel on!
Does anybody know who paid for Greta travelling around the world?
I know some of the travel was offered for free (yachts, cars), but who paid for the flights used by the crews to get them to where the yachts were?
How did her entourage, minders, parents get to and from all these places and who paid? Her parents are quite wealthy but surely not wealthy enough to indulge their daughters’ fantasies?
Who sponsored her?
Redge
I have been wanting to know the same thing, firstly her parents don’t work so how have they got money? Her dad was supposedly on the trip with her, so that shows he has no job, her mother quit working due to co2 or something along those lines..
I would like to know how much money the greta clan has made and like yourself, who pays for the travel, food, clothing, hotels, train tickets etc etc
Her parents are wealthy enough to have paid for the trips. She is an opera singer and he is an actor. Her mothers’ career has been more successful than Greta’s father. Both are activists.
But since when do activists spend their own money when there are enough wealthier doners prepared to bankroll this sort of thing?
Fact of the matter is, that she and her group had been travelling in first class.And in first class everyone is guaranteed a seat. DB railways have proof in their ticket system. Her handlers ought to be a bit more careful when crafting and sending messages