DB and OBB experiences

[nwales58]

Are Thalys compulsory reservations? I think a few of the trips are Thalys to Cologne followed by a Domestic ICE to Frankfurt.

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Compulsory ('global price'). Like TGVs.

If you have a ticket it is for a specific train. See its conditions to see whether changeable and only in advance or changeable after departure. Same as TGVs. Global price means your Thalys ticket has no value on non-Thalys services.

If using a pass, it costs eur 12-30 and very little quota. At a quick look only 3 trains total in the next 6 days have Interrail quota left, mostly 1st only. At short notice ICE and IC+R via Verviers are the only options on a pass.

 

[Krokodil]

Never a dull moment

 

[Austriantrain]

Never a dull moment

You do seem to have an exciting journey!

 

[AlbertBeale]

Never a dull moment

Where's that?

 

[Austriantrain]

Where's that?

Handelskai station on the Vienna S-Bahn.

 

[YorkshireBear]

Compulsory ('global price'). Like TGVs.

If you have a ticket it is for a specific train. See its conditions to see whether changeable and only in advance or changeable after departure. Same as TGVs. Global price means your Thalys ticket has no value on non-Thalys services.

If using a pass, it costs eur 12-30 and very little quota. At a quick look only 3 trains total in the next 6 days have Interrail quota left, mostly 1st only. At short notice ICE and IC+R via Verviers are the only options on a pass.

No they are already booked with seats. Good value for through tickets from London to cologne actually.

Thanks all for info.

 

[Krokodil]

Amusingly I've just heard "operating difficulties" used as a reason for a delay. Wasn't this an old favourite of BR?

 

[Austriantrain]

Amusingly I've just heard "operating difficulties" used as a reason for a delay. Wasn't this an old favourite of BR?

It was a bit more than that - the train got separated because a coupling broke (interestingly, it was a push-pull-set being pushed at that time, so must have happened while braking).

 

[LowLevel]

Today's adventure - 4 hour delay on the Vienna - Brussels Nightjet following diversion via Salzburg for engineering work and a police inspection on the German border. Very pleasant staff still grafting away after their finish time with many more hours work still in prospect.

Shower is absolutely freezing too

 

[Krokodil]

Today's adventure - 4 hour delay on the Vienna - Brussels Nightjet following diversion via Salzburg for engineering work and a police inspection on the German border. Very pleasant staff still grafting away after their finish time with many more hours work still in prospect.

Shower is absolutely freezing too

*Waving from the Amsterdam portion*

 

[LowLevel]

*Waving from the Amsterdam portion*

We are trundling along via Verviers at the minute. Have given up and opened my can of Stiegl

 

[Krokodil]

We are trundling along via Verviers at the minute. Have given up and opened my can of Stiegl

I phoned Eurostar (no chance that I'm getting the 1347 now) but was just told to speak to the staff on arrival at Amsterdam to rebook. A dynamic company would have seen the opportunity to resell the seat I won't now be occupying.

Hopefully there will be space on either the 1647 or the 1847. Doesn't matter if I'm a few hours late back in the UK, due to the strike I had booked to catch the Lowland Sleeper to Carlisle and double back from there in the morning, rather than wait for the first Off Peak Avanti departure on Thursday.

 

[LowLevel]

I phoned Eurostar (no chance that I'm getting the 1347 now) but was just told to speak to the staff on arrival at Amsterdam to rebook. A dynamic company would have seen the opportunity to resell the seat I won't now be occupying.

Hopefully there will be space on either the 1647 or the 1847. Doesn't matter if I'm a few hours late back in the UK, due to the strike I had booked to catch the Lowland Sleeper to Carlisle and double back from there in the morning, rather than wait for the first Off Peak Avanti departure on Thursday.

Last time I missed a Eurostar due to a late running TGV it was, happily, a 2 minute job to pop into the office and get rebooked on the next train so hopefully you'll be fine!

 

[Krokodil]

Last time I missed a Eurostar due to a late running TGV it was, happily, a 2 minute job to pop into the office and get rebooked on the next train so hopefully you'll be fine!

Good, because this journey is tediously slow now. I passed a Renault garage just now and the cars had German number plates so clearly we haven't crossed the border yet. It feels like a similar stagger to the Brussels-Antwerp on Eurostar the other week, probably because we've lost our path.

