NCT's Summer 2026 Interrail observations and musings

[NCT]

I'm currently on an Interrail trip - a 15-days-in-two-months pass split between two trips. Just sharing my experiences and observations, no particular structure.

Day 1 - London - Bremen

Eurostar 0704 London St Pancras - Brussels. Got held up at the Channel Tunnel entrance for about 15 minutes due to some traffic management system problems. The previous Paris train was apparently sat there for 40 minutes.

Pulled into Brussels with 7 minutes to spare for the 1025 to Colgone. Glad I moved myself to the front of the train. As I was getting off I could see about 20 passengers making the same run.

1025 ICE service to Colgone. There was line closure between Aachen and Cologne and my train was diverted (planned) with a double reversal at Aachen and Rheydt. It was a slightly painful diversion with a lot of crawling. Arrived into Cologne late.

Went to hide in Gaffel am Dom for a couple of refreshing Kolsch. Nice strong aircon for what was a very hot day.

ICE610 Cologne to Bremen.

The train left Cologne 30 minutes late and arrived at Bremen 120 minutes late. There were probably general heat related disruptions, and about 45 minutes of that delay was due to us being diverted via Rheine due to a broken down train between Muenster and Osnabrueck. What struck me was the quality of the infrastructure along the whole route which is just not set up to minimise knock-on delays.

For such a strategic inter-urban corridor (Rhien-Ruhr - Hamburg), there is negligible four-tracking. There is almost no 'uniform path railway' environment if you enter the network late, you can just slot in, drive at permissible speed and lose no further time. My train clocked up additional delays between Cologne and Dortmund. For some odd reason my train was routed via the platform line through Dusseldorf Airport station and we had to wait for the previous train to clear. Then we were checked at Essen Kray Sued and Wattenscheid. Dortmund - Muenster is single line.

The spaghetti of lines in the Rhine-Ruhr area isn't fit for purpose. At the very least they need to complete all the intended RRX work. Beyond that the area really needs a further layer of dedicated high-speed infrastructure enabling getting across and out of the conurbation quickly and without being slowed by Regional trains.

 

[The exile]

For such a strategic inter-urban corridor (Rhien-Ruhr - Hamburg), there is negligible four-tracking. There is almost no 'uniform path railway' environment if you enter the network late, you can just slot in, drive at permissible speed and lose no further time. My train clocked up additional delays between Cologne and Dortmund. For some odd reason my train was routed via the platform line through Dusseldorf Airport station and we had to wait for the previous train to clear. Then we were checked at Essen Kray Sued and Wattenscheid. Dortmund - Muenster is single line.

The spaghetti of lines in the Rhine-Ruhr area isn't fit for purpose. At the very least they need to complete all the intended RRX work. Beyond that the area really needs a further layer of dedicated high-speed infrastructure enabling getting across and out of the conurbation quickly and without being slowed by Regional trains.

Without any concrete evidence to support the theory, I’m guessing that in terms of transport infrastructure improvement, the area was the big loser from the events of 1989. Pushing High speed rail through densely populated areas is of course difficult, unpopular and expensive (see HS2!), and whereas before 1989 regeneration of an economically struggling area would have given it a big push, the minute the two German economies were merged (coincidentally 36 years ago today), the Ruhrgebiet suddenly dropped down the list of Germany’s economic woes. It could cope (just) so was left to do so.

 

[NCT]

The state of it - getting off my train in Bremen:

 

[eastwestdivide]

“Diverse Störungen an Weichen und Signalen” in that photo: various points and signal failures. Impressive lateness!

 

[Austriantrain]

Without any concrete evidence to support the theory, I’m guessing that in terms of transport infrastructure improvement, the area was the big loser from the events of 1989. Pushing High speed rail through densely populated areas is of course difficult, unpopular and expensive (see HS2!), and whereas before 1989 regeneration of an economically struggling area would have given it a big push, the minute the two German economies were merged (coincidentally 36 years ago today), the Ruhrgebiet suddenly dropped down the list of Germany’s economic woes. It could cope (just) so was left to do so.

Certainly. The huge infrastructure investments in the „new Länder“ definetely had a negative impact on investment in the West, not only in rail.

