blackblog.

Today I decided to get to the Metarheinmainchaosdays. I have no car, so I had no other choice than using train.
After the odyssee two weeks ago taking me 7.5h instead of 4h, I was not really motivated for an 3h train-ride from Erlangen to Darmstadt…
I was supposed to take some regional train to Nuremberg, then an Intercity train to Aschaffenburg and finally a regional train to Darmstadt – so this was the plan.

The part from Erlangen to Nuremberg was quite easy – The regional train was on time. But, when I arrived, the “fun” begun again: I suddenly heard a nice voice telling me: “The IC to Dortmund is delayed due to police investigations. Please take the ICE to Wuerzburg instead.”. So I did – and was just 5 minutes late compared to the supposed arrival time in Wuerzburg.
In Wuerzburg, there was an replacement-train, having 1st class cars only. Ok, thats a positive part. But this train did not leave instantly after all passengers had changed…Reason: There was no personel. Hm. perfect. Replacement train, but noone to drive it. Hooray.
It took altogether another 45 minutes of waiting before we left Wuerzburg. And: The train was crowded. This is also quite logical: The regular IC is crowded. But an IC having just 1st class seats… And of course LESS than regular, then its obvious, that more people are standing than seating.
Like always: Nice idea (replacement train) but poor implementation.

So the next question for me was: Will I catch my connecting train in Aschaffenburg? The obvious answer is (of course): NO.
The train did not even stop in Aschaffenburg… It stopped at some place called Kleinostheim. The train assistant urged the passengers willing to go to Aschaffenburg to catch a Regional train there.
But I decided to go to Frankfurt. And there I got a connecting IC. This finally got me to Darmstadt. It just took me 4.5h…

Conclusion: I will get a car again. Using Deutsche Bahn just sucks. I’m sick of this after 3 years. I’m always late, it costs a whole bunch of money and even alone its now cheaper to go by car.

Finally a comparison of the trip to my parents (using Bahncard50 which is 100 euro/year):
2002: 20euro, takes minimum 3h35min
2006: 31euro, takes minimum 4h35min
+50% in 4 years. People, this sucks.