Night train: Go on holiday with the ÖBB Nightjet – Travel

Has the Austrian railway already set up a crisis team? It would not surprise the author of this text. It is, at least from the point of view of the ÖBB, a problem. He needs help. Urgent. But he sees no reason to seek help. Is he stubborn? Ignorant? Careless? Or overwhelmed and helpless? These are the questions that are likely to be heatedly discussed in this crisis team at every meeting. Every attempt to contact this particular customer has so far failed.

Perhaps ÖBB is not even aware of the auxiliary avalanche that has been rolling and rolling in the background for weeks, towards the author and over him. Because everything runs its course fully automatically in absolute algorithmic dullness. And any intervention by human hands and common sense, which would quickly put this misunderstanding on the back burner, seems to be ruled out.

The ÖBB confuses itself with a timetable change

Some kind of software – in this case it’s impossible to speak of artificial intelligence – assumes that a Munich family is jeopardizing their summer vacation. Because the ÖBB night train, for which this family bought a sleeping car ticket for the journey from Munich Central Station to Hamburg-Altona, does not stop at Munich Central Station at all due to a timetable change made after the ticket was bought.

So this software started sending emails. First a message, two weeks later a second, eventually a third. Gradually, the frequency increased to two, then three emails per week. Now several messages come in a day. Always with a link that you can use to select alternative train connections. Please rebook!, these e-mails shout at you with increasing desperation. If necessary, ÖBB would even hand over its customers to Deutsche Bahn and recommends various ICE connections. These include one with a change in Frankfurt at half past four in the morning or the following train, which only leaves Munich at half past three at night. The main thing is that the family arrives in Hamburg on time. For the return trip two weeks later, of course, the whole spectacle again.

However, the obvious does not seem to be an option for the software: boarding the booked night train at Munich Ostbahnhof. That’s where he stops. We’ll stand on the platform.