> Trains from Switzerland are more punctual than trains from Bavaria. If you are in the southwest and need to go north (Hamburg, Hannover, Berlin, Ruhrgebiet), the ICEs that originated in Zürich or Interlaken are noticeably more often on-time than the ones that came up through Munich. Why this is so I cannot fully prove. Given a choice, pick the Swiss-origin train. The same applies, more weakly, to trains originating in Austria.
Besides them being from Switzerland, that is actually pretty easy to explain: International trains have priority over national ones and as such are less likely to get delay assigned by the scheduling administration.
> Reserve, even when you think you do not need to. A few euros for a Sitzplatzreservierung is the cheapest insurance in this entire system. On a delay-day, your reservation is the difference between a four-hour journey at a table with power and a four-hour journey standing in a vestibule next to the toilet.
Except when it is really crowded, reservations are revoked.
On delay-day you won't be travelling on the train you booked. So the reservation will only help if things go reasonably well. Which depending on your itenary might be less frequently than desired. Yes, a reservation helps if you happen to be on the correct train, but many others are not. It all remains a big gamble, you never know...
- Is it Autumn or Winter? Drive or take a coach. The reliability of trains in inclement weather is not great, and bad weather always takes the railway by surprise.
- Avoid the East Coast Mainline (ECML). The chances of you getting imprisoned on a broken down train for 1-6 hours is higher than you think. Also true to a lesser extent on the West Coast Mainline (WCML) and Great Western Main Line (GWML).
- Learn all UK railway laws. The railway is very happy to threaten you with prosecution accompanied by a shakedown, or actually prosecute you.
- /All/ interactions with railway staff are subject to an Attitude Test. You must be subservient, deferential and apologetic. If you fail the test, you will regret it. You being technically right about the law / contractual provisions is not relevant. Remember: all railway staff are superior to you.
- If your train is not inter-city / not a popular commuter line, it is a 3rd class citizen in the rail network, so do not depend on it for anything important.
- There are new rules for refunds of flexible tickets now, but you can still get a refund in the case of cancellations and non-negligible delays!
- All digital transactions are highly scrutinised by "anti fraud" teams. If you do /anything/ out of the ordinary, don't be surprised by a letter/email asking you to incriminate yourself.
- Railway operators lie constantly. If in doubt, make a post on the appropriate forum at https://www.railforums.co.uk/
- A member of staff may give you permission to do something, but if it is not written down, the permission does not exist. The maximum you can rely on this is the guard themselves giving you permission to get on their train – try to stay close by so they don't forget you
- Merseyrail is a law unto itself. It is not like the rest of the GB rail network. Approach with caution
- Cheating the railway of revenue is taken very seriously and can result in a criminal prosecution. Be smart about saving money, not stupid, such as selecting the 16-17 Year Old railcard.
- The government won't admit it, but outside of commuting (mainly to London) and business travel, they don't want you using the trains. They want you to drive.
- Your travel is bound by the National Rail Conditions of Travel. It's worth a read.
> Trains from Switzerland are more punctual than trains from Bavaria. If you are in the southwest and need to go north (Hamburg, Hannover, Berlin, Ruhrgebiet), the ICEs that originated in Zürich or Interlaken are noticeably more often on-time than the ones that came up through Munich. Why this is so I cannot fully prove. Given a choice, pick the Swiss-origin train. The same applies, more weakly, to trains originating in Austria.
Besides them being from Switzerland, that is actually pretty easy to explain: International trains have priority over national ones and as such are less likely to get delay assigned by the scheduling administration.
> Reserve, even when you think you do not need to. A few euros for a Sitzplatzreservierung is the cheapest insurance in this entire system. On a delay-day, your reservation is the difference between a four-hour journey at a table with power and a four-hour journey standing in a vestibule next to the toilet.
Except when it is really crowded, reservations are revoked.
On delay-day you won't be travelling on the train you booked. So the reservation will only help if things go reasonably well. Which depending on your itenary might be less frequently than desired. Yes, a reservation helps if you happen to be on the correct train, but many others are not. It all remains a big gamble, you never know...
Incomplete UK edition (this could be 10x longer):
- Is it Autumn or Winter? Drive or take a coach. The reliability of trains in inclement weather is not great, and bad weather always takes the railway by surprise.
- Avoid the East Coast Mainline (ECML). The chances of you getting imprisoned on a broken down train for 1-6 hours is higher than you think. Also true to a lesser extent on the West Coast Mainline (WCML) and Great Western Main Line (GWML).
- Learn all UK railway laws. The railway is very happy to threaten you with prosecution accompanied by a shakedown, or actually prosecute you.
- /All/ interactions with railway staff are subject to an Attitude Test. You must be subservient, deferential and apologetic. If you fail the test, you will regret it. You being technically right about the law / contractual provisions is not relevant. Remember: all railway staff are superior to you.
- https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/ is good for timings, but surprise - not for cancellations. Stick to National Rail for that.
- If your train is not inter-city / not a popular commuter line, it is a 3rd class citizen in the rail network, so do not depend on it for anything important.
- There are new rules for refunds of flexible tickets now, but you can still get a refund in the case of cancellations and non-negligible delays!
- All digital transactions are highly scrutinised by "anti fraud" teams. If you do /anything/ out of the ordinary, don't be surprised by a letter/email asking you to incriminate yourself.
- Railway operators lie constantly. If in doubt, make a post on the appropriate forum at https://www.railforums.co.uk/
- A member of staff may give you permission to do something, but if it is not written down, the permission does not exist. The maximum you can rely on this is the guard themselves giving you permission to get on their train – try to stay close by so they don't forget you
- Merseyrail is a law unto itself. It is not like the rest of the GB rail network. Approach with caution
- Cheating the railway of revenue is taken very seriously and can result in a criminal prosecution. Be smart about saving money, not stupid, such as selecting the 16-17 Year Old railcard.
- The government won't admit it, but outside of commuting (mainly to London) and business travel, they don't want you using the trains. They want you to drive.
- Your travel is bound by the National Rail Conditions of Travel. It's worth a read.
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LLM generated comment.
It is said don't feed the trolls. Looking at eieiyo's comment history, I can really tell - kiddo? Bot? Confused Oldtimer?
Whatever.