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End of line in Germany - kicked off at Koln Hbf

  • 4 January 2023
  • 8 replies
  • 169 views

Hello,

 

Our journey in the app and on our pass was from Amsterdam Centraal to Mainz Hbf. Our first train showed it taking us to Frankfurt where we'd have to transfer for the last leg of our journey. However, we got to Koln Hbf and were told it was the end of the line. There was a group behind us that were also under the impression that we could stay on. They asked the worker and he said we have to get off, we have to listen to the announcements, and yelled at all of us for missing the 3 announcements telling us to get off.

 

He said to go to platform 10. We rushed over there but there was no departing train that matched anything in our app. We looked for trains heading to Frankfurt or Mainz and there was only one and it was not on platform 10. It had already departed by the time we found it. We looked at 3 different information boards and a separate app for train travel and we could not find the original information we had in the rail planner. We ended up getting tickets to a train an hour later, adding 3 hours total to our journey time. Would our tickets have worked for the one train going to Frankfurt? Did the app not update or did we just do something wrong?

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Best answer by seewulf 4 January 2023, 20:12

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8 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +9

Get the DB Navigator app and you'll have real time timetables. Don't ever use the rail planner app to plan, certainly not when you're travelling.

Userlevel 7
Badge +9

Next train to Mainz 14:53 platform 7.

Userlevel 7
Badge +7

Indeed, always try to use the app of the railway company you’re travelling with at that moment for the latest rail time information. Never rely on the Rail Planner App, it’s often wrong. Rarely, or when there’s an incident, the IT also get it’s wrong, so you’ll need to rely on your eyes and ears.

Any further travel plans after this leg? We can tell you which apps to be better informed when in doubt or in case of train trouble.

Also, the railway staff usually gets it right. When in doubt and you don’t really know what to do and you don’t find staff, a lot of other people locals on the platform can help you around. A lot of trains get you to the same destinations, be it via another route or a slower option. It doesn’t necessarily has to be the same train, just a tad bit later.

I hope you didn’t get extra (seperate) tickets, because most trains in Germany are included in your interrail pass. Addig an extra journey in the app suffices...

 

Thank you very much. We just added another journey in the app, so it worked out. Our next trip is from Mainz Hbf to Bollate Centro in 2 days. This was the first issue we had where we were confused about our next steps. 

Userlevel 7
Badge +7

For your next trip better rely on the DB Navigator App or the SBB app, and just use the rail planner app for your journeys.

Shortened trains happen regularly in Germany and elsewhere in Europe. It’s usually a way to avoid excessive delays or full cancellations.

On ICE, EC and IC traffic announcements are also done in English. Best pay attention to them next time, together with the apps mentioned above. No worries needed about all the rest, Eurail/interrail travel is super flexible if something goes wrong with your trains.

“Zenk joe for choosing Deutsche Bahn today, take care, goodbye!” ;)

Userlevel 7
Badge +10

It can happen that a train due to reason have to end before, so you have to listen to announcements and change to alternative trains. 

Userlevel 7
Badge +14

“Zenk joe for choosing Deutsche Bahn today, take care, goodbye!” ;)

Best sentence you can hear on German trains :D (grettings from DB Netz :D )

Userlevel 7
Badge +14

It´s currently quite common that the International ICE´s from Amsterdam & Brussels already end in Cologne (as there are just limited trainsets licensed for Belgium & Netherlands)
From Cologne you could catch a nice ICE or IC/EC along the Rhine to Mainz or ofcourse take anyother ICE from Cologne to Frankfurt (there are atleast 3 per hour :D ) and change there for Mainz

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