Statistisch ist der Regionalverkehr mit 92.5% noch ziemlich gut im Vergleich zum Fernverkehr mit 65,5% Pünktlichkeit. (Stand: Mai 2023, wobei Pünktlich bei den Angaben heißt: Verspätung
Traveling through Germany in 24 hours by regional train is like hitting yourself with a chair in the face over and over again. Even we Germans won't do that.
Bin mit dem 9 € ticket von Berlin bis nach Ingelheim am Rheim gefahren, nur um mit ein paar Leuten Pizza zu essen.... Aber gut, wir Berliner haben eh nen Rad ab....
@@duzzl6743Aus Oberbayern sind's auch nur 9+ Stunden mehr... (17:30h, wennste um 6 Uhr in der Früh los fährst. Nur 9 Umstiege... (Ich nehm hier auch Salzburg vom Vorredner mit. Die halbe Stunde ist dann auch nicht mehr die Rede wert.)
What made it extra challenging is that you not only went from the South to the North but also from the West to the East which is notoriously hard to do with German public transport
With everything going wrong at DB, the trains, the railways, etc. can we just take a second to appreciate how much of a help DB Navigator is? Like the app is SO GOOD. The real time updates, the planning done for you, all the information They've done a great job developing the app I'm travelling to Austria quite often and I miss having DB Navigator whenever I'm there
@@anianii Yeah agreed! I've had trains severely delayed, stuck mid-journey or cancelled completly where the app would still show that it was running smoothly. This also makes it super hard to find an alternative since it just keeps recommending that same train 🙄 As you say, it's definitely a lack of data though, as we called the support hotline in some cases and they also didn't even know that there were any issues. Once it's reported in their system I'd say the app is pretty useful
@@anianii Same in the Rhine region, here it will tell you that train is right on time, meanwhile the DB Streckenagent app already tells you the train is cancelled
10:11 Wer hätts erwartet 🤷🏻♂️😂 That you're losing the challenge on a 5 or 7 Minute Transfertime but a almost 1h Transfertime is a perfect representation of the German transit System 😂
I hate to admit it but yes, Frankfurt has too few platforms for the amount of trains that go through there. Because of this, as soon as one train is delayed or (god forbid) broken many more trains are affected. I haven’t had too many delays caused by starting a journey in Frankfurt but I’ve been victim to too many spontaneous platform change from platform 2 to 16 less than 5 minutes before the train was supposed to depart.
Frankfurt ist the most unpunctual train station in Germany. David Griesel made a great video about train punctuality stats: ruclips.net/video/0rb9CfOvojk/видео.html Also trains are almost always punctual between 4am and 6am.
As an international train traveler often going from NL to the Alps I fully recognize the total shithole of a rail system in the Frankfurt area often starting the problems. When traveling home the mess up more frequently happens in the late afternoon between Köln and Düsseldorf though.
its such a godsend for me as a german student on a budget. it saves me so much money, and its so cheap that my employer covers it because of work commutes. so i basically pay 0€ for unlimited public transport.
Quick knowledge for you guys: Last year, due to the recession and rising fuel costs the government implemented a 9€ ticket for a few months. Said ticket was so popular that they put a new version in place at 49€. Many think it should have stayed at 9€ to get people out of cars, some think high-speed should be included in the 49€ ticket. The main takeaway is, people still drive just as much, the ones who love it are those that already had permanent tickets. The monthly ticket in Schleswig Holstein for example was ~200€ per month, so its a large reduction in price in addition to beeing able to use it nation wide. Overall it made travel a lot easier.
At least I am using the train a lot more than my car. I am working nearly fully remote. So my travel radius is usually around town to the stores and my girlfriend, plus about once or twice per month I need to go to the office, and about as often I need to go to my parent's house. So far, I had always done the latter two by car. As I said, my everyday public transport usage used to be just the local tram lines, for which the monthly ticket (even with reduced validity period per day) would've been around 80€. That was already higher than the combined fare of all one way tickets I would need per month, so I never purchased the monthly ticket. And for the journeys to work or parents, going by train required a 24h ticket for 37€, or two 21€ tickets if I wanted to come and go on different days. Both journeys would take 1.5 to 2 hours of travel time per direction. Compared to going by car which takes around 1.2 hours per direction and costs around 27€ in gas per round-trip - not worth it. But now I am purchasing the 49€ ticket, because that is cheaper than the sum of all one way tickets, and now, since I already have that, I try to go by train when I commute or visit my parents. So it's not like the 49€ ticket "converted" me from doing trips by car to doing trips by train directly, but it is the only way going by tram and train ends up being cheaper than going by tram and car. And I have subscribed to it because I believe that Germany needs such kind of tickets, and by "use it or lose it" I want to make clear that politicians will not have an easy time silently abolishing it again when the experiment eventually ends.
Nope: According to the latest I read ( a few weeks ago), 10 Million people have already got the ticket, us included. We already used it on a trip to Basel (funny coincidence), and, while my ladies went to Rust and the Europapark, I crossed over into France from Breisach, all of which would have previously been done by car. So, people are definitely driving less. (Also, I have no company ticket or other rail or ÖPNV ticket, normally, and would do everything - out of necessity - by car here).
Fun fact: the actual last stop: Świnoujście Centrum, is only used by German trains and it was built like a German station so the signs are different than they are in other stations in Poland. Its construction was financed by Usedomer Bäderbahn (UBB) and it's maintained by UBB Polska.
The other fun fact is that German and Polish stations in Świnoujście are located on different islands with no land connection (although now a road tunnel is being built). So to travel between them by train you'd have to go through Züssow and Szczecin making a journey of around 300-350km. All of that to travel only 2km through one small town
I think so, too. According to a Top10 video from BR111 the RE3 line was the third-longest line in 2021 [behind RE5 (Rostock - Elsterwerda; now shorter) and RE2 (Wismar Cottbus; now rearragend and shorter)] m.ruclips.net/video/tzz8VZHWGOE/видео.html&pp=ygUbbMOkbmdzdGUgcmVnaW9uYWx6dWcgbGluaWVu However the RE3 to Stralsund usually begins in Lu. Wittenberg (which is the reason for not being the longest line). Halle-Stralsund should be the longest direct regional connection overall. That direct connection between Halle and Stralsund is only offered Saturday/Sunday/Holidays, once a day and only northbound. *Edit:* RE5 has been shortened as well.
@@michaelmuller5856 Yes, I was wondering what happened to RE5 and if there is still a line as long. But RE5 also seems to have been shortened. I can't find a direct connection without changing in Berlin ;/. So this one could be the longest for 2023. The Alex (RE2) from Hof -> Munich is also an interesting "local" connetion as it incoperates coaches from former long distance trains.
@@Nirtago Oh right, I was so busy comparing distances that I completely forgot about the RE5 cut in Berlin. Last year's rearrangement around Berlin was massive. I suppose there won't be any exciting competition in Brandenburg before 2025 when they plan to connect the current RE8 fragments (will be Wismar - Elsterwerda then). However this should be shorter as well.
During the €9 ticket phase, I did a lot of crazy trips across Germany starting from Munich and covering Kiel, Hamburg, Berlin, Feiburg, Cologne and many other places, all without ever booking accommodation! What an incredible experience it was!
I actually tried this last year with the 9 €-ticket. I started in Freiburg (Breisgau) and only made it to Offenburg. In Offenburg there have been so many people in the train so nobody could enter it. That was a really short "Deutschlandtour"
Damn I did the same thing 😂 startet in freiburg and wanted to make it to Köln in a day. Ja Pustekuchen 😂 We made it halfway to offenburg (ca. 25min in) when things turned sour. A fellow traveler (Swiss guy) was stuck there as well..with a delay of about 2h and no chance of making it to Karlsruhe in time. More time passed and the info in offenburg was clueless so he decided to take a train back to basel 😅😂 We eventually made it to Karlsruhe HOURS late and ended up spending the night in Mainz. We came prepared. We had a tent 😂 it was gloriously chaotic
As for the train switch in Kassel: You can actually ask the train attendant to file a request to the specific train you need to catch, to wait for you (and possibly others). If they respond positive, they will delay their departure and wait for the passengers of your train.
I live on the Island of Bornholm in the middle of the Baltic Sea… Could almost hear your sigh of disappointment - and relief. Thanks for taking us with you on this journey 👍
This is exceptional, not just the challenge but the quality of the video. Wayyy beyond my abilities on both counts, but so enjoyable to watch! Early mornings and crazy connections, the ONLY way to travel eh!? 😂 Well done!
