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Paul Bigland

Category Archives: Berlin

The grand tour day 21. Bye, bye Berlin.

28 Monday Sep 2026

Posted by Paul Bigland in Berlin, Germany, Photography, Railways, The Grand Tour, Travel

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Berlin, Germany, Photography, Railways, The Grand Tour, Travel

10:18.

I had a lovely (if late) night with and old friend and colleague from my Siemens days. Ellen no longer works for Siemens Mobility which means we don’t get to see each other as often, so it was great to spend the evening catching up.

Adding to my interesting mix of hotels, last nights bed was in a homestay. I stayed with  a lovely German chap of Lebanese birth who rents out the spacious spare room in his apartment in the Gesundbrunnen district. The area’s a multi-ethnic melting pot with a great mix of cafes and local restaurants with food to suit all tastes.

Now I’m packing up and heading to Berlin HbF to dump my suitcase before going for a wander. Back with pictures soon…

13:30.

Having made it to the Hauptbahnhof the first job was to leave my bag, which is easier said than done. Left luggage lockers of a decent size were at a premium. I enxed up going round and round for about 10 minutes until I found one that was free. It reminded me of motorists driving round a busy car park, hoping someone will leave! The other thing is the toilets, which  take the pee in more ways than one. I’ve rarely seen a queue for a gents, but the HbF achieves it, mainly because they charge a €1.50 and the machine is so slow queues build up.

Bag dumped I headed back to Geshundbrunnen with the idea of getting pictures in the area. There’s an old WW2 flak tower which I wanted to visit, but as I was taking pictures at the station a Polish train came in that was heading across the border at Frankfurt (Oder). I stayed there during my last Innotrans in 2022. The train was only going to take an hour to cover the journey so I thought “why not?”. I quickly entered the trip details in my Interrail ticket app and there you go! I’m now paying a flying visit to Frankfurt!

This train has a buffet car and if the journey was longer I’d have been very tempted to have polished off a Polish lunch on board!

Today’s mix of travellers includes an American family (unusual) and a handful of medal wearing Poles on their way home from yesterday’s Berlin marathon.

15:30.

Well, that was fun! I was in Frankfurt (Oder) for little more than an hour but I discovered some interesting history – both railway and political, as well as getting some useful pictures. I also made sure the train I booked back to Berlin was another Polish service in order to eat in the buffet car, where I treated myself to a traditional Polish shoup with dark bread.

East German railways (DR) live on at Frankfurt (Oder) in the shape of these old Class 243 locomotives which still bear the livery and branding of the past.
Traditional Polish Rye soup. Made with bacon, boiled egg, white sausage, onion, garlic, horseradish and marjoram.
Just by the station is a fascinating memorial to staff who lived (and died) in railway service – no matter where borders changed.

23:45.

Having had a fantastic time in Berlin and a goodbye beer with Ellen in a biergarten by the Hauptbahnhof I’m now heading for Switzerland. I was worried that trains might be busy so I booked 1st class seats. I needen’t have worried. My coach is almost empty.  Right now I’m on ICE699 which is bound for Munich, although I’ll be transferring to another service at Frankfurt. Only DB being DB have helpfully texted me to say my connection’s running 40 minutes late. Good job I didn’t book my onward trip from there, eh?

Still, I’m enjoying the luxury of an uncrowded 1st Class ICE. Let’s hope the next one’s the same, but now it’s time to get a couple of hours sleep.

1st Class is so crowded.
Open all hours…

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Cheers,

Paul

The grand tour. Day 19. Berlin to Dresden (and more).

26 Saturday Sep 2026

Posted by Paul Bigland in Berlin, Dresden, Germany, Photography, Railways, The Grand Tour, Travel

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Berlin, Dresden, Germany, Photography, Railways, The Grand Tour, Travel

I was sad to check out of my villa this morning. The place was such a peaceful retreat from the madness of Innotrans, and so peaceful. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who thought that. Last night I met a German couple who were staying there for the same reason as they were attending Innotrans too! He was a test train driver for Alstom, so we ended up having a good chat.

The weather’s reverted to type this morning with blanket sunshine and rising temperatures making it a great day to travel. Having left Werder (Havel) I made my way to Charlottenburg in style as I’m back using my 1st Class Interrail pass. Nipping across central Berlin on the S-Bahn to Ostkreuz I caught IC2175, a loco-hauled train bound for Dresden. It’s a quiet service in my coach, anyway. I’m sat upstairs in a double-deck vehicle with just a handful of other people for the 2 hour journey. We hardly belt along as there’s engineering work along the way. 125kph seems to be tops. But then I’m in no hurry…

12:45.

