"DB will let you down.
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"DB will let you down. It will also, more often than the internet would have you believe, deliver you eight hours of clean uninterrupted thinking time at 250 km/h across a country, drop you within walking distance of your next meeting, and occasionally reroute you down the left bank of the Rhine at golden hour as an apology. The trick is to plan for the first and enjoy the second.'
The most useful hints I've ever seen for our summer holiday planning...
A Field Manual for Three Years on Deutsche Bahn
After years of regular business travel by Deutsche Bahn, here is the small library of habits, app picks, routing folklore, and survival gear that actually he...
Larvitz Blog (blog.hofstede.it)
@Ruth_Mottram great blog and 100% right as someone who uses DB a lot for long distances myself (and actually prefers it to goinf via Paris) ...
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R relay@relay.publicsquare.global shared this topic
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"DB will let you down. It will also, more often than the internet would have you believe, deliver you eight hours of clean uninterrupted thinking time at 250 km/h across a country, drop you within walking distance of your next meeting, and occasionally reroute you down the left bank of the Rhine at golden hour as an apology. The trick is to plan for the first and enjoy the second.'
The most useful hints I've ever seen for our summer holiday planning...
A Field Manual for Three Years on Deutsche Bahn
After years of regular business travel by Deutsche Bahn, here is the small library of habits, app picks, routing folklore, and survival gear that actually he...
Larvitz Blog (blog.hofstede.it)
@Ruth_Mottram Some usefull tips in there indeed. We will travel through northern Germany this summer on our way to London. Only two connections in Germany so fingers crossed.
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@Ruth_Mottram great blog and 100% right as someone who uses DB a lot for long distances myself (and actually prefers it to goinf via Paris) ...
@vicgrinberg @Ruth_Mottram Great recommendations in general, I rarely ever reserve a seat though, they are only needed when trains are *really* full.
And reservations are cancelled when trains are replaced etc., which happens regularly.
Many seats cannot be reserved, if you know where they are you’ll easily find a spot.
Seats can be booked independently, you can check how many seats are available on the day and reserve if needed.
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@vicgrinberg @Ruth_Mottram Great recommendations in general, I rarely ever reserve a seat though, they are only needed when trains are *really* full.
And reservations are cancelled when trains are replaced etc., which happens regularly.
Many seats cannot be reserved, if you know where they are you’ll easily find a spot.
Seats can be booked independently, you can check how many seats are available on the day and reserve if needed.
1/2
@vicgrinberg @Ruth_Mottram A coffee in the dining car is cheaper than a reservation and I usually prefer this car to the regular ones.
Printed tickets are definitely a fallback, but I don’t even own a printer anymore. I consider a fully charged battery pack, cord, and a small power cube in a pouch as mandatory travel accessories.
I personally find 0,5l a bit small, somehow I’m always parched in trains, YMMV. Buying water at the bistro is expensive.
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@vicgrinberg @Ruth_Mottram A coffee in the dining car is cheaper than a reservation and I usually prefer this car to the regular ones.
Printed tickets are definitely a fallback, but I don’t even own a printer anymore. I consider a fully charged battery pack, cord, and a small power cube in a pouch as mandatory travel accessories.
I personally find 0,5l a bit small, somehow I’m always parched in trains, YMMV. Buying water at the bistro is expensive.
2/2
@skittles @Ruth_Mottram yeah, but I can't drink a coffee for six hours straight - I'd much rather have one of the coveted single seats in the quiet zone reserved than having to change seats (with luggage) or spending 4 hours in a seat I dislike. But mileage (heh!) may vary and people have different priorities.
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"DB will let you down. It will also, more often than the internet would have you believe, deliver you eight hours of clean uninterrupted thinking time at 250 km/h across a country, drop you within walking distance of your next meeting, and occasionally reroute you down the left bank of the Rhine at golden hour as an apology. The trick is to plan for the first and enjoy the second.'
The most useful hints I've ever seen for our summer holiday planning...
A Field Manual for Three Years on Deutsche Bahn
After years of regular business travel by Deutsche Bahn, here is the small library of habits, app picks, routing folklore, and survival gear that actually he...
Larvitz Blog (blog.hofstede.it)
@Ruth_Mottram det bliver ikke mere tysk end dette: “bahnvorhersage.de is the secret weapon. It is a community project that estimates the probability of you making a given connection on time, using historical delay data for that exact train at that exact station and time of day. Before I book anything with a tight Umstieg, I run the itinerary through Bahnvorhersage.”
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@skittles @Ruth_Mottram yeah, but I can't drink a coffee for six hours straight - I'd much rather have one of the coveted single seats in the quiet zone reserved than having to change seats (with luggage) or spending 4 hours in a seat I dislike. But mileage (heh!) may vary and people have different priorities.
@vicgrinberg @Ruth_Mottram I usually take a second one anyway, since the first one was „free“
, but I never got even a look for just sitting around. As long as you buy *something* and it’s not packed they’re fine.But sure, it all depends on your travel profile.
I usually take the „red eye“ B->CGN at 5.30am, it’s almost always empty and quiet.
But if your ticket is payed for by your company or you need to ride during rush hour, sure, get a reservation!