Once did just part of that, Berlin-Cologne, or maybe Cologne-Berlin can't remember anymore but it was all on a FlixTrain and it took 10 bloody hours anyway xD
I did Munich-Berlin. Would do it again for 9€; would not for 49€, I have to admit. It is a great option however when you already need the ticket for commuting or something. But instead of improving capacity to handle tourists and day-trippers, they just made it so it's not worth it for just that anymore.
Crossing the Harz on a steam train is also pretty fun. The most part of the HSB narrow gauge network is included in the 49€ Ticket. It is probably the most scenic journey with the 49€ Ticket. Combining the Harzquerbahn and Selketalbahn takes some time but it is worth it.
I’ve done that journey. The Mountain is “Bagger” in German , Brocken. One of my ancestors had this surname so had to see what it looked like. A stunning day out.
I tried that - and on that day last year a car had to hit the train before us and so we got stranded in the Harz and only could go back to Wernigerode...
You did prove you can travel around the country on regional trains with the 49€ ticket. It won't be as fast as the ICE, but if we have the time, it is a big money savings. We rush too much in life anyway.
@@Bork_In_Volcanic this, the cost will still be the same unless you find an hourly hotel to not pay a full night whereever you stranded, in thast case I would just get a ICE ticket and save having to spend time on slower trains + transfer + wait for other trains. In this video the journey might have been possible if the trains was on time but does it really safe money? If you have a lot of time then sure but for the longest possible journey it's rather wasted time
In the early 19th century, the Brothers Grimm lived in Kassel! They collected and wrote most of their fairy tales there! Kassel used to be spelled Cassel until 1926. The Franzbrötchen is said to be named in the style of the French model, or croissant (französisch). The croissant became popular in Germany after Napoleon's troops had occupied Hamburg between 1806 and 1814. According to a different historical tradition, they produced a longish Franzbrot which resembled the baguette. Legend has it, a baker in Hamburg had once seared such a Franzbrot in a pan of fat, which is considered the origin of the contemporary Franzbrötchen. Maybe the real journey to the Baltic Sea...were the friends we made along the way. Yes the German railway network certainly isn't perfect, but I'm glad their government did this because this is an absolute steal that I hope encourages more people to take trains! You did your best! It is unfortunate that the trains had delays and it was not possible to make the route as planned. But those who travel always encounter setbacks. The important thing is to have a plan B, a C, a D to use whenever the need arises. But pretty sure the longest possible route would have been from Oberstdorf in southern Bavaria (Germany's southernmost town) to Westerland on the island of Sylt which has Germany's northernmost train station
As a regular rider of the Long Island Rail Road, after watching this...I'll never complain about having to transfer at either Babylon or Jamaica again. 😂 You may not have done it in one day, but your ambition to do this in the first place despite knowing what could go wrong is something we admire! RESPECT! It's pretty cool how that part of the German-Polish border is not just a monument but also a boardwalk! Now that's a fun way to embrace being a part of Schengen! But here's a fun fact about the French-German-Swiss tripoint...that monument dedicated to it, Dreiländereck....doesn't actually mark the location of the tripoint! The monument is fully in Swiss territory about 150 meters away from it, as the ACTUAL tripoint is in the middle of the river. The Three Countries Bridge also doesn't go across the tripoint. My favorite tripoint is how the tripoint of Slovakia, Austria, and Hungary...is just a triangular table and some small benches! The respective countries are marked with their coat of arms on the table! And even though the station you started in was in Switzerland, Badische Bahnhof is an enclave of the EU Customs Union with German rules applying to its rail traffic and infrastructure. Thus the Swiss weren't involved! This is thanks to a treaty from 1852 between Baden and the Swiss Confederation.
For Amtrak trains (US) running 30 minutes late is nominal. The reason we suffer so many delays is the freight trains get priority/ right of way. The Amtrak monthly pass is "10 rides (segments) over 30 days to your choice of over 500 destinations. At just $499". That's more restrictive and 10x the cost. Oof.
Hi @North K Have you seen Tom's most popular video: "NYC to LA BY TRAIN | A 3000-mile no-fly travel film inc. Amtrak California Zephyr in coach in winter"? he's had some significant experiences with Amtrak in America. Cheers!
yes but Amtrak is long distance this is only regional services. Deutsche Bahn has the same for high speed long distance services but it's costs 2-3k dollars a year. it's called the BahnCard100. What is probably more similar to the Amtrak pass is Interrail/Eurorail for EU citizens.
@@elsyvien understandably, but we don't have a regional rail equivalent. Some cities have local trains, but Amtrak is the only train operator city to city that I'm aware of. Brightline has a line in Florida up to Miami and soon Orlando, but that's very new. It's why we're so car centric. The automotive industry crushed the train systems so they could create a monopoly.
@@NortherlyK More people were able to afford cars and therefore the demand for trains went down over time. While car travel has its disadvantages, it overall beats train travel, especially outside of urban areas. You don’t rely on a schedule and someone else to bring you somewhere, you can transport more stuff, and you’re not bound to a few routes.
actually, the first train from basel to freiburg is also almost completely under the control of the german railways, because the „basel badischer bahnhof“ is actually a partnered train station between the sbb and the db, which is just located in basel for better connectivity
somehow still laughing at 17:10. that dry „oh“ after 48h of DB regio madness just to get your feet and shoes soaked on the beach on a cold and rainy day. haha, great edit!
The moment i saw my daily route the RE98/RE30 i knew this plan was doomed :D The only thing missing was a: "Dieser Zug fährt aufgrund der Verspätungen nur bis Warbern" XD
13:00 This direct connection between Halle and Stralsund at 05:51 AM is a single extension of the RE 3 line which operates only on weekends and public holidays. At other times (and days), transferring in Wittenberg is mandatory as that is the regular end of the line.
quick advice for anyone replicating this: if you miss a connection that would make it impossible to reach your destination between midnight and 5am, you can go to the DB info counter and they'll have to hand you vouchers for a cab or for a hotel, due to the european passenger rights. you might need to discuss a little though, since many db empolyees don't really see why you would have places to go using the cheap deutschlandticket, but i've done it a few times and once an employee there even wrote me an ice-train ticket for a missed connection:)
@@nickderschlitzermacgurk1008 - die db Webseite, wenn das nichts gebracht hat die fahrgastrechte aus gesetze-im-internet - funktioniert bei manchen Schaltern und Mitarbeitenden, aber Leipzig ist tatsächlich da bekannterweise sehr stur - schade um die DB die deren Mitarbeitende deliberately falsch schult
Oh, that feeling when you're stepping in the last leg train knowing that you don't need to scroll down DB Navigator every 5 mins to get the delay info! I did many similar journeys with 9 and 49 euro tickets
The RE3 normally goes every 2h from Lutherstadt Wittenberg to Stralsund. But the last train in the evening from Stralsund goes until Halle. And the first in the morning then from Halle to Stralsund. I don't know why, but for you it was good!
Im a Hessian and burst out laughing, when your struggle in Frankfurt began, since RMV is in my experience one of the worst networks in Germany. 😂 Once again, they made it. Reminds me on my last weird experience with them, when I took an Intercity from Giessen to Kassel and for whatever reason that IC stopped at the same stations where normal REs would stop... but was of course far, far more expensive. Oh, and Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe is in my eyes also not the best station that one can build as a hub for rapid changing of trains. Distances between tracks are rather long, there are no escalators and only a few elevators (at the most distant point of the tracks, far away from the building), but instead some long and somehow awkward ramps and a few hidden stairs. It happened to me many times that even with transfer times of 4 or 5 minutes, i wasn't able to get to my train in time. Wikipedia tells me that the station was planned in this way, so cars could drive right to the train tracks, which is super weird.
oh i think you are supertomm.! that's what i love about europe, you can cross 3 borders in one day and feel free. I was in Świnoujście with the campervan 2 months ago, well done supertomm
Awesome experiment. Have waited for someone to do such a mad journey through our Train-Loving country haha The Deutschlandticket is perfect to discover the country not to travel big distances in one shot.
I did the same thing from Aachen to Munich, which is only takes 11 hours but I was surprised how well the connections were. Had no issues, not even on the way back. Everything went so smoothly. I really was pleasantly surprised.
