[mcv]

Some ICEs only go to Basel, but there are definitely ICEs going all the way to Bern and Interlaken.

Which is a funny thing: Interlaken is officially a town of 5700 people, and yet they're got two train stations receiving international high-speed trains. I guess it's really a town of 5700 Swiss and 100,000 tourists.

And the ICEs that started in Interlaken left on time. But once our train to Switzerland got delayed, I think we had to switch in Basel and take a bunch of local trains. So maybe you're right; maybe they're only allowed as long as they're not delayed.

Still, I don't understand how German trains manage to become such utter chaos every single time. I feel a lot better about the Dutch railways now.

[martin_a]

I think they want to get rid of the trains going to Interlaken directly. At least that's what I read in the SZ [0].

If you haven't seen it, there's the great talk from David Kriesel on the 36C3 [1] about how Deutsche Bahn is... "doing statistics" to hide their delays. It's well worth the hour!

[0]: https://www.sueddeutsche.de/reise/deutsche-bahn-verspaetunge...

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rb9CfOvojk

[mcv]

The most annoying part isn't even the delays. Not by a long shot. The annoying part is instead of relaxing in our reserved first class seats with a single layover, we're constantly puzzling what's going on, where we have to change now, lugging our luggage across 4 layovers, and losing our reserved seats, having to stand, etc.

I'd rather have an extra hour of delay than ruining a relaxing trip like that.

[martin_a]

Yes, I feel that. Did a rather long journey a few weeks ago (7+ hours). The ICE had a delay of 40 minutes in Hannover which they could reduce going down south. Once it rolls, it rolls and then it's mostly okay.

okay, WLAN was down, reserved seat displays were down, bistro was down, but the train was rolling!

[gottorf]

> "doing statistics" to hide their delays

"Lies, damned lies, and statistics." The older I get, the more true this becomes!