Deutsche Bahn Reviews 

Absolutely useless. They cancelled the train and still have not refunded the fare 5months later. They work on the basis you will give up trying,
Definitely do not use!

Worst train company ever.

AVOID AVOID AVOID. No refunds for cancelled trains. We purchased train tickets from Poznan to Berlin. The trip was cancelled, with no further information. We attempted to contact them only to receive generic answers. No online form for refund. We spent half a day in Berlin travelling to the main office and standing in queue to request a refund, only to be told they cannot issue a refund and we would have to complete a paper form, PRINT OUR TICKETS & RECEIPTS and MAIL them in... What year is it? The form was not foreigner-friendly as it required a German address and the translation was ineligible in English. Of course, we left Germany the next day and these thieves kept our money...

The only chance the train will be on time is if the previous train is so late it comes at the time you expect the current train to come. Terrible experience. Only good thing is the free vaccines you can get at Frankfurter Hauptbahnhof. Nice that they are giving homeless people employment ^^

You see the results… like how can a company be this bad

I‘m from Germany and used to like Db a lot. It always had it failures, with trains being late or cancelled but it didn’t affected me personally, in terms of big inconveniences. Usually there was always a different option. A lot went wrong in its history but overall I thought it was a decent way of traveling, because I personally love traveling by trains. However what happened to me now is in my opinion unacceptable. In June I bought an IC flexprice ticket from Hannover to Berlin. The one I originally planned to take was cancelled, so I decided to take the ICE departing 5min later also to Berlin Hbf. It took almost the same about of time (technically ICE is 4min quicker (which wasn’t the cause due to futher delays)). In the train I got told, that my ticket wasn’t valid and I had to pay the price difference to ICE. Which I think is inconvenient but understandable. The friendly chauffeur told me I had to contact the db chat for this, which I did during the train ride. The chat itself was closed so I had to write a message. So I did and got an email that my pay expire date is stopped for now. And that I would get an email soon with further information. I checked my emails in detail for the next 2 weeks. Then I honestly forgot about it…

Turns out they send one a month later, claming 24,60€ (more than my original ticket with Bahncard50). I missed it , which honestly is my fault but I think it’s unacceptable for it to take so long. Now 1.5months later I got a ltter with the same price + a 7€ fee. Total 31,6€ I already called but they told me its just procedure and they can’t do anything. I am just going to pay it now cause I can’t deal with more stress atp, but I think that it’s just ridiculous and unacceptable for a company like that and I am going to consider db alternatives a lot more in the future.

Commuting with DB will definitely affect your life NEGATIVELY. It owns nice trains ,but run them properly on time and keep the passengers timely informed is something DB is not and will not be able to do. unfortunately I can't give them a zero star. THEY HAVE NO RESPECT FOR TIME. THEY ARE VERY UNRELIABLE.

Dreadful at trains and dreadful at customer service.

In late June myself and 3 friends bought tickets to travel from Berlin Ostbahnhof to Cologne to watch England vs Slovenia on ICE 558. We wanted to spend the day before kick-off soaking in the atmosphere with fellow England fans in Cologne, so booked tickets to arrive there around 7 hours before kick-off. The tickets we booked were through a special EURO 2024 promotion, specifically for tournament ticket holders travelling to matches.

Unfortunately our journey was a disaster - the train we were on basically got halfway to Cologne and then just stopped for several hours with very little in the way of information coming from the conductor on board or DB via email. After around 90 minutes of going nowhere the train began slowly reversing and eventually arrived in some tiny station called Ahlen where we again sat for several hours going nowhere.

After around 4 hours we were told our train would apparently be taking us to the next stop down the line (Hagen) and would then terminate there. We reached Hagen around 5 hours later than scheduled, at which point we were told another train would take us the rest of the way to Cologne.

50 minutes later a train finally arrived, but then just sat on the platform going absolutely nowhere again. By this point we'd had enough and were seriously worried we'd end up missing kickoff, so abandoned the trains and spend 200 euro on a taxi to take us the last 70 miles to Cologne to make sure we got there in time for kick-off.

I applied for compensation for this dreadful experience and according to DB's own passenger rights information I should be due a refund of 50% of the ticket price. It's taken them 5 weeks to respond to my claim and they've only paid me a refund of 25% and completely refused to repay the taxi costs (which in our case were necessary since the EURO 2024 special ticket we'd bought as football fans was going to cause us to miss the match we were travelling to).