And while I wouldn’t dispute that a dedicated long-distance line („higher-Speed“, I don’t think 300 km/h would be useful here) through the Ruhr would not only make sense, but be a gamechanger, it won’t happen in my lifetime. The RRX-upgrades are what it is going to be; hopefully they will go ahead in their entirety and within a reasonable timeframe.

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

Without any concrete evidence to support the theory, I’m guessing that in terms of transport infrastructure improvement, the area was the big loser from the events of 1989. Pushing High speed rail through densely populated areas is of course difficult, unpopular and expensive (see HS2!), and whereas before 1989 regeneration of an economically struggling area would have given it a big push, the minute the two German economies were merged (coincidentally 36 years ago today), the Ruhrgebiet suddenly dropped down the list of Germany’s economic woes. It could cope (just) so was left to do so.

A new high speed line from Hanover to Bielefeld and upgrading the conventional line thence to Hamm has been in planning for a long, long time but with little actual progress. This would considerably speed up Köln to Hamburg (but not Bremen) and Berlin journeys, but as you say does not solve the problem of getting through the Ruhr.

 

[The exile]

Certainly. The huge infrastructure investments in the „new Länder“ definetely had a negative impact on investment in the West, not only in rail.

The first of my total of 13 years living in Germany was 1988-89 (thus missing the excitement by a few months) and to anyone coming from a rather run-down UK the impression was very much “now what can we do next with all this money we’ve got?”.

 

[Austriantrain]

The first of my total of 13 years living in Germany was 1988-89 (thus missing the excitement by a few months) and to anyone coming from a rather run-down UK the impression was very much “now what can we do next with all this money we’ve got?”.

Well, I can think of a rather prosperous, large and populous country that did not have to shoulder a reunification and still did not manage to build high-speed rail. Germany is not alone in not seeing the long-term worth of infrastructure.

 

[The exile]

Well, I can think of a rather prosperous, large and populous country that did not have to shoulder a reunification and still did not manage to build high-speed rail. Germany is not alone in not seeing the long-term worth of infrastructure.

I’m not sure where you draw the conclusion that Germany did not see the long-term value of infrastructure investment (or that I thought they didn’t). The problem was that there was suddenly a completely unpredictable re-prioritising of where that money had to be spent - simultaneously with a severe reduction of wealth per capita available. The North West of the old Bundesrepublik has coped more or less with the infrastructure it had - the North and East of the new state quite clearly would not have done so.

 

[Austriantrain]

I’m not sure where you draw the conclusion that Germany did not see the long-term value of infrastructure investment (or that I thought they didn’t). The problem was that there was suddenly a completely unpredictable re-prioritising of where that money had to be spent - simultaneously with a severe reduction of wealth per capita available. The North West of the old Bundesrepublik has coped more or less with the infrastructure it had - the North and East of the new state quite clearly would not have done so.

Well, if they do see it, they are really bad in acting on it (as can be seen in the massive backlog in maintenance on the rail network). Besides reunification, which I perfectly understand, a lot has to do with the Merkel years and the unwilligness to increase debt when debt was cheap. Besides, Germany is woeful at actually building the staff they plan - see Stuttgart 21, but also the Brenner northern access, Hamburg - Hannover and many others, where seemingly each and every person and dog living somewhere within 50 km of the project has a right to veto it. NIMBYs at its worst (far worse than the Chilterns on HS2).

BTW, a lot of German Autobahn infrastructure is in bad shape too, for similar reasons (excect for the NIMBYs).

 

[The exile]

Well, if they do see it, they are really bad in acting on it. Besides reunification, which I perfectly understand, a lot has to do with the Merkel years and the unwilligness to increase debt when debt was cheap. Besides, Germany is woeful at actually building the staff they plan - see Stuttgart 21, but also the Brenner northern access, Hamburg - Hannover and many others, where seemingly each and every person and dog living somewhere within 50 km of the project has a right to veto it. NIMBYs at its worst (far worse than the Chilterns on HS2).

I did say “did”, not “do”. Thinking back to 1989!

 

[Austriantrain]

I did say “did”, not “do”. Thinking back to 1989!

Certainly. But the current problems have started then and have only grown in time. If it only were reunification and the "Verkehrsprojekte Deutsche Einheit" (which went much smoother for road than for rail anyway), we would not where we are.