I had a similar ride from southern bavaria to Berlin only with regional trains and I can really feel your struggle and pain while sitting in those long term regional trains and the feeling it takes forever :D Good job! Great video
I did that quite regularly as a student in a LDR when I couldn't snatch a Discounted ICE Tickets via last minute Tickets. Sometimes I Took the Bus, but it was also very long. Don't miss this part.
Thank you for popularizing this king of journeys! In the previous year, we've made a train trip from Eindhoven to Copenhagen with a night in Hamburg. And german part of this trip was done with 9 Euro ticket. Only local trains from Venlo to Flensburg. It was pretty punctual btw, never missed a connection. Actually, danish railways had disappointed us: we had missed a connection somewhere within the country, and also arrived to Copenhagen 2 hrs late .
There was actually a petition for this sort of ticket also to come to the NL, sadly it got rejected instantly by our gernerous goverment. Excellent video!
That sucks, I bet it would do really well in NL... there are already discussions about expanding it in to France, so idk why it wouldn't work in the Netherlands... :(
As bad a reputation as German trains have in terms of punctuality, regional trains are often pretty good. Of course they're far from perfect, but it's the Intercity trains excluded from the Deutschlandticket which are usually the ones that get massive delays. I once took an ICE from Frankfurt to Zürich and looked up how often they get delayed on average, and they are on time only 24% of the time, which is ludicrous. I don't think any German regional train is that bad.
Very true! I've taken the RB between Leipzig and Dresden a few times recently, it just bounces between those two Hbfs so there's no way for things to go that wrong. It was ICEs in NRW that made me lose the faith in DB. Especially Brussels-Frankfurt made me completely give up with how many times it was suddenly cancelled in Köln! Like, surely somebody knew this would happen when we boarded 2 hours ago...
I love how this all fell apart with the RE30 between Frankfurt and Kassel because it is the train I used to commute for years and it seems to be late everytime I have to use it...
Nice travel. Good to see, what the Deutschlandticket makes possible. And with enough time, you could go to the whole rest of Germany, for the whole month!
This just shows how functional are German trains. I decided to make a similar schedule (which I obviously won't take) for Bulgaria. And I would have to start in 5am close to the tripoint with Greece and Macedonia and end it at midnight the next day on the border with Romania at the Danube.
I travelled from Duisburg to Stuttgart yesterday with the Deutschlandticket. It took me 11 hours because I literally missed every single connection. Watching this video was a mixture of enjoying the video and PTSD from my trip yesterday.
how does it work in germany? the trains dont wait at each other? here in slovakia when i see that our train has delay and im missing a connection, i just ask train conductor or somebody in train, they will call to the station where i will change trains, and they would wait for our train. they wouldnt wait only if the delay is that big that there is another train (like if im hour late and trains are going every hour on that line)
@@denydeny8610 they usually dont wait if its longer than a few minutes as that would cause even more delays for that train, and the connection on another station which then also has to wait and so on. Especially between high speed trains and regional trains they usually dont wait.
OKAY. Im at 8:10. You just dropped me the literal best joke of the video and im sitting here crying from laughter. The Honks you heared there are the sounds our Security System makes when you have to pull the ATTENTIVE-lever that a speed limit signal or expecting stop signal would require. If the Conductor felt the need to pull it this angrily, you can pretty much assume the man is ABSOLUTELY DONE with his day, and either the system is acting up in some way, and he wants to make absolutely sure he doesnt get shot down and emergency breaked from the security system, or something else is pissing him off. Idk if this is as funny to someone whos not a train conductor, but the man is in pain, and i am really deeply empathising. This was very funny and i thank you for it.
Dear Tom, I am a well-experienced DB rail traveler with a good 180 travel days/year for more than 20 years. I've really experienced everything that Deutsche Bahn has to offer. The good, the bad and the ugly! One of the first things you learn at DB is that you should never, under any circumstances (!), trust Deutsche Bahn travel information! Your mistake was that you entered the total distance (from start to finish) into the app! And further that you were looking for this ride in combination with the fastest connections! If you had searched for the journey from Basel Bad Bf only to Halle (Saale) and then from Halle (Saale) to Stralsund, then the departure in Switzerland would have been at 4:06 a.m. and the arrival in Halle (Saale) at 3:56 p.m. Your train would have left Halle (Saale) at 4:52 p.m. for Stralsund. You would have reached your destination at 10:51 p.m. And by the way, without any short transfer times... 😂
Great video! I’m also actually pretty sure that you could have made it from Kassel to Sylt (arrival at 23:35, 5 changes >10 minutes) or Flensburg (arrival at 22:40, 4 changes >10 minutes) on the same day with an alternative route. Your chosen route was definitely a big challenge though!
Absolutely true. I normally need 17h WITH delays from Hamburg to Salzburg and to Sylt it's just 2 1/2h later (but you should prefer Flensburg, as the last train to Flensburg leaves HH at midnight :D)
The good thing about the regional trains is that they are actually quite punctual most of the time with not many of a delay of 10 minutes or more The most Problems about delay is the ICE Service which cause a lot of delay not only for the ICEs but aswell for the regional trains
The Deutschland Ticket is great and useful for so many people but I am very happy to be a holder DB BahnCard 100 which allows unlimited travel on all trains including long distance. The service, speed and comfort of the ICE is really a huge step up from local and regional services.
Yup, actually worth the money imo. People always think it's crazy, but the BahnCard 100 is basically a car replacement. There's also a Probe card limited to 3 months for 1300 EUR, used that to explore the entire country and saved ~5000 EUR compared to buying the cheapest regular tickets
Last year with the 9€ ticket, I went from Cuxhaven (all the way in the north) back home to near Mannheim. It took 18 hours and 30 minutes, but I also had a fully packed bike with me and it was the end of the holiday, so the 7 hours delay were kind of planned already. Should have taken only 11.40 hours. This year, I went from near mannheim to Berchtesgaden, 8 hours, and everything worked flawlessly! They really improved over the last year!
15:28 It's so cool seeing you there! I literally rode my bike along the road behind the train station on my vacation with my grandma a couple of weeks ago.
Nice video Tom. Fellow Englishman living in Germany for the last 2 years, not too far from you (between Magdeburg and Braunschweig). You are a very brave person for making that journey given the reliability of DB, fair play to you.
Ooh, I was thinking about doing one of these myself. I'll be based in Leipzig myself for the summer - was thinking maybe Flensburg on the Danish border to somewhere on the Swiss border. Last summer I tried going from west of Cologne to east of Hannover on the €9 ticket and it was a nightmare 7 hour journey with all the regional trains. Can't wait to do more of them this year! All power to you, enjoy the freedom these tickets give us :)
Definitely much more reasonable to do this trip with Leipzig as the starting point. Leipzig after all is more situated in the middle of Germany and to get to Stralsund you would only need to get to Halle and then only have to make that change over in Wittenberg.
Haha 😂 "Swiss innit" Yes man, our train traffic in Germany is awful, barely on time, and mostly need to run to get your next transition Just a shame you couldn't see the region of Freiburg. Around the Kaiserstuhl region it's really beautiful
You could also visit the four towns of the Zipfelbund (the western-, eastern-, southern- and northernmost towns in Germany) in four days. Could be less stressful, but you would see a lot of Germany with more time to enjoy it :-)
I very much feel you. I went to Göttingen last weekend and managed to miss the RE9 to Halle TWICE bc of delays. And first one was actually last train of the day :/ Also, greetings from Leipzig to Leipzig^^
I guess you used up you DB luck way to early on the first day, rookie mistake :P Instead of Salzburg -> Sylt you could do Berchtesgaden -> Sylt, I think that one is slightly longer, in terms of air distance. (Though the difference compared to this journey is < 5km over roughly 200km total distance for both of them.)
It's maybe slightly longer, but the local train connections are worse. If you start in Berchtesgaden in the early morning, you have to change 12 times the local trains, sometimes with only few minutes. If you start in Salzburg you need to switch only 7 times, with mostly more stopover. So it is more likely to miss a connection if you start in Berchtesgaden.
