Operator: DB
Headcode: ICE73/EC9
Route: MNH-ZRH
Class: 1st Class
Seat: C14 S36
Date: Saturday 7th January 2023
Arriving into Mannheim on a DB Regio ‘RE’ service from Trier (read about that here), I had just over an hour until my booked ICE service to take me south into Switzerland. With a journey time of just over three hours, I had decided to treat myself on this leg of the trip with a first-class ticket through to Zurich.
Whilst DB do have lounges at major station available for some first-class passengers, this all depends on the type of ticket that you’re travelling on. This is clearly advertised during the online process, with ‘Super Sparpreis’ and ‘Sparpreis’ tickets not providing lounge access, whilst the ‘Flexpreis’ and ‘Flexpreis Plus’ tickets do. Unfortunately, with the ‘Flexpreis’ costs €130 more than the ‘Super Sparpreis’, I couldn’t justify the extra expense for lounge access given I didn’t require the added flexibility offered.
Having spent my time in Mannheim briefly exploring Billy Brandt Platz outside of the station and grabbing a coffee and sandwich in one of the station cafés, I made my way to the platform about 15-minutes before our scheduled departure time. Having heard various horror stories of DB’s ability to run a train service recently, I had been hoping to avoid any issues and when our train arrived just a couple of minutes late, I thought I had.
Boarding our ICE 4, I was surprised at how busy it was with first-class pretty much full. Whilst I was travelling on one of the key German rail corridors, there are also multiple services each hour running between Frankfurt and Karlsruhe, so I hadn’t expected it to be quite so busy. The first-class accommodation was in the standard 2+1 layout, with a mix of tables, airline style and single seating. One feature I did like was that all the tables folded to a certain degree, allowing the window seats to be more easily accessed.
As would be expected from 1st class on a high-speed inter-city service, every seat had access to a table (either centrally or seat back) and access to a power socket. There was also onboard wi-fi that maintained a fairly decent connection, especially given the mountains later in the journey, along with plenty of luggage space throughout the carriage.
Unfortunately, my fear of a German railway debacle was delivered as we proceeded to sit in the platform for 20 to 25-minutes whilst a number of people in hi-vi vest stood around and pointed at the train. Whilst I have no idea what the issue was, we departed 25-minutes late with some announcements in German explaining the delay.
Upon departing Mannheim, I briefly saw a member of staff who was checking tickets, however this was it for the entire journey south. According to the DB website and Wi-Fi ‘landing’ pages, first-class passengers are supposedly able to enjoy an at seat service, ordering and paying for items from the Bistro from a member of staff. However, with no member of staff appearing throughout the journey and the Bistro being half a train away, I decided to stick with my bags and get something when I made it to Zurich. As such, there’s no review of DB’s onboard offering on this occasion and I’m going to rate both food and service 0* because what was promised was so vastly different to what was offered.
Unfortunately, part way between Mannheim and Karlsruhe, an announcement was made (thankfully in German and English) that due to the late running the train would be terminating at Basel and as such would not be going all through to Zurich. Passengers for Zurich were advised to alight at Basel Bad station and wait there for the following Eurocity train to Zurich that would depart from the same platform.
Spending a bit of time investigating how much the change of trains would delay me, I then decided to pass the time watching some more Netflix (there had been a lot of episodes downloaded each night on the hotel Wi-Fi) and watching south-western Germany pass by outside the window. There was some glorious scenery on offer as the foothills of the Alps started to appear and it wasn’t long before a couple of hours had passed and we were approaching Basel Bad.
Thankfully the weather in Switzerland was nice and clear, if not slightly chilly, and so the half an hour spent on the platform wasn’t too bad. With an adjacent railway yard and depot, I was able to keep myself occupied watching the various movements and it wasn’t long before the locomotive hauled carriages were pulling into the platform.
With the ‘ICE’ trains having become the flagship of DB’s fleet since their introduction, secondary inter-city routes are operated under the ‘Intercity’ or ‘IC’ brand, with the services often also classified as ‘Eurocity’ especially if crossing International borders. As such the coaches being hauled by the class 101 locomotive were a bit dated, although this did mean the first-class seats were armchair like and much comfier than those onboard the ICE 4.
Annoyingly, despite this train only being about half an hour behind the ICE, my ETA into Zurich was an hour later owing to the 32-minutes scheduled stand at Basel to allow for a change of locomotive. Whilst this allowed other passengers to stretch their legs and get some fresh air, I decided to stay onboard having had my break at Basel Bad.
With this being the final leg of the train’s journey, there wasn’t any catering available, with the DB catering crew coming round between Basel Bad and Basel to collect the menus from first-class. I assume that between Basel and Zurich these services are operated by a limited SBB crew as opposed to the full DB crew that bring the service down through Germany.
As we threaded our way through the maze of lines on approach to Zurich, I was quite disappointed by my journey with DB. Whilst I completely understand that faults occur on trains and delays happen, it was quite disappointing that the train was terminated short for a 25-minute delay. Looking at DB’s website, it looks as though the unit has an hour’s turnaround time at Zurich and so the delay could have easily been made up there. The service was also very poor, with me only seeing a member of staff during ticket checks on the two-hour journey from Mannheim to Basle Bad. Hopefully this was just a one-off bad experience and future trips with DB will be much better.
Lounge 0*
Seat/Facilities 4*
Food 0*
Service 1*
Punctuality 2*
Overall Rating 12/25 (read about my rating system here!)
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