I think that the €49 Deutschland Ticket is a flop. Despite going on last year about how the €9 Ticket was a serious miscalculation, it somehow carried a simplicity of use that was totally incongruous in a country like Germany. In addition, there were perhaps delays because of the sheer number of people on the move, but with the €9 Ticket there was nowhere near the same amount of cancelled trains, buses and trams that I have experienced this year. I have not made a single trip with this year's €49 Ticket that has not involved serious disruption due to unexpected cancellations. If they hope to encourage people to park their cars and use public transport, then this year's effort is a miserable failure. Personally, I have gone by car more times than with the train or bus just because I didn't want to face the hassle all the cancellations cause.
Kassel Wilhelmshöhe station
This is the Bruchhauser Steine, visible as we drove by bus through the Sauerland
Standard seating in German regional trains; the upholstery is very durable
The most trying trip, which was an adventure in itself, was finding my way from Kassel Calden airport back to the Ruhrgebiet. It started badly at Kassel Wilhelmshöhe, with the regional train being 20 minutes late. Further down, the line was disrupted so connections were missed due to the delay. Getting out at Brilon Wald was like stepping into a wartime Ukrainian bombed train station, in a worse state than East German stations at the fall of the wall, with a strong reek of pee everywhere. Somehow, along with a small group of travellers of varying nations and linguistic abilities, we found a bus that was supposed to transport us to the next station. This was a trip of incredible beauty, through the countryside of rural Sauerland, passing the impressive Bruchhauser Steine and villages with endless timber framed houses. I really felt transported to the middle ages and it made me think, once again, how Johann Sebastian Bach walked all over Germany from appointment to appointment as organist in various churches. The bus rumbled along a surfaced road, but the alignment of that twisting road won't have changed since the time of Bach. The bus abruptly dumped us in a sleepy place called Olsberg, at the little station of Bigge. No train, no other buses. We were really stuck in rural Sauerland and I envisioned sleeping in that tiny station with what were now three companions: a Rheinmetall worker from Bremen, a young Vietnamese girl and a burly Turk, these latter two speaking little or no German. The various transport apps promised trains and buses that never showed up. Eventually a regional train came along and we set off at a glacial pace for Dortmund. I finally made it back to Oberhausen at a late hour.
This is Osnabrück train station which I found to be quite attractive
And this is Duisburg main station
Duisburg station needs a lot of renovation work - it is, literally, falling to pieces
The adventure was tiring, certainly, but somehow fun. My other outings with the €49 Ticket were for hiking trips in the Ruhrgebiet (Ruhr region) and Niederrhein regions and were also plagued with missed connections due to unannounced cancellations. It took a long time, but I did manage to get where I was going. Sometimes you ended up having nice encounters with people and it was fun trying to decipher the strong Ruhrpott accent that many people in the Ruhr region have.
Regional trains in and around Osnabrück
Münster station
Standard 2nd class seating on the regional train to Gelsenkirchen