An utterly awful company with useless customer service and they're a national embarrassment to Germany. Fair play to them, they've made Britain's dreadful railways look incredible in comparison!

Although I had ticket, I was informed to leave station because it was "closed" , while the Germans were allowed to stay in there. I took a lot of crap with constant overfull connections in the weekends, but ethnic profiling is really not right anywhere! It was the guards hired as DB sec.

Constant phone calls to resolve a train ticket that DB have changed. Their Twitter contact agents are useless. Haven't even had the pleasure of travelling with them yet.

Try to avoid if you can - in about 15 trips I took while traveling in Germany only 2 times train was on time, all trains arrived to different platforms, one time I nearly stuck in Belgium bc they decided that that day train will go from another station (seriously?).

Worse - their monthly tickets system is a total scam, they don't allow you to cancel subscription later then 10 days before NEXT month (that's ridiculous, I wasn't even in a country and they still try to charge me and sent collectors, have some decency, Deutchebahn! You're fecking giant corporation with 56 bil.euro revenue).
Be VERY careful if you ever buy a monthly ticket. If you say buy it on 14th and cancel immediately, you'll be charged for both current month and next and it obviously isn't specified when you're buying it, if you use app in English.

A new ICE3-neo train just returned halfway to Liège back to Aachen, due to technical problems. It’s not the first time there are problems on this route. The train is always rather busy and only rides every 2 hours. The combination of unreliable trains and insufficient trains hasn’t been dealt with. I hope the DB is considering to up the schedule and organise hourly trains to Brussels. It’s a far way from promoting train travel. Real disappointment.

Avoid use DB in any case.
I used them quite a lot since i move to berlin,
Not arrived on time even once.
DumB

I am being ‘treated’ to a journey at the moment. Half an hour late already after sitting in the station with no explanation for our delay. My total journey time is only 20 minutes! This regular journey I make is more often than not late. I have also used Deutschebahn for a few long distance journeys and none have been on time. The record was 2 hours late. We now use the car for long distances. You can’t rely on Deutschebahn. Trains are cancelled last minute and frequently late. On the other hand on my recent trip back to the U.K. every train was on time!

Without question one of the worst travel experiences ever. We booked first class tickets on the ICE from Berlin to Vienna, transiting through Hungary and Czech Republic, and reserved our seats. When we got to the train station, we saw that our assigned coach (the entire car) had been removed from the train and there was no first class car.

The problem was all the 2nd class cars were full. So, we ended up with NO seats and no place for our luggage. Our only options were to sit on the floor or sit in the restaurant car. We chose the latter (as it was an 8.5 hr journey, and anyway that was what the conductor told us to do, and he told us to just put our luggage in the empty seats at our table).

From Berlin to Brno, it was not too bad. But from there, things got worse. Because way more passengers got on the train. And then they were annoyed with us for taking up so much room in the restaurant car. There was a nasty interaction with an entitled woman who insisted on sitting at our table, which basically meant I had to vacate my seat (as I have a spinal injury and have a hard time standing on a train, this was most unfortunate). Even the Czech conductor came and gave us a hard time, telling us to move our baggage. But we were like : where shall we put it ? Should we block the aisles ? Finally, she looked at our tickets and understood what had happened, and told the awful woman to leave our table. But really we were getting all kinds of dirty looks from so many passengers. It was horrible. Maybe that would not bother everyone. But it bothered us. We are Canadian. We don’t like public conflict.

The German (DB) and Czech conductors both gave us slips of paper attesting to the problem and told us to use them to request a refund from DB for the extra first class price and the cost of the seat reservations.

When we returned to Berlin 2 weeks later and tried that, they refused, claiming that it was because seat reservations were mandatory for this particular train and therefore I had not paid for the seat reservation itself.

Ridiculous. It cost me over 100euros extra for 1st class and we did not even receive this service, but we get no refund.

NEVER again.

We gave up and took the car. You have to hand in refund requests by mail - like in a actual old fashion mail company. That is just low. like in really low.
I really hope this will be discouraging just one person from arranging a travel with this company.

Worst train company I’ve ever travelled with. Almost at 100% of all long-distance travels I encounter problems on the way. Trains cancelled last minute without proper guidance what to do, never ending delays and totally absent staff whenever there is an issue. But of course, they will gladly fine you if you made a mistake.

Trash. Pure trash

To simply write