 

[The exile]

Certainly. But the current problems have started then and have only grown in time. If it only were reunification and the "Verkehrsprojekte Deutsche Einheit" (which went much smoother for road than for rail anyway), we would not where we are.

Who knows - basically, decisions made between 9/11/89 and 30/06/90 guaranteed a second version of Stunde Null. Who knows who would have steered the old Federal Republic through the early years of the 21sr century. Almost certainly not the emigree from Hamburg who actually did.

 

[43096]

The state of it - getting off my train in Bremen:
View attachment 206957

Looking at that ICE610 got off lightly compared to ICE612!

 

[NCT]

Day 2 - Bremen - Copenhagen

Bremen - Hamburg

The ICEs were still running like the toilet. I had to take an RE instead. The RE ran on time. Bremen - Hamburg infrastructure seemed pretty good. It's a 3-track formation between Rotenburg and Buchholz. Does anyone know what the normal operation convention of this line is - i.e. what are the normally designated 'up', 'down' and reversable tracks?

Hamburg - Copenhagen on RJ384

This train was shown as running ~15 minutes late due to heat related speed restrictions between Berlin and Hamburg. When that 15 minutes were up, the announcement suddenly changed to 50 minutes late.

What happens when a train is late and busy? Passengers are confused and stressed and dwell management becomes impossible. There was a bit of polite commotion with passengers in other people's booked seats but all seed to die down by Altona when more people got off. The loco changeover (Czech loco swapped for a Danish loco at the end due to multiple certification issues) at Altona took 30 minutes so we didn't get any time back. Turned out there were signalling problems on the Flensburg line, and then we lost between 30 and 60 minutes each at Schleswig and Padborg, due to door control issues. Finally the crew had to manually lock the doors and we cancelled all stops apart from Middelfart and Copenhagen. Got into Copenhagen 3 hours late. Are door problems common on Comfortjet sets or was I just a tad unlucky?

What else happens on a late and busy train? The dining car does a roaring trade. The poor dining car crew looked pretty overwhelmed. Turned out it was one person looking after both the dining car itself and First Class. There were separate counter and kitchen staff however.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 1 Jul 2026 ==

State of Hamburg when I was waiting for my RJ384



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The only things running on time at Hamburg Hbf were the (relatively self contained) RE80 and RB81 shuttling back and forth, despite tight-ish turnarounds and platform sharing.

I actually think Europe isn't ready for the uber-long-distance services the European Commission seem to like - or not ready because most such services have to cross Germany and they risk becoming a gimmick. Passengers would enjoy a more reliable railway if services were shorter and more self-contained, with rolling stock deployment being locally more homogeneous.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 6 Jul 2026 ==

Day 3: Copenhagen - Stockholm via Malmo

(I’m updating not in real time)

I travelled on an Oresund train. The bridge and tunnel are marvellous pieces of infrastructure.

My train was a single unit of 3 cars. Most workings seemed to be two units. I don’t know if my train was an unplanned short form or if unit availability means there has to be some planned single unit diagrams.

My train was full and standing even in First Class. There was a lot of churn at Copenhagen airport and other intermediate destinations and the posh regional / wannabe intercity layout of the tran just couldn’t cope. We couldn’t keep the dwells as a result and arrived into Malmo late. Even without short forming the service would have benefited from s more Thameslink layout.





The normal timetable is between Copenhagen and Malmo is 4tph off-peak and 6tph peak. With proper train lengths and a less intercity layout it would be a very good service level.

 

[NCT]

Without any concrete evidence to support the theory, I’m guessing that in terms of transport infrastructure improvement, the area was the big loser from the events of 1989. Pushing High speed rail through densely populated areas is of course difficult, unpopular and expensive (see HS2!), and whereas before 1989 regeneration of an economically struggling area would have given it a big push, the minute the two German economies were merged (coincidentally 36 years ago today), the Ruhrgebiet suddenly dropped down the list of Germany’s economic woes. It could cope (just) so was left to do so.

Not having delivery money hasn't stopped DB from development projects and running public consultations. It's become a bit of a farce, but there are at least four serious projects on the table: Frankfurt - Mannheim, Bielefeld - Hanover, Hanover - Hamburg and Ulm - Augsburg.

