Travel thread time!

This one is going to be chaotic. In lieu of a plan I have an Interrail pass and a hotel booking in Venice for tomorrow evening.

Since Arriva seems to be running some trains at least, I have now decided to go to Cologne via Aachen.

And whither then? I cannot say.

Self OH: “I think I’ll go straight to Italy. Trains are more reliable there.”

The person in the row before me is studying an Interrail paper map.

Welcome to the family, mate!

Arriva is doing shenanigans. First train is for Kerkrade, second for Aachen which just arrived. There aren’t any signals in between and the platform displays can’t deal with it either.

But hey: the train to Aachen is indeed going.

Welcome to Germany: The train from Aachen to Köln is kaputt and cancelled. There’s another one half an hour later, but this route is quite busy on a good day.

Luckily I noticed it early enough and could switch to the train to Düsseldorf in Herzogenrath. So I’ll be back on the Venlo route once we arrive at Mönchengladbach.

Of course the man in a suit with the big tablet in front of him started an angry zoom call the just won’t end.

Buy that effing company already. It’s just money.

Decision time for the next leg to Frankfurt Airport. I need the 12:27 ICE from there. However, the 12:21 also goes there but will be a lot less busy. In theory that should be fine. It doesn’t do the dip into Köln Hbf so should be quicker. However, because of issues on the high speed line, it has three extra stops where, if things go wrong, it could be overtaken.

I think I’ll risk it anyways. Should be more pleasant. And if I loose another hour, so be it.

Right. Not sure how “every single seat reserved” qualifies as “low demand” but let’s try the other one, then.

That’s better. Got an unreserved proper window seat. Backwards for now, but we will turn around in Köln, so that’s on purpose.

I’m not keen on four hours “nonstop” to Basel, but one has to suffer for one’s … art?

Köln Hbf (the station chapel is sort of visible in the background). Let’s hope we get out of here without issue.

Woah! Into Köln Hbf without any stop, turned around, departed on time, and got out without any stop.

That never happens!

We just passed the earlier ICE at Limburg Süd. Even more luck. What is going on?

Made good time to Mannheim but then had to wait for the cross-platform exchange with the train from Berlin which was behind us. And then they let it go first! Which I suppose makes sense given that it goes straight at full speed to Stuttgart while we have to turn off the high speed line to get to Karlsruhe.

But still.

Boo!

ICE trunk line Frankfurt – Basel. Admittedly, they are working on it.

You don’t pay attention for one second and Freiburg is painted with ETCS stop markers.

Are they doing both ETCS and LZB here? Surely not?

@partim Dual signalling is common for years as the fleet is upgraded to ETCS, then the national signalling system gets decommissioned.

Or am I missing something?

@apicultor I hadn’t heard of someone making both LZB and ETCS work with the same signal box. Sounds … tricky.
@partim At least onboard it's easy; the new stuff is ETCS and also supports one (or more!) add-ons for national signaling systems.
@partim @apicultor Yes, it is being equipped with PZB, LZB and ETCS. We'll see whether it will work.
@ummels @apicultor Oh, so it is really new? Was that the reason for the closure of Freiburg Hbf the other weekend?

@partim @apicultor It is not yet in operation AFAIK.

No, the closure was only due to other maintenance works.

ETCS-Inbetriebnahme Freiburg - Haltingen zum 01.04.2025

Die DB InfraGO AG nimmt zum 01.04.2025 ETCS als zusätzliches Zugsicherungssystem zwischen Freiburg – Haltingen in Betrieb.