Railway Story

This morning, I had to go with the wife over to her job in Mainz, and leave the car there.  My return 'journey'? 

Well, it was designed to be this simple railway and bus trip (consuming around 70 minutes) to return to the house. 

There in Mainz, I came to discover a number of railway issues....the type that Germans go into bitter detail about.  Basically from the early hours of the morning, until after lunch.....there's not a single train running from Mainz to Wiesbaden (in a normal six-hour period, there would be four an hour, and even six an hour in the rush hour).  Cancelled.....maintenance work that came out of nowhere, in a sudden fashion.

The remedy?  I walked with the herd (probably 300 to 400 people) to the bus stand, waiting for at least two buses to pick up folks, and then finally rode a completely filled bus (150-plus passengers).

But this wasn't the only problem.  After reviewing the board in the center hall....for the next twelve trains going 'somewhere' (anywhere)....every single one of them was running 10 to 30 minutes behind schedule.  Some in fact....were in the process of being cancelled (like the Wiesbaden trains).

This is the continual negativity about the German railway system.  I think it probably hit some peak around the 1990s in terms of limited issues and max passengers.  Most everyone now...who has a plan to use the German railway system to get from home to work, and back.....now has a fair amount of negativity. 

Fixing, resolving or improving this?  How?  Some of the political dimwits are suggesting to increase the passenger load by 30 to 50 percent, and get more people out of their cars.  I personally can't see adding another ten trains in the rush-hour for Mainz or Wiesbaden.  The idea of doubling up the cars?  Maybe, but there's a limit to that idea.  The same is virtually true for Frankfurt....bulking it up is physically impossible at this point, to handle another 25-percent of passenger numbers. 

How long did I waste on this unplanned emergency?  I added roughly 150 minutes onto my short trip.