There's been complete silence for west of Bielefeld. I suspect it's been put on the politically too difficult pile. The Rhine-Ruhr is very polycentric and any attempt at creating a truly fast internal network (i.e. something well beyond the Rhine-Ruhr Express) will require treating some cities more equally than others, which is alien to German politics.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 12 Jul 2026 ==

(Railway) Day 4: Tallinn - Riga

Electrification work between Tapa and Tartu looked nearly complete. The new Skoda EMUs parked in the sidings in Tapa looked pretty impressive. There’s no electrification south of Tartu but there appeared to be extensive modernisation / realignment going on.

I understand it isn’t long until the wires are energised and permissive speeds are raised to up to 160km/h (from the current 100-135, as a later phase once the new signalling is tested and put in use). These should make the pre Rail Baltica journey a bit less laboured.

The current rolling stock on the service is an electro-diesel 4-car Stadler Flirt. There are a lot of internal steps inside the train making the interior layout quite messy. One of the carriages is accessible toilet + bike spaces leaving little space for seats.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Jul 2026 ==

Day 5: Riga - Kaunas

A relatively uneventful journey - LTG Riga to Kaisiadorys on a PESA 730ML and Kaisiadorys to Kaunas on an EJ 575 (Russian gauge version of Skoda CityElefant).

The 35-minute interchange at Kaisiadorys was a slightly desolate thumb twiddling affair.

As luck would have it (or not) were I to do this journey this week it would be just 10 minutes at Kaisiadorys, as the (Valga -) Riga - Vilnius train now runs faster and connects to an earlier train to Kaunas.

A pair of DR1A at Riga



Joined by a modern Skoda EMU

 

[NCT]

Day 6: Kaunas - Warsaw

Kaunas - Mockava on LTG's PESA 730ML, then the Hanza on PKP's coaching stock. The LTG train was busy and the return train looked fully loaded.

This was my second time taking the Hanza service from Mockava to Warsaw in this direction. First time was Autumn 2024. Compared to last time the service was about an hour faster. The Trakiszki - Bialystok journey time got tightened by about 20 minutes. There was no crawling along at 50km/h like I think there was last time. The non-stop run between Bialystok and Warsaw was a nice change from the previous ‘all shacks’ experience. Just these two chunks of journey time improvement have made the service feel like a more 'serious' inter-city one - it felt more like a relic two years ago. Hopefully it won't be long until GSM-R is fully installed and commissioned on Warsaw - Bialystok and trains can get up to 200km/h (is my understanding). The loco change at Bialystok and the runround at Sulwalki are still time consuming.

Will PKP put Alstom Coradia EMUs on this service? Could those EMUs be dragged / pushed by diesel locos without needing loco runrounds?

Day 7: Warsaw - Berlin - Braunchweig

Warsaw - Berlin

Warsaw - Berlin on the 0700 EC246 was relatively uneventful. First Class felt oddly quiet for a midweek 'peak time' train. Restaurant car was doing well. Works are ongoing between Frankfurt Oder and Berlin, particularly new stations at Fangsleuse and Koepenick.

We were diverted to Gesundbrunen due to works on the Stadtbahn. We actually arrived about 20 minutes before the booked arrival time, which meant I could take an S15 service that I wasn't able to log in my Interrail app.

Cross-Berlin on the S15

S15 in the temporary platform at Berlin Hbf - only a 4-car set can be accommodated:



Berlin - Braunschweig

My Berlin - Braunschweig, despite starting in Berlin (Suedkreuz) was 30 minutes late due to late preparation of the train. When it arrived at the platform, the formation on the display was the wrong way round. It was a very busy train and it took a whole 10 minutes of dwell to load up. Most seats (that I observed) on that train were reserved and I was initially surprised a lot of the reservations were for long-distance journeys to Frankfurt and beyond on what is a semi-fast train stopping also at Stendal and Wolfsburg. I was only later that I realised the route via Gelnhausen is closed so there are no Sprinter services.

 

[NCT]

A very delayed update of Day 8

Braunschweig - Hanover

Uneventful journey on an IC2 which ran on time, and made my 8-minute cross-platform interchange to my next train. Prior to boarding that train I was checking its passage (from Leipzig) closely for delays as otherwise I'd have had to take an earlier regional train.

