You can bet on the first human encounter with an alien civilization, the second coming of Jesus Christ or who will finish third in thirty to three at Haydock.
You can bet again, when it will be clear that the world is flat, or when the Iranian regime will fall. However, in a country where trains used to run on time, an increasing number of Germans are choosing to bet on how long they will be delayed.
Caio van Caarven, an artist based in Vienna, founded BahnBet, a website that uses timetables from Deutsche Bahn to market the plight of passengers. He says it “turns a culture’s cynicism into edgy entertainment”.
The brains behind the project seem to have accepted the pain of walking. However, any real risk is mitigated by gamblers only being allowed to use fictitious money.
It is becoming more widespread. The BahnBet site was launched in early March and was visited more than 150,000 times in its first 24 hours. Each new user receives an initial deposit of €1,000 and wins based on how well their predictions match the arrival times.
The top three players each month receive real prizes from van Caarven’s online store, which include T-shirts mocking Deutsche Bahn, such as “Deutsche Bahnana – One leaves two hours late”.
“I’m actually a rail enthusiast,” van Caarven told Techbook, a digital lifestyle magazine. But he was frustrated by constant delays in getting around southern Germany and was constantly diverted by connections that did not exist in Wurzburg or Regensburg. He said he spent 60 to 80 hours over two months to create the device with the help of artificial intelligence.
The train from Karlsruhe to Munich last month, for example, had a departure time of 13.05 and a scheduled arrival of 15.49. It was 71 minutes after 16.30. A total of 85 bets have been placed on when it will arrive. As of Thursday the site had 13,909 active users and more than 44 million euros in legendary bets to date.
Easter should provide a bonanza for the betting community as the internet is expected to experience increased delays and congestion. Many travelers are expected to leave their cars at home due to rising fuel prices caused by the war in Iran.
Evelyn Palla, the new chief executive of Deutsche Bahn, has admitted that its customers are paying the price for decades of underinvestment in stocks, track, bridges and stations. In a country once known for its on-time trains, only 60.1 percent of on-time trains were on time by 2025, “on time” being defined as less than six minutes. The ratio hit an all-time low of 51.5 percent last October.
Palla, who was appointed that month to get the network back on track, described the challenges two weeks ago, telling Der Spiegel: “We have a damaged train network, broken switches, signal boxes that date back to the monarchy, too much bureaucracy, and too much closed administrative equipment.”
He said it would take a decade for the railway to be in “good condition” again, but promised passengers would see cosmetic improvements soon. The trains may still be late, but at least they will be clean, have working toilets and well-stocked dining cars, he said.
Deutsche Bahn has not yet responded to van Caarven’s proposal. “The response, as expected, is slow,” he added. Deutsche Bahn also declined to comment when contacted by The Times.
Meanwhile, the singer has expanded his repertoire to include nine other countries including the UK. “This whole thing is a social experiment,” he said on his website. “Let’s pretend this platform is real, maybe train operators around the world will do something about it.”
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