Well there are lots of them and they run on time. When you book tickets uncheck the box that says make all close connections. They only allow sometimes as little as 10 minutes for a connection and if the train is a few minutes late you miss it. Unless you happen to take an overnight sleeper train or a couchette train, they are all coach and most are high speed. Even the ones that aren't are fast. If the trip is relatively short second class is fine. If you like steam ride the Harz Mountain narrow gauge trains. There are lots of others if you know where you are going to be.
My experience is that it doesn't matter. One of my trains was 30 minutes late and they just honored the ticket on the next connecting train. I thought we were really in trouble thanks to my experience with Amtrak's infrequent service but actually we were fine. Another train came along and we got in to the city a little late ... and public transit was still running when we got there. No big deal.
If you book a Savings Fare you have to travel on the specific train on which you are ticketed. If you pay the much higher Standard Fare you can travel on any train of the day.
However, if you have a savings fare and miss a connecting train and it's DB fault and not yours, you can catch the next available train heading in the same direction as the one you missed. If you can it may be wise to get the train conductor of the delayed train to write a note to this effect on your ticket in case the conductor of the following train wasn't aware of the disturbance. But generally that isn't necessary as this can be verified in real time.
And furthermore they sometimes sell the connection even if there's scheduled trackwork on the line and they know all trains are delayed.
That is what my German friends tell me. They are a classic large bureaucracy par excellence. When things run well they run very well. but when things fall apart they do so very spectacularly, with everyone pointing fingers at everyone else.
Now, now. That Amagisaki wreck was an anomole by a locomotive engineer who should have never been qualified to make that run to begin with. The tight schedule keeping in Japan has not generally been a problem for the last 50 years.
It also depends when you book. I booked a EuroCity Warsaw-Berlin and ICE Berlin to Hamburg + Regio to Itzehoe all for €39. Booked 1,5 months in advance. So it's not all too bad IF you can buy your tickets early.
Interesting. In Poland, very much like here, it is not uncommon to wait for a couple of hours for a connecting train. But as for the short connections, PKP will NOT guarantee any connections that are 5 minute or shorter layover. Interesting contrast to Japan.
Almost, but not quite.... Only 3 on IC passenger work yesterday. 103 113 on the regular Munster-Stuttgart-Munster run, 103 245 on its regular afternoon run from Munich to Nuremberg, and 103 235 doing an afternoon run from Frankfurt to Saarbrucken and return. Theres life in the old dogs yet... Had a very pleasant run from Mannheim to Cologne last week along the Rhine with 103 235 providing the tractive effort!
I though they were all gone already. After checking some information, it appears they were put back into regular service this year on the aforementioned routes. I ought to get across the pond for ride. What cars were they pulling? Modern IC or historic wagons? Now I have to find some pictures and videos for sure. Are you a Fahrer?
Great info, I've been able to find the Nuremburg-Munich with no difficulty, but I can't find the Munster-Stuttgart. Is it supposed to be Munster Bahnhof-Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof? Couldn't find anything, don't know what's going on. Thanks anyway.
Thanks, that's the Munster-Stuttgart, right? It's got those Austrain wagons. What lake is that?
