Several years of Deutsche Bahn business travel taught me something unexpected: eventually you stop fighting the system and start learning its moods, failure domains, and hidden virtues.
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Several years of Deutsche Bahn business travel taught me something unexpected: eventually you stop fighting the system and start learning its moods, failure domains, and hidden virtues.
I wrote down the practical folklore that actually helps: apps, routing habits, delay survival, seat choices, fallback lines, and the strange civilisation of the Bordrestaurant at 250 km/h.
“A Field Manual for Three Years on Deutsche Bahn”: https://blog.hofstede.it/a-field-manual-for-three-years-on-deutsche-bahn/
@Larvitz one tiny addition: do not forget a cardigan, a shawl or even a small towel. Yes, also during the summer. No, not because of the air condition, but because you will need something to mark your seat as "your seat" while you and your laptop bag are in the Boardbistro.
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@Larvitz one tiny addition: do not forget a cardigan, a shawl or even a small towel. Yes, also during the summer. No, not because of the air condition, but because you will need something to mark your seat as "your seat" while you and your laptop bag are in the Boardbistro.
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Several years of Deutsche Bahn business travel taught me something unexpected: eventually you stop fighting the system and start learning its moods, failure domains, and hidden virtues.
I wrote down the practical folklore that actually helps: apps, routing habits, delay survival, seat choices, fallback lines, and the strange civilisation of the Bordrestaurant at 250 km/h.
“A Field Manual for Three Years on Deutsche Bahn”: https://blog.hofstede.it/a-field-manual-for-three-years-on-deutsche-bahn/
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@Larvitz Thanks for this useful information, which I will assuredly consult. I'm curious how you print paper tickets.
Do you have a printer at home which works with BSD? If so, what kind is it?
For 3 or 4 years, I had a nice laser printer which I used with Debian and @kde . Unfortunately, when Plasma6 dropped, there was no longer a driver, and after wasting several hours trying to get it to work, I gave up.@alison The Xerox C230 Just Works, it's a normal PostScript printer. (Never tried a multifunction, I don't really need scanning at home.) Mine is connected via USB to my FreeBSD desktop but macOS clients on wireless didn't even need configuration. It replaced a 10yo Xerox color laser which I only got rid of because the paper feed started jamming constantly.
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Several years of Deutsche Bahn business travel taught me something unexpected: eventually you stop fighting the system and start learning its moods, failure domains, and hidden virtues.
I wrote down the practical folklore that actually helps: apps, routing habits, delay survival, seat choices, fallback lines, and the strange civilisation of the Bordrestaurant at 250 km/h.
“A Field Manual for Three Years on Deutsche Bahn”: https://blog.hofstede.it/a-field-manual-for-three-years-on-deutsche-bahn/
@Larvitz We disagree on seat choice – I will always pick the carriage farthest out because it is the least reserved and has the fewest non-reserved passengers. On a double set, if all is equal, carriages 3x over 2x because there are fewer reservations.
In first class, I now refuse to buy a reservation when travelling solo. The chance that you will find a seat somewhere is too high for a seven euro price tag.
Suggestion for real time information: https://bahn.expert. The interface is much cleaner and, as a website, you can have multiple tabs open and monitor the progress of multiple alternative trains when it is one of those days. Bonus, it shows recorded actual arrivals and departures in bold, so you can distinguish between prognosis and real delay.
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Several years of Deutsche Bahn business travel taught me something unexpected: eventually you stop fighting the system and start learning its moods, failure domains, and hidden virtues.
I wrote down the practical folklore that actually helps: apps, routing habits, delay survival, seat choices, fallback lines, and the strange civilisation of the Bordrestaurant at 250 km/h.
“A Field Manual for Three Years on Deutsche Bahn”: https://blog.hofstede.it/a-field-manual-for-three-years-on-deutsche-bahn/
@Larvitz i'd like to add bahn.expert as better alternative to understand what happens to your train and to alternatives - for example the coachtype is mentioned and there are much better/realistic excuses with realtime position available.
Another really cool app is zugfinder. It has a lot statistics to decide which train line to use or avoid.
And the fun project bahn.bet. But wait until you need to waste some time....
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@Larvitz i'd like to add bahn.expert as better alternative to understand what happens to your train and to alternatives - for example the coachtype is mentioned and there are much better/realistic excuses with realtime position available.
Another really cool app is zugfinder. It has a lot statistics to decide which train line to use or avoid.
And the fun project bahn.bet. But wait until you need to waste some time....
@astielau ahahahaha. Bahn.bet is hilarious
I'll look at the other sides. Thanks for mentioning them. Bahn.expert was already mentioned by others, seems to be quite popular.
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@astielau ahahahaha. Bahn.bet is hilarious
I'll look at the other sides. Thanks for mentioning them. Bahn.expert was already mentioned by others, seems to be quite popular.
@Larvitz Oh, there is one more tip:
If you need to reduce your accumulated bonus points: Get rid of the free beverage coupons and go for Gin Tonic.
All beverages are the same points/coupons, and thats most BANG for bugs and less walks to the loo
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Several years of Deutsche Bahn business travel taught me something unexpected: eventually you stop fighting the system and start learning its moods, failure domains, and hidden virtues.
I wrote down the practical folklore that actually helps: apps, routing habits, delay survival, seat choices, fallback lines, and the strange civilisation of the Bordrestaurant at 250 km/h.
