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Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

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Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#761

Post by kergonath »

biztos wrote: post #432
michaelt wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usually the train driver is in radio contact with central control and can request changes to the points, signals etc so they can make unscheduled stops. For example if there's a medical emergency on board and a passenger needs to be transferred to an ambulance. Of course doing this can have ripple effects on other services, and if a common factor has severely delayed dozens of different trains, the central control ro…

Best example of this is when they hit someone. Train has to stop, control center has no say in it. (For longer “technical” delays, keep an eye out for emergency vehicles without their sirens on.)

> Train has to stop, control center has no say in it.

And then you have cascading delays across a whole region.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#762

Post by mtmail »

bad_username wrote: post #465
indiantinker wrote: post #17

DB is weird. They seem to make their own rules and then run the game and “dont tell the rules to anyone”. I was on my way to catch a flight from Munich to my home (Madrid). I didn’t knew that apparently at one point the train splits into two parts and the front part goes to the airport and the other part just goes to the nearby cattle farms and comes back in 3 hours. Google Maps - No idea Citymapper - what? English a…

Your ticket was without assigned seat? Because if there was assigned seat, surely the seat would be in the correct carriage?

There's only local trains to Munich airport. Those don't have seat numbers.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#763

Post by vadiml »

BloondAndDoom wrote: post #131

I feel like we lost humanity somewhere in modern world. I grew up in 3rd world country and if this were to happen, train would literally stop somewhere, anywhere. (With the assumption it’s safe from crewing into another train). But the idea that you go 55 minutes just because of policy; and skip 15 stations is crazy to me. Again with the assumptions that it can safely stop somewhere for 5m and I’m pretty sure the ans…

Why NOBODY pulled emergency stop

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#764

Post by amai »

The title should be changed. It should be: "Kidnapped by National Express".

Because the train mentioned in the article is not operated by Deutsche Bahn, but by National Express, see https://bahn.expert/details/RE28521/j/20251224-a0049123-9494...

National Express is actually a subsidiary of the British train operator Mobico Group: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Express_Germany

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#765

Post by hobofan »

3ds wrote: post #599
niemandhier wrote: post #426

It’s a system run at the absolute border of what is possible and that was designed with the “just enough” philosophy in mind. You cannot add a stop if the rails are single track and the next train is just behind you. If you do said train will be delayed, will not be able to switch tracks at its final destination ( since it has a hard slot for that) and errors cascade. It’s the best possible train system, given how li…

Exactly! When you spend billions on car infrastructure but hardly anything on rails, there will be issues. What people don’t write clickbaity blog posts about is how in general things work very well. I’m currently sitting on a train from Nuremberg to Berlin and it takes less than three hours, it’s on time, quiet and just a good experience. This trip used to take five hours but then the high speed rail track got compl…

Depending on what regions/lines you are exposed to one can definitely land on different sides of "it works well in general" vs. "it doesn't work well in general".

Of course if you cite a Sprinter line like Nuremberg Berlin, which has the newest tracks and newest trains, you will have a far better experience than on lines that have the worst maintained tracks and trains. Sadly, the badly maintained ones seem to make up the majority of the DB network.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#766

Post by sshine »

BloondAndDoom wrote: post #131

I feel like we lost humanity somewhere in modern world. I grew up in 3rd world country and if this were to happen, train would literally stop somewhere, anywhere. (With the assumption it’s safe from crewing into another train). But the idea that you go 55 minutes just because of policy; and skip 15 stations is crazy to me. Again with the assumptions that it can safely stop somewhere for 5m and I’m pretty sure the ans…

At one university in Denmark that opened in 1972 there used to not be a train stop. Instead of going to the nearby city central station and walk for half an hour, you’d pull the emergency break in the middle of a field, traverse the field and reach the university. Pulling the emergency break was of course not allowed, but it was very common.

Today, pulling the emergency break to get off in a field would quickly end you on surveillance videos and with a large fine for obstructing operations, possibly with a detour to the police station for a stern conversation.

I miss the “yeah, whatever” attitude.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#769

Post by mk89 »

fabian2k wrote: post #227
BloondAndDoom wrote: post #131

I feel like we lost humanity somewhere in modern world. I grew up in 3rd world country and if this were to happen, train would literally stop somewhere, anywhere. (With the assumption it’s safe from crewing into another train). But the idea that you go 55 minutes just because of policy; and skip 15 stations is crazy to me. Again with the assumptions that it can safely stop somewhere for 5m and I’m pretty sure the ans…

Anywhere doesn't help you much. You want to stop at a station with sufficiently good connections to continue your travels. This situation seems pretty unusual, even for the DB. A regional express train should have many more stops than that. It sounds a bit like they switched the train to a direct connection to the final stop because they switched to the other side of the rhine (so you can't make any of the other plan…

My experience with these "fixes" is that they are worse than the other worst solution (in this case, step out in Köln Süd and get some other train).

There is really A LOT going on through the tracks in NRW and Düsseldorf/Köln/Bonn. It's sad people just read an article like this and just blame it on the poor guy as if he was a monkey.

The guy actually wanted to do something nice (get people closer to Bonn, so they could change a train with an easier alternative). It didn't work out, but this shows how bad the sync with these systems is, and safety is and must be prioritized.

People don't understand how many freight trains travel on those tracks.

Re: Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn

#770

Post by hobofan »

huhkerrf wrote: post #4

DB is continually the worst train experience I have in Europe. I have never been on a train in Germany that's on time or that stops at the right station. Several times I've had to find someone young (and who speaks English) and say, "I'm just going to follow you to the next train." I've been told that the UK is worse, but I don't have much experience with it outside of Eurostar.

> Several times I've had to find someone young (and who speaks English) and say, "I'm just going to follow you to the next train."

I'm on the other side of this. I end up chaperoning lost tourists on my DB disaster trips with a regularity that I should be getting a paycheck from DB.

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