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@vicgrinberg @Ruth_Mottram I usually take a second one anyway, since the first one was „free“
, but I never got even a look for just sitting around. As long as you buy *something* and it’s not packed they’re fine.But sure, it all depends on your travel profile.
I usually take the „red eye“ B->CGN at 5.30am, it’s almost always empty and quiet.
But if your ticket is payed for by your company or you need to ride during rush hour, sure, get a reservation!
@skittles @Ruth_Mottram my ticket is seldomly paid for work - but especially when it isn't, my time is worth the reservation for me. My usual route is Amsterdam to Berlin or to Ulm (or direction Switzerland and back), which tends to be pretty full, and I limit myself to one coffee per day.
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"DB will let you down. It will also, more often than the internet would have you believe, deliver you eight hours of clean uninterrupted thinking time at 250 km/h across a country, drop you within walking distance of your next meeting, and occasionally reroute you down the left bank of the Rhine at golden hour as an apology. The trick is to plan for the first and enjoy the second.'
The most useful hints I've ever seen for our summer holiday planning...
A Field Manual for Three Years on Deutsche Bahn
After years of regular business travel by Deutsche Bahn, here is the small library of habits, app picks, routing folklore, and survival gear that actually he...
Larvitz Blog (blog.hofstede.it)
@Ruth_Mottram I think I have developed many similar strategies, and I always notice how confused and screwed people are if they don't travel by train regularly.
Another good source of train statistics to find reliable connections is @chuuchuu (https://chuuchuu.com/). -
@Ruth_Mottram det bliver ikke mere tysk end dette: “bahnvorhersage.de is the secret weapon. It is a community project that estimates the probability of you making a given connection on time, using historical delay data for that exact train at that exact station and time of day. Before I book anything with a tight Umstieg, I run the itinerary through Bahnvorhersage.”
@michammel @Ruth_Mottram ChuuChuu @chuuchuu is another great service along the same lines, works great also EU-wide!
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"DB will let you down. It will also, more often than the internet would have you believe, deliver you eight hours of clean uninterrupted thinking time at 250 km/h across a country, drop you within walking distance of your next meeting, and occasionally reroute you down the left bank of the Rhine at golden hour as an apology. The trick is to plan for the first and enjoy the second.'
The most useful hints I've ever seen for our summer holiday planning...
A Field Manual for Three Years on Deutsche Bahn
After years of regular business travel by Deutsche Bahn, here is the small library of habits, app picks, routing folklore, and survival gear that actually he...
Larvitz Blog (blog.hofstede.it)
@Ruth_Mottram another great DB tip: Actually use BahnBonus - once you reach Silver Level (just booking Deutschlandticket via DB gets you halfway there) you can use DB Call a Bike for free up to 30 minutes per drive. Which is an incredible way to get around cities!
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@michammel @Ruth_Mottram ChuuChuu @chuuchuu is another great service along the same lines, works great also EU-wide!
@BioGeoBryce @michammel @Ruth_Mottram @chuuchuu ChuuChuu is nice but EU-wide is a stretch. We have 27 member states and it covers 9 of them (though Cyprus and Malta don't have any railways at all so they can be counted out).
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"DB will let you down. It will also, more often than the internet would have you believe, deliver you eight hours of clean uninterrupted thinking time at 250 km/h across a country, drop you within walking distance of your next meeting, and occasionally reroute you down the left bank of the Rhine at golden hour as an apology. The trick is to plan for the first and enjoy the second.'
The most useful hints I've ever seen for our summer holiday planning...
A Field Manual for Three Years on Deutsche Bahn
After years of regular business travel by Deutsche Bahn, here is the small library of habits, app picks, routing folklore, and survival gear that actually he...
Larvitz Blog (blog.hofstede.it)
Absolutely true. I want to throw bahn.expert into the mix of essential tools. It's a webpage, not an app, no tracking, and contains all the existing information about any train in Germany.
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@BioGeoBryce @michammel @Ruth_Mottram @chuuchuu ChuuChuu is nice but EU-wide is a stretch. We have 27 member states and it covers 9 of them (though Cyprus and Malta don't have any railways at all so they can be counted out).
@newbyte @michammel @Ruth_Mottram @chuuchuu ah OK, thanks for the correction! Its worked (and well) everywhere that I've traveled recently so I just assumed it was EU-wide
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"DB will let you down. It will also, more often than the internet would have you believe, deliver you eight hours of clean uninterrupted thinking time at 250 km/h across a country, drop you within walking distance of your next meeting, and occasionally reroute you down the left bank of the Rhine at golden hour as an apology. The trick is to plan for the first and enjoy the second.'
The most useful hints I've ever seen for our summer holiday planning...
A Field Manual for Three Years on Deutsche Bahn
After years of regular business travel by Deutsche Bahn, here is the small library of habits, app picks, routing folklore, and survival gear that actually he...
Larvitz Blog (blog.hofstede.it)
@Ruth_Mottram Seriously useful information.
The wife and I have had one long disaster trip with DB and zero problems on the return trip.
We consider trying again now armed with better information. -
R relay@relay.infosec.exchange shared this topic
