German trains- are they currently running on schedule?

Depends on your definition of 'on schedule'. There is nothing actively delaying them but its always wise to plan that they are a few minutes late. Also accidents happens. That said if i took a journey with a few connections i would trust the schedule that i get from the DB-app or theyre website even when it states only 7-10minutes for a train change.

On most main lines in Germany, there is a train every hour, sometimes more often. Even on lesser used lines, it's usually every two hours. So if a train is late, and you miss your desired train, there will be another one along shortly.

In the last 10 years, I've had several trains be at least a half hour late, but it never kept me from arriving at my final destination in a reasonable amount of time.

One place for concern about late trains is when that train is connecting you to a long-distance train that is specified on a discounted Sparpreis ticket. If you oversleep and miss a specified long-distance train, you lose the ticket, but if you miss a specified train because of a fault of the Bahn, they will put you on the next available train, no charge. I actually got to test that process in 2008, when the regional train I was on coming from the Hartz unexpectedly stayed in a station for a long time, causing me to miss my connection with an IC to Karlsruhe. I went to the Bahn counter in the connecting station; he looked at my ticket, checked to see that my regional train had indeed been delayed, then redid my ticket to put me on the next train, a faster ICE.

Ironically, I had originally wanted to take that ICE, but it's a popular train, and all the lower priced Sparpreis tickets were gone. As it turned out, the ICE got me to Karlsruhe sooner than I would have gotten there with the original IC.

Another thing you need to know, on a Sparpreis ticket, only the long-distance train are specific to that ticket; that is, you have to take only that train. The regional train shown on the ticket are not specific. According to the condition of carriage called "Vor- und Nach-Lauf", it is an open ticket for regional trains. You can take any regional train on the same route as the train on your ticket that day (up to 10 AM the following day).

"Through the Black Forest" is too vague for precise feedback. It's a very large area crisscrossed by a dozen or so different train lines. So here's some general feedback...

The on-time performance of Germany's regional trains (around 95% of these on time according to DB data) significantly outshines that of the long-distance trains. In the Black Forest you are looking at mostly regional train routes (Black Forest Railway, Hell Valley railway, Kinzig Valley railway. The Rhine Valley Railway (Rheintalbahn) has both long-distance and regional trains. See links below for maps of these railways.

Currently and through Nov. 25 there is construction work underway along the Black Forest Railway between Hausach and St. Georgen, and SEV buses replace the trains in this section, which means longer travel times. But that should not be your problem in December. Not aware of problems elsewhere at this moment.

The first 3 railways below form a sort of triangle for visiting some of the most popular places in the Black Forest; the Kinzig Valley line is an offshoot to Freudenstadt from Hausach on the Black Forest Railway.

Black Forest Railway, Offenburg > Donaueschingen

Hell Valley Railway, Donaueschingen > Freiburg

Rheintalbahn, Freiburg > Offenburg

Kinzig Valley Railway, Hausach > Freudenstadt

Outside of a train strike for a few days, I had no trouble with train delays during an early Sept Germany trip and a trip there last week.

For those currently traveling in Germany or recently returned from
there, what has been the experience with trains running on schedule?

No more or less than at any other time.

Any train can be late by a couple of minutes, which is no worse than what you would experience regularly when going by car. The only time that can really mess up your plans is when you have to catch a connecting train. If it's a common connection, and the delay is only by a few minutes, oftentimes the connecting train will wait. As a general rule, you can expect regional trains to wait for fast ones but not vice versa.

If you are on a train that looks like it is going to be late and endanger your connection, you can always ask the conductor for more information, and let him or her know which train you would like to catch. Sometimes they can phone the other train and ask them to wait a little longer.

Just like with construction zones or accidents on the road, there can always be unforeseen events that will cause greater delays. Accidents are relatively rare in the railroad system, but suicides do happen. Or weather extremes, like a storm that has made trees fall on the tracks.

As far as frequency of trains, I once saw a map which color coded the various lines to every 2 hours, every hour, etc. I thought it a useful guide. I have no idea where on the internet I saw it.