I have been using my 49 euro ticket for travelling around Munich and surroundings. Last week for the first time I tried a longer trip to Frankfurt. The first leg was RE1 to Nuremberg. This usually runs on the high speed line north of Ingolstadt, but today the train was diverted via Eichstatt on the old main line to arrive in Nuremberg 2 hours after leaving Munich. There was plenty of space on the train. At Nuremberg there was a 40 minute wait for the next train to take me to Bamberg. Time to grab a coffee. There was standing room only on this train. Since it was running through to Lichtenfels in Thuringen, I suspect many people were trying to make it to Berlin. At Bamberg there would be a tight 6 minute connection for the Frankfurt train. After we were held by a red light outside Erlangen it looked like I wouldn't make it. However the guard announced that the Frankfurt train would wait for us. At Bamberg there were many people besides me dashing across for the train to Frankfurt. It was busy but I got a seat. The train ran via Wurzburg then a slow meandering route along the Main river to eventually bring me to Frankfurt. Total journey time 5 hours 40 minutes compared to 3 hours by ICE , but an interesting trip which effectively cost me nothing.
You got it all wrong... you didn't have 20 years to catch the train... The train was from 2003 - that's how long it has been delayed. A 20 year Odyssey😂😂😂
In the mid-2000 I would sometimes do that and take local trains from Duisburg all the way to the Polish border. The trip would take approx. 10h straight.
considering i've had to take the Schienenersatzverkehr™ THREE TIMES in the last year because the exact same railway kept getting, i dunno, exploded, i'm not suprised that this failed. still, i'm in awe at your tenacity. that's a thumbs up from me 👍
last year during the summer of the 9 euro-ticket i made a journey from my hometown close to stuttgart to the danish border. but i made it in three days with little reroutes and visits to ppl i know along the way. its absolutely a great idea even tough 49 euro is a little more than i would have preferred. thx for the fun video
Tried this with ICEs from France to Poland. Even with a missed TGV, all the DB delays, one missed PKP train, one S-Bahn failure at Berlin Süd and one emergency FlixBus in Berlin during the brink of winter, while severely underclothed, I managed to make it to Poland in one day. By like 10 minutes
haha, great video! Last year, when they did the Deutschland Ticket test phase, it was 9 € for a month. I took off the first day of june to do a small journey from NRW to Hamburg. Every single train failed me and it as HELL, as everybody wanted to use local trains that day. I arrived in Hamburg around noon, took a photo of the Elbphilharmonie, bought me a big box full of Franzbrötchen and drove back again. Started at 8 in the morning and was home again at 10 PM with the best Franzbrötchen ever ;) But I also will never do that trip again :D Especially not in a single day :D
Something like that is impossible on the Deutsche Bahn. But you were extremely lucky to get from Basel to Frankfurt on time. Deutsche Bahn is so heavily unreliable that even with extensive times to connect, there is a great risk of missing the connection. That's why this ticket exists - it is actually only useful for local use on public transportation.
I've been searching for an 'Abroad in Japan in Germany' channel for a long time and I think this is the one! Really interesting video, loved just seeing the small parts of the country that you normally wouldn't hear about that you find interesting. A small challenge that only works in the country that requires slow travel to show off the landscape was great. Keep it up, love the content!
As someone who lives right between Frankfurt and Kassel, it is quite funny (and relatable) seeing you getting screwed here haha Nice effort and video tho
I did Cologne to Munich 3 times in a week in August using the D-ticket as I had to move spontaneously and I was quite impressed that it actually worked out. It took me 12 hours and 6/7 train changes everytime, but quite surprisingly all trains were always on time. It is an experience, but I probably wouldn't do it again.
@@thornton Ha ha., yeah obvious really, just seems to good to be true, I only read about this recently, can you image if there was something similar in the UK, would never happen.
@@jogolock1190 all regional trains, metros, trams, buses and some other things classified as public transport (ferries in Hamburg, monorail in Wuppertal, etc.) in the entire country, yes. It absolutely feels almost too good to be true and way too many Germans complain its too expensive.
@@eechauch5522 Complaints are mostly not because of the 49€ (there was a 9€ ticket last summer) but because it is subscription now. Last year it was turn up, buy, go.
The incredibly bad punctuality of the DB is actually exclusively down to fast intercity connections (DB Fernverkehr: IC, ICE and EC combined ~69% puntuality). The regional trains (DB Regio: RE, RB, S) generally have a punctuality of around 94%. The reason regional trains run late is mostly to let intercity trains pass so that those can catch up time.
Er ist der einzige Mensch der je einen pünktlichen Anschluss in Karlsruhe gekriegt hat
so oft schon gefickt worden in Karlsruhe haha
der einzige Mensch dessen Regionalzug je pünktlich in Frankfurt angekommen ist
In Mannheim ist es nicht besser :D muss mir die Shitshow jeden Tag geben...
@@cg7305ich wohne in Karlsruhe und fahre regelmäßig nach Frankfurt. Hatte nie Probleme in BW aber sobald ich nach Hessen kam gab's nur Probleme
Statistisch ist der Regionalverkehr mit 92.5% noch ziemlich gut im Vergleich zum Fernverkehr mit 65,5% Pünktlichkeit. (Stand: Mai 2023, wobei Pünktlich bei den Angaben heißt: Verspätung
Traveling through Germany in 24 hours by regional train is like hitting yourself with a chair in the face over and over again. Even we Germans won't do that.
ja ne haben ja nicht millionen von Saufnasen mit dem 9€ Ticket gemacht
Bin mit dem 9 € ticket von Berlin bis nach Ingelheim am Rheim gefahren, nur um mit ein paar Leuten Pizza zu essen....
Aber gut, wir Berliner haben eh nen Rad ab....
Lol... you know us train freaks wrong. I did it several times in my life, from Hamburg to Salzburg. Last time was last July with the 9 Euro ticket.
@@duzzl6743Aus Oberbayern sind's auch nur 9+ Stunden mehr... (17:30h, wennste um 6 Uhr in der Früh los fährst. Nur 9 Umstiege...
(Ich nehm hier auch Salzburg vom Vorredner mit. Die halbe Stunde ist dann auch nicht mehr die Rede wert.)
ICE First class 😋
What made it extra challenging is that you not only went from the South to the North but also from the West to the East which is notoriously hard to do with German public transport
did it last year with the 9€ Ticket, plain suffering in overcrowded trains.
Why? You need to only change trains four times from Aachen to Chemnitz. Aaachen => Düsseldorf => Kassel => Erfurt => Leipzig => Chemnitz. 12h.
@edzardluebben463 Yes, I can confirm
Travelled from Baden-Württemberg to Rügen last year using regional trains. Almost 2 days.
@@BeoooboBut Görlitz ist the City in the East. Change in Leipzig und Dresden.
With everything going wrong at DB, the trains, the railways, etc. can we just take a second to appreciate how much of a help DB Navigator is?
Like the app is SO GOOD. The real time updates, the planning done for you, all the information
They've done a great job developing the app
I'm travelling to Austria quite often and I miss having DB Navigator whenever I'm there
Yeah absolutely GOAT app. Especially the linking with rural buses, e.g. in Bavaria down by the mountains, or in National Parks
Its data in my experience (upper Bavaria) is terrible, so it's just not useful at all…
@@anianii Yeah agreed! I've had trains severely delayed, stuck mid-journey or cancelled completly where the app would still show that it was running smoothly. This also makes it super hard to find an alternative since it just keeps recommending that same train 🙄 As you say, it's definitely a lack of data though, as we called the support hotline in some cases and they also didn't even know that there were any issues. Once it's reported in their system I'd say the app is pretty useful
DB Navigator is such a good app. I used to use it all the time when I lived in Germany and it helped so much
@@anianii Same in the Rhine region, here it will tell you that train is right on time, meanwhile the DB Streckenagent app already tells you the train is cancelled
10:11 Wer hätts erwartet 🤷🏻♂️😂 That you're losing the challenge on a 5 or 7 Minute Transfertime but a almost 1h Transfertime is a perfect representation of the German transit System 😂
Of course things started to go wrong in Frankfurt.
For me many a miserable train journey started with changing trains in Frankfurt.
I hate to admit it but yes, Frankfurt has too few platforms for the amount of trains that go through there. Because of this, as soon as one train is delayed or (god forbid) broken many more trains are affected. I haven’t had too many delays caused by starting a journey in Frankfurt but I’ve been victim to too many spontaneous platform change from platform 2 to 16 less than 5 minutes before the train was supposed to depart.
