Senk you for trevelling viz Deutsche Bahn. That's what the train "captain" used to announce over the microphone when the train arrived at a station and they said "Auf Wiedersehen!" in three different languages. They don't say that any more. Now they say Senk you for chusing Deutsche Bahn today. I guess they got a new American translator. And I'm always like, duh, did we have a choice?
The ICE train (InterCityExpress, not really cold train) does actually run pretty much on time. 10 years ago, it didn't. 10 years ago about 30% of ICE trains were either cancelled or late. One time, I was late to work in Frankfurt (yes, this is not the first time I've been foolish enough to accept a job in the big smoke) because there was a horse on the track. You heard correctly. The driver got out and held onto the horse until the police came.
This is a train that goes at over 300 kilometers an hour and everybody is relying on it to do that so that they can get to work. When I finally did, my manager did not believe the horse story and who can blame him.
Anyway Deutsche Bahn must have got a new boss or something because now, almost all the trains do actually run on time! I take that back! All of the trains run on time! OK I exaggerate! Very occasionally, there might be a teeny delay of 5 minutes, but the train will almost always have made it up by the time it gets to the next station.
