The ultimate test of patience: a journey with Deutsche Bahn. Several million minutes of delays or so add up in a year. On the platform, people collectively flinch when the announcement chime sounds. All travelling professionals know that the display board is about to change – but what is the reason this time?
Four-legged culprit
It's better not to come into contact with overhead lines unless you want to be barbecued by around 15,000 volts. Unfortunately, a squirrel came into contact with these power cables in North Rhine-Westphalia in 2011. The subsequent short circuit caused them to snap and hit the train. The line had to be closed and nothing is known about the whereabouts of the unfortunate rodent.
Overhead lines, romantically illuminated. Sunset at the main railway station in Frankfurt am Main | Photo (detail): © picture alliance / Hauke-Christian Dittrich | Hauke-Christian Dittrich
Train drivers also travel by train
Travellers had to pass the time for two and a half hours at Wiesbaden Central Station. Only then could the journey continue, because: The train driver himself was stuck on another train due to a thunderstorm. What is particularly curious is that the train to Wiesbaden actually had a driver. But he had to get off and leave his passengers behind. Otherwise he would have been in breach of working time regulations.
Train drivers work at this place – if they manage to get there ... | Photo (detail): © picture alliance/KEYSTONE | PETER KLAUNZER
I urgently need the loo!
It's really not the railway's fault: Last summer, a man in Swabia pulled the emergency brake twice because he had to go to the toilet and it was faulty. An expensive trip to the loo for the passenger: the police investigated him for misusing the emergency call. Nobody knows for sure whether they let him go to the toilet first.
Doesn't always work: train toilet | Photo (detail): © mauritius images / Schoening / imageBROKER
Rebellious chair
Office equipment is often the subject of discussion in the world of work. And many people have bought ergonomic chairs for their home office – after all, the seat should be well cushioned. But above all, a good chair should not collapse. But that's what happened on a journey from Constance to Karlsruhe – to the train driver. It turned out well for him, he was not injured. Nevertheless, the journey was delayed by over two hours.
Push instead of sit. Then the chair won't collapse. | Photo (detail): © mauritius images LJSphotography
Fire brigade operation, only without the fire brigade
It often happens that rescue personnel deployed on routes are responsible for delays. Supposedly, this was also the case in Munich in February 2023. Deutsche Bahn announced on Twitter (now X) that a section of track was closed due to a fire brigade operation. The only annoying thing was that the Munich fire brigade commented below: “So we don't know anything about a fire brigade operation.” The railway later regretted the mistake. It corrected that a short circuit was the cause.
Firefighting with a rainbow – Fire brigade in action on an S-Bahn bridge in Hamburg | Photo (detail): © picture alliance /ABBfoto
January 2025