Köln aswell
Frankfurt ist the most unpunctual train station in Germany. David Griesel made a great video about train punctuality stats: ruclips.net/video/0rb9CfOvojk/видео.html
Also trains are almost always punctual between 4am and 6am.
i searched for that comment
As an international train traveler often going from NL to the Alps I fully recognize the total shithole of a rail system in the Frankfurt area often starting the problems. When traveling home the mess up more frequently happens in the late afternoon between Köln and Düsseldorf though.
the 49€ is such a cool idea. Absolute insane value if you think about it.
really cool isn't it! I made multiple videos using the Bavaria Ticket or Saxony Ticket before, which were 25 euros for 1 day hahaha
yes its very good
regular we have to pay 120€ + u cant cross whole germany
Yeah it’s pretty good
its such a godsend for me as a german student on a budget. it saves me so much money, and its so cheap that my employer covers it because of work commutes. so i basically pay 0€ for unlimited public transport.
@@Shyftus also I can use it to go to the alps for free
Quick knowledge for you guys:
Last year, due to the recession and rising fuel costs the government implemented a 9€ ticket for a few months. Said ticket was so popular that they put a new version in place at 49€. Many think it should have stayed at 9€ to get people out of cars, some think high-speed should be included in the 49€ ticket.
The main takeaway is, people still drive just as much, the ones who love it are those that already had permanent tickets. The monthly ticket in Schleswig Holstein for example was ~200€ per month, so its a large reduction in price in addition to beeing able to use it nation wide. Overall it made travel a lot easier.
At least I am using the train a lot more than my car. I am working nearly fully remote. So my travel radius is usually around town to the stores and my girlfriend, plus about once or twice per month I need to go to the office, and about as often I need to go to my parent's house. So far, I had always done the latter two by car.
As I said, my everyday public transport usage used to be just the local tram lines, for which the monthly ticket (even with reduced validity period per day) would've been around 80€. That was already higher than the combined fare of all one way tickets I would need per month, so I never purchased the monthly ticket. And for the journeys to work or parents, going by train required a 24h ticket for 37€, or two 21€ tickets if I wanted to come and go on different days. Both journeys would take 1.5 to 2 hours of travel time per direction. Compared to going by car which takes around 1.2 hours per direction and costs around 27€ in gas per round-trip - not worth it.
But now I am purchasing the 49€ ticket, because that is cheaper than the sum of all one way tickets, and now, since I already have that, I try to go by train when I commute or visit my parents. So it's not like the 49€ ticket "converted" me from doing trips by car to doing trips by train directly, but it is the only way going by tram and train ends up being cheaper than going by tram and car. And I have subscribed to it because I believe that Germany needs such kind of tickets, and by "use it or lose it" I want to make clear that politicians will not have an easy time silently abolishing it again when the experiment eventually ends.
Nope: According to the latest I read ( a few weeks ago), 10 Million people have already got the ticket, us included. We already used it on a trip to Basel (funny coincidence), and, while my ladies went to Rust and the Europapark, I crossed over into France from Breisach, all of which would have previously been done by car. So, people are definitely driving less. (Also, I have no company ticket or other rail or ÖPNV ticket, normally, and would do everything - out of necessity - by car here).
"the main takeaway is, people still drive just as much" source: trust me bro
No. People don't drive as much. I use the public transport for weekend travels all the time now!
200 per month? bro was geht bei euch in schleswig holstein
Fun fact: the actual last stop: Świnoujście Centrum, is only used by German trains and it was built like a German station so the signs are different than they are in other stations in Poland. Its construction was financed by Usedomer Bäderbahn (UBB) and it's maintained by UBB Polska.
That is a fun fact :) have you visited before?
@@thornton I'm planning on doing it.
The other fun fact is that German and Polish stations in Świnoujście are located on different islands with no land connection (although now a road tunnel is being built). So to travel between them by train you'd have to go through Züssow and Szczecin making a journey of around 300-350km. All of that to travel only 2km through one small town
just call them Swinemünde und Stettin, my gosh, the polish do it too
@@lilithiaabendstern6303 i don't know any Polish person who calls Świnoujście Swinemünde
If I'm not mistaken the Regio from Halle to Stralsund is the longest Regio in the entirety of Germany as it crosses basically most of the former GDR
I think so, too. According to a Top10 video from BR111 the RE3 line was the third-longest line in 2021 [behind RE5 (Rostock - Elsterwerda; now shorter) and RE2 (Wismar Cottbus; now rearragend and shorter)]
m.ruclips.net/video/tzz8VZHWGOE/видео.html&pp=ygUbbMOkbmdzdGUgcmVnaW9uYWx6dWcgbGluaWVu
However the RE3 to Stralsund usually begins in Lu. Wittenberg (which is the reason for not being the longest line). Halle-Stralsund should be the longest direct regional connection overall.
That direct connection between Halle and Stralsund is only offered Saturday/Sunday/Holidays, once a day and only northbound.
*Edit:* RE5 has been shortened as well.
@@michaelmuller5856 Yes, I was wondering what happened to RE5 and if there is still a line as long. But RE5 also seems to have been shortened. I can't find a direct connection without changing in Berlin ;/. So this one could be the longest for 2023. The Alex (RE2) from Hof -> Munich is also an interesting "local" connetion as it incoperates coaches from former long distance trains.
@@Nirtago Oh right, I was so busy comparing distances that I completely forgot about the RE5 cut in Berlin. Last year's rearrangement around Berlin was massive.
I suppose there won't be any exciting competition in Brandenburg before 2025 when they plan to connect the current RE8 fragments (will be Wismar - Elsterwerda then). However this should be shorter as well.
Theres one from Leipzig to Nürnberg
The RE4 from Lübeck to Stettin is also very long.
During the €9 ticket phase, I did a lot of crazy trips across Germany starting from Munich and covering Kiel, Hamburg, Berlin, Feiburg, Cologne and many other places, all without ever booking accommodation! What an incredible experience it was!
Und wo hast du dann geschlafen?
@@mOOny187 db station
In most places in Germany, regional trains don't operate between midnight and 4 am. I used to sleep then at train stations
@@unakade Nice of you to stink up the trains
that's great! i plan to have a rail trip too, because last time, my friends told me a way to get bigger discounts for rail trips
I actually tried this last year with the 9 €-ticket. I started in Freiburg (Breisgau) and only made it to Offenburg. In Offenburg there have been so many people in the train so nobody could enter it. That was a really short "Deutschlandtour"
hahaha oh dear, try it again with the 49-er :)
Damn I did the same thing 😂 startet in freiburg and wanted to make it to Köln in a day.
Ja Pustekuchen 😂
We made it halfway to offenburg (ca. 25min in) when things turned sour. A fellow traveler (Swiss guy) was stuck there as well..with a delay of about 2h and no chance of making it to Karlsruhe in time. More time passed and the info in offenburg was clueless so he decided to take a train back to basel 😅😂
We eventually made it to Karlsruhe HOURS late and ended up spending the night in Mainz. We came prepared. We had a tent 😂 it was gloriously chaotic
You could have purchased an ICE ticket to anywhere and get it reimbursed. A lot of people don’t know about that
😂😂
@@Hihihihihihi147lol same but the other way around, wanted to travel from Cologne to Freiburg, but then I thought nah thats waste of time lol
As for the train switch in Kassel:
You can actually ask the train attendant to file a request to the specific train you need to catch, to wait for you (and possibly others).
If they respond positive, they will delay their departure and wait for the passengers of your train.
And people wonder why DB has so many delays..
I live on the Island of Bornholm in the middle of the Baltic Sea… Could almost hear your sigh of disappointment - and relief. Thanks for taking us with you on this journey 👍
Oh that's cool! I would love to go there one day
This is exceptional, not just the challenge but the quality of the video. Wayyy beyond my abilities on both counts, but so enjoyable to watch! Early mornings and crazy connections, the ONLY way to travel eh!? 😂 Well done!
Hey thanks Steve, that's really kind :) I always enjoy your channel so that means a lot to me!
Now we need to see you do the same trip Steve! 😂
@@ChokyoDK @steve-marsh the people have spoken
Last summer, I used the 9€-Ticket to travel from Cologne to Dresden, basically from west to east. It took 12 hours. Would do it again.
Once did just part of that, Berlin-Cologne, or maybe Cologne-Berlin can't remember anymore but it was all on a FlixTrain and it took 10 bloody hours anyway xD
I traveled from Karlsruhe to Berchtesgaden with the 9€- Ticket. Took about 9h and honestly wasn't that bad
I did Munich-Berlin. Would do it again for 9€; would not for 49€, I have to admit.
It is a great option however when you already need the ticket for commuting or something. But instead of improving capacity to handle tourists and day-trippers, they just made it so it's not worth it for just that anymore.
