There are a lot of reasons why I love riding trains. But unfortunately a couple of really huge reasons why I hate the Deutsche Bahn (DB).
I try to make it a point to travel with the train as much as I can. Why? I have anxiety induced stomach problems that is easily triggered, and so travelling with a toilet all the time is a huge relief. I love just sitting; enjoying the scenery, taking pictures of landscapes and people in train stations, reading a good book, drawing, browsing the net. As a bonus, it is supposed to be environment friendly. Much as I love driving, I find freedom in not caring how others drive, being photographed for missing the speed limit, or being involved in a highway accident. My mind definitely works in different ways. All I need with travelling with the train is a plan well thought out.
Just a couple of weeks back, I had to travel to Budapest from Kaiserslautern, for work related reasons. I had 3 options available and planned:
A) Take the train to Frankfurt, fly to Budapest. Costs ~285€. Time it takes 6 – 8 hours.
B) Take the night train. Costs ~485€. Time it takes ~12 hours.
C) Take the day train. Costs ~175€, first class. Time it takes ~12 hours.
I preferred plan B. Unfortunately, I had to travel on a Sunday to arrive on a Monday. Travelling Sundays is very costly because of labor law, and there is something else regarding insurance. Okay, these are valid reasons. I could not take the night train a day later, because there are already plans with the team on Tuesday. So plan C it is.
Booked my train ticket, paid for everything. Travelling to Budapest meant a train ride at 9 am from Kaiserslautern to Munich. About an hour to switch trains. Then from Munich to Budapest. Arrival time 9 pm. And for the return trip, pretty much the same. Leave Budapest at 9 am, train ride to Munich. An hour and thirty minutes wait, board the train to Kaiserslautern. Arrival would be 9:30 pm. First class cost just 20€ more than the normal price, so bought that.
On the day of the trip, everything went smoothly. First class was awesome, I had all the space I needed and more. It was quiet, good for reading purposes. The weather was nice, the sun was shining, got a nice enough view. All this niceness ended in Munich. Information in the station showed that the labor union is planning a strike from Thursday until Friday 1:00 pm. This should have been my sign to just cancel all plans and turn back. But I was looking forward to seeing the team in person (we are a very international team, and we only see digital faces most of the time). And I thought, my train to Munich on Friday will arrive at around 5 pm, so the strike should be done by then, right? With these thoughts, I went to Budapest.
Tuesday, some time in the day. An email arrived from the company where I booked my train tickets telling me it would be best if I moved my planned return trip. I can use the ticket until a couple of days later, no need to worry, everything is flexible. BUT I AM ALREADY WORRYING, THANK YOU VERY MUCH! I checked options, of course. Had 3 possibilities.
1) Just risk it. But my anxiety is already kicking in even just thinking of this.
2) Stay a day longer. But my husband got sick, I need to be home to at least be able to manage some groceries.
3) Take the night train. Pay 250€ for the extra cost.
Plan 3 it is. Of course this was approved by the company, which was great. My conscience was not okay with the extra cost though.
The initial trip could have been awesome. Really. It was cheap, it was easy, it was comfortable. I could not have asked for more. Just assurance that it would work the way I planned. If it did, I tell you, I would really just opt for this travelling method as much as possible.
But you see the things is, I also travelled to Budapest last year, but opted to use plan A. Due to some unforeseen circumstances, the train was late. Very late. I was going to miss my flight. So I checked maps, tried to see if it was faster to drive with a car to the airport, and it was. I would arrive just on time to reach boarding. So I went off the next station, took a cab which cost 200€ by the by, and arrived at the airport barely on time. I was allowed to skip the long security check line. I did not even have any time to put my belt on properly, so I was running to catch boarding with my pants barely holding on. I arrived breathless at the gate, there were about 5 persons left waiting to board. I made it, stressed, but I made it. On my flight back, there were some problems with the plane which meant waiting at the airport, waiting to board the plane.
On a different note, here are some images I took.
So, as much as I love trains and using it, the reliability of the DB is just too bad. I keep asking myself, how can the rail system work almost perfectly in other countries like Japan, but not in Germany?
Silke 