Just another story about Germany's rules!

Just another story about "Rules".

After a Christmas holiday break in Thailand, I fly back into Frankfurt after a very long, 13 hour flight. I am tired to say the least so I decide to treat myself to a first class ticket home on the train which also allows me access to the nicely furnished Bahn lounge at the airport.

Here I have some coffee, juice and relax. I go into the bathroom and shave and wash my hair and bascially get myself presentable for another 3 hours on the train home. Holding a first class ticket, I am expecting a quiet and relaxing ride back to Erlangen.

I get to the platform at the airport and the train that arrives is not an ICE (Inner City Express) but a far older train. I had kind of expected a newer ICE train for the journey but went ahead and boarded, settled into my "first class" seat (seemed less nice than a 2nd class compartment on the ICE) and we headed to Nurnburg.
I arrive at Nurnburg about 2 and half hours later, get off the train with my small rucksack, looked at the schedule on the track and saw a train for Erlangen is coming in less than 3 minutes. Wow, I thought, what luck!

This train was of course an ICE and I boarded the first class car and sat down for my 10 minute ride to the next station; Erlangen.

Within a minute after we started, a young, blond, very official looking woman who checks tickets announces herself. I of course hand her my ticket and she looks at it and in German, tells me it is the wrong ticket.

I of course am confused and very, very tired having now traveled over 24 hours and being less than 10 minutes away from my apartment, not really in the mood for German "officaldom". i had bought the 1st class to assure myself of no hassels and to make sure I got a seat (I often had to stand in the past of weekend trains between cities).

I soon gather from her that I am on the wrong train (everything of course is in German) and that the ticket has been issued for a non-ICE train, or Regional Express train. News to me as last year, it made no difference.

Note: As it turned out, I was in fact correct but when the bahn card changes were made a few weeks earlier on January 1st, so were many other changes. One of the new rules seems to allow you no flexibility on which train you can take. You must take the train indicated on the ticket even though another train going the same direction (and empty) is available at an earlier time. Makes perfect sense to me.

Anyway. She spends close to the 10 minute time to Erlangen calculating the cost of my ticket. I am quite amazed at this to begin with as I am obviously a foreigner, have obviously not only bought a train ticket, but a first class one at that. Now she is calculating what I wonder?

She than presents me a receipt for 6.80 Euro!!! I am stunned. I am trying to grasp what is going on here as the normal ticket price is only 3.40 Euro. In spite of the fact I have already paid a premium price to ride a train between the two cities 10 minutes apart, she has now doubled the normal fare! It seems I am not even getting a "credit" for this fact.

I paid it and said nothing.

Imagine however the impression that this gives to travelers and business people. It is another story indicating just how inflexible people are in Germany. I can't imagine another culture or official, realizing that this person was a foreigner, not knowing about some NEW rule, boarding another train with a valid FIRST CLASS TICKET, would really go through the lengthy process of making them pay a penalty (it seemed it was almost a fine)for being on the wrong train.

I could have been a foreign investor headed for Erlangen and Siemens, ready to sign a huge deal to move my company here to Germany....not!

Yes, I know, those are the "rules" but common sense and humanity seems to get lost in their enforcement..........