It's been almost a month since I came to Germany to cover the European Championships, because I have to travel to and from the 10 host cities and the cities where the teams are based, and I have to take Germany trains operated by the Germany Railways (DB) almost every day. During this period, I encountered a lot of embarrassing things, such as moving forward at a slow pace, stopping suddenly, changing platforms, frequent delays, and frequent cancellations...... It was Deutsche Bahn's series of commotion that completely changed my impression that "Germany is very strict", and a German local told me very seriously: "Deutsche Bahn is a joke, and I can't complain about it." ”
Accustomed to the domestic high-speed rail with a speed of 300 kilometers per hour and 350+ kilometers per hour, I am really not comfortable with the high-speed rail here after coming to Germany.
The New Yellow River reporter carefully inspected nearly 40 trains in the past 20 days, of which more than 60% are medium and long-distance high-speed trains of the type ICE (Intercity Express), and the rest are short-distance regional trains (referred to as RE, RB or S).
Before coming to Germany, I saw information that Germany began to build high-speed trains in the 90s of the 20th century, with a maximum speed of 300 kilometers per hour. However, from the current experience, it is difficult for high-speed trains in Germany to run at high speeds. Taking the high-speed rail line from the southern city of Munich to the northern city of Hamburg as an example, this line with a distance of more than 700 kilometers, the fastest Deutsche Bahn high-speed train also takes 5 hours and 32 minutes to complete, and the real speed cannot even reach 150 kilometers per hour. The actual riding experience feels even more slow, the information screen in the train carriage recorded by the New Yellow River reporter, the maximum speed is 195 km / h, but more often this information display speed information is not available, because the running speed at that time has been less than 100 km / h. The first time the New Yellow River reporter traveled from Munich to Hamburg, he got on the bus at about 9 o'clock in the morning, and when he got off the bus, it was already more than 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and the time spent at this time was more than 6 hours, and he was on the bus almost all day. The next time I take such a long-distance high-speed train, the New Yellow River reporter can only advance to about 6 o'clock in the morning, at least to ensure that he can still do interviews at the destination in the afternoon.
The maximum speed of the train photographed by the reporter was 153 km/h
In comparison, the distance between Beijing and Shanghai is nearly 1,300 kilometers, and the fastest high-speed train can reach it in 4.5 hours, with an average speed of nearly 300 kilometers per hour. It is more than 2,100 kilometers from Beijing to Guangzhou, and it is not a problem to arrive in 8 hours by high-speed rail. Looking at the high-speed rail Qilu Ring Line in Shandong Province, the journey of more than 900 kilometers is only 6 hours.
In such a comparison, can Germany's high-speed rail still be called high-speed rail?
In addition to the slow speed, DB also complains about frequent delays.
According to Germany media reports, according to statistics, the punctuality rate of Deutsche Bahn long-distance trains in 2023 has once again hit a new low: only about 64% of long-distance trains will reach their destination on time, which means that 1 out of every 3 trains will be delayed.
As for the actual ride effect, the experience of the New Yellow River reporter is that at least 60% of the buses will be delayed, and it has become a very rare thing to arrive on time. Regarding the delay of Deutsche Bahn, the New Yellow River reporter has been communicating with the reporters from many countries covering the European Cup and the fans from all over the world who have watched the European Cup for more than 20 days.
A domestic photojournalist told the New Yellow River reporter, "In the first week after arriving in Germany, I encountered three delays. At first, I followed the experience of taking high-speed rail in China, and when I transferred between the competition cities, I would start 2 hours earlier on the basis of the train running time as a buffer time, so as not to encounter accidents and delay the filming work. Who would have thought that the next morning I was delayed from Munich to Dortmund, arriving at the press center 15 minutes before the referee's opening whistle, and the photo card for that game was almost cancelled. After that, I had to add another hour and a half to the lead, and that's it, and then I almost didn't make it to the game, which was really annoying. ”
The New Yellow River reporter found that when waiting for trains at large railway hubs such as Munich, Frankfurt, Dortmund, Berlin, and Hamburg, the most heard thing was "We apologize to inform you that such and such a train will be delayed by such and such a minute due to special reasons." "Sometimes, this kind of apology is broadcast one after another, robbing the broadcast of normal train arrival and departure information. Every time you book a train on the DB app, once there is a change in departure, you will take the initiative to send an apology email to the email address you registered when you registered, which will briefly explain the reason and the departure time after the change. The New Yellow River reporter checked, and at most, the same train received 8 email notifications of train delays in two hours.
In a sense, the delay notice of more than ten minutes seems to be intimate, but in fact it is more like a formalistic formality, and the fundamental solution is to determine the travel time and eliminate frequent delays.
The fans who couldn't stand waiting for the car sat on the ground
Changes and cancellations are the norm, and multiple times at the station for one nightIn addition to frequent delays, the frequent change of departure or arrival platform, and even the sudden cancellation of the train that is about to depart, even let the New Yellow River reporter encounter.
The first time I encountered a platform change occurred the day after the New Yellow River reporter arrived in Germany, when he traveled from Munich to Weimar and then to the England base camp for interviews. The tour involves a transfer in Erfurt to reach Weimar. After getting off the train from Erfurt's main train station, you only need to wait for the connecting train at the adjacent platform according to the prompts on the DB app. However, when there are still 3 minutes before the departure, there is still no shadow of the train, the New Yellow River reporter thought that it may be delayed again, but suddenly the locals waiting for the train around them turned around and ran towards the exit of the platform, and the broadcast at this time was in German, which made the New Yellow River reporter confused, and finally pulled a local student to ask, fortunately, the other party was able to communicate in English, and then I knew that the train that the New Yellow River reporter was going to transfer to temporarily change the platform, and it was going to leave in 3 minutes. As a result, the New Yellow River reporter had no choice but to carry a heavy backpack and a trolley suitcase, and follow the locals all the way. Fortunately, they just changed to a platform not far away, and when the train closed, the New Yellow River reporter was already sweating profusely.
Passengers waiting for a train at a station
What made the New Yellow River reporter even more mad was that after more than 3 hours of continuous notification of the train delay, the platform radio suddenly said that the train was cancelled. The first time this situation was encountered by the New Yellow River reporter from Leipzig to Berlin, when the price of accommodation in Leipzig skyrocketed tenfold, the New Yellow River reporter decided to take the train to Berlin at 1 o'clock in the morning after covering the post-match press conference that night, after all, the distance between the two cities is only more than 160 kilometers, and it only takes an hour and a half by train. As a result, the unexpected happened. The reporter who arrived at Leipzig's main train station half an hour before the train departed, kept hearing the notice of train delays, and sat down until dawn in the second half of the night, when an "X" symbol suddenly appeared in front of the train code on the platform display, and then the announcement of the train cancellation and the email came almost at the same time. The notice also reminds you that because your reserved train is cancelled, you can take a subsequent train on the same itinerary. It was almost noon when the reporter arrived in Berlin that day. Similar situations have happened several times, and each time the nerves of the New Yellow River reporters have been hit again.
On a train from city to city, the New Yellow River reporter once communicated with the locals sitting next to him about the Deutsche Bahn. After listening to the reporter's complaints, he smiled helplessly: "For Deutsche Bahn, we have no power to complain." Facing the soul of the reporter, he asked: "Aren't the Germans very strict, how could such a thing happen?" He smiled wryly, "That's a joke!" At this time, the reporter didn't know how to answer, so he had to treat it as a joke.
Reporter: Meng Xiangjun Editor: Zhao Chen Proofreader: Liu Tian Photography: Meng Xiangjun