No matter how fast you hurry, it happens that the train literally runs away from you – and you are stuck in Ottbergen for a full hour waiting for the next train to Paderstadt. Edith Wagemeyer, who takes the train from Höxter to Brakel early in the morning, knows the dilemma of commuters from firsthand experience. “It has happened several times that the train to Paderborn leaves Ottbergen, although the train from Göttingen has already arrived and the transfer passengers have already disembarked and are about to reach the train to Paderborn,” she reports. The woman from Höxter is sitting on the train that the commuters from Göttingen have to catch, and only recently saw them stop on the platform again. “It’s just no longer understandable.”
Edith Wagemeyer says that the train to Paderborn does not wait if it has not yet arrived from Göttingen. “The fact that he drives away from under the nose of the transfer passengers is another matter. Obviously there is an unsolved communication problem. ”
The Nordwestbahn knows the grievance criticized by Edith Wagemeyer from several complaints and cannot offer any conclusive solution. When asked by this newspaper, company spokeswoman Karin C. Punghorst explains the background: If you come from Göttingen on the regional train line 85 (Oberweser-Bahn) and want to go to Paderborn, you don’t actually have to change at all. Because the railcar of the RB 85 is always coupled to that of the RB 84 (Egge-Bahn) in Ottbergen. So you get on the RB 85 and continue with the RB 84 without changing. The only exception is the connection at just before half past seven in the morning: Because one of the two lines is already running as a double traction due to the large number of students, another railcar cannot be coupled. “We would then have three cars with a total length of 150 meters. Not all platforms are long enough for that, ”says company spokeswoman Karin C. Punghorst.
The RB 84, which leaves Ottbergen at 7:26 am, is not a guaranteed connection to the 85. And: the Egge-Bahn driver must leave immediately if he receives the appropriate signal from the Deutsche Bahn dispatcher. He has no leeway because waiting too long affects other connections. “With minimal deviations, everyone involved tries to make what is possible,” signaled the spokeswoman for the Nordwestbahn. It is not simply possible to plan more transfer time than three minutes for this connection. “You cannot turn a single adjustment screw,” Karin C. Punghorst points out to the effects on other connections and the entire infrastructure network, which extends far beyond the OWL. The DB’s timetable is a meticulously timed work.
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