By example #Darmstadt- #Frankfurt- #Paris- #Bordeaux- #Arcachon: Why train travel is not even close to using its potential and why that's sad because staff are actually quite engaged, helpful and polite. Thread (1/19)

The ride was booked in early march before the continent locked down. Having a 1,5 yo child and wanted to travel on a low CO2 budget, hence . So, we headed to the internets to book tickets for our - straightforward - journey from #Darmstadt (8h30) to #Arcachon (17h28). (2/19)

Booking was a mess: @SNCF would show us options starting from #Frankfurt, but not #Darmstadt. @DB_Bahn's normal portal would show us the connection, but would not let us book. It would forward us to http://international-bahn.com  which offered the full connection but *drumroll* (3/19)

... wouldn't let us book it. So we resorted to the pro move: book the leg from #Darmstadt to #Paris via http://international-bahn.com  and the one from #Paris to #Arcachon via @TGVINOUI. This would haunt us, bit it worked then.
Fast-forward #COVID19 ... (4/19)

... we decided to keep all bookings up awaiting the 15 June decision to loosen lockdown in , which worked out. With very little changes to our plans we could go.
This however didn't stop @DB_Bahn/ @SNCF from changing their timetables. But first things first... (5/19)

Our departure was #Darmstadt 8h30 to reach an ICE to #Paris Est at 8h56.
Announcement at 8h20: the regional train will be delayed by 5 minutes, incrementing to 10 when we arrived in #Frankfurt. It's incredible that this line consistently messes up my travel plans... (6/19)

... since 2004.
Now, *on* that train, we realise that #ICE9566 has become a phantom. It must've been cancelled in the pandemic. Did we receive an update from @DB_Bahn? No
So, we head to the Kundeninformationsschalter (long words ftw ) and get some knowledge dropped: (7/19)

#ICE9566 at 8h56 cancelled a long time ago, next train to #Paris Est: 12h58. So: #Frankfurt-sightseeing. Imagine with a 1,5 yo and a big backpack.
Connection in #Paris cannot be rebooked/changed, has to be done at #Paris #Montparnasse. (8/19)

The lady at the counter, French native-speaker btw, was very quick, very polite and wished us best of luck. I can only imagine how many rants she must have per day.
So, on to Paris on #TGV9552 on some backuo seats for unlucky travellers (worry not, you don't have to stand). 10/19

As usual, everything fine, clean toilets, diapers can be changed in a small but practical compartment: babies say (just like in #ICE trains btw).
But arriving in #Paris #Est the strughle starts:
Get off platform, down to @ClientsRATP #Metro 4 and cherish your backpack. (11/19)

No idea if we overlooked it, but we didn't see an elevator. I know the Paris Metro is old, but that was bad in 1920 already. So back to the century old question:

Why, in the name of Phileas Fogg, do you let people passing Paris go down to Metro or RER!? (12/19)

And it's in no way 20 minutes from #Paris #Est to #Montparnasse. It's 30 minutes at least! But we got there in time for that connection train from Montparnasse at 17h47. However: those tickets were still the connection at 13h47 we missed by a whopping 3h30. (13/19)

10 minutes until departure. The lady at the platform politely refers us to the guichet, i.e. customer service. So, if they're really fast ...

They ain't. The queue outside is 20m (social distancing in n'est qu'un mètre ) And we wait 25 minutes in total.
(14/19)

But! The gentleman at the entrance (not the counter) quickly gets us rebooked to the next train (now 18h47, we wanted to be in #Arcachon at 17h28 already) to Bordeaux. For no extra charge and again very forthcoming and polite.
(15/19)

So, as I'm writing this we're checking where our apartment key will be hidden because scheduled arrival now is 22h30.

So, here are my take-aways:

As long as you can't book simply from one page, people will prefer car or plane
(16/19)

As long as delayed regional trains kill your journey on the first 20 minutes, people will be afraid of stranding and prefer car and plane.

As long as customers aren't *informed* about vanishing connections ... see above.
(17/19)

As long as #Paris is a correspondence via #Metro w/o proper accessibility and with 50 minutes between two major legs of the journey (and at risk of getting lost between #Bienvenüe and Gare SNCF at #Montaparnasse, they'll prefer and .
(18/19)

This is sad, because *all* staff - every single one at @DB_Bahn, @SNCF and @TGVINOUI - were forthcoming, nice and helpful. The journey itself is great with a small child (try some hours in a and you know).

(19/19)

That's a @jonworth-Thread to get your mind of Mark Francois