Here we are – and what a station!

UPDATE;

Sorry this blog ended so abruptly with my arrival in Dresden. That was because I ended up being incredibly busy and made the most of the weather. Having spent a couple of hours basking and taking photographs at the sunny Hauptbahnhof I caught a train back across the river Elbe to Neustadt, the nearest station to my hotel, where I finally managed to dump my suitcase and change into shorts and vest top which was far more appropriate for the weather. I’d no idea which of the seven differently themed rooms I was going to get where I was staying, so the space theme and circular bed were a surprise!

Heading back to Neustadt I followed up on the recommendation from a friend by catching a train to Radebeul Ost where there’s a delightful steam hauled narrow-gauge railway. I was too late to travel on the line as the service is sparse, but I was lucky to catch this loco in action.

I’d have liked to have explored more come the evening, but it had been a long day and a video catch-up with my wife Dawn was more important.

My first impressions of Dresden were very positive. I only wish I was staying longer, but I already know that I’ll be back. This flying visit was unscripted but it’s given me a useful taster of what’s on offer.

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Cheers,

Paul

The grand tour. Day 18. Innotrans wraps up.

25 Friday Sep 2026

Posted by Paul Bigland in Berlin, Germany, Innotrans, Photography, Railways, The Grand Tour, Travel

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Berlin, Germany, Innotrans, Photography, Railways, The Grand Tour, Travel

Today’s the last day of the Innotrans trade fair and I’m back on site for a few hours just to wrap up a few more internal shots of some of the trains. The weather’s overcast and we’ve had more rain overnight, so it’s been ideal conditions for such shots. Now i’m spending a bit of time in the media centre editing pics and planning the next part of my trip which will see me heading to Dresden for one night before returning to Berlin in order to spend an evening with a friend. the next day I’ll be travelling overnight to Zurich in Switzerland, my 10th country on this trip.

I’ll be blogging more later, but first I’ll leave you with a couple of those internal shots from this morning.

This is the most luxurious train of the show. Stadler’s Flirt Nordic Express EMU.
The driver’s desk
1st Class has some very luxurious reclining seats.
There’s a family coach which even has a Wendy house with slide!
Inside the Bistro car.

In contrast, here’s details and the interior of CRRC’s commuter Vellink EMU.

1340.

Having done what I wanted to at Innotrans  I left by midday. There were lots of things I never got to see (or photograph) but that’s just the way it is – the show’s so vast! Now I’m exploring railways in the ‘wild’ so to speak. First stop was Spandau, which has a great selection of Intercity, regional and local services passing through.

16;55.

I left Spandau on an ICE that took me over new lines to Berlin Hauptbahnhof. It was far quicker than relying on the S-Bahn. From the HbF I headed East to a favourite location of mine, Warschauer Straße. it’s a busy station on the S-bahn in the old East and terminus of the historic U1 line as well as a tram route. Oh, there’s also a Talgo train depot! I’ll add pictures as soon as I can. Now I’m abandoning Berlin before the rush hour ro head to Potsdam for a while to pick up some shopping and breakfast for the morrow. Werder (where I’m staying) is lovely, but shopping is limited to say the least.

Seen from the overbridge at Warschauer Straße, an S-bahn train passes another in the stabling sidings.
The dome of St. Nicholas Church in Potsdam this evening.
Potsdam still operates some of the the old Tatra (Czech built) trams which were a staple of the old Eastern bloc countries.

I’d liked to have explored Potsdam more as it looks to be a lovely city. It certainly has its place in history due to the famous World War 2 Potsdam conference, when Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt carved out the future political shape of Europe. A situation that lasted for more than 40 years, until the fall of the Berlin wall.

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Cheers,

Paul

The grand tour. Day 17. Innotrans day 4.

24 Thursday Sep 2026

Posted by Paul Bigland in Berlin, Germany, Innotrans, Photography, Railways, Siemens, The Grand Tour, Travel

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Berlin, europe, Germany, Innotrans, Photography, Railways, The Grand Tour, Travel

Yesterday things didn’t quite go to plan due to the weather staying sunny all day. That and massive crowds of people meant that the idea of getting decent internal shots of some of the new trains for the Nordics, Austria and the UK went out of the window. I spent most of my time trawling the halls for interesting things to photograph instead.