Crossing the Harz on a steam train is also pretty fun. The most part of the HSB narrow gauge network is included in the 49€ Ticket. It is probably the most scenic journey with the 49€ Ticket. Combining the Harzquerbahn and Selketalbahn takes some time but it is worth it.
I’ve done that journey. The Mountain is “Bagger” in German , Brocken. One of my ancestors had this surname so had to see what it looked like. A stunning day out.
I tried that - and on that day last year a car had to hit the train before us and so we got stranded in the Harz and only could go back to Wernigerode...
@@acmenipponair that's unfortunate! Hope you can try it again sometime.
ausser das viel zertoert ist im harz, durch borkenkaefer und co
You did prove you can travel around the country on regional trains with the 49€ ticket. It won't be as fast as the ICE, but if we have the time, it is a big money savings. We rush too much in life anyway.
A good philosophy :)
Have you ever been on a train in Germany? Taking the ICE is definitely not a rush 😂
Staying anywhere overnight will destroy your 'saved' money. Better to take ICE to save both time and hardly earned €€€.
Do you have disability -90% over there? Just askin for a family member who could use it
@@Bork_In_Volcanic this, the cost will still be the same unless you find an hourly hotel to not pay a full night whereever you stranded, in thast case I would just get a ICE ticket and save having to spend time on slower trains + transfer + wait for other trains. In this video the journey might have been possible if the trains was on time but does it really safe money? If you have a lot of time then sure but for the longest possible journey it's rather wasted time
In the early 19th century, the Brothers Grimm lived in Kassel! They collected and wrote most of their fairy tales there! Kassel used to be spelled Cassel until 1926. The Franzbrötchen is said to be named in the style of the French model, or croissant (französisch). The croissant became popular in Germany after Napoleon's troops had occupied Hamburg between 1806 and 1814. According to a different historical tradition, they produced a longish Franzbrot which resembled the baguette. Legend has it, a baker in Hamburg had once seared such a Franzbrot in a pan of fat, which is considered the origin of the contemporary Franzbrötchen.
Maybe the real journey to the Baltic Sea...were the friends we made along the way. Yes the German railway network certainly isn't perfect, but I'm glad their government did this because this is an absolute steal that I hope encourages more people to take trains! You did your best! It is unfortunate that the trains had delays and it was not possible to make the route as planned. But those who travel always encounter setbacks. The important thing is to have a plan B, a C, a D to use whenever the need arises. But pretty sure the longest possible route would have been from Oberstdorf in southern Bavaria (Germany's southernmost town) to Westerland on the island of Sylt which has Germany's northernmost train station
As a regular rider of the Long Island Rail Road, after watching this...I'll never complain about having to transfer at either Babylon or Jamaica again. 😂 You may not have done it in one day, but your ambition to do this in the first place despite knowing what could go wrong is something we admire! RESPECT! It's pretty cool how that part of the German-Polish border is not just a monument but also a boardwalk! Now that's a fun way to embrace being a part of Schengen! But here's a fun fact about the French-German-Swiss tripoint...that monument dedicated to it, Dreiländereck....doesn't actually mark the location of the tripoint!
The monument is fully in Swiss territory about 150 meters away from it, as the ACTUAL tripoint is in the middle of the river. The Three Countries Bridge also doesn't go across the tripoint. My favorite tripoint is how the tripoint of Slovakia, Austria, and Hungary...is just a triangular table and some small benches! The respective countries are marked with their coat of arms on the table! And even though the station you started in was in Switzerland, Badische Bahnhof is an enclave of the EU Customs Union with German rules applying to its rail traffic and infrastructure. Thus the Swiss weren't involved! This is thanks to a treaty from 1852 between Baden and the Swiss Confederation.
For Amtrak trains (US) running 30 minutes late is nominal. The reason we suffer so many delays is the freight trains get priority/ right of way. The Amtrak monthly pass is "10 rides (segments) over 30 days to your choice of over 500 destinations. At just $499". That's more restrictive and 10x the cost. Oof.
Hi @North K
Have you seen Tom's most popular video:
"NYC to LA BY TRAIN | A 3000-mile no-fly travel film inc. Amtrak California Zephyr in coach in winter"?
he's had some significant experiences with Amtrak in America.
Cheers!
I’m just going to act like I don’t go on the Amtrak rail pass website once a week and dream up another USA vacation 😇😅
yes but Amtrak is long distance this is only regional services. Deutsche Bahn has the same for high speed long distance services but it's costs 2-3k dollars a year. it's called the BahnCard100. What is probably more similar to the Amtrak pass is Interrail/Eurorail for EU citizens.
@@elsyvien understandably, but we don't have a regional rail equivalent. Some cities have local trains, but Amtrak is the only train operator city to city that I'm aware of. Brightline has a line in Florida up to Miami and soon Orlando, but that's very new. It's why we're so car centric. The automotive industry crushed the train systems so they could create a monopoly.
@@NortherlyK More people were able to afford cars and therefore the demand for trains went down over time. While car travel has its disadvantages, it overall beats train travel, especially outside of urban areas. You don’t rely on a schedule and someone else to bring you somewhere, you can transport more stuff, and you’re not bound to a few routes.
actually, the first train from basel to freiburg is also almost completely under the control of the german railways, because the „basel badischer bahnhof“ is actually a partnered train station between the sbb and the db, which is just located in basel for better connectivity
It was a good effort and I have to say I enjoyed this video a lot.
somehow still laughing at 17:10. that dry „oh“ after 48h of DB regio madness just to get your feet and shoes soaked on the beach on a cold and rainy day. haha, great edit!
The moment i saw my daily route the RE98/RE30 i knew this plan was doomed :D
The only thing missing was a: "Dieser Zug fährt aufgrund der Verspätungen nur bis Warbern" XD
13:00 This direct connection between Halle and Stralsund at 05:51 AM is a single extension of the RE 3 line which operates only on weekends and public holidays. At other times (and days), transferring in Wittenberg is mandatory as that is the regular end of the line.
quick advice for anyone replicating this: if you miss a connection that would make it impossible to reach your destination between midnight and 5am, you can go to the DB info counter and they'll have to hand you vouchers for a cab or for a hotel, due to the european passenger rights. you might need to discuss a little though, since many db empolyees don't really see why you would have places to go using the cheap deutschlandticket, but i've done it a few times and once an employee there even wrote me an ice-train ticket for a missed connection:)
Was für Argumente hast du bitte ausgepackt dass die dir da wirklich entgegenkommen?!
@@nickderschlitzermacgurk1008 - die db Webseite, wenn das nichts gebracht hat die fahrgastrechte aus gesetze-im-internet - funktioniert bei manchen Schaltern und Mitarbeitenden, aber Leipzig ist tatsächlich da bekannterweise sehr stur - schade um die DB die deren Mitarbeitende deliberately falsch schult
Oh, that feeling when you're stepping in the last leg train knowing that you don't need to scroll down DB Navigator every 5 mins to get the delay info! I did many similar journeys with 9 and 49 euro tickets
Another Tip: I just found out that buying train cards saves more!! There will be coupons available to drop
I love your channel..Tom. You are an excellent and very likable and authentic presenter. Thank you for taking us along ..greetings from the USA!
The RE3 normally goes every 2h from Lutherstadt Wittenberg to Stralsund. But the last train in the evening from Stralsund goes until Halle. And the first in the morning then from Halle to Stralsund. I don't know why, but for you it was good!
Probably because it's parked in Halle
Watching while using my 49er from Berlin to central Germany. Used it in Berlin, Köln last week, I just love it!
Im a Hessian and burst out laughing, when your struggle in Frankfurt began, since RMV is in my experience one of the worst networks in Germany. 😂
Once again, they made it.
Reminds me on my last weird experience with them, when I took an Intercity from Giessen to Kassel and for whatever reason that IC stopped at the same stations where normal REs would stop... but was of course far, far more expensive.
Oh, and Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe is in my eyes also not the best station that one can build as a hub for rapid changing of trains. Distances between tracks are rather long, there are no escalators and only a few elevators (at the most distant point of the tracks, far away from the building), but instead some long and somehow awkward ramps and a few hidden stairs. It happened to me many times that even with transfer times of 4 or 5 minutes, i wasn't able to get to my train in time.
Wikipedia tells me that the station was planned in this way, so cars could drive right to the train tracks, which is super weird.
