Any HNer blocked in a DB train who can share with us the experience?

desertrider12 12 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I’m sitting in an ICE in Munich that was supposed to leave a few minutes before I saw this story on HN. First the conductor announced a 30 minute delay because the radio wasn’t working, and then they bumped it to 2 hours. They didn’t say it was a systemwide problem.

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okanat 12 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I would get out and look for a hotel before all of them get sold out. Probably tomorrow too.

	▲	desertrider12 12 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Luckily: Update from announcer is that trains can start again at 12:25 AM and they reduced our delay by 30 minutes. But there’s still a huge line of riders at the DB service desk.

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brazzy 11 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Had a very similar experience in Munich years ago. That time it was because a train engine on fire on the tracks leading out of the station...

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mcbetz 12 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

In Erfurt since 2,5 hours. Out of office train driver keeps us updated from chats with fellow drivers (their sources say it is due to software update), radio is fixed now and trains processed one after another (starting with super fast ones - Munich > Berlin, e.g. - so the tracks get emptied quickly). Other interesting observations: when our train stopped, all hotels were already fully booked, as were coach tickets (Flixbus) that would run in the early morning. Crazy how fast people react to shocks.

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dgellow 11 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Yeah, I experienced that a few times in airports with massive disturbance. You could see all the hotels getting fully booked almost live, then when you eventually arrive somewhere with a booking you still have to wait an hour due to how long the queue at the hotel reception is. Always a crazy experience

	▲	vachina 9 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Society is really living on a thin ice of equilibrium.

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okanat 11 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I am a daily user of S-Bahn. I know 2 alternative routes from every single station from home to work. I even started to memorize their departure times. DB prepares you for the worst.

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jtwaleson 12 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I was at a conference in Frankfurt, traveling back to Amsterdam with my cofounder and got stuck in Oberhausen. We have an early flight tomorrow and there's no trains in NL due to a strike tomorrow morning, so we decided to take an uber home.

At first the delay was 30 minutes. Then 2 hours. After 1h30 with zero updates we decided to bail. Just checked and nothing is moving yet, so we made the right call.

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dgellow 11 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Yeah, definitely. Hope you can get to your plane on time and that you can expense the uber trip, that’s a pretty long ride from what I see on gmap

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hiq 11 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

So a 2h ride? Was it easy to find a driver?

	▲	jtwaleson 10 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Yes and yes. Uber for 260 eur arrived within 5 minutes after booking.

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gpvos 12 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The same as usual I suppose: stopped at a station in a tiny village, without any information. Train staff will provide water, but that's about it.

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dgellow 11 hours ago | parent [-]

That sucks, sorry for this

	▲	gpvos 11 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Don't be sorry for me, I was only relaying earlier experiences.

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icefo 11 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

We departed around 30-45 min late from Basel sbb (in Switzerland) in a night train that goes through Germany.

They told us about the communication issues but what surprised me is that they told us that the Deutsch bahn replaced the locomotive with one of their (that was near the border I guess) so we could depart.