Today’s different. we had rain overnight and the skies remain cloudy, so I’ve made a start at getting pictures. Innotrans will quieten down a lot today – as you can tell by the amount of suitcases left in the luggage area in the main foyer! This afternoon I’ll be heading out to Spandau for a couple of hours on a press trip with Siemens to have a look at an autonomous train they’re testing.

In the meantime, here’s a new selection of pictures from yesterday and today, including from an event this morning when Siemens handed over one of the new London Underground trains to Transport for London.

Michael Peter, CEO Siemens Mobility presents a momento made from the same material as the trains to Andy Lord, Commissioner of Transport for London.
Inside the new tube trains for the Piccadilly line.
Hyundai Rotem unveiled this striking new high speed train model.
Two new OBB Railjet trains were on show, one from Siemens and one from Stadler. This is the interior of the 200kph Stadler KISS

I’ll be adding more later…

21:45.

A small update as it’s been yet another very busy day. Thanks to Siemens a few of us got to ride on and learn about theur autonomus train project. It’s an interesting idea that’s been three years in development. It’s also worth a blog in its own right because it’s a complex project. Here’s the train out at Spandau. Observant eyes may notice that this is the Mireo that aas bult as a hydrogen powered train.

Now it’s days end and I’m kicking back at my villa in Werder. I’ll be back at Innotrans for the final day first thing tomorrow as I have a lot of interesting pictures to add, which include the excellent new train for Norway, which is being built by Stadler.

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Cheers,

Paul

The grand tour. Day 16. Innotrans day 3.

23 Wednesday Sep 2026

Posted by Paul Bigland in Berlin, Germany, Innotrans, Photography, Railways, The Grand Tour, Travel

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Berlin, Germany, Innotrans, Photography, Railways, The Grand Tour, Travel

I’m back at Innotrans this morning on a lovely crisp and sunny day. In fact, for some of what I want to do it’s just too sunny! I’ve been concentrating on outdoor shots and mooching around the vast number of halls here. But there’s some really exciting new train interiors to take a look at and photograph, but that’s best done on quieter days and when the sun isn’t streaming through the train windows.  As the weather’s due to cloud up later today that’s what I hope to do. In the meantime, here’s a few more pictures form yesterday.

People flood off the S-Bahn at Messe Sud on their way into Innotrans. There will be more than 300,000 people attending over the course of the event.
Trains of many colours…
As well as real trains there’s plenty of models too – like these 400kph Chinese bullet trains from CRRC.
The UK had its own pavilion here at Innotrans, but other British companies could be found elsewhere too – like Rosehill polymers from my own town of Halifax, West Yorkshire!
The world’s press and media are out in force at Innotrans. We have a base to work from in hall 6.3.
At the end of day 1 some company’s lay on a free bar and food for people attending the event. this is the bar at Fraauscher (part of Wabtec)
Frauscher even laid on a band!

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Cheers,

Paul

The grand tour. Day 15. Innotrans day 2.

22 Tuesday Sep 2026

Posted by Paul Bigland in Berlin, Germany, Innotrans, Photography, Railways, The Grand Tour, Travel

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Berlin, Germany, Innotrans, Photography, Railways, The Grand Tour, Travel

Today Innotrans opens its doors to the world’s rail industry and the madness begins as 1000s of people flood in to look at what’s on offer. Enormous amounts of shoe leather will be expended over the next few days as people tramp the halls or view the outdoor exhibits. I’ll be blogging on and off throughout the day as I visit old friends and colleagues from various companies whilst catching up on new technologies.

Some of the stands here are huge (and expensive). Stadler’s is mid-range…
Dual power locomotives are much on show at the moment. Here’s CZ Loko’s ‘dual shunter 2000’ which rather puts the humble British Class 08 to shame…

14:25.

It’s only early afternoon and I’ve already banked 17,000 steps today! Here’s a few more pictures for your delectation.

CRRC launch 4 new trains
Siemens have several stands here but their main one’s the size of a village!
A model of the Velim test track.
Looking down on the main outdoor exhibit area.

I‘ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Cheers,

Paul

The grand tour. day 14. Innotrans press opening, Berlin.