The cars win again, man
@@thornton The cars have it, the cars have it!
oh i think you are supertomm.! that's what i love about europe, you can cross 3 borders in one day and feel free. I was in Świnoujście with the campervan 2 months ago, well done supertomm
Awesome experiment. Have waited for someone to do such a mad journey through our Train-Loving country haha The Deutschlandticket is perfect to discover the country not to travel big distances in one shot.
I did the same thing from Aachen to Munich, which is only takes 11 hours but I was surprised how well the connections were. Had no issues, not even on the way back. Everything went so smoothly. I really was pleasantly surprised.
NRW just sucks ass with ICE trains, trying to get anywhere from Aachen is a pain
I had a similar ride from southern bavaria to Berlin only with regional trains and I can really feel your struggle and pain while sitting in those long term regional trains and the feeling it takes forever :D Good job! Great video
Thanks! Yeah it’s not exactly luxurious I guess :)
I did that quite regularly as a student in a LDR when I couldn't snatch a Discounted ICE Tickets via last minute Tickets. Sometimes I Took the Bus, but it was also very long. Don't miss this part.
I ran my Deutche ticket "ragged" during my holiday there in April '24 , but you did it on another level 🙂
Great original video Idea Tom!
Thanks mate!
Thank you for popularizing this king of journeys!
In the previous year, we've made a train trip from Eindhoven to Copenhagen with a night in Hamburg. And german part of this trip was done with 9 Euro ticket. Only local trains from Venlo to Flensburg. It was pretty punctual btw, never missed a connection. Actually, danish railways had disappointed us: we had missed a connection somewhere within the country, and also arrived to Copenhagen 2 hrs late .
Love how he went the entire video without attempting to pronounce "Świnoujście" :P
I love the scenery. please do some city tours of the nice cities!
There was actually a petition for this sort of ticket also to come to the NL, sadly it got rejected instantly by our gernerous goverment.
Excellent video!
That sucks, I bet it would do really well in NL... there are already discussions about expanding it in to France, so idk why it wouldn't work in the Netherlands... :(
7:49 i love this scene so much. watched it over and over again
As bad a reputation as German trains have in terms of punctuality, regional trains are often pretty good. Of course they're far from perfect, but it's the Intercity trains excluded from the Deutschlandticket which are usually the ones that get massive delays. I once took an ICE from Frankfurt to Zürich and looked up how often they get delayed on average, and they are on time only 24% of the time, which is ludicrous. I don't think any German regional train is that bad.
Very true! I've taken the RB between Leipzig and Dresden a few times recently, it just bounces between those two Hbfs so there's no way for things to go that wrong. It was ICEs in NRW that made me lose the faith in DB. Especially Brussels-Frankfurt made me completely give up with how many times it was suddenly cancelled in Köln! Like, surely somebody knew this would happen when we boarded 2 hours ago...
I love how this all fell apart with the RE30 between Frankfurt and Kassel because it is the train I used to commute for years and it seems to be late everytime I have to use it...
Nice travel.
Good to see, what the Deutschlandticket makes possible.
And with enough time, you could go to the whole rest of Germany, for the whole month!
Awesome adventure, Tom! Looking forward to the next crazy story on the railways
Thanks for doing it. At least it's possible and relatively safe. My great grandfather is from Poland. The rest of me is quite British.
☕️🫖
@@thornton So funny. I was just about to go and have a splash when I saw this. I'm making Ginger Tea with real ginger root. Cheers!
Excellent you brought us all along, danke! 🎉
I could see you as a wonderful vegan tour guide for Germany. I’d sign up! 🌱🌱
We paid a premium for ICE tickets from Munich to Brussels, only to be left stranded in Frankfurt due to a train delay. You got off lucky.
This just shows how functional are German trains. I decided to make a similar schedule (which I obviously won't take) for Bulgaria. And I would have to start in 5am close to the tripoint with Greece and Macedonia and end it at midnight the next day on the border with Romania at the Danube.
Another level of adventure
Fun fact, Swinemünde was de jure part of Germany untill 1990 when Oder Neisse line was recognized during Two+Four Agreement.
I travelled from Duisburg to Stuttgart yesterday with the Deutschlandticket. It took me 11 hours because I literally missed every single connection. Watching this video was a mixture of enjoying the video and PTSD from my trip yesterday.
Maybe a bit too soon after surviving such an ordeal... I won't take it personally if you have to come back in a few weeks time
how does it work in germany? the trains dont wait at each other? here in slovakia when i see that our train has delay and im missing a connection, i just ask train conductor or somebody in train, they will call to the station where i will change trains, and they would wait for our train. they wouldnt wait only if the delay is that big that there is another train (like if im hour late and trains are going every hour on that line)
@@denydeny8610 they usually dont wait if its longer than a few minutes as that would cause even more delays for that train, and the connection on another station which then also has to wait and so on. Especially between high speed trains and regional trains they usually dont wait.
OKAY. Im at 8:10. You just dropped me the literal best joke of the video and im sitting here crying from laughter.
The Honks you heared there are the sounds our Security System makes when you have to pull the ATTENTIVE-lever that a speed limit signal or expecting stop signal would require.
If the Conductor felt the need to pull it this angrily, you can pretty much assume the man is ABSOLUTELY DONE with his day, and either the system is acting up in some way, and he wants to make absolutely sure he doesnt get shot down and emergency breaked from the security system, or something else is pissing him off.
Idk if this is as funny to someone whos not a train conductor, but the man is in pain, and i am really deeply empathising. This was very funny and i thank you for it.
3:28 u can’t drink that water out of the fountains 😂. It isn’t fresh and probably full of bacteria
Dear Tom, I am a well-experienced DB rail traveler with a good 180 travel days/year for more than 20 years. I've really experienced everything that Deutsche Bahn has to offer. The good, the bad and the ugly!
One of the first things you learn at DB is that you should never, under any circumstances (!), trust Deutsche Bahn travel information!
Your mistake was that you entered the total distance (from start to finish) into the app! And further that you were looking for this ride in combination with the fastest connections!
If you had searched for the journey from Basel Bad Bf only to Halle (Saale) and then from Halle (Saale) to Stralsund, then the departure in Switzerland would have been at 4:06 a.m. and the arrival in Halle (Saale) at 3:56 p.m. Your train would have left Halle (Saale) at 4:52 p.m. for Stralsund. You would have reached your destination at 10:51 p.m. And by the way, without any short transfer times... 😂
Great video! I’m also actually pretty sure that you could have made it from Kassel to Sylt (arrival at 23:35, 5 changes >10 minutes) or Flensburg (arrival at 22:40, 4 changes >10 minutes) on the same day with an alternative route. Your chosen route was definitely a big challenge though!
Absolutely true. I normally need 17h WITH delays from Hamburg to Salzburg and to Sylt it's just 2 1/2h later (but you should prefer Flensburg, as the last train to Flensburg leaves HH at midnight :D)
As a corinthiano, 8:57 was a surprinsingly unexpected jumpscare.
vai Corinthiaaaans ❤️🇧🇷
The good thing about the regional trains is that they are actually quite punctual most of the time with not many of a delay of 10 minutes or more
The most Problems about delay is the ICE Service which cause a lot of delay not only for the ICEs but aswell for the regional trains
You are definitely not the only one doing this
The Deutschland Ticket is great and useful for so many people but I am very happy to be a holder DB BahnCard 100 which allows unlimited travel on all trains including long distance.
The service, speed and comfort of the ICE is really a huge step up from local and regional services.
ok, I'm jealous 👀
Yup, actually worth the money imo. People always think it's crazy, but the BahnCard 100 is basically a car replacement.
There's also a Probe card limited to 3 months for 1300 EUR, used that to explore the entire country and saved ~5000 EUR compared to buying the cheapest regular tickets
this feels like a trainhopping video, with the difference being that it's all legal
Tom, I watch your videos because I enjoy your positive attitude and sense of humor, and you never disappoint!
🫡🥹
I did not expect that ending 😅 amazing trip & amazing video as always!
Last year with the 9€ ticket, I went from Cuxhaven (all the way in the north) back home to near Mannheim. It took 18 hours and 30 minutes, but I also had a fully packed bike with me and it was the end of the holiday, so the 7 hours delay were kind of planned already. Should have taken only 11.40 hours.
This year, I went from near mannheim to Berchtesgaden, 8 hours, and everything worked flawlessly! They really improved over the last year!
