Deutsche Bahn’s once-admired service has descended into chaos. Whether decades of poor investment or the company’s unusual structure is to blame, it’s a huge headache for a coalition trying to meet climate goals
The sleek high-speed train is 10 minutes behind schedule when it slides into Cologne’s main station before continuing its journey north to Dortmund. The delay is now such a common occurrence that the train manager does not even both to mention it to disembarking passengers.
In late afternoon on an unremarkable weekday in this western German city, holidaymakers are hauling suitcases through the station, workers are commuting home, and the late arrival of Deutsche Bahn’s IC 118 from Innsbruck is no surprise.
It does cause annoyance, though: a glance at the departures and arrivals board prompts one middle-aged man carrying a backpack to swear loudly as he enters the station.
My family and I took the train from Copenhagen, Denmark to Bologna, Italy and back again this summer.
By and large it was a good experience. Taking the train through the alps is something I’ll never forget.
To my great amazement, the trains in Italy ran smoother than the trains in Germany.
On our return trip, we zipped from Bologna to Milano and from there to Frankfurt in just under nine hours. Smooth sailing. The Frecciarossa was by far the nicest train I’ve ever been on.
Frankfurt to Copenhagen, a noticeably shorter distance, ended up taking fifteen hours. Our 7:14 train out of Frankfurt Central got moved to another station a mere fifteen minutes prior to departure. From there, everything devolved into a mess of missed trains and lack of communication. I think we ended up switching trains five or six times.
Deutsche Bahn is a shadow of its former self, and it makes me profoundly sad that a nation globally known for precision and efficiency has such terrible train service.
I hate these! Once we were so busy saying good bye that we didn’t notice the reschedule in the last 8 minutes or so. Missed the train, wait 1h.
How does this even work if you’re in a wheelchair or have a stroller? Half of the elevators in Munich don’t work and the other half is small and slow. It’s a gamble every time. I literally calculate 15 minutes extra every time I take a long distance train to just go from Sbahn to the long distance trains at the central station because it takes two elevators and I have a stroller with me. And with a stroller you at least can somehow unsafely (also it is forbidden) try to balance it on the escalator. If you have an electric wheelchair you can forget about that. How are these more vulnerable people supposed to get to a new train station within 15 minutes?
See, that’s where the systemic delays come in handy. No seriously, it’s a joke.
Experiences like these also leave me with a constant feeling of fear and uncertainty.
On the other hand, I can imagine there are circumstances when a short-notice rescheduling is physically necessary. Or very helpful, if it can prevent delays and missed connections for 5 other trains.
I try to use the DB App and refresh it every minute while on my way to the station, to not miss any irregularity. I try to only feel safe (for the moment) when I’m in the train, be on constant alert before. Not sure why it has to be such an adventure, but here we are.
Oh boy, two weeks ago I was already in the ICE when they first announced a delay of 20 minutes when the train was supposed to leave. Then a couple of minutes later the train was cancelled and everyone had to get out. We were supposed to take the next ICE that leaves in an hour.
Our ICE was fully booked. So were the other two ones that went the same day. It was either standing with a toddler for 4 hours or book a hotel for the night that won’t get reimbursed because theoretically, we could have taken one of the other two trains.
You’re never safe to relax. Not even when you are already sitting in the gorgeous baby compartment.
(The reason for the cancellation was a stupid dude who didn’t want to leave the train despite the police showing up, and he ended up not only not leaving but threatening a worker to a point that she had a mental breakdown and could not continue the journey, hence leaving a personal shortage that would not allow for the train to be operated. )