Hannover - Cologne

An ICE service. Departure from Hanover was a couple of minutes late and we had picked up slightly more delays by Dortmund. We were (I'm running off memory now) about 20 minutes late by Dusseldorf. There were problems with the Cologne - Dusseldorf line, and after a slightly extended dwell at Dusseldorf we went on our diverted way via Opladen. Arrived just shy of one hour late (meaning I missed out on Interrail delay repay). Upon arrival at Cologne our set immediately formed the service back to Berlin (ordinarily it would have run ECS to the yard just beyond the station to be prepared for its next working).

What was a planned >1h interchange before my next train turned out to be a 5-minute one.

Cologne - Brussels, Brussels - London

Pretty uneventful. Cologne - Brussels was still on the diversionary route via Rheydt, and despite leaving Cologne a couple of minutes late we arrived in Aachen slightly early. Everything else operated on time. Getting through the shenanigans at Bruxelle Midi was relatively painless.

Bonus UK days

London - Chippenham and back

The next day (a Saturday) I was attending a wedding between Chippenham and Devizes. Wanted to catch the 1400 off Paddington, which was cancelled (it was a heatwave day with 'strategic' cancellations). The 1430 ran satisfactorily. The train was busy but not horrendously so - I had 2 seats to myself all the way to Chippenham.

London - Bristol generally ran OK on that day. I found that on a 30-minute frequency, the odd cancellation is far less painful than Deutsche Bahn type delays. A 30-minute headway is quite easy to 'lose' with a quick lunch or a slow snack, especially at an origin departure station where you can board 10-15 minutes before departure.

Another unpopular opinion - I found the IET standard class seats to be more agreeable than some of the DB First Class seats.

The next day getting back to London - GWR ran like the toilet unfortunately, seemingly due to sets delayed getting out of Stoke Gifford that morning.

 

[NCT]

*** Trip 2 ***

Day 1 London - Rotterdam - The Hague

An altogether uneventful journey. It was a Saturday morning and there were engineering works on the Belgian HSL, so we were diverted onto the L94. As a result we the normally 0816 departure from St Pancras was brought forward to 0734.

When you run a high-speed service within a takt system (and international one at that) there will be hanging around, especially when there are engineering works. The diversion only costs 15 minutes, but the London end of Channel Tunnel paths are organised in half hourly flights, so journey time had to be extended by at least half an hour.

We arrived at Brussels ahead of the booked time of 1100 and was sat for nearly half an hour before the 1125 departure.

The Brussels - Antwerp part of the journey was tediously slow. Crawled through Mechelen and crawled through Antwerp - all part of the timetable.

Mechelen station platforms 7-10 are taking shape nicely (7 is in use). I’m hoping when the station is complete there will be a timetable recast allowing Eurostar services to overtake on L25N the domestic services stopped on Platform 7-10 of L25.

Arrived at Rotterdam on time and my Rotterdam - The Hague IC ran as expected.

Quite a few people got off at Rotterdam. It was good to actually observe (albeit almost no statistical power from a sample size of one) that the Randstad isn’t just Amsterdam and South Holland also generates international travel.

 

[NCT]

Day 2 Den Haag Centraal - Groningen

Direct train via Utrecht. 4-car VIRM that looked cozy in second class. Lots of interchange traffic at Utrecht.

Witnessed the marvel of the Swiss-style cross-platform interchange at Zwolle -

-xx41 arrivals from Den Haag and Leeuwarden
-xx44 arrivals from Schiphol and Groningen
-xx46 departures towards Schiphol and Groningen
-xx48 departures towards Den Haag and Leeuwarden

All 4 trains ran on time (more or less) at the time was my observation and it was a pleasing sight.

My IC had a couple of 40-minute non-stop runs (Utrecht - Zwolle, Zwolle - Assen). Dutch Intercity trains don’t have anything bigger than trinket tables. At those journey times I do think passengers want to get comfortable and I saw quite a few people balancing their laptops awkwardly. Full-size tables at least for the window seats ought to be considered IMO.

 

[NCT]

Day 3 Groninghen - Bremen

The Wunderline remains closed after some false dawns, so it was Arriva local train to Nieuweschan, replacement bus 620 to Leer, then an IC2 service to Bremen. All pretty uneventful.