21 Monday Sep 2026

Posted by Paul Bigland in Berlin, Innotrans, Photography, Railways, The Grand Tour, Travel

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Berlin, Germany, Innotrans, Photography, Railways, Travel

11:50.

Hi ho, hi ho – it’s off to work I go…

Having been up early again I’m now at the enormous Innotrans rail trade fair, waiting for the official opening. I’ll be blogging throughout the day and will attach pictures as soon as I can…

A late exhibit? A Db bi-mode class 249 approaches Messe Berlin…
Dirk Hoffmann, the COO of Messe Berlin officially kicks off the event to the world’s media. A bit of an embarrassing event for the British as the UK’s Rail Industry Association (RIA) had sponsored a table, but no-one from RIA turned up!

14;30.

I’ve spent the past couple of hours getting a preview of some of the rolling stock on display outside in the yard. It’s been challenging due to the untypical Innotrans weather, which has treated us to high winds and stormy skies. Here’s a few pictures.

The only train on show that relates to the UK is this Piccadilly line tube train for London Underground. The majority of the fleet will be built in Goole, Yorkshire.
Stadler are exhibiting the world’s first narrow-gauge hydrogen powered train they’ve built for Sardinia.
Innotrans isn’t all about sexy passenger trains or heavy freight locomotives, Track machines like this one from Spitzke are an important part of the show.
This is the ‘Vellink’ from Chinese builder CRRC. Or the ‘goldfish bowl’ as I’ve christened it.
The site is organised chaos at the moment as an army of Carpenters, Electricians and others frantically work to compete the 1000s of stands ready for the event’s opening tomorrow at 10:00.

You’ll be able to find the full gallery of photos by following this link to my Innotrans gallery, which features the event going back as far as 2008.

18:45.

Having covered a lot of stuff during the press preview I called it a day and headed into town with the idea of visiting some old haunts around Alexanderplataz to have a beer before going home. it wasn’t to be. Alexanderplatz station is a building site. All the shops and bars are empty as DB rebuild the station and the main lines above, leaving the -Bahn ridiculously crowded. I was gutted as I have fond memories of the ‘Alkopole’ bar which was where a lot of us met up over the years, not to mention that Thai noodle bar which used to keep us fuelled. Admittedly, it’s early days, but I’m beginning to wonder if Berlin isn’t loosing some of its funky edge. but then I’ve been coming here for over 20 years so the place is bound to change, and not that every change is for the worse.

One thing I’ve been fascinated by is something I’ve seen in a couple of countries now. Places in supermarkets where you can get cash back for recycling bottles and cans. Many EU countries charge you a small deposit (around 10 cents). If you’re rich enough and can’t be arsed you discard your cans and bottles, which are then ‘Wombled’ by those less fortunate who convert them to cash. Its serves two purposes. It keeps the place tidy – unlike the UK, which is littered with litter – and it puts cash into the pockets of the less well off who need the money.

Recycling for cash at a Berlin supermarket

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Cheers,

Paul

13th August picture of the day…

13 Tuesday Aug 2024

Posted by Paul Bigland in Berlin, Germany, Photography, Picture of the day, Railways

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Berlin, Germany, Photography, Picture of the day, Railways

Another busy day here in West Yorkshire, even if it doesn’t quite feel like summer. The weather’s been mixed here and whilst some parts of the UK have seen the hottest days of the year we’ve not been one of them. Instead the weathers been cloudy, muggy and with showers hardly worth their name. No matter, as I’ve had plenty to keep me occupied. All my RAIL rover pictures are edited, my records are up to date and I’ve office shelves clear that haven’t seen the light of day for a very long time.

The weeding out process has uncovered some stuff I’d forgotten I had and pictures I don’t even remember taking! I found an old 4Gb CF card (remember when they were the bee’s knees?) and had a look to see what was on it. Pictures from a rededication of a war memorial at a railway depot taken in 2008, that’s what! I don’t even recollect taking them, so now I’m going to have to do a bit of digging when I’ve time and find out where I took them. I suspect I was commissioned by one of the freight companies, but I’ll need to check.