 

[LowLevel]

Good, because this journey is tediously slow now. I passed a Renault garage just now and the cars had German number plates so clearly we haven't crossed the border yet. It feels like a similar stagger to the Brussels-Antwerp on Eurostar the other week, probably because we've lost our path.

You're apparently about 10 minutes from Arnhem so nearly there!

Bahn Experte

Dein Begleiter um Stressfrei Bahn zu fahren. Sucht die besten Informationen aus allen Quellen um dich ans Ziel zu bringen.

bahn.expert

We're now flying between Liege and Brussels and hopefully will be there in 30 minutes or so.

 

[Krokodil]

You're apparently about 10 minutes from Arnhem so nearly there!

I don't know what time it said when you wrote that, but it's still more than 10 minutes away half an hour after your post.

I have a washing machine that gives similar estimates...

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 4 Oct 2023 ==

...

ETA in Amsterdam is now virtually 4.5hrs verspätung

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 4 Oct 2023 ==

...

Final score 4h 28m late.

Anyone know how that compares with Amtrak?

 

[Bemined]

My last NJ trip we managed to arrive in Nürnberg early, only to depart with a 2 hour delay because the Hamburg part of the train derailed during shunting. Estimates in the Dutch app were complete bogus as well then, I guess delays aren't synchronised across borders yet.

 

[rvdborgt]

Estimates in the Dutch app were complete bogus as well then, I guess delays aren't synchronised across borders yet.

They are but NS' app (or some software in their backend) apparently can't handle them.

 

[185]

Greetings from somewhere near Neumarkt am Wallersee (Grove Road). Food's pretty good on this Vienna - Innsbruck Railjet Express...

 

[Krokodil]

Greetings from somewhere near Neumarkt am Wallersee (Grove Road). Food's pretty good on this Vienna - Innsbruck Railjet Express...

Yes, while it's just ready meals it was really good to be able to get something hot on a train. Removal of buffet counters on long-distance trains in the UK is a backwards step.

 

[U-Bahnfreund]

In August, the 5 minute punctuality of DB Fernverkehr trains (IC/EC and ICE), stood at 58.7%, really a low point https://www.deutschebahn.com/de/konzern/konzernprofil/zahlen_fakten/puenktlichkeitswerte-6878476

 

[Krokodil]

In August, the 5 minute punctuality of DB Fernverkehr trains (IC/EC and ICE), stood at 58.7%, really a low point https://www.deutschebahn.com/de/konzern/konzernprofil/zahlen_fakten/puenktlichkeitswerte-6878476

For comparison, while they do not publish statistics for 5 minute delays, 66% of Avanti West Coast services arrived within three minutes, and 86% arrived within ten.

Not a good look to be worse than Avanti.

 

[30907]

For comparison, while they do not publish statistics for 5 minute delays, 66% of Avanti West Coast services arrived within three minutes, and 86% arrived within ten.

Not a good look to be worse than Avanti.

Just for clarification, the DB figures cover all intermediate stops, not just termini - are the Avanti figures the same?

 

[Krokodil]

No idea.

 

[Fragezeichnen]

Greetings from a 90 minute late ICE, which theoretically should have arrived 2 hours earlier than my booked train, which itself is 60 minutes late.
It's almost comical how virtually every ICE seems to run late recently, and by 30+ minutes, not 5.

My anecdotal observations:
The signalling in the Rhein-Ruhr region is elderly. Almost all of the major nodes are running on relay-based interlockings - and when there is a problem there which causes disruption, it essentially screws the entire German long distance network up because so many trains originate or pass through the region.
For some reason it is extraordinarily common for traffic to be halted because there is a report of a person on the tracks, at which point everything stops until the Police can check what is happening.

 

[nwales58]

Better that than 'Notarzteinsatz' after which nothing should move for the rest of the day.

 

[Segedunum]

So I've been using a Deutschlandticket today and I've worked my way from Salzburg to Mannheim (tomorrow Mannheim to Berlin) on Nahverkehr aka everything except IC/ICE.

Here's how it went...

