European Rail Travel - New DB ICx Cabin Design and Frankfurt-Marseille directly with DB and SNCF

I just wanted to share some recent news around DB with everyone here:

1) DB (Deutsche Bahn) and SIEMENS have unveiled some more details regarding the new ICx series, which will replace DB's old ICs from 2013 on. Amongst other things the new 1. Class and 2. Class cabin and seat design is now public. The seats will no longer recline like they used to, but they will rather have a mechanism, where the entire back piece slides down and forward - not backwards (similar to the mechanics of LH Business Class Seating). This way the back passenger will be less bothered by the front person, who decides to sleep. There will also be a seat reservation infodisplay built into the headrest of the seats. Cabin lighting and storage options will also be optimized.

Please find a SIEMENS description of the ICx concept with images and a video on the new cabin design here: http://www.mobility.siemens.com/mobility/global/en/interurban-mobility/rail-solutions/high-speed-and-intercity-trains/icx/Pages/icx.aspx (the new 1. Class cabin design with leather seats is shown only in the video clip in the first part of the page)

Please note: It is my understanding (gathered from the latest on board travel magazine 'DB mobil') that this new 1. Class cabin design will be deployed already with the current ICE II upgrades. According to this source there is already one ICE II set with this new 1. Class cabin design in service.

2) Starting with the new timetable in December 2011 DB and SNCF will offer a daily high-speed direct train connection from Frankfurt/ Main all the way to Marseille with stops in Avignon and Aix-en-Provence (and other cities along the way). There will be one connection each way per day and SNCF will provide the rolling stock to begin with. SNCF will service this new connection with a 'double-deck-duplex' TGV unit. The travel time from Frankfurt/ Main to Marseille (or vice verse) will be 7:45 hours. My source for this information is also the latest on board travel magazine 'DB mobil'.

seat design is now public. The seats will no longer recline like they used to, but they will rather have a mechanism, where the entire back piece slides down and forward - not backwards (similar to the mechanics of LH Business Class Seating). This way the back passenger will be less bothered by the front person, who decides to sleep.
This will improve travel experience. It shifts the "burden of loss of space" for whomever wants to recline the seat, not the other way around. So if you want to recline, but not the person in front, you are stuck with less space, not the poor folk behind you working on his laptop.


There will also be a seat reservation infodisplay built into the headrest of the seats.

Another positive improvement. Many times passengers are annoyed because someone with a set reservation ask them to leave and some passengers lose their patience after being asked to leave their seats for the n-th time in a journey. Making all IC and ICE trains reservation-only would be better, though.
Please find a SIEMENS description of the ICx concept with images and a video on the new cabin design here: http://www.mobility.siemens.com/mobility/global/en/interurban-mobility/rail-solutions/high-speed-and-intercity-trains/icx/Pages/icx.aspx (the new 1. Class cabin design with leather seats is shown only in the video clip in the first part of the page)

Please note: It is my understanding (gathered from the latest on board travel magazine 'DB mobil') that this new 1. Class cabin design will be deployed already with the current ICE II upgrades. According to this source there is already one ICE II set with this new 1. Class cabin design in service.

Another positive improvement. Many times passengers are annoyed because someone with a set reservation ask them to leave and some passengers lose their patience after being asked to leave their seats for the n-th time in a journey. Making all IC and ICE trains reservation-only would be better, though.

No, it wouldn't; you would lose the car-like travel flexibility that rail offers if you did that.

Neil

No, it wouldn't; you would lose the car-like travel flexibility that rail offers if you did that.

Neil

I agree. I could not do the train without that flexibility.

I do have to say though that I always find a seat and I never make seat reservations. Even without my bahn.comfort status seating option I find seats.

I did Paris Est - Frankfurt in an ICE without seat reservations (normally one needs to reserve a seat on this line). I just showed my bahn.comfort card to the DB train manager and he found me a seat in that train.

No, it wouldn't; you would lose the car-like travel flexibility that rail offers if you did that.

Neil

You'd still be able to reserve a set at the last minute via smartphone or ticket machines. No big deal, actually. Making a train reservation-compulsory is different than making the ticket inflexible (like lose your train, lose your money).

AFAIK, DB has no plans to alter the current scheme, in which discounted € 39 ICE fares don't have flexibility, but other fares have. It is a distinct issue.

A disadvantage of non-compulsory reservation trains is that you might end travelling standing from - say - Fulda to Berlin if the train is full. Compulsory reservation eliminate that situation, which is uncomfortable not only for whomever is standing but also for seated passengers.

You'd still be able to reserve a set at the last minute via smartphone or ticket machines. No big deal, actually. Making a train reservation-compulsory is different than making the ticket inflexible (like lose your train, lose your money).

Interesting point europegrad. This makes sense.

I still have to say though that with my 20,000+ DB kilometers per year I usually do find a seat. May be once a year for one station or two I don't, but I can live with that just fine.

You'd still be able to reserve a set at the last minute via smartphone or ticket machines. No big deal, actually. Making a train reservation-compulsory is different than making the ticket inflexible (like lose your train, lose your money).

No, it's a massive deal, for me at least. You miss the point hugely, by way of what seems to be a lack of understanding of travel culture in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria and most other (except France, Spain, Italy) European countries that operate a predominantly walk-up railway system.

Where there are not compulsory reservations, you essentially have guaranteed travel - i.e. you can turn up and purchase a ticket, or use a flexible ticket you already hold, and can board any train. (Yes, very occasionally a train is so crowded that you can't fit another person on board, but this is not common - normally you can cram one more on if you need to).

When you introduce compulsory reservations, a train is full when the seats are all taken.

AFAIK, DB has no plans to alter the current scheme, in which discounted € 39 ICE fares don't have flexibility, but other fares have. It is a distinct issue.

I don't find it an issue at all. I wouldn't usually consider the EUR 39 tickets if they had that stipulation. Some people do. That's fine; there's a choice to reserve or not to reserve.

A disadvantage of non-compulsory reservation trains is that you might end travelling standing from - say - Fulda to Berlin if the train is full. Compulsory reservation eliminate that situation, which is uncomfortable not only for whomever is standing but also for seated passengers.

True. But it is a greater disadvantage not to be able to travel whenever you wish, IMO. And unlike with air, there is competition that *does* allow you to travel whenever you wish - the car. So if the UK went this way (or virtually did it by overpricing walk-up tickets), most of my rail travel would go over to the car. And I am very pro-rail - just think how much more likely those who are not are to make such a decision.

There is the other side of this. In the UK, overcrowded trains are very bad publicity, are very visible and push the train operator to try to do something about it. If you run compulsory reservations, it's far less visible an issue. So train operators get away with running what they feel like rather than providing an adequate public service.

(Yes, public service. In Europe, train services are generally publically funded if not publically owned. So their role is to provide a public service, not just to do what they profitably feel like as is the case with airlines).

Neil

Interesting point europegrad. This makes sense.

To a point. The biggest problem with compulsory reservations is not making them or changing them - you could offer that service with optional reservations as well, and indeed DB does (that's what the "gegebenenfalls reserviert"/"maybe reserved" seats are for). It's that "full" train = no travel. That's a *massive* loss of flexibility.

And unless you abandon them in the event of a cancellation, it also creates the "sorry, your next available train is next week" problem like air has, and the admin problem of changing people over. Go to a major UK terminus and watch how quickly the crowds clear after disruption, quite simply because people will pack into the trains that *are* going, because to them getting there is more important than comfort. If it wasn't, they'd wait for it all to clear first.

Neil