Last year’s short break in Aachen left my wife and I left us thinking that a return trip was worthwhile. We noted that Maastricht was just a short train ride away, easily the subject of a day trip. We also hired a car for a day to visit Trier last year, but our day was curtailed by a brewing thunderstorm, and it was clear that there was plenty to justify staying overnight, and some attractive places to visit on the way and back (Monschau, the Mosel Valley), so we decided to undertake a second trip, again taking the train to Aachen, staying overnight, taking a day trip to Maastricht, then hiring a car for three days to “do” Trier, Monschau und the Mosel valley before returning to Aachen to take the train home. Unfortunately, the journey out was memorable for all the wrong reasons. So, here’s part one of a report. Please forgive its length
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Return to Aachen – the curse of DB strikes again!

Our outward journey (on 4 June) started well, and went well until we got to Brussels. The train from Goring & Streatley ran to time, and although TfL said that the Circle Line was suspended, and we travelled early for our 17-04 Eurostar to Brussels Midi because of the strike action that day, there was a Circle Line at Paddington and we even passed another at Edgeware Road going the other way! The Eurostar also ran to time, which was as well as there was only 17 minutes before our connecting train, the 20-22 ICE 319 to Cologne and Frankfurt, was due to depart.

I’m not a great fan of Brussels Midi, which is probably the least impressive terminus for the cross-channel Eurostar services. At least the signage for finding our platform from the international arrival platforms is clear, and our train was clearly shown as departing from platform 8. This is an island platform, with platform faces as platforms 7 and 8. This was crowded when we arrived, but the track at platform 8 was occupied by an empty three-coach local train, and the screen sign said something in Flemish that clearly meant “don’t get on”. An SNCB (Belgian railways) train for Liege was loading on platform 7. There then followed a series of announcements in four languages (English, French, Flemish and German) alternatively informing us that the train would be departing from platform 7 or platform 8. Eventually the empty train was shown as a local train departing at 21-09.

We waited for another 30 minutes or so. Our fellow passengers were clearly a mixture of business travellers and tourists. As SNCB cannot sell tickets valid on DB ICE trains for travel between Belgian stations, it followed that we were all going at least as far as Aachen. Eventually at about 20-50 a DB ICE train arrived at platform 7, and we all boarded. The train was full. We shared a four-seat table with two Germans, and struck up a conversation. After (the usual?) complaints about DB’s service generally, the story that emerged was that something had gone awry on the high-speed line between Liege and Aachen (something to do with the OHL), as a result of which both the previous ICE to Cologne and Frankfurt and a Eurostar (formerly Thalys) train along the same line had been cancelled, hence the large number of waiting passengers. The female German who shared our table had been sent back to Midi from Brussels Nord. The train was understandably full. But worse was yet to come.

Firstly, no sooner had we all boarded than the on-board signage showed another 30-minute delay to our departure. Soon this changed back, but there was a message that there would be a diversion (unspecified) along our route. We set off, but stopped at Brussels Nord from where one of our companions had been sent back to Midi and picked up some more passengers there. We were at last on our way, taking the high-speed line to Liege, taking comfort from the speeds of about 260km/hr shown on the in-carriage electronic signage. But as we pulled in to Liege Guillemins, there was an announcement that the service would be terminated there, and we were all to leave the train and proceed to the station forecourt, where buses would come to take us on to Aachen.
 
So, we all duly disembarked. I’d guess that there were over 400 of us, as Wikipedia indicates that all the varieties of ICE 3 trains carry around 450 and it seemed full. We certainly stretched all the way along the frontage of the station, many well-loaded down with luggage. We chose a spot near the middle, and were joined by the other German passenger who shared our table, who introduced himself as Daniel, who had been attending an EU meeting in Brussels, and who was travelling back home to Leverkusen via Cologne. By now it was well past the timetabled 21-33 arrival time at Aachen.

After some considerable wait, two SNCB employees appeared and reported that buses were on their way from Aachen. Eventually, just two German-registered buses arrived, loaded with passengers from Aachen. After they disembarked, the drivers closed the doors and changed their blind signage to wording that Daniel confirmed meant that they had finished for the day. The SNCB employees spoke to the drivers, but reported back that they had no instructions to pick anyone up, and would soon be on their way home.

Daniel and I both tried the DB general help number, but this simply got a pre-recorded message saying that the service was now closed for the night. Recalling my experience at Osnabruck last year, when there were at least staff on duty at the station office until late at night, I found a phone number for Aachen station.  A call to this number was answered by a somewhat grumpy person, who under questioning from Daniel disclosed that he was not aware of buses coming from Aachen to Liege, only some to get people between Aachen and Cologne. He said that the “rule” was that if a problem arose in Belgium, it was for the Belgians to arrange buses, if it was in Germany, then it was for DB to do so. He said that there was no-one higher up the management tree who could be contacted to try to resolve the plight of several hundred passengers outside Liege Guillemins. They were slowly being reduced in number by few taxis that appeared, apparently pre-booked which filled and departed. By this time, timetabled departures had reduced to a couple of bus services run by SNCB, one of which arrived and was soon rammed with waiting passengers, who looked like they were in for a very uncomfortable ride. We were not close enough to the place this bus stopped to have any chance of boarding, even if we wanted to.

As it was past 23-00, it was clearly time to try a plan B. We had booked an Ibis hotel in Aachen near the station. I noticed an Ibis Styles near Guillemins station, so walked over and spoke to the receptionist. She informed me that not only were they full, but there was a conference under way in Liege so most hotels were also full. When I asked about taxis, she said that due to problems on the trains that evening, they could not book any taxis from the town centre, as none were free for many hours.

