Deutschland ticket

[PeeweeTM]

In Germany you can buy a monthly pass for €49 (about $54) which allows you to use all regional/local transport. It is a subscription, but you can cancel it every month.

So I got one for August. I have two weeks to spend. My wife just came back from a visit to northeastern USA, so she is not with me at this moment, but she might.

Well... This ticket also allows crossing a lot of borders by train, so I complicated my travelplans a bit.
The Belgium border is not included. In Luxemburg second class train travel is free.
My plans, which I and the DB-App think is doable and my wife likes to disagree:


I didn't book hotels in advance, I just plan one day ahead at a time.

Today was positioning day from Rotterdam to Luxembourg.

My planned train to Eindhoven:

... was cancelled due to a signalling problem. Not a big problem, via Utrecht with this EMU:

In Utrecht I changed trains to head south and en route we passed this ferry near Culemborg:

This EMU took me to Maastricht:

The electric locomotive just arrived here, too. It's used for international trains between Amsterdam and Berlin on the Dutch rails. In the Netherlands we use 1.800 Volt DC on most overhead wires, just 25 kV Volt AC on the high speed line and the main freight line. Germany uses 15 kV AC.
The engine comes all the way to Maastricht for maintenance.

In Maastricht I made a short walk to the Maas/la Meuse river:

And bought a sandwitch before heading back to the station:


This EMU took me to Luik/Liège in Belgium.

 

[PeeweeTM]

In Belgium the old stock is looking a bit too "colourful" for my liking:

But the German InterCityExpress EMU looked nice:

... and there were lots of travelers:


After a scenic trip through the Ardennes I arrived early enough in Luxembourg to take some more pictures, but as you can see, it was a bit wet, dark, cloudy:








Next part: Luxembourg (Luxembourg) - Trier - Neustadt and der Weinstraße - Wissembourg (France).

 

[tgstubbs1]

Great photos!

 

[PeeweeTM]

I had breakfast conveniently in the hotel, which was as conveniently right across the street from the station.

I could take a direct train to Trier, but I saw CFL uses old EMUs to Wasserbillig, last station before the border, so I started with these seats:

... in this train (after arrival in Wasserbillig):

Wasserbillig is on the Moesel river, where we can see a ferry crossing the river:


After some reading in "The Worst Hard Time" about the Great American Dust Bowl, this double decker EMU took me to Trier:

... a city with Roman history, a black gate:

... and a nice town square:


At the station I bought a sandwich and some coffee and took this train on the left to Neustadt on the Wine Road (Weinstraße):


We passed Saarburg:

... a German heavy duty road shunter:

... and an old electric locomotive hauling some torpedos:

 

[PeeweeTM]

Neustadt an der Weinstraße:

...but wait, there is more:

The depot is nice, too:


After about an hour I took the train to Winden, where Deutsche Bahn Netze (German track manager) still uses semaphores:


Because of planned track work in Wissembourg (France), Deutsche Bahn Regio (railway undertaking) uses busses, which are also covered by the Deutschlandticket.

Wissembourg has a nice old town, too:

I'm not the only tourist...
It also hase some old defence walls and towers:

... and a bridge that gets some help to enforce the survival bias:


After dinner I took a stroll to the station, where no trains where to be seen, but at least it showed some old rails from 1912:


Tomorrow I'm planning to visit Karlsruhe, Konstanz (Bodensee) and Schaffhausen, Switzerland.

 

[PeeweeTM]

At 0846 the train replacement bus departed back from Wissembourg to Winden. There I could catch another DMU between some semapfores:


My train to Karlsruhe arrived shortly after this one.
I didn't see any trains in France, but they were friendly enough to show a duplex TGV in Karlsruhe Hbf:

I walked to Schloß Karlsruhe:

... and back to the station to get on the train to Konstanz. There I took a short walk to the Bodensee and took a train back to Radolfzell, where I saw this little motorcar:

But I changed onto this train to Schaffhausen:


In Schaffhausen I bought an SBB (Swiss Railways) ticket to Neustadt, to take a quick look at the Rhine waterfalls:


Within 15 minutes I was back in the train to Schaffhausen where I took some more pictures, S-Bahn:

... and InterCity locomotive:


changed there in this train to Friedrichshafen Stadt:

It was pushed by an old BR218 diesel, like this one on the right in Lindau-Reutin:

The EMU took me from Friedrichshafen to Lindau.

 

[PeeweeTM]

At Lindau-Reutin (Germany), SBB (Switzerland) showed of with this EMU:

... and ÖBB (Austria) send this EMU for comparison:

Another train took me to Lindau-Insel (Island). On the dam:

The train had a stop at Lindau-Insel of about twenty minutes: plenty of time to take some more pictures:

... and

The train at the station:

In Hergatz I changed trains towards Kempten. This is the Pendolino-like train after arrival in Kempten:


Because of some stuff I have to attend to at home, I have to shorten my trip a bit. But some more Alps will be seen tomorrow!