An Arriva GTW set and Wunderline east of Nieuweschan that looks close to commissioning:





An impromptu return trip to Bremerhaven. Saw some of the worst graffiti in Germany I’ve ever seen

 

[NCT]

Day 4 Bremen - Rostock - Szczecin

Bremen - Hamburg Harbourg

Uneventful journey until Buchholz where my RE was held for 10 minutes because ‘another train [had] priority’. It was not obvious what that other train was.

Upon leaving Harbourg this is what the train looked like. The adjacent carriage was locked out of use and the rear carriages weren’t anywhere near as bad



Hamburg Harbourg - Rostock

Other than a planned diversion away from Hamburg Hbf, this leg of the journey operated without any fanfare.

Rostock - Warenmünde - Rostock

There’s an S-bahn service operating on a 10-minute metro frequency on this core section which was very handy.

Rostock - Stralsund - Pasewalk - Szczecin

Rostock - Stralsund ICE was delayed at origin due to late preparation of the train. This was the second time this has happened to me this summer. We left Rostock 20 minutes late. Much of the route was single track so our late train had to be recessed for other trains to pass. We were running about 30 minutes late throughout as a consequence.

I was due to arrive Stralsund at 1453 which would have given me plenty of time to connect onto the 1508 RE3. We arrived at 1521. Thankfully they held the 1520 ICE by 5 minutes which connected with the RE at Anklam. Crisis narrowly averted after a stressful spring between platforms at Stralsund.

Pasewalk - Szczecin was a rail replacement bus (a single rigid Citaro). Quite a lot of standing and luggage in the aisle.

 

[NCT]

Days 4 and 5 Szczecin - Bydgoszcz, Bydgoszcz - Poznan

Szczecin - Poznan was a Stadler unit, the other 2 trains were loco-hauled UIC carriages.

Trains ran fairly well but with small delays. All trains were very busy with people stood in vestibules, and even along the corridor of the First Class compartment carriage.

Day 6 Poznan - Prague

This was the Baltic Express EC263.

Very busy between Poznan and Wroclaw; less busy south of Wroclaw even with reduced number of carriages but still respectably loaded. This was the journey when I started losing the love for UIC carriages and pining for modern intercity units. Probably bad luck more than anything, my seat base was slightly collapsed on this and the Bydgoszcz - Poznan journey. Restaurant car was one of those half restaurant car half open first class CD carriages (but sold as second class). Upon leaving Wroclaw, the CD crew who just got on and (re-)opened the counter were not in uniform (though they appeared to have donned their uniforms later on in the journey). There was no Pilsner Urqwell on draught (probably difficult to stock when not on home turf) and everything was served in takeaway wear - not the usual CD quality I was expecting.

Journey was on time for most of its duration. From Usti Nad Orlici we started losing time - not unexpected as the app warned of likely delays due to construction work. It looked like there was track renewal going on between there and Prague, and there was a few sections of single line working going on (not sure if single line working in the strict sense, or if the lines are bi-di signalled anyway). It's interesting that they just warn of possible delays, whereas in GB we would have a Short Term Planning (STP) timetable in operation.

We were a modest 10-minute late on the outskirts of Prague, whereupon we then spent the next 30 minutes stationary. I thought it was just congestion on the approach to the main station, but other trains were happily flying past us. Eventually the conductor came through, and I picked up the words which sounded like 'locomotivo' and 'kaput'. Thankfully after a few reset attempts (I can only imagine) we got going again and arrive in Prague nearly an hour late.

 

[NCT]

Day 7 Prague - Erfurt

Prague - Dresden

This was on Ceske Drahy's RJ382.

The Czech Republic seems to be one of the only country in that neck of the woods where platforming isn't published as part of the timetable / booking itinerary. Loitering on the concourse and seeing the platform only (less than?) 10 minutes before departure time felt slightly disconcerting. Despite Prague being the originating station for the service, the unit wasn't sitting on the platform. It arrived barely a minute before departure time and we had a late departure by about 5 minutes. This is the second time I've experienced this - about this time last year my Pendolino to Ostrava came into the platform at departure time and depart about 5 minutes late. Are sloppy on-time departures a feature at Prague, or was I just unlucky?

