Recent content by maxiboy

Higher frequencies are a great idea, but it's a chicken and egg kind of problem. The infrastructure is not exactly up to today's standards and there is a shortage of staff, and to some extent rolling stock as well. Rolling stock financing is a huge issue, especially smaller operators that are...

Yes, EVG also represents signallers, ICT staff and depot/maintenance staff, among other, whereas GDL is mostly a union for train drivers, having started organising guards in recent years only (although now also passively recruiting signallers and others). Let's hope they don't go on strike.

Yes, all NS TVMs as well as counters now accept MasterCard and Visa in addition to Maestro and V Pay. However, a surcharge of € 0.50 will be applied to the purchase. => http://www.ns.nl/en/travellers/arrange-and-buy/tickets-and-passes/purchasing-tickets/ns-self-service-ticket-machine.html...

Local rail in Germany (IRE/RE/RB/S) does, but it's not a strict system as one ticket may permit journeys on different routes. German local rail fare definitions therefore include an arbitrary fare kilometrage (Tarifkilometer) value that can be looked up in the Tfv 603 fares manual. Rounding and...

Ahem. Continental Europe does suffer from problems as well. Transport policy is just different here, not necessarily better. Remember the S-Bahn Berlin breakdown back in 2009/10, when it emerged that Germany's rail system combines the drawbacks of nationalisation and superficial privatisation...

You can also try http://www.vevu.org/evs/BahnTools2015.zip but this only gives you the fare kilometres, not the true mileage.

Certain fares to/from Germany such as Berlin-London including Thalys might be available from the Eurostar booking centre. They are from a different quota, more expensive though, but worth a try if London-Spezial is sold out. However they can only be booked by phone.

It also depends on where you are travelling. For example if you are travelling between Munich and Salzburg on an ÖBB railjet, DB's conditions of carriage will apply where a Business supplement is not required. Ask train staff politely when in doubt.

Most likely you will be travelling on regional rail services only. In fact Berlin-Lübbenau is operated by ODEG, not by DB Regio, but this won't matter as all fares are set by the Berlin-Brandenburg Passenger Transport Executive (www.vbb.de). Tickets can be bought locally in advance (no ToD or...

Yes, this does exist (see Section 153a of the Criminal Procedure Code). However, the differentiation of a penalty fare (that is a civil debt of twice the open fare, but at least 40 Euros) from the criminal prosecution of fare evasion (associated with several criminal offences) also exists in...

There's also an InterRail offline app for Android that contains offline timetable data. Also, I was offered to download a set of "2015 preview" data for DB's 2014 release of the offline timetable. It's nowhere near complete but still contains a lot of data.

Thanks, just booked for October :)

This is not entirely correct, there's - Station grouping: Any ticket that has been issued to "BERLIN", including Sparpreis (Advance) fares, will include travel to any destination station within Zone A (including the Ringbahn) as well as Nöldnerplatz and Lichtenberg stations in Zone B...

Formations can be found at http://www.grahnert.de/fernbahn/reihung/reih0040.html The DB Lounges in major stations (Berlin Hbf, Hamburg Hbf, Köln Hbf, Frankfurt(Main)Hbf, München Hbf) are separated in two parts, one is for "genuine" first class ticket holders and one is for holders of any...

Yes, it's now simply "Berlin". Might be confusing to some as many stations such as Berlin-Spandau that have Berlin in its name are not included – "Berlin" only means Zone A. The current list of station groups (Sammelbezeichnung) in Germany and grouped stations (Abgang-/Zielbahnhöfe mit...