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Man survives after clinging on to German train travelling at 282 km/h | dpa international
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this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2025
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Fun fact: In Germany, failure to buy a train ticket is a felony (called "fraudulent acquiring of service") which can lead to prison time. The law was introduced by the Nazis.
Quote by Lenin: "Germans are incapable of revolution. When they occupy a train station, they first buy a ticket."
Not buying a ticket ("Erschleichen von Leistungen") is a crime, but it's not a felony ("Verbrechen").
that last quote really hits home. germans are so focused on rules, they forget that sometimes people don't follow them...
last year i travelled by train from austria to sweden on the cheapest possible tickets, and when i went to board the ICE in mΓΌnchen at 02:00 there were no free second-class seats. people were sleeping in the vestibules. so i went to the DB site, noticed that seat reservations were independent of ticket purchases, found a free first-class seat, and booked it. the conductor was incredibly mad at me, because "you can't do that! you have a second-class ticket!". there wasn't even a notice about it on the DB site, it just lets you do it. but you're not supposed to.
Edit: they let me stay in the seat but they were really annoyed about it.
but like, if the difference between first and second class isn't the seat, in has to be in service. just not giving me first class service solves the problem.
So you booked a seat in first class with a second class ticket?
yes. you could even book a seat without having a ticket. it was completely separate flows.
Why would they do it like that? Does the ticket give anything extra? Sounds like a waste of money to buy first class tickets otherwise.
You can make the reservation independent of the ticket/fare payment. You're still supposed to have a ticket for the class of service you want.
Paying for a seat reservation doesn't pay the 'fare'
I've never seen it before but were just given examples, DSB being one.
I find it strange to manage tickets separate from seats. Why not keep them linked?
Because of things like monthly regional passes.
It's mostly because you can have tickets that are not bound to a specific train. Aside from things like monthly tickets you can also have tickets for a single ride, which have a fixed start and end station, but you can take any train on the booked day. When you don't know beforehand, which train you will take, you can still reserve a seat as soon as you decide (even just before the train leaves)
So what was the outcome? Did they let you stay in the seat? Or if not did you get a refund for the seat?
they said "i guess you can sit there, until someone who reserved the seat comes along"
which was weird because i reserved the seat for the whole trip
Yes because a seat reservation doesn't free you from the requirement of having a valid ticket for the desired class.
It's the same in nearly every European Country on trains without mandatory reservations
I would say this is not about Germans being rule focused but you being just used how things work in Air travel
Their point is that any ticketing website in any other country would have the checks built in to not allow it. It's like an airline showing the first class seats as avaient in the seating chart when you bought an economy ticket.
You can have a weekly/monthly/whatever ticket that lets you ride any train inside the area of validity. The seat reservation system doesn't have a way to 'check' those types of tickets.
You can also book a 'rail and fly' ticket on DB that lets you take the ICE /anywhere/ in Germany 24h before/after your international flight, but doesn't check your airline ticket because it can't - you need to show the ticket inspector your confirmed booking (paper or phone) when they check your ticket.
If you don't have a valid booking to show, they will charge you a full fare ticket, or call the cops to remove you and fine you.
i basically never fly these days. i am just confused why i could even buy a reservation for a different class to begin with.
Because they don't check anything, you can walk up to a counter or ticket machine and get a reservation without any personal or other details required
yeah that's my point, it's super easy to bypass the system and they just assume you won't. but if you don't know how the system is supposed to work it's hard to do it right.
There is no bypass.
Your seat reservation doesn't entitle you to travel on that train in this class without a valid ticket. You will get a fine if you try to travel with just a seat reservation. And if you don't pay or are catched multiple times they will initiate criminal proceedings against you
Are you saying that you can buy a reservation without a ticket? That the act to buying a ticket and buying a reservation are two distinct actions?
Yes, that's the case
I saw your other comment. I've never seen that before.
That is actually a necessity:
but what's the difference between first and second class except the seat? why not make a seat reservation require a ticket?
The seat (more comfortable, more space) ist the main difference.
Of course they could check if you have a ticket at the time of purchase, they just don't. When buying a seat reservation it's clear it's not a ticket.
but just entering the ticket number when doing a reservation would be so incredibly easy to add. as it is now, i can buy up seat reservations without even being on the train, forcing multiple people to stand.
It's more complicated because there's also time limited (or even unlimited) tickets/passes, but I agree it could be done.
Seat reservations expire 15 minutes after passing the station. By now all trains have those small displays on the seats which show reservations. They simply turn off after 15 minutes, indicating the seat can be taken by anyone.
that's such a weird system.
There are less seats in the carriage, it is more comfy, you get at-seat dining service, free newspapers, faster Internet, more generally people who behave better and are more quiet, and if you have a flexible ticket Lounge Access
No ticket!
Better!
And those trains will be late. Every time.
Why? Why are they so terrible at having on time trains? Out of everything they do well, why is this seemingly simple thing so terrible?
Because the ministry of transportation has bled the train system dry in favor of building Autobahns for the past 25 years.