I then spent some time on my mobile, Googling hotel and accommodation website and did find a budget hotel about 5 miles away that did have rooms free, but how to get there? Daniel had the Uber app on his phone, but this showed no available cars within 20km. Eventually one was located, and Daniel ordered it, on the basis that it would take us to the budget hotel for which we made a provisional booking by phone. It took a long time to arrive, but eventually near midnight a Tesla pulled up and we got in. The driver suggested he take us to Aachen as Uber could supply the requisite certificates for a DB claim, and that DB did meet such claims. We tried the Ibis in Aachen where my wife and I were booked, and they had a spare room for Daniel, so we cancelled our provisional bookings outside Liege and set off, arriving at our hotel at 00-45 – just over three hours late. When we left Liege there were still well over 100 passengers outside the front of the station, with taxis arriving at lengthy intervals to collect some.

From conversations while waiting, it appeared that the problem blocking the high-speed line arose at about 16-00, consistent with there being two previous cancelled high speed/express services. But there are hourly departures from Brussels for Aachen, with one change at Liege, via slower services until 21-56. These take together between two hours 26 minutes to two hours 46 minutes to complete the journey along the old line between Liege and Aachen. So why didn’t someone start making arrangements for Aachen passengers to at least be offered this straight away, and if the problem was not fixed by the time our 20-22 was due to depart, recommend this as there would still have been two services available (and, if required, ensure acceptance of the ICE tickets on SNCB)? Why was our ICE dispatched before the line was clear? Why were we told that buses would be available at Liege when clearly no arrangements had been made? Surely someone must have appreciated that finding ten buses (at least, for 400+ passengers, many with luggage) and drivers available and with enough permitted hours left was likely to be impossible at this time of day? And why, when it must have been clear that there was a problem was there no line of communication between SNCB and DB to try to resolve matters?

Needless to say, this second (and much worse) failure in two trips using DB has undermined my confidence in using them, at least for long-distance travel.

Next part – a positive cross-border experience….

 
A classic reminder that (a) this sort of problem is not unique to the UK and (b) when something goes wrong, it is so important to keep the customers informed - both to reduce their angst and perhaps delay, and from the railway's viewpoint to clear the blockage of customers waiting.  Waiting in a crowded train with an indefinite delay at Midi is not a pleasant experience - been there!

 
Part 2 – A day out in Maastricht – and some reflections on our trip

Needless to say, we did not get up very early the following day, but still undertook our day trip to Maastricht.
Although it’s less than 20 miles from Aachen to Maastricht, it takes about 50 minutes to travel by train between the two. It is not a very direct route, a direct line having been closed many years ago, part now being a heritage railway. Instead, it runs via Heerlen, stopping frequently. It is quite an attractive part of the world, green rolling country with Heerlen the only substantial town. Look out for Valkenburg station en route which claims to be the oldest in the Netherlands, and looks like it was built in the Scots Baronial Gothic style.

The service is run by Arriva, who took over the local rail services in Dutch Limburg and Maastricht’s buses from Veolia in 2016, and have since also taken over local trains east of Liege in Belgium. Their services also extend into the area around Aachen in Germany. They use two- and three-coach articulated Stadler trains, which were clean and comfortable. Both trains and busses are in a blue and white livery, with a prominent rampant red lion, symbol of Limburg, a region covering this area where Netherlands, Belgium and Germany meet. There is a half-hourly clockface service between Aachen and Maastricht.

Maastricht itself is well worth a visit. It has a fine 1913 brick-built station with step gables, a large entrance hall and waiting area. From there, a wide tree-lined avenues with cafes leads to the St Servatius bridge across the Maas/Meuse, part ancient bridge, part a lifting bridge with an ingenious extending ramp mechanism that enables pedestrians to continue to use it when raised. This takes you to the old city centre, with two of the oldest church buildings in the Netherlands, one of the oldest city gates and a pleasant large market place where you can eat and drink.

At Aachen, the ticket machine did not like my UK bank cards, so I tried the “Go Rheinland” ticket counter where we could get a regional day rover ticket covering local/regional trains, buses and trams in a considerable area covering Hasselt and Liege in Belgium, Roermond in the Netherlands and parts of North Rhine – Westphalia in Germany, all for 23-50 Euros.

Both the train there and back ran on time. Well done, Arriva.

Our return home also went smoothly. As with last year’s trip, SNCB selected their own trains (a slow local to Liege, from where we took the long-distance Eupen-Ostend train to Brussels Midi). The Eurostar, TfL and GWR got us back home with only one hiccup that worked in our favour. The Didcot Parkway train before the one we were aiming to catch was delayed, so we caught this, which then missed Slough and Twyford to arrive a minute or so late at Goring, but half-an-hour before we expected to get there.

I am still not a fan of the experience at Brussels Midi. The food outlets are either side of a busy subway which could be wider and suffers from what appears to be a Belgian habit of people walking through crowded areas at speed while looking intently at their mobile phones. The area where you wait after checking in is not really big enough, made worse by the siting of a substantial airport-style duty free shop through which you have to walk to get to the departure lounge. Please SNCB, reduce it in size, convert part to extra seating and part to a few more catering outlets.

It is also striking that by far the worse performing transport provider (again!) was nationalised DB. Contrast this with what appeared to be Arriva’s well run and integrated cross-border offering in Limburg. Please could Hilary Alexander and Lord Hendy stop trying to convince us that public ownership will cure all our transport problems. It’s well-trained motivated people on the ground and shrewd well-directed investment that is needed, from whatever source.