2023-12-28 19:54:49
“The train hasn’t even left yet and we’re already ten minutes late,” the child said via WhatsApp shortly before eight on Thursday morning. Place of dispatch: Berlin Central Station. Twenty minutes later a photo from the moving train towards Munich. The actual destination seemed to be reached on time: Vienna. A trip over New Year’s Eve. Prater, castles, Amalienbad and, at my mother’s request, the Weidinger coffee house. Shouldn’t be a problem if the transfer time in Nuremberg is 25 minutes. The decision to go by rail seemed to have been the right one. Because, yes, a flight had also been briefly considered.
At 11.21 a call from the daughter: The train is now more than half an hour late and she won’t be able to catch the connecting train in Nuremberg. “And do you know why?” – A train to Munich was canceled and so many people got on in Erfurt, blocking the aisles, that the train driver initially refused to continue. Those who were too much should get out again. Only no one did, and the train moved on.
Brief research on the Deutsche Bahn website, call to the daughter at 11:32 a.m.: The train from Nuremberg to Vienna was also 25 minutes late due to a broken signal box, as they say, they would probably make it despite the delay. It’s good if the delays complement each other in this way, right?
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There is no conductor in sight
At 12:34 p.m. the daughter called: “Mom, we couldn’t get off the train in Nuremberg.” The aisles were so blocked that they couldn’t even get their luggage. The train stopped for a maximum of two minutes. Now they have to drive to Munich. There are also trains to Vienna there. Could you ask about the train connection and whether it would be canceled if you can’t get out? No, there was no conductor in sight.
Message from the daughter at 1:58 p.m.: “We are now on a train to Salzburg and have to change to a Hungarian train there.” It is a Bavarian regional train, as it turns out when asked. New arrival time in Vienna: 6:30 p.m. and not 4:47 p.m.
At 6:36 p.m. a photo comes via WhatsApp of a blue sign with the inscription: Vienna Central Station. Arrived! Albeit almost two hours later than planned.
On January 8th, the day on which the railway can go on strike again, even for three to five days in a row, we travel back from South Tyrol to Berlin. From Munich then take the Deutsche Bahn.
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