From: pauld@cs.washington.edu (Paul Barton-Davis)
Newsgroups: rec.bicycles
Subject: bicycles on trains in germany - some lessons
Date: 21 Aug 92 16:26:32 GMT
Article-I.D.: beaver.1992Aug21.162632.16176
Distribution: usa
Organization: Computer Science & Engineering, U. of Washington, Seattle

For many years now, I've been planning to write a book about
travelling with a bike on the European railroads. I've never done much
about it, but over the last week or so, I gathered some more
information from personal experience that might serve as a starting
point for a chapter on Germany, one day.

The story begins in Oostend, in Belgium. I've just arrived on a night
ferry from Dover, England, complete with bicycle. Its 04:30, and
there's an hour until the train to K\"oln leaves. I follow a group of
Austrian cyclists into the baggage area. They are being told that the
05:30 service to K\"oln does not have a baggage wagon, and so they can
either ship it or wait for the 08:30 train. Since I know that I'm
taking an IC train from K\"oln to Berlin which will not accept
bicycles, I decide to ship my bike (which costs about $12). The
baggage agent tells me it will be in Berlin with a day or so of my
arrival there.

24 hours or so later, I pay a visit to the "Gepack Aufgabe" counter at
the Berlin (Zoologische Garten) station. Someone tells me that the
bike will not be in Berlin till Tuesday (its now Thursday morning).

This is where the problems begin. My wife (who is already in Berlin
for a scientific conference) and I have booked couchettes (sleeping
accomodation) to Stuttgart, leaving tomorrow (Friday). We were
planning on being on our bikes somewhere between Freiburg and
Frankfurt on Tuesday. We spend 24 hours wondering about dumping my
bike (a custom built English mountain bike) in Germany, and claiming
it on our insurance. The next day, Friday, we pay another visit to the
station to see if we can find out anything else. We find out two
things: firstly, that our train to Stuttgart will not take bicycles
anyway, and that secondly, my bicycle has arrived.

For a short moment, it seems that everything is fine. We decide to
check our bikes now (12 hours ahead of our departure), in the hope
that they will be in Stuttgart within a few hours of our arrival early
Saturday morning. The woman at the "Gepack Angabe" counter informs us,
however, that they will not be there till Tuesday.

Some very fast thinking takes place, and we ship them anyway. In the
end, they don't show up until Wednesday mid-morning. Our flight leaves
Frankfurt Thursday at 11:30. Its about 150 miles between Stuttgart and
Frankfurt - we manage to ride about 75 of that on Wednesday afternoon,
and spend a wet, noisy night on a platform, waiting for a train to
Heidelberg, from where we plan to go by train to Frankfurt.

But the hassle isn't done with yet. Despite 4 staff people all
assuring us that the bicycles can be taken with us on the slow, local
train that we are taking, the conductor insists that they cannot.
Close to despair, I argue with him in broken German, show him our
flight tickets and point out that this is *only* train we can take
that will allow us to make the flight. I am close to simply locking up
the bikes and saying goodbye to them when he relents, and allows us to
take them.

Finally, it seems, we arrive at the airport, box up the bikes, and
head for home. But its not over yet. United manage to destroy one of
the bike boxes and thereby lose a pedal (one of the wonderful old
Suntour XC-Compe's with sealed bearings). They agree to replace it,
but it delays us at Seattle by an hour and a half.

All in all, we spent an extra $300 on accomdation and transportation,
in return for 6 hours of cycling and a lost pedal.

So, some quick, take-home lessons:

	1) to take your bicyle on a train in Germany, it MUST have
              the bicycle symbol next to it on the timetable.
              Be absolutely certain that the day you are travelling
              is not covered by a footnote or an exception.
              
              Taking your bicycle in this way will cost you 5DM on
              top of the normal ticket price.

         2) If you are travelling by a train that does not have the
              bike symbol (i.e. no baggage wagon), you will have
              to check you bicycle in as baggage. This will cost you
              21DM, and you bicycle may be delayed by up to a week.
              
	      So, if you think you may end up checking your bicycle,
              plan to spend some time at your destination waiting for
              it to arrive.
         
          3) Almost without exception, no IC, EC or ICE trains will
               carry bicycles. Nowadays, even many D trains do not.

-- paul
-- 
"Fun" is a word invented by advertising executives to sell soft drinks.
Newsgroups: rec.bicycles