By train to France, Germany, Austria and Belgium, though the first and last were transit only. Eurostar fine and on time both ways, though Brussels Midi was a complete zoo. Don’t be tempted to try an under half an hour connection — it might not work unless you have a business person’s breeze-through permit. TGV OK from Paris-Est to Stuttgart though we lost a minute or two on a very slow approach into the terminus. But then Deutsche Bahn laid on what turnedd out to be the first of a succession of late running trains. I had a five minute connection in Heilbronn, which should have been fine, but again a slow exit from Stuttgart saw us running late and only a breathless scamper with luggage made the connection to Schwabisch Hall (now a 2 hourly through service which would have been a pain). On time into SHA, though, A few days later, travelling from Heilbronn to Lindau, we were held up outside Friedrichshaven and got into Lindau several minutes late — enough to make a fellow-passenger who had to rebook at Lindau miss his onward connection to Munich on the Arriva Trains shuttle. This latter appears to run quite frequently, complete with diesel loco and sometimes no more than 2 coaches. Creeping privatisation, I suspect. The return journey to Heilbronn involved a late arrival in Stuttgart, where the train reverses, but sufficient layover there to get back on schedule.
I had a through ticket from Heilbronn to London via Brussels for only 69 euros, which was great, but the only trains which ran on time were the local train down the Neckar Valley at the start of the journey, and the Eurostar at the end. The IC from Heidelberg to Cologne lost time and showed no enthusiasm for regaining it, and the Amsterdam-Brussels ICE I joined at Cologne arrived late and in spite of the new high speed line across the Ardennes didn’t regain anything. The swept-nose ICE sets are beginning to look a little tired — they need refurbishment — and preferably to get more than 50% of the loos working.
The point about late running, of course, is that if connection times at major stations are between 8 and 3 minutes, punctuality is essential.
Miraculously, although I had a window seat with a pillar on the outgoing Eurostar, half a pillar on the TGV, and a complete pillar on the ICE, on the only other train where I had a booked seat, the IC which travels down the Rhine Gorge, the window seat was actually by a window, and on the right side of the train to view the river.
Having said all that, on the whole the DB system remains far superior to our chopped up and disconnected privatised railway.
