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by coldtea 2377 days ago
>He has a very ungerman definition of usually on time :) There's probably not a bigger laughing stock in Germany than our trains (Okay, there is BER). The long-distance ones only arrive within 5 minutes 75% of the time [1]. If you have tight transfers to make, that can get very annoying.

Then don't arrange for "tight transfers"?

If "within 5 minutes" (or close, I'm guessing the rest of the time would be some "unbearable" late of 10 minutes or so?) messes your schedule you have a messed up schedule.
2 comments
ajdlinux 2377 days ago
I don't know about German train schedules specifically, but in life in general while avoiding tight transfers is generally a good idea sometimes you just have no say in the matter.
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wander_homer 2377 days ago
Their official route planer uses those "tight transfers" by default and calls them "Normal transfer duration".
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distances 2377 days ago
What happens in Germany if you lose your connection due to the train being late? In Finland the train company is responsible for ensuring you get to your destination (with taxi if needed) if the train rides were bought as a single trip.
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realityking 2377 days ago
Same here if the entire journey is booked on one ticket. I’ve taken a Taxi from Cologne to Aachen (~75km) on Deutsche Bahn’s dime.

Unfortunately Deutsche Bahn is not very up-front about these option (e.g. with vouchers) and you have to expense that taxi ride or hotel after the fact. A lot of people are scared of that as they’re not sure if they’ll get the money back.

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currysausage 2376 days ago
They will only refund you for the taxi if the scheduled arrival is after midnight and the expected delay at your destination is >60 minutes OR if it’s the last connection for the day and there is no other means of public transport that will allow you to reach the destination before midnight, and only up to EUR 80,00 [1] which wouldn’t even cover Cologne—Aachen (that is one intercity stop).

For regional tickets, some states or transport systems offer additional voluntary compensations. In NRW, you would be refunded up to EUR 25,00 before 8pm and up to EUR 50,00 after 8pm if your train or bus departs more than 20 minutes behind schedule. [2]

Obviously, there are edge cases like acts of God where voluntary compensations won’t apply (and legally binding compensations won’t apply either in a few years if a pending legislative initiative is successful). Since passenger information is less-than-ideal, it might be hard to tell if you will be compensated even if you know about the basic rules.

[1] https://www.bahn.com/en/view/booking-information/passenger-r...

[2] https://www.mobil.nrw/service/mobigarantie.html – I couldn’t find an official English version on my phone

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