 

[Mystic River Dragon]

Thank you for posting the beautiful pictures—I especially love the ones of the towns with the narrow streets and old buildings. Glad you are having a good trip—thank you for sharing it with us!

 

[mcropod]

Thankyou for the tour and your pix!

 

[user 6862]

Wonderful photos

 

[PeeweeTM]

As promised, I started today with a short trip to Reutte in Tirol, the start of the Austrian Alps. The first part of the trip was in a DMU over a very local line, mostly at about 50-60 km/h, with some 20 km/h sections for rural road crissings. In Pfronten-Steinach the train ended and I changed trains into this EMU ( with the diesel in the background:

Shortly after departure we entered Austria. I took a picture for proof:

... and walked for about fifteen minutes to the river Lech, which feeds into the Danube/Donau:

I had originally planned to train further into Austria, but because of things at home, I needed to start heading back.

And back to Kempten I went via the same route:

... and:


In Kempten I changed trains for Buchloe, here is the crossing of the Iller river:


In Buchloe I encountered the first train where I had to stand:

But it was only for about forty minutes, so I survived. The train in München Hbf:


In München I took to train towards Marktredwitz, which uses old cars with slide windows:

And this train was the first badly delayed train. We started on time, but because of some other traffic, a lot of people with bagage and delays in changing the electric locomotive for this diesel, the trein ended having about 30-35 minutes delay here in Marktredwitz.

Last picture of today is this Soviet built diesel engine:


Tomorrow I won't have much time to do touristy stuff, because I'll be trying to get home before midnight!

 

[caravanman]

Thanks for your report, a Grand Tour!

 

[PeeweeTM]

Last day of this trip, I started with a short walk through Nürnberg:

... and the terminal building:

At the station my train to Bamberg was already waiting, a bit overpowered with 2 BR193 locomotives and just 4 double deck cars


In Bamberg I changed trains towards Frankfurt am Main. An example of the grape plants with a canyon-like wall as back ground:

And my train at Frankfurt(M) Hbf:

Frankfurt station is big-ish:


After Frankfurt the famious Rhine valley starts. We passed a steam ship:

... and I just managed to get a picture of a train on the opposite side, before this nice castlelette blocked the view:

And two more pictures of the scenery:

And:


The last part will follow.

 

[PeeweeTM]

This train had a lot of standing people. Many passenger had bicycles with them, or big suitcases. Here's the train at its terminal station Koblenz, where it had arrived with a couple of minutes delay:


The train further north arrived half an hour delayed, but departed Koblenz fifteen minutes late, after a freight train.
We passed a bridge:

... and a railway museum with a small sized red shunter:

... and a typical West German medium sized shunter:

The small type I sometimes operated at a museum in the Netherlands, the medium type we used a short time at my current job, but they didn't last long.

Shortly after Koblenz, we ran into a signal malfunction which took about fifteen minutes to resolve. Because of the delay, we had to wait in a siding to let both an ICE and a IC higher priority train pass.
I had planned to travel via Düsseldorf, Arnhem an Utrecht to meet my wife there, she'd be traveling from Groningen to Rotterdam. But the delay, which had grown to about 55 minutes messed that plan up. So I decided to leave the train in Neuss:

... go to Mönchengladbach, where I boarded my last German train for this trip:


In Viersen the train waited five minutes for some passengers from another train. The single track further to the Netherlands normally sees much freight trains, but because of track work near Mönchengladbach, that traffic was diverted via other routes, so we arrived on time in Venlo, where my train to Eindhoven had just arrived:

In Eindhoven the train to Rotterdam was already waiting at the opposite track. The train arrived on time in Rotterdam.
To the left you can see the train leaving for The Hague:

The train to the right was heading towards Schiphol Airport and Amsterdam.
My wife arrived a couple of minutes later, so we're united again!

The trip was fun, most trains ran on time, I had forward facing seats in most trains.
Too bad I had to shorten this trip, but we'll see if I can visit the other countries next time.
But I don't feel like I wasted the €49 (about $54) ticket.

 

[AmtrakMaineiac]

So most of your German trains ran on time? That is good, I keep hearing horror stories about DB that make it sound worse than Amtrak.

 

[PeeweeTM]

Nah, most trains were more or less on time. Just the Alex from München and the train north from Koblenz were so delayed I missed my planned for connection.
The Alex delay wrecked my plan to reach Dresden before dark as it would take about three hours extra.
North from Koblenz I could just take another route back to the Netherlands which took less then 45 minutes extra.

Oh, and both these trains were not operated by DB (not saying the operators caused the delays per se; primary cause were signal malfunctions as far as I know. Although the old Alex carriages cannot handle large passenger streams within the one or two minute alloted stops.)

With Amtrak missing connections can have worse outcome.
So I was pleased!