Wow really glad that was successful! Berchtesgaden is beautiful, I feel like I have another visit there in my near-future…
15:28 It's so cool seeing you there! I literally rode my bike along the road behind the train station on my vacation with my grandma a couple of weeks ago.
Nice video Tom. Fellow Englishman living in Germany for the last 2 years, not too far from you (between Magdeburg and Braunschweig). You are a very brave person for making that journey given the reliability of DB, fair play to you.
Hey hey! Thanks, glad you enjoyed it.
This video is shot beautifully, thank you for the great views!
Ooh, I was thinking about doing one of these myself. I'll be based in Leipzig myself for the summer - was thinking maybe Flensburg on the Danish border to somewhere on the Swiss border. Last summer I tried going from west of Cologne to east of Hannover on the €9 ticket and it was a nightmare 7 hour journey with all the regional trains. Can't wait to do more of them this year!
All power to you, enjoy the freedom these tickets give us :)
Sounds good, hope you enjoy it :)
Definitely much more reasonable to do this trip with Leipzig as the starting point. Leipzig after all is more situated in the middle of Germany and to get to Stralsund you would only need to get to Halle and then only have to make that change over in Wittenberg.
@@DieAlteistwiederda Oh, thanks, will keep this in mind! I really enjoy planning itineraries, so looking forward to the next few weeks :)
Thanks for the captions ❤
Haha 😂 "Swiss innit"
Yes man, our train traffic in Germany is awful, barely on time, and mostly need to run to get your next transition
Just a shame you couldn't see the region of Freiburg. Around the Kaiserstuhl region it's really beautiful
Just watched the video to find my city where I was raised. And you showed the beautiful Adolfsturm on your ride from Frankfurt to Kassel. Friedberg
You could also visit the four towns of the Zipfelbund (the western-, eastern-, southern- and northernmost towns in Germany) in four days. Could be less stressful, but you would see a lot of Germany with more time to enjoy it :-)
Awesome idea! Thanks :) I just made an Oberstdorf video this winter, but I’d love an excuse to go back.
Wow, Corinthians shirt at 8:55? I did not expect that in this video at all! :)
I very much feel you. I went to Göttingen last weekend and managed to miss the RE9 to Halle TWICE bc of delays. And first one was actually last train of the day :/
Also, greetings from Leipzig to Leipzig^^
aaagh, I sympathise with that for sure...
I found this video weirdly relaxing. Really well done!
Awesome, thank you!
I guess you used up you DB luck way to early on the first day, rookie mistake :P
Instead of Salzburg -> Sylt you could do Berchtesgaden -> Sylt, I think that one is slightly longer, in terms of air distance. (Though the difference compared to this journey is < 5km over roughly 200km total distance for both of them.)
I do need an excuse to revisit Berchtesgaden, tbh 😍
It's maybe slightly longer, but the local train connections are worse. If you start in Berchtesgaden in the early morning, you have to change 12 times the local trains, sometimes with only few minutes. If you start in Salzburg you need to switch only 7 times, with mostly more stopover. So it is more likely to miss a connection if you start in Berchtesgaden.
you were in my hometown!!! too bad i didnt know you 2 weeks ago, love your videos so far
We'll get a beer next time
Very impressive video I really enjoyed it, I’m hoping to do something similar but at a shorter distance. Keep up the awesome work 👍
Thanks!
I have been using my 49 euro ticket for travelling around Munich and surroundings. Last week for the first time I tried a longer trip to Frankfurt.
The first leg was RE1 to Nuremberg. This usually runs on the high speed line north of Ingolstadt, but today the train was diverted via Eichstatt on the old main line to arrive in Nuremberg 2 hours after leaving Munich. There was plenty of space on the train.
At Nuremberg there was a 40 minute wait for the next train to take me to Bamberg. Time to grab a coffee. There was standing room only on this train. Since it was running through to Lichtenfels in Thuringen, I suspect many people were trying to make it to Berlin. At Bamberg there would be a tight 6 minute connection for the Frankfurt train. After we were held by a red light outside Erlangen it looked like I wouldn't make it. However the guard announced that the Frankfurt train would wait for us.
At Bamberg there were many people besides me dashing across for the train to Frankfurt. It was busy but I got a seat. The train ran via Wurzburg then a slow meandering route along the Main river to eventually bring me to Frankfurt. Total journey time 5 hours 40 minutes compared to 3 hours by ICE , but an interesting trip which effectively cost me nothing.
You got it all wrong... you didn't have 20 years to catch the train...
The train was from 2003 - that's how long it has been delayed. A 20 year Odyssey😂😂😂
👏
Greetings from Freiburg
Was für eine schöne Stadt :)
In the mid-2000 I would sometimes do that and take local trains from Duisburg all the way to the Polish border. The trip would take approx. 10h straight.
Great vid man!
considering i've had to take the Schienenersatzverkehr™ THREE TIMES in the last year because the exact same railway kept getting, i dunno, exploded, i'm not suprised that this failed. still, i'm in awe at your tenacity. that's a thumbs up from me 👍
last year during the summer of the 9 euro-ticket i made a journey from my hometown close to stuttgart to the danish border. but i made it in three days with little reroutes and visits to ppl i know along the way. its absolutely a great idea even tough 49 euro is a little more than i would have preferred. thx for the fun video
underrated content
underrated comment
Tried this with ICEs from France to Poland. Even with a missed TGV, all the DB delays, one missed PKP train, one S-Bahn failure at Berlin Süd and one emergency FlixBus in Berlin during the brink of winter, while severely underclothed, I managed to make it to Poland in one day. By like 10 minutes
Classic 2003 date on the Display
bwegt! what a fun video. i live right in the region you noted in the beginning. my only complaint is you said 800 "miles", how dare you!
haha, great video! Last year, when they did the Deutschland Ticket test phase, it was 9 € for a month. I took off the first day of june to do a small journey from NRW to Hamburg. Every single train failed me and it as HELL, as everybody wanted to use local trains that day. I arrived in Hamburg around noon, took a photo of the Elbphilharmonie, bought me a big box full of Franzbrötchen and drove back again. Started at 8 in the morning and was home again at 10 PM with the best Franzbrötchen ever ;)
But I also will never do that trip again :D Especially not in a single day :D
Worth it for the pastries ?? 😍
Something like that is impossible on the Deutsche Bahn. But you were extremely lucky to get from Basel to Frankfurt on time. Deutsche Bahn is so heavily unreliable that even with extensive times to connect, there is a great risk of missing the connection.
That's why this ticket exists - it is actually only useful for local use on public transportation.
the ending=) just perfect
I've been searching for an 'Abroad in Japan in Germany' channel for a long time and I think this is the one! Really interesting video, loved just seeing the small parts of the country that you normally wouldn't hear about that you find interesting. A small challenge that only works in the country that requires slow travel to show off the landscape was great. Keep it up, love the content!
💚💚 that means a lot, I love abroad in Japan!
Super cool journey!!!
As someone who lives right between Frankfurt and Kassel, it is quite funny (and relatable) seeing you getting screwed here haha
Nice effort and video tho
I don't even need to see the video to tell you that he won't make it in 24 hours.
I did Cologne to Munich 3 times in a week in August using the D-ticket as I had to move spontaneously and I was quite impressed that it actually worked out. It took me 12 hours and 6/7 train changes everytime, but quite surprisingly all trains were always on time. It is an experience, but I probably wouldn't do it again.
3 times in one week? Did you move your furniture using the trains? XD
Am I correct you can travel for about £50 anywhere on the slow trains for a whole month throughout Germany at the moment?
someone should make a vlog about it
@@thornton Ha ha., yeah obvious really, just seems to good to be true, I only read about this recently, can you image if there was something similar in the UK, would never happen.
@@jogolock1190 all regional trains, metros, trams, buses and some other things classified as public transport (ferries in Hamburg, monorail in Wuppertal, etc.) in the entire country, yes. It absolutely feels almost too good to be true and way too many Germans complain its too expensive.
@@eechauch5522 Complaints are mostly not because of the 49€ (there was a 9€ ticket last summer) but because it is subscription now. Last year it was turn up, buy, go.
The incredibly bad punctuality of the DB is actually exclusively down to fast intercity connections (DB Fernverkehr: IC, ICE and EC combined ~69% puntuality). The regional trains (DB Regio: RE, RB, S) generally have a punctuality of around 94%. The reason regional trains run late is mostly to let intercity trains pass so that those can catch up time.