There were works between Prague and Usti Nad Lebem and we had several sections of single line running. Again, (as far as I can tell) no temporary timetable, we were just expected to deal with any resulting delays. Arrival into Dresden was about 10 minutes late.

Seemingly due to ongoing operating restrictions on the Hamburg - Berlin line, RJ382 was running to Berlin only. There was only an hourly service level between Berlin and Hamburg.

Dresden - Erfurt

Generally uneventful journey on a tilting ICE (single 7-coach set). The Dresden - Riesa despite a 160km/h ruling line speed. I suspect the timetable is intended to accommodate various construction projects happening on this section, some of which have now been completed (Zeithain - Leckwitz modernisation) or are currently happening (Dresden Hbf western approach tracks). Hopefully the Dec 26 timetable will see some tighening to bring Dresden - Leipzig closer to the intended 45 minutes (from the current 1h9m).

Day 8 Erfurt - Frankfurt - Brussels - London

Having a critical Eurostar to catch at the end of the day, I planned what I hoped would be a relatively low-stress journey all on high-speed trains with generous interchange times (50 minutes at Frankfurt and 3 hours at Brussels).

Erfurt - Frankfurt

Hairy start to the day. My 0930 departure ICE was delayed by 40 minutes. This service originated at Hamburg. Ongoing temporary speed restrictions meant it went through Berlin late. The service went from 10 minutes late at Wittenberge to 40 minutes late at Berlin Hbf - I don't know the precise reasons for losing those 30 minutes. This was a second time in as many month where the Hamburg - Berlin line caused me downstream delays on a through service. In my view Germany needs to accept infrastructure-related delays as a medium-term feature (rolling programme of corridor reconstructions, delayed completions and lingering teething problems thereafter) rather than a bug and move towards a more point-to-point model of operation. My service was Hamburg - Berlin - Frankfurt - Munich, which really should have been 3 separate services.

There's four-tracking work ongoing between Gelnhausen and Nidermittlau, and an additional platform island at Gelnhausen which looks not far from completion. Openrailwaymap appears behind in its reflection of current works?

Slightly miraculously the train didn't lose any time between Berlin and Hanau. The journey became stop-start on the approach to Hanau and we arrived into Frankfurt Hbf 45 minutes late.

A quick dash through the 'country end' passageway (which smelled of pi&&) put me on the 1234 ICE314 with a minute to spare.

This was the second time on this trip where a 'more generous than Dutch' interchange on paper became a 'tighter than Swiss' one in practice. In a large country of complex service structures (even with my kind of service simplifications) I'm now even less convinced that Swiss style interchanges are desirable; even with improved performance, on a 'reasonably good day', the ideal interchange time (especially between inter-city services) is something between 20 and 30 minutes where low level delays (which in reality means anything up to 10 minutes) doesn't cause immediate stress.

Frankfurt - Brussels

We departed 2 minutes late, and were 5 minutes late upon departure from Frankfurt Airport.

We made up time between Frankfurt Airport and just outside Koeln Messe Deutz, prompting the screen to show a forecast ontime arrival and conductor to confidently declare 'all connections will be met'. It appears that the 55-minute Frankfurt Flughafen - Koeln Hbf is timed for 265km/h running of ICE4s, so an ICE Neo worked set can recover from delays.

However, we were stopped outside Messe Deutz for quite some time and the run into Hbf was a very slow crawl. We ended up 15 minutes late leaving Hbf. Eventual arrival into Bruxelle Midi was around 10 minutes late.

It was a busy service, with Cologne - Aachen being the busiest section. The restaurant car seemed overwhelmed with takeaway orders and they could not provide at-seat service for First Class.

Brussels - London

Smooth journey. My service originated in Amsterdam so they only needed to process a third of train's worth of passengers. The departure terminal felt positively desolate. This was also my first time boarding from Platform 3 and I didn't realise at first it was not through the usual way through World Duty Free. The train pulled into Brussels on time at 1805. Due to diversion via L94 we had an even more generous usual dwell at Brussels (for 1829 departure) and at Lille.

 

[Mike99]

As always, a great read, I do do some European travelling but I just couldn't record the information in the same way.