“A Field Manual for Three Years on Deutsche Bahn”: https://blog.hofstede.it/a-field-manual-for-three-years-on-deutsche-bahn/
@Larvitz @petereisentraut interesting since the NS app also is a little bit opinionated on what trains you have to take. Although it does present a number of alternatives for example if you are traveling from Den Helder to Rotterdam.
One way to foil the app is to plan the separate legs of your trip.
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Several years of Deutsche Bahn business travel taught me something unexpected: eventually you stop fighting the system and start learning its moods, failure domains, and hidden virtues.
I wrote down the practical folklore that actually helps: apps, routing habits, delay survival, seat choices, fallback lines, and the strange civilisation of the Bordrestaurant at 250 km/h.
“A Field Manual for Three Years on Deutsche Bahn”: https://blog.hofstede.it/a-field-manual-for-three-years-on-deutsche-bahn/
@Larvitz @clemensg Einmal in technischer Schnellübersetzung:
„Ein Feldhandbuch für drei Jahre Deutsche Bahn“
Mi., 13. Mai 2026 · ca. 10 Minuten Lesezeit · Reisen
#reisen #deutschebahn #consulting #offtopicWenn man oft genug mit deutschen Fernzügen fährt, hört man irgendwann auf, auf Pünktlichkeit zu hoffen, und beginnt stattdessen, sich um ihre Abwesenheit herumzuorganisieren. Nach mehreren Jahren regelmäßiger Kundenreisen denke ich über die Deutsche Bahn inzwischen so wie über jedes große verteilte System, das ich nicht kontrolliere: Es gibt Ausreißer bei den Latenzen, Hotspots, Monitoring, das man abonnieren kann, Retry-Strategien, SLA-Gutschriften und eine gewisse Menge an Volkswissen darüber, welche Wege durch die Topologie tatsächlich schneller sind als die Routing-Schicht behauptet. Der offizielle Planer gibt dir die kürzeste Verbindung. Die Erfahrung zeigt dir die wahrscheinlichste.
Züge… (1/15)
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Several years of Deutsche Bahn business travel taught me something unexpected: eventually you stop fighting the system and start learning its moods, failure domains, and hidden virtues.
I wrote down the practical folklore that actually helps: apps, routing habits, delay survival, seat choices, fallback lines, and the strange civilisation of the Bordrestaurant at 250 km/h.
“A Field Manual for Three Years on Deutsche Bahn”: https://blog.hofstede.it/a-field-manual-for-three-years-on-deutsche-bahn/
@Larvitz
"[...] a better mental model."
Survival tips for traveling on Deutsche Bahn.
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@Larvitz @clemensg Einmal in technischer Schnellübersetzung:
„Ein Feldhandbuch für drei Jahre Deutsche Bahn“
Mi., 13. Mai 2026 · ca. 10 Minuten Lesezeit · Reisen
#reisen #deutschebahn #consulting #offtopicWenn man oft genug mit deutschen Fernzügen fährt, hört man irgendwann auf, auf Pünktlichkeit zu hoffen, und beginnt stattdessen, sich um ihre Abwesenheit herumzuorganisieren. Nach mehreren Jahren regelmäßiger Kundenreisen denke ich über die Deutsche Bahn inzwischen so wie über jedes große verteilte System, das ich nicht kontrolliere: Es gibt Ausreißer bei den Latenzen, Hotspots, Monitoring, das man abonnieren kann, Retry-Strategien, SLA-Gutschriften und eine gewisse Menge an Volkswissen darüber, welche Wege durch die Topologie tatsächlich schneller sind als die Routing-Schicht behauptet. Der offizielle Planer gibt dir die kürzeste Verbindung. Die Erfahrung zeigt dir die wahrscheinlichste.
Züge… (1/15)
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Several years of Deutsche Bahn business travel taught me something unexpected: eventually you stop fighting the system and start learning its moods, failure domains, and hidden virtues.
I wrote down the practical folklore that actually helps: apps, routing habits, delay survival, seat choices, fallback lines, and the strange civilisation of the Bordrestaurant at 250 km/h.
“A Field Manual for Three Years on Deutsche Bahn”: https://blog.hofstede.it/a-field-manual-for-three-years-on-deutsche-bahn/
@Larvitz there is the app "Wahrscheinlich ankommen" with statistics about connections, similar to bahnvorhersage:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wahrscheinlich.ankommen -
Several years of Deutsche Bahn business travel taught me something unexpected: eventually you stop fighting the system and start learning its moods, failure domains, and hidden virtues.
I wrote down the practical folklore that actually helps: apps, routing habits, delay survival, seat choices, fallback lines, and the strange civilisation of the Bordrestaurant at 250 km/h.
“A Field Manual for Three Years on Deutsche Bahn”: https://blog.hofstede.it/a-field-manual-for-three-years-on-deutsche-bahn/
@Larvitz I would add the recommendation - screenshots of the QR Codes of any card that might be controlled - Apps may stop working because of no network connection and the urgency to re-download something when opening the control view ... in my experience DB Navigator is happy to fail, especially when the ticket is booked with a Bahncard.
Instead of printing I add the calendar entries for the trip to my calendar and attach the PDFs.
but I also have a powerbank for emergencies in my bag.