• Salzburg - München was largely fine. We were delayed a little in Freilassing while the border police booted a few people off that they didn't like the look of, made up all the time, then lost it again due to a freight train in the way. Conductor kept everyone informed in great detail
• München - Ingolstadt started off fine then we kept stopping and starting for no apparent reason. We weren't given any info at all and limped in 27 minutes behind schedule
• Ingolstadt - Treuchtlingen was rammed for the first two stops due to some sort of event at the Audi place, then emptied off. Lost five minutes due to the crowds but pulled them all back with some quick dispatch
• Treuchtlingen - Würzburg was punctual with friendly staff. Bonus was that it was an Ersatzzug made up of some very elderly double-deck stock in fairly original looking condition minus new seat cushions, and a 112 on the front
• Würzburg to Heilbronn was a mess. Sudden trackwork (at least according to the DB app) meant that we'd terminate at Lauda for a replacement bus. No info about where to catch them but we soon guessed. Three buses - first one basically told us to naff off, second one said he wasn't leaving til bang what the schedule said, and finally another one who's driver just wanted to load up and go. Unfortunately for most on the bus, he didn't speak any German - so I ended up translating best I could. It took 75 mins in the end (DB claimed it'd take 54) on the bus with no real traffic to worry about, so we arrived 90 seconds before the S-Bahn left for Heilbronn. I made it - nobody else did
• Heilbronn to Karlsruhe was fine and fairly punctual. The inbound was late but there was a quick turnaround, though we were hampered by a late S-Bahn in front
• Karlsruhe to Ludwigshafen on the SÜWEX service was 12 late leaving Karlsruhe with no reason given. However, the schedule seemed to be written with that in mind, as a spirited run meant that we arrived only 2 late.
• Ludwigshafen to Mannheim was an uneventful punctual hop.

To be honest, I was expecting a lot worse. I've had some disastrous journeys in Germany post-COVID so one unexpected bus was tolerable.

Indeed there were some massive delays to ICE services - I saw a 90+ min late service at Karlsruhe, originally bound for Basel but it looked to be getting turned in Freiburg.

Overall, I wasn't blown away but I feel like I escaped today relatively unscathed. It was pretty enjoyable overall.

 

[DanNCL]

I’ve been using the Deutschland ticket for a few days but today was my first trip beyond the Frankfurt city boundaries with it. Took a trip out to Koblenz and back.

The outward trip was pretty uneventful. S8 to Mainz and then the RB26 on to Koblenz. The RB26 was busy but otherwise nothing really to note and both trains were on time.

Whilst in Koblenz I’d recommend a trip to the DB Museum in Lützel. It’s only open on Saturdays but it’s a reasonably sized site with mostly post WW2 traction and entry was only €4. It’s also a great place to view the main route from Koblenz to Bonn with a huge variety of stuff going past every few minutes. There’s often a loco stabled next to the museum too, today that was a 66 but it can in theory be just about anything.

The return journey unfortunately wasn’t very smooth. I had intended to catch the RE2 back direct to Frankfurt, but that was scuppered when I got to the platform to find what I expected to be a 10 car formation was actually only a 5 car formation and completely rammed.
So it was on to plan B which was to take the RB10 on the other side of the Rhein. Well it wasn’t advertised as cancelled but it suddenly disappeared from the screens and nobody seemed to have a clue what had happened.
So it was then time to come up with a plan C, which ended up being the RB26 again to Mainz and then work out an onward connection once I got there. The RB26 was busy but at least it turned up on time and I managed to get a seat. It then got delayed by about 10 minutes at Gau Algesheim - announced as to allow a long distance train to overtake but nothing actually did overtake there.
Eventually got to Mainz to find a relatively empty RE3 to Frankfurt already waiting, that too got delayed for no apparent reason.

Overall I guess the experience today could have been worse but I wasn’t overly impressed.

The past few days in Frankfurt however have been a breeze. Virtually no delays on DB or on the U Bahn and trams, nothing too overcrowded, and it was a pleasant surprise to find a few of the old PT-wagen trams still running on lines 15 and 17, complete with internal posters in both German and English advertising that they were on loan back to VGF from the transport museum!

Berlin is up next for me, taking an ICE in first class from Frankfurt to Berlin as I found a good Sparpreis fare. Booked to be on an ICE 1 according to vagonweb cz - no idea how reliable that is for DB Fernverkehr but it was bang on last year with ÖBB.

 

[Krokodil]

We were delayed a little in Freilassing while the border police booted a few people off that they didn't like the look of

Is this normal, or is your experience (like the one LowLevel and I encountered on the sleeper) a relatively new phenomenon?

 

[Austriantrain]

Is this normal, or is your experience (like the one LowLevel and I encountered on the sleeper) a relatively new phenomenon?

Police controls at Freilassing are normal.