Mastodawn

2 weeks ago, girlfriend and me took a #nighttrain from Berlin Südkreuz to Budapest (EN 40457). On paper a 12 hour ride (20:25 - 08:29), in reality we arrived after 10 in the morning, since the train just stood around in Bratislava for at least an hour ("something with the rails" according to the conductor) and we started out with a >30minutes delay from Berlin.

I requested compensation through the #ÖBB -bot (which worked very well actually) and got a reply later on: denied, system says no, you arrived with less than an hour of delay.

What I noticed during our ride, is that somewhere after Břeclav (Czechia), our train state in the DB app stopped updating and it didn't take our Bratislava-delay into account anymore.

#crossBorderRail

Show thread

Quin 3d ago

What I keep wondering though, why did the train schedule didn't update anymore..

Is there a technical reason that these systems aren't linked in Slovenia/Hungary? A checkbox that has not been set? On purpose for annoying people requesting refunds like me?

#crossBorderRail #bahnBubble #öbb

Show thread

Quin 3d ago

By the way, after another mail from my side explaining the situation the refund was accepted a day later, so this is not meant as a complaint to ÖBB or their process.

In my mail I mentioned that I also saw the planning wasn't updated from (at least) Bratislava and that indeed the ÖBB-system probably showed we arrived with a 30-45 minutes delay, not a >1 hour delay.
I also asked how I could in this case show that we were indeed delayed by over an hour. ÖBB advises to make a screenshot of the train schedule up to 1 week after traveling, but that also showed the wrong times.

Show thread

Oliver Blanthorn 3d ago

@quin_antarctic personally I take a photo of my watch or arrivals display with the train in the background as a kind of insurance policy :)

Show thread

Cycling on Rails 3d ago

@bovine3dom @quin_antarctic That's assuming the railway still has an arrivals board. SBB, an otherwise respectable company, is particularly evil in that regard: on-platform displays only show departures or a "please don't enter" placeholder at the final stop AND their app only shows forward-looking delays but instantly forgets any actual delay of the previous stops. If you're past the theoretical arrival time of the last stop the train may be completely erased from the app.

Show thread

波鉄 (Hatetsu)3d ago

@cycling_on_rails @bovine3dom @quin_antarctic They'd probably argue it's less confusing, but I agree - displays should show where trains are coming from, too. And, ironically, where they do have arrival boards, they do better than most everyone else by making them clearly contrast departure boards with an all-white aesthetic versus blue screens with yellow borders (and generally being one screen next to two or three screens' worth of departures). The SNCF convention of blue for departures and green for arrivals that's slowly spreading to Poland for some reason (more proof of my theories that Polish and French railway history are intertwined in mysterious ways) seems not very colorblind-friendly, and with non-LCD boards they often look nearly identical at a glance

Show thread

Oliver Blanthorn

@HaTetsu blue/green seems to be the standard in lots of countries. definitely austria, maybe czech republic? maybe Hungary?

@cycling_on_rails