For my booked trip home on September 22nd, 2024 at 9:05 p.m. from Dresden HB with Nightjet 408 coming from Prague, a lot went wrong.
Firstly, the train in question did not pass Dresden that Sunday evening. I was recommended to board an IC from Dresden-Neustadt to Leipzig at 9:30 p.m. After an hour’s journey I arrived in Leipzig, where the night train coming from Berlin and the one from Prague are coupled together…
The announcement came over the loudspeaker that the night train from Berlin was at least 100 minutes late due to a personal injury (it’s called something different in Germany, something with an emergency doctor…) Well, finally around 1:30 a.m. I was able to get into my sleeping car compartment (instead of 11:21 p.m.) and continue the journey.
Luckily I had the paper ticket for the sleeping car in hand. I could no longer access my Interrail ticket (3 different routes) on my mobile phone… because it was already the other day (09/23/24) it had apparently expired(??)
For old people over 75, tickets on their cell phones are a real horror. I would like a paper ticket again, even if I have to pay 20sfr more for it. And apparently there is no discount for this delay of 86 minutes in ZH HB.
Already on the journey from Zurich (08:34 from) via Stuttgart to Nuremberg, the journey ended in Schaffhausen on September 15th, 2024… everyone was told to get off, the next train to Stuttgart is coming in 1 hour. So my booked connection in Stuttgart to Nuremberg (including the reservation tickets!) was gone. I was sure to reach my destination at some point on the overcrowded regional train (1:00 p.m. from Stuttgart).
The refund procedure on the PC (national/international passenger law) is far too complicated…. a frustration of not being able to achieve anything after sitting at the PC for an hour… and filling out the same information over and over again… without getting to the end.
With frustrated greetings
