Eurocity Interlaken / Basel to Cologne

[Essexman]

The last two years we've travelled from Interlaken to Cologne on EC trains along the Rhine. One year we changed at Basel into the EC train that starts at Interlaken, the other we had a break at Basel and changed into another EC to Cologne.
I very much enjoyed the trundle along the line, rather than a high speed line.
I'm working out our itinerary for June this year and can't find any EC trains on the online planners.
There is a direct train from Interlaken to Cologne at about the same time, an hour or so quicker than it used to be, but ICE and via Frankfurt Airport.
Do the loco hauled EC trains still run along the Rhine or is it all ICE via Frankfurt now?

 

[87015]

Yep, carts that run HSL. Various IC2s via the scenic route but not from Basel.

 

[Essexman]

Yep, carts that run HSL. Various IC2s via the scenic route but not from Basel.

Thanks. How disappointing.

 

[DanielB]

In addition to the ICs there are also several ICEs via the scenic route along the Rhine, though the ICs might be the better option as these offer a decent connection towards Basel in Mannheim.

These will not appear in the DB journey planner without additional inputs due to being much slower, but adding a stopover of 0 hours in Koblenz works to get itinaries via the scenic route towards Basel.

 

[dutchflyer]

Also note that due to the eternal heavy delays on trains from Germany/DB into the oso punctual like their watches Swiss network SBB has decided to break most of former through trains in Basel-so that means anyone will need to change there. But this may vary by date and/or particular train.
With a planned stop in Bonn you will also get the along the Rhein/old line trains.
Also: those delays remain and IF you also plan to go onward to BE/BRUssel and you home in UK, DO plan with sufficient extra time-or prepare yourself on what to do if connection missed-plenty of same cases on this forum too.

 

[DanielB]

Also note that due to the eternal heavy delays on trains from Germany/DB into the oso punctual like their watches Swiss network SBB has decided to break most of former through trains in Basel

No, they actually introduced some new through trains with the new timetable. And several through trains now have a longer stop in Basel to compensate for delays.

 

[Essexman]

I can't see any direct trains from Basel to Bonn or Koblenz on De Bahn planner or Rail Europe. All show changes at Frankfurt or Cologne.
We'd like to travel along the Rhine again if we can - and not too many changes.
We're staying overnight in Cologne so not too worried about delays. Back to UK the following day and have booked Eurostar with 2hr 20 min wait at Brussels in case of delays from Cologne.

 

[30907]

I can't see any direct trains from Basel to Bonn or Koblenz on De Bahn planner or Rail Europe. All show changes at Frankfurt or Cologne.
We'd like to travel along the Rhine again if we can - and not too many changes.
We're staying overnight in Cologne so not too worried about delays. Back to UK the following day and have booked Eurostar with 2hr 20 min wait at Brussels in case of delays from Cologne.

You change at Mannheim, connections every 2hr, according to DB (for today).

 

[NCT]

DB (finally) simplified its Basel - Cologne / Hamburg timetable in this year's timetable change. Now all Basel - Hamburg trains, be it ICE or ECE, take the direct route via Gottingen, with exactly the same timetable every 2 hours. Likewise Basel - Cologne has been standardised to a 2-hourly pattern with all trains doing the same thing. The Rhine Valley route is also standardised to 2-hourly Leipzig - Hannover - Frankfurt (and on) and 2-hourly Dortmund - Vienna. This is a much simpler and more robust operation than what went before.

The old EC6-7 with their Panoramic cars going via the Rhine Valley was scenic and romantic, but you only had to look at a map to work out it never ran on time. At the end of the day for most people the railway performs the boring job of getting people between A and B and these services failed at performing that basic task. All good things must come to an end.

 

[DanielB]

I can't see any direct trains from Basel to Bonn or Koblenz on De Bahn planner or Rail Europe. All show changes at Frankfurt or Cologne.
We'd like to travel along the Rhine again if we can - and not too many changes.

Like I wrote a few posts up: just enter Basel - Cologne in the journey planner at bahn.de, scroll down to the option to add stopovers and add one in Koblenz with a duration of 0 hours.
When subsequently clicking "plan journey" you'll get options with a change in Mannheim (loco hauled IC along the Rhine) or a change in Mannheim and Frankfurt (Vienna-ICE along the Rhine).

 

[Essexman]

Thanks for help.
I'll look at the options.