Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: Railways

  • Deutsche Bahn : Luxembourg to Bonn

    Deutsche Bahn : Luxembourg to Bonn

    At the moment there are some bus replacements operating on this service, so many journeys aren’t as complex as the one which we had to get from Luxembourg to Bonn.

    The train tickets were Sparpreis, cheaper advance saver tickets. The German pricing structure for rail tickets is complex and there are all manner of quirks, expensive prices and discounts available, but the Sparpreis tickets from Luxembourg to Bonn were under €40 each return.

    Our connections were:

    13:33 – 14:56 Luxembourg to Wittlich

    15:06 – 16:31 Wittlich to Koblenz

    17:13 – 17:44 Koblenz to Bonn

    This sounds relatively complex, although the journey back was worse, but more about that later on…..

    Some trains in Luxembourg railway station, I always like the look of these TGV trains. Not that we were getting them, they were a bit expensive compared to our complex routings with Deutsche Bahn….

    The first train was operated by CFL (the Luxembourg rail company) and the second and third trains by Deutsche Bahn.

    It was a double decker train (Dylan would have liked that….) and was sufficiently spacious and had power points, although no wi-fi. It was on this journey which crossed from Luxembourg into Germany that I discovered that for some reason my phone didn’t want to connect to Vodafone Deutschland.

    Nathan’s adapter, the clunky looking thing at the back, for his Nokia 3310 seemed to take up about two feet of space……

    The bus section of the trip was relatively eventful as there was some shouty man on board who seemed to want to cause a disturbance. A member of rail staff who was travelling with the coach did stand up and shout back at the man, which was all rather exciting. I like a bit of drama on my bus replacement services. Although I needed drama since I didn’t have any Internet connection, which was proving to be quite a challenge for me.

    Disembarking from the bus.

    It’s not very clear from the photo, but the police met the shouty man at Koblenz to ask him some questions….

    Koblenz railway station. The city is of relevance to Norwich, as the two are twinned. Not wishing to score cheap points, but Norwich’s railway station is significantly better in terms of facilities and staffing. Although it doesn’t have a McDonald’s, so I think I prefer Koblenz. Or at least I do until Norwich railway station gets a Greggs.

    After a quick trip to McDonald’s, it was time to get the last section of the trip from Koblenz to Bonn. Facilities at the railway were limited and the toilets were chargeable.

    The delights of Koblenz railway station platforms.

    These boards were of limited use, as our train details fell off the screen after its expected departure time had passed. There was information in the app, but it was total nonsense, at one stage telling us to change to platform 5, and then a few minutes later stating it was platform 3. Deutsche Bahn, if I’m being honest, have a shocking lack of customer service staff and it’s noticeable from being used to UK stations how poorly they handle customer issues. There was no-one to ask, but to cut a long story short, our train came in around 45 minutes late.

    On the bright side, and as can be seen from the above photo, all the freight trains that came rushing by didn’t seem to have been impeded. And, it was extra excitement for waiting passengers who thought that the arriving train might actually be a passenger train to get them to their destination.

    Eventually our train to Bonn arrived and it was relatively quiet, so it was easy to get a seat. Certainly Deutsche Bahn need to work on the cleanliness of their trains as well.

    And safely into Bonn ready for our one-day adventure there….. It’s a shame that the app was of limited use during the disruption, as it would have been enormously useful to have information about what to do. Rolling delays are the most frustrating, as it’s not possible to sit somewhere in the warm until the train arrives, it just involves standing on the platform to see what rolls up.

  • Greater Anglia – Stadler Trains

    ** And an update on the below, a few months on and many more journeys into using these trains. I must admit that I like seeing them on the network, primarily as it means that there’s more space on them so I can get a seat. I also like their multi-level structure, it adds some character. I’m still not sure I like the single power point between two seats though, and the heater on the floor is a minor obstruction and can be quite hot. Having seen the Azuma trains operated by LNER, they seem to be better designed in terms of at-seat customer comfort, something I’d hoped that these trains would be as well. So, I’m growing to like these trains, but I’m still not entirely sold on them. But I keep doing my best to like Greater Anglia as so often they can be brilliant. And at other times, perhaps they’re not quite as good as I’d like. If it was a choice of reversing the huge price rises on Anglia Plus Rover tickets and having the old trains, or paying the extra and having these new trains, I’d rather return to how things were.

    I hadn’t expected a Stadler train to appear at Wymondham railway station, hence my not very impressive photo. Anyway, this is my first time on board one of Greater Anglia’s Stadler trains, running from Norwich to Cambridge.

    And, I declare a slight bias that Greater Anglia were one of my favourite companies. But this train is nothing like what was promised to me a few years ago by staff. There were going to be no price rises, there was going to be excellent wi-fi, plugs at every seat and more tables.

    On the plugs at every seat, there’s one wi-fi and one normal plug socket. That’s not ideal and isn’t what I’ve seen on other trains across the European Union.

    I got a table, but there don’t seem to be any more on board than before. I suppose technically there will on average be more carriages, so by default more tables, but it’s not quite what I was led to believe.

    The seat heads are cheap and have already become stained.

    I do like this though, very clear.

    The seats are worse than the previous ones, the armrest has been shrunk in size and there’s a plug socket behind my knee on one side and a large air conditioning / heating block by my other knee. It seems a really clunky design, a beautiful train technically let down by some really cheap interior fitting quality.

    I will though credit Greater Anglia with the investment, as technically these seem to be decent units and so punctuality will improve. That is an appealing thought, as the delays were becoming too frequent across the Greater Anglia network.

    The train at the station. I will also say that I think disabled access has been hugely improved, which is a big advantage for many people. The current trains were quite difficult to manoeuvre around, so the accessibility improvements are notable.

    Technically, the train’s wi-fi isn’t functional and I can’t see any improvement in phone signal, which the meshed window is meant to deliver. I do though note that the tickets I buy have gone up 24% in price since last year and I’m unsure what extra benefit I’m getting from that. I’m a little disappointed in Jamie Burles if I’m being honest about a whole host of things about Greater Anglia, a company which seems in decline from my experience as a passenger.

  • HS1……

    I’m off to Sittingbourne today and I can’t help but wonder whether the average visitor to this country (or resident of this country) is going to find the information:

    “On specified AGA trains only plus HS1”

    really useful? I assume AGA is Abellio Greater Anglia, which isn’t a name they use now on trains, it’s just Greater Anglia. And I assume HS1 is the section of track between London and Kent which connects to the Channel Tunnel, but it does seem a little confusing to me…….