Another old picture I found wasn’t taken by me as I’m in it. It’s the picture of the day. I suspect it was taken in 2007 during a group trip to Germany, but I’ll need to check my records. It shows a group of us hamming it up at one of the old Berlin Wall watchtowers. The picture was taken by my late good friend Major John Poyntz, who passed it on to me. God, we had fun on those trips! There’s a few well-known railway faces in there too from railway preservation centres in Carnforth, Birmingham and Barrow Hill, plus a member of Her Majesty’s Railway Inspectorate – and me! It’s not the best picture in the world. Der John was still using a simple film camera, print film and getting his shots developed at Boots (so the back of the picture tells me). It wasn’t long after this that I gave him one of my old DSLRs as I’d upgraded. He was eternally grateful but he never took to SLRs. They took up too much room in his Bergen!

Happy days. Who knows what else I’ll find as I clear the decks?

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

15th November picture of the day…

15 Tuesday Nov 2022

Posted by Paul Bigland in Berlin, Germany, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Travel, West Yorkshire

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Berlin, Germany, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Travel, West Yorkshire

Half-way through November already, where does the time go? In my case it’s gone very quickly here at Bigland Towers. After our Whitby wandering I’ve spent the past couple of days in the office, which has been no bad thing as the weather has been crap. Most of Monday was spent enveloped in fog, so sitting in my office blogging and picture editing was hardly a hardship. I didn’t even make it out to get my usual 5 mile walk in. Today was very much the same only with the addition of torrential rain. Combined with leaf-fall and Calderdale Council having neglected to clean any drains around here for years the roads turned into streams. So, when I got stir-crazy it was a case of donning the full waterproofs (including gaiters) to venture down to Sowerby Bridge to drop post off and pick up some food shopping.

That apart I’ve had a productive couple of days. There’s been some utter rubbish written about High Speed 2 by two of the usual suspects (Andrew Gilligan and Simon Jenkins) so it’s been great to have time to blog about their nonsense. I’ve also managed to (almost) clear the backlog of picture editing. All the images from my trip to Innotrans in Germany back in September are now on my Zenfolio website. You can find the Dutch railway ones here and the travel images here whilst the German rail ones are here.

Tomorrow I’m venturing out as I’m representing Community Rail Network at a little event to commemorate Paul Abell, the former Editor of Today’s Railways UK and fellow Community Rail Awards judge who passed away suddenly last year. I’d known Paul for several years as one of the small band of railway Journalists who would often meet up on press trips. Then Paul joined me as a Community Rail Awards judge. The pair of us would help judge the shortlist for the Photographic competition. Paul was always a pleasure to work with and never got ruffled by anything. I don’t ever remember him saying anything stronger than ‘Oh – heck!’- despite his service in the Royal Navy and many years as a teacher! No doubt I’ll post some pictures from what transpires tomorrow.

In the meantime, here’s today’s picture, which is taken from my last batch of pictures from Berlin. This looks innocuous, unless you know the history. Here’s the Teufelsberg (Devil’s mountain in English) seen in September 2022 from the roof of one of the halls at the Messe.

Those ‘golf balls’ are part of an abandoned American spybase which was built to listen in on the Russians. It lasted until the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989. The hill it’s standing on? That’s man-made. Rising to over 80 meters it’s constructed from the rubble of West Berlin left after the second world war. All the ruined building were cleared and the remains brought here to construct the hill.

It’s a sobering and very visible reminder of the war.

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

Thank you!

Rolling blog. Take the long way home…

24 Saturday Sep 2022

Posted by Paul Bigland in Berlin, Germany, Railways, Rolling blogs, Travel

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Berlin, Germany, Photography, Railways, Rolling blogs, Travel

08:15.

Time to get on the road again, only with a slight change of plan. I’d originally intended to get the ferry from the Hook of Holland back to the UK tonight but having seen the way punctuality of the German rail network isn’t what it was – and my connection in Rotterdam being tight I’ve decided to have one last night in the Netherlands and not have to stress about connections as I change trains four times on the way. Right now, I’m ready to begin the first leg from Frankfurt (Oder) to Berlin. Let’s see what happens…

09:55.

I had a pleasant stroll to the station as the weather’s still mild here. En-route I passed this sobering reminder of the country’s dark past. These two brass plaques were sunk into the pavement outside an apartment block. They’re a permenant reminder of local Jews who were murdered by the Nazis.

I’d given myself plenty of time to get to the station so that I could get some shots on the way. I’d hoped to get a selection of the meter gauge tram network but the little buggers proved elusive. It was only when I was almost at the station that a gaggle of them appeared, including this example.

