the810

That's not how it works. The demand estimates are not primarily based on ticket sales (that would be impossible, since most tickets are not for a specific train) but long term statistics.

That hasn't been a thing for a decade or so. I promised myself to avoid DB whenever possible already around 2015 due to them screwing up pretty much every trip I tried to took with them.

Happy

1) The 3 trains are just added in the system, only good for Mar 25, 26, 27 3 days. They don’t even have any platform info. Obviously the historical demand for them would be zero, since they don’t correspond to any of the disappeared trains schedule! Kinda by 30 to 45 min deviation.

2) But what can you do when the city pair is all inside Germany but not far enough to warrant flying? The only other option than DB would be rental car which would not be practical when you primarily spend time in a city, not on a road trip, not to mention you are on a one-way direction moving thru the country..

I have 6 train trips in this almost 4 weeks journey, No.2 is also on DB from Leipzig to Dresden on Good Friday. Schedule remains the same but now it shows Medium Demand. So I think I need to buy reserved seats on this. Even though it is just over 1 hour ride, we don’t want to be standing for the whole time.
No.3, No.4 are on Czechs and No,5 on OeBB all the trains have no schedule change, except OeBB has gone up in price by close to 70% from the time I bought. The last train trip is back to DB from Munich to Vienna. DB is cheaper than SBB. So … Knock on wood, the schedule remains the same. I have not bought reserved seats yet. Will check it by late March the demand status. It is on a weekday hence there might not be a need to give DB 5.90 euro each for the reserved seat.

fransknorge

Of course even if they are new to the schedule you can get historical data based on crowding during the same time range on this route. I think you need to relax a bit, you look more stressed you should be for that trip. At the end it will be OK, you will get there in a reasonable amount of time and it will be comfortable enough. I use DB weekly more or less and it goes usually OK enough. Even if there are issues and long distance is tedious.

Happy

Yes, I am stressed because we usually either fly between cities or have a rental car. However on this trip with 3 countries and 5 cities involved, each city has 3 to 5 days stay - neither flying nor renting a car is practical.

Except for the first train trip, luckily the remaining 5 train trips are currently have no change.

Though I am not sure whether I should buy reserved seats on March 29th, Good Friday from Leipzig to Dresden. DB said it was medium demand. Seat maps show still plenty of seats though the few very desirable setting in the 2nd class are taken. But this is only an hour+ trip, does not make much difference unless you are traveling from Frankfurt all the way to Dresden and Leipzig is just right before it arrives Dresden.

The train after ours, has high demand notification. Seat Map does show much more seats are taken but still has between 1/4 to 1/3 seats not taken yet.

Previously I forgot from which travel site, someone told me most people traveling on that route would use that 49 euro a month pass and Good Friday is a holiday hence no commuters... But I dont agree with that because the train I bought is an ICE - that is not good for using the 49 euro pass therefore those on this train most likely are people travel from afar, such as Frankfurt. I might bite the bullet and reserve the seats.

What is intriguing to me is I saw several of the "aisle" seats of those seats having a table between them, are taken, leaving the window seats empty. Seems to me those who did this are hoping nobody would take the window seats because the aisle seats are reserved.
There are also a setting of 2 seats across a short table that there is only 1 seat on the other side - 2 of these setups are taken as 1 and 1, across the short table...

This site has much more info than DB site's seat map. I found the link on Seat61.com. The IC1555 uses ICE T, the 7 cars type.

https://www.fernbahn.de/datenbank/su...fv_suche_zugid

Askartus

This may be due to some equipment changes, maybe even some spontanous construction going on along the route. Who knows.
Since you (I assume) have an open ticket and no seat reservation, you did not receive a notification about that, right?

About the (now) available options, I would suggest to have a look at the direct trains (ICE 371, ICE 373, ICE 375) or the ones including a change in Halle into a IC train (ICE 507- IC 2235 or ICE 509 - IC 2037). If you do not have any big luggage, the connections including a suburban train (S-Bahn) might be to be considered too.

And why do not make the best of a connection? Halle is worth a visit as it was one of the larger cities in Germany not destroyed in WW2, it is home to one of the oldest universities in the country and the State museum of prehistory has the famous "Nebra sky disk" on display.
Again: If you don't have a lot of luggage, you should be able to leave it in the lockers at the station without any problems (note: you need coins for the lockers!)

Halle to Leipzig is a 25 - 35 minute ride with the suburban trains, one trip is about 10 Euros per Person.

I suppose that you should check the service the day before, as long as you do not have a seat reservation. If you purchase those, you will be advised of any changes. If you want to be spontaous, you should check every connection.

This is a discussion in Germany for the last decade. Basically, we are now realising what you get, when you do not invest in your train system for 30+ years: Unfit infrastructure, trains being pulled out of service and, to atop it all off, the problem of finding enough empolyees to keep the remainding trains rolling.
But: I travel by train almost every day and, with a few exceptions, I always get to my destination on time, quickly and comfortably.

And I just came back from the US east coast and after "enjoying" the Acela train from Boston to NYC with a total delay of 3 hours delay because one train has been pulled out of service without any notification and we had to change trains in Providence and a plethora ot problems ... I was really glad coming back to Germany. At least for the train ride from Düsseldorf to Cologne ... ;-)

red star

I would go the safe route and make a reservation. Leipzig-Dresden is highly popular on Easter since DRS is the gate to the mountains in the „Dreiländereck“ and to Prague, all much in favor for a shorter holiday in the region. Even more, the week after Easter is school holiday in Saxony. My wife and kids are also traveling that way though on Thursday evening. Demand slows somewhat down from Friday evening.

Happy

Thanks a lot for the additional thoughts. I am on a Transatlantic cruise at the moment. Will arrive Southampton on the 25th of March fly to BER on same day from LHR. Will check DB schedules accordingly. Yes I am inclined to take one of the 3 specially added ICE trains.

The stop over at Halle is an intrigue idea but not sure it works for us with the time constraint.

I am periodically checking the Mar 29th Leipzig to Dresden train seat reservation picture. 2 days ago there were still plenty of seats almost like on March 9th the day we left home.

Happy

DB finally sent me an email on the train cancellation of our March 26th BER to Leipzig trains. I guess the system would only generates notification when it is within 7 days of departure time. It tells me now I can take any train including S Bahn as you guys have been telling me all along.