As to specific trains running late, I think on my last trip, about 1/3 were to some extent late. The one from Koblenz to Cologne must have taken close to 30 minutes more than scheduled

Here is a color coded rail map like you describe for Bavaria. Most of the lines are blue, meaning minimum hourly trains; dark yellow is for not hourly; purple is for S-Bahn lines around major cities. At least in Munich, the S-Bahn runs on a 20 min "takt" (beat or tempo).

In the late eighties, I was traveling in Germany, and if the schedule said the train would arrive at 8:06, at five past you could pick up your suitcase and walk to the platform, knowing the train would arrive at precisely 8:06. Recently, I have seen more late trains, particularly on the ICE/IC routes. When a train is a little late, the other trains wait for it, and it all kind of snowballs.

Storms cause trees to fall on the tracks and that causes delays. People sadly choose to jump in front of trains as a way to leave their lives, and this will cause hours of delay. There is a bridge out in Wiesbaden and it has been causing delays for months now in this whole region and will continue until they get a new one built. A landslide took out part of the tracks along the Rhein which affected the trains all summer.
This happens all over Germany. They find WW2 bombs, they are constructing tunnels, they are repairing tracks, especially during school vacations which are at different times in each state.

People sadly choose to jump in front of trains as a way to leave their
lives, and this will cause hours of delay.

I had a delay for this on a train along the Rhine once. Very sad.

I would say "on schedule" but again there can always be delays. I assume you mean the Train that runs through Offenburg and down to the south near the mountains. I did hop on this train to stop by and cross the border into France. Right now there aren't any strikes, so the trains are running, but it is something to keep an eye out on periodically.

There is a Train Replacement Bus on a section of the route between Offenburg and Konstanz right now, but scheduled to be fully operational by December. It goes hourly, so if you should miss one, there will be another along in less than an hour.

Unfortunately, that Train Replacement Bus (SEV) is between Hausach and St. Georgen, which is the scenic portion of the Black Forest Railway (Schwarzwaldbahn). I rode that line in 2001, and felt it was a beautiful stretch of track along the Gutach river valley. I don't know what route the bus takes, but it looks like Landstrasse 33 runs close to the railroad tracks most of the way and is the shortest connection between Hornberg and Triberg, so maybe you won't miss much by taking the SEV.

Work we be completed and the whole line up and running beginning Friday, Nov 26.

Hello, Lynda!

German rail infrastructure is in deplorable shape after years of cost-cutting. Operational discipline has also slipped. As more operators get involved, coordination is also becoming a problem.

In practice, this means:

A. Don't count on connections of less than 15 minutes in Germany. If you're connecting TO a frequent train and you have a pass or a flexible ticket, there is less to worry about.

B. Always check the DB Web site (or the separate, special app) for planned construction-related closures or "Bauarbeiten". This is especially true for regional lines, late at night, and on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.

The advice that's been given about changing a non-flexible Sparpreis ticket due to a DB-caused delay is excellent and accurate, but you might face a long wait to exchange the ticket a station counter ("Reisezentrum"). The conductor on the next train should accept the original ticket, but I've witnessed disagreements and disappointment. (I travel with a pass so I'm not affected.) If you board without changing a non-flexible ticket, the worst-case scenario is scrupulous application of the rules: you could be sold a full-fare ticket on-board and you'd have to mail both tickets to DB for redress.

Be aware, too, that if your original ticket covered a regional or "Nahverkehr" train and the next train on the route happens to be long-distance or "Fernverkehr", you will have to skip that one and wait for the next regional train, unless there is a systemwide disruption and DB announces complete relaxation of rules (as in the case of severe storms).

I spent September and October, 2019, January and February, 2020 and have spent October and the first half of November, 2021 riding trains around Europe, primarily in Germany, and I've run into: monthslong total closures of sections of the Black Forest Railway ("Schwarzwaldbahn") on all three trips (this infrastructure has simply worn out); unplanned extensions of construction closures, most recently around Lake Constance the first half of last week; piecemeal projects on the lines around Lake Constance, making train travel around the German side of the lake too slow to be practical; delays and cancellations caused by an unrealistic schedule on the newly regionalized line through the Titisee area; and chaos on the routes that Baden-Wurttemberg privatized (a big topic in the local press; passengers seek help from DB which can't offer any answers, as it no longer operates these routes, and Abelio and GoAhead, the private operators, have only a token presence in the stations). On one of my trips there was also a lovely, multi-day, construction-related total closure of the line between Frankfurt and Frankfurt Airport.

