In 2009 the United Nations Climate Change Conference was held in Copenhagen. The UIC organised a special night train (pictured) for dignitaries to be able to get from Brussels to Copenhagen by rail – the Climate Express. By 2009 regular night trains to Brussels were already history, and in 2014 […]
Tag: Deutsche Bahn
Now Dresden-Wrocław trains are cancelled for good – third piece of bad news for PL-DE rail this winter alone
Following the end of the Berlin – Wrocław EC Wawel (early December 2014), Frankfurt(Oder) – Poznań RegionalExpress trains (end December 2014), we now have the news that Dresden – Wrocław RegionalExpress trains will cease at the end of February 2015. News of this cancellation can be found here in Polish […]
The tricks of EU cross-border rail – Berlin-Bruxelles-St Gallen-Berlin
I have just completed the booking of the tickets for a rail trip in April, just under 3 months ahead of my departure. Booking the trip required so many tricks and odd tactics that I’m writing this blog about it, in the hope that others can learn from it, and […]
Bundestag hearing on long distance rail, night trains, Autozug
On Wednesday 14th January at 1100, 3 members of the Bundestag from Die Linke – Sabine Leidig, Herbert Behrens and Caren Lay – are organising a public hearing about long distance rail in Europe. The title of this is “Rückzug der Deutschen Bahn AG bei Nacht- und Autoreisezügen stoppen – […]
Frankfurt(Oder) – Poznań regional trains axed from 1st January 2015
Following my post about the final EC Wawel, and the funding absurdity for PKP’s new high speed trains in Poland, here’s yet more bad news when it comes to Germany-Poland rail connections – the two daily regional trains each way in each direction between Frankfurt(Oder) and Poznań will not run from […]
Stuck between public service and a for-profit company, Deutsche Bahn is not benefitting passengers
I travel a lot on German railways. Barely a week goes by without me making a long distance trip from Berlin to Brussels (via Köln), or somewhere further afield. I paid the company more than €2000 in the calendar year 2013, and the sum will be roughly the same in […]
The future of channel tunnel long distance passenger railway services
A small step forward step in the prospect of long distance high-speed train services using the channel tunnel was taken this week, with Deutsche Bahn granted a ‘Certificate B’ to operate trains through the tunnel. This has been a long time coming – in 2010 DB was talking of running […]
The demise of CityNightLine
A goods train derailed in southern Jutland on Friday last week and, as can be seen from the picture from the local newspaper, it was on a single track line section between Padborg and Kolding, meaning the whole connection between Hamburg and Jutland is blocked. The wagons were dragged between […]
A little Nordic rail trip
I will be making what should be a reasonably simple rail trip in early December – the 600km journey between Copenhagen (station: København H) and Oslo (station: Oslo S). So how do I do it? Well, it turns out that it is all nowhere as simple as it should be. […]
In praise of @DB_bahn (not the railway, but the Twitter account)
This is for you Torsten, Simon, Norman, Marc, Kai, Danny, Janice, Matthias, Maik, Filiz, Jana, Christian, Christian and Nicole: a huge thanks from a regular DB traveller for helping to make my journeys a little more manageable and pleasant. For those of you reading this that are not regulars on […]
Cheap rail tickets through Germany
So you want a one-off rail ticket through Germany, and you want it as cheap as possible. You’re doing a journey like Belgium (- Germany -) Austria, or Denmark (- Germany -) Czech Republic, but you’re not going to stop* in Germany. Here’s how to do it. 1. Search for […]
In its quest for market share, Deutsche Bahn has forgotten about technology and service on their Frankfurt-Brussels route
The Intercity-Express (ICE) connecting Brussels with Frankfurt/Main via Köln is probably the least reliable train I’ve ever experienced. The catalogue of problems I have had with this service stretches back years, right from when the service was first introduced. I do at least 4 return journeys a year on the […]