The weather turned gloomy by the time I’d dug the camera out at the staion which was a shame as it’s a busy place. Rehional services to Berlin are interspersed with local trains and even international expresses from over the Polish burder just the other side of the Oder river. Heavy freight trains pass through every few minutes, carrying mix of containers, new VWs, minerals, chemicals and steel.

Not wanting to push my luch and knowing just how unreliable DB are nowadays I decided to hope on an earlier train (the 09:34) to get me to Berlin Ostbahnhof rather than my booked 09:58. It was a wise move. Despite starting from here it left 20 mins late at 09:54 so I hate to think what time the 09:58 will run at! My connection time in Berlin’s 24 minutes…

11:34.

In reality the journey panned out OK. Yes, the train I should have caught was late, but only by six minutes. The extra time I had in the bank allowed me to have a wander before my train arrived in the shape of a pair of the older Intercity (ICE2) sets. I’m now set up in the quiet coach, laptop plugged in and charging. The advantage of getting the train from Ostbahnhof is the sets arrive empty off the depot, so you have plenty of time to settle in as only a handful of other passengers do the same. Next stop is the Hauptbahnhof which is mayhem as the platforms are full – and now so is my train!

It doesn’t look like this anymore…

13:45.

It was all going so well until we left Stendal…

A few minutes later we ground to a rather rapid halt. Not quite a full ‘drop the lot’ emergency stop, but a very rapid deceleration ending in a slow stop. Then the crew call alarm went – which is normally a bad sign. It means the driver needs to talk to the train manager. After a while the train manager explained the delay was down to unspecified ‘engineering work’. As I’ve bought my ticket online from the DB website, I get regular email updates about my delayed trains and suggested revised onwards connections. The latest on also mentioned engineering work and also told me I’d still make my onwards connection – which was reassuring. Of course, that depends on nothing else going tits up! With that news and the fact I’s no idea how long we’d be stuck, there was only one thing to do. Find the bar car…

The delay’s annoying as I was looking forward to some spare time as Duisburg to get a few pictures before boarding another train. Now we’ll have to see. Right now we’ve just pulled into Hannover Hauptbahnhof at least 25 minutes down. The train’s getting even busier too. One or two have got off but far more are joining and, on my trip, back from the bar car I had to step over young people sitting in the vestibules.

22:00.

I’m now relaxing in my hotel in Rotterdam after completing the trip, so I’m resuming where I left off earlier. My eventual arrival in Duisberg was over 30 minutes late which was a great shame as it looks like a fascinating station to take pictures at. It’s old and untypical of many German stations as the mix of shops in the subway is a mix of the exotic and the down-market. It was also incredibly busy. I had enough time to grab something to eat, find my train and that was about it. The station reminds me of Crewe back in the UK. It shares the same levels of faded glory and decrepitude – but with better food!

I was hoping for a more relaxed train across the border to Arnhem, but it wasn’t to be. A pair of units turned up which were busy before they arrived and absolutely rammed when they left, but at least I managed to get a seat. I’ve not travelled on the lines around here or through Oberhausen for years, so I was rather taken about by how much weeds and bushes are taking over. Again, it reminded me of the UK, apart from the fact German railways are so much bigger. The amount of freight is staggering, but then Germany is still an industrialised nation – unlike the UK, where most of our comparable industries were run down during the Thatcher government years.

I changed trains yet again at Arnhem, a recently rebuilt station which (compared to Germany) has few facilities. A Dutch four car double-deck EMU arrived to take us forward but this was far too small for the numbers and left hopelessly overcrowded. I ended up standing in a vestibule all the way to Utrecht, where I changed for the final time. The next train was another hopelessly packed EMU where I had to stand almost all the way to Rotterdam. Both trains contained lots of young people heading for a night out in various places, which may have exacerbated the situation. On the bright side? Both trains were spot on time. The downside? They were all dirty and graffiti covered, not that it seems to put people off from using them.

People often make unfavorable comparisons between the UKs railways and those of Europe. I can only assume the majority of those people have never spent much (if any) time actually travelling in trains in Europe, because if they had they’d know what simplistic nonsense is talked. The UK network is far from perfect, but the trains are in far better condition than those of many EU countries and that applies to the stations too.

Right, I’m going to bring this blog to a close. It’s time for bed. There’ll be time for a lot more thought tomorrow, before my return to little Britain…

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