While construction is frustrating, you can at least plan around it, standing on packed replacement buses (SEV "Schienenersatzverkehr") or choosing a more circuitous train route. I'd say perhaps 20% of the time in Germany, a missed connection sets me back an hour, and this happens on national, high-speed services as well as on regional ones.

German trains remain an excellent value and a pleasant way to get around, but do not schedule your train trips too tightly in Germany. This is not Switzerland!

The advice that's been given about changing a non-flexible Sparpreis ticket due to a DB-caused delay is excellent and accurate, but you might face a long wait to exchange the ticket a station counter ("Reisezentrum"). The conductor on the next train should accept the original ticket, but I've witnessed disagreements and disappointment. (I travel with a pass so I'm not affected.) If you board without changing a non-flexible ticket, the worst-case scenario is scrupulous application of the rules: you could be sold a full-fare ticket on-board and you'd have to mail both tickets to DB for redress.

Sorry, but that's is not correct. The DB web site says:

You missed your connecting train because of a previous delay of your train? No problem. Simply use the next train to your destination. You no longer need to have the train connection cancelled in advance by a train attendant, at the DB Travel Center or at DB Information.

That's regardless of whether you are traveling on a Sparpreis ticket or regular fare. What is not possible, however, is to board an ICE train with a local ticket.

So, In case of a train delay I just get on the next suitable train - that's "scrupulous application of the rules". And I'm riding a train at least once per week.

Of course, the rule mentioned above doesn't apply if it's your own fault that you missed the train. The conductor is able to check whether your previous train was late or not.

sla019, as I said, this is true in theory (and has been so for a long time) but it is not always the way it works in practice.

Also, the explanation is oversimplified if the original fare covered a regional (Nahverkehr) train, on a route served by regional as well as long-distance (Fernverkehr) trains. In that case, if the next train happens to be a long-distance one, you must wait longer, for the next regional train. A miscellaneous delay (again, not something like a severe storm) does not yield a free upgrade from the regional to the long-distance "product class".

Returning to the original inquiry, which was for advice on the ground, I'll add that this evening I experienced a 25-minute delay on the Murgtalbahn in the Black Forest, switched to an alternative route, and then experienced a 15-minute delay on the alternative route. The consequence is getting to my destination 2 hours late.

The second delay was not entered into the DB schedule system, which happily advised me to get off and wait for a connecting train that had already left. (I knew not to do that.) To make things even more fun, there is limited cellular data service in the backwoods in the Black Forest, making it hard to look up alternative schedules.

In 2008, I was traveling with a SparPreis ticket, then called Dauer-Spezial, on a regional train from Walkenried to Northeim to catch an IC to Frankfurt and ultimately Karlsruhe when the regional train unexpectedly stop for an extended time in a small station. That caused me to miss my connection in Northeim. Someone on the train who was familiar with the station in Northeim told me it did not have a manned ticket counter, so I stayed on the regional train to Göttingen where I went up to counter in the Reisezentrum. There was no line at the Reisezentrum. The guy at the Reisezentrum looked at my ticket, checked his computer to make sure my train had indeed been delayed, then put me on the next train, an ICE, to Karlsruhe. So it did, indeed, work. But that was over 10 years ago.

I think I have only twice seen long lines at a Reisezentrum in a German station. Once was in the Munich Hbf (I think it's always long there), the other at the Würzburg Hbf. The time at Würzburg was when the Bahn ticket automats only took credit cards. I don't like to use credit cards because I know the bank takes a big interchange fee, so I wanted to buy the ticket at the counter, but the line was so long that I gave in and used my credit card in the automat (also one of the few times, maybe the only time, that I've used a credit card to buy a train ticket - except online - in Germany).