For years, my plan was to spend a couple of weeks or a month each fall in some part of Germany. Unpack once, pick a cafe, become a “regular.” Post in “chapters,” sharing parts of the city you don’t read about in the travel blogs.
This time, memories or personal connections led me to half a dozen cities from Frankfurt in middle Germany to Konstanz on the big lake at the bottom of the country.
The backbone of the itinerary was the train.
Alas, I probably picked the wrong year for train trips. This year, the national train operator, Deutsche Bahn (German Rail), started a nationwide rebuilding project that added construction woes to the sad performance it’s trying to correct.
Missed timetables in Germany have exploded the myth of trains so punctual you could set your watch by them. In 2023, about one-third of trains were late. By June this year, it was half.
Everybody seems to agree that the real train problem is years of short-term profit-pursuit that has resulted in aging infrastructure — cars, tracks, switches, signal boxes, power lines, communications, etc. — that now seems to be breaking down faster than it can be fixed.
I asked one German whether six minutes really bothered her. She said train timetables are the data people have to go on when they make plans. The impact was felt most when she was commuting to work, where punctuality was expected, or when she making a journey with multiple train transfers.
I knew what she meant about transfers. On three of my eight trips, I needed to get off one train, find the platform where my next train was departing and haul my bag aboard in 5 minutes flat. Or less.
My first delay cut my “interchange” (time to switch trains) from 5 minutes to 4. My second delay left me with one minute to switch trains. I made it only because my next train was even later. Rail-crossing repair.
The drivers apologized for the delays at every stop. But in truth, much of the ride reminded me of why people used to love the train.
The rides, especially in the intercity expresses, were smooth, clean and quiet. Announcements in the cars and on the platforms were crisp and clear. Wi-fi worked reliably for email, train information, maps, look-ups, etc.
The best defense against delays and cancellations was DB App, the train company’s own tool. It showed each stop on a journey with two sets of times. One was scheduled; the other actual. And the actual was behind in red most of the time. At least, you knew.
This summer, the train company began work on — read that: “shut down” — the tracks between some large cities. The first project involved the stretch between Frankfurt, where I landed, and Mannheim. That’s the route to Heidelberg, where I was going.
They canceled Frankfurt-Heidelberg twice, forcing me to find a substitute each time. Didn’t cost me anything but frustration. In Germany, if you miss your train and it’s the train company’s fault, your ticket normally is good on the trains you use to get to your destination. If it’s your fault and you don’t have a flexible ticket, you often have to buy a new one.
That stretch between Frankfurt and Mannheim carries about 30,000 passengers a day and is said to be the most traveled in Germany. Officials say that nationwide the project will upgrade 40 lines to be part of a high-performance network by 2030.
That’s a dozen upgrades involving 80 miles of overhead lines, 150 switches, 265,000 cars and more than 70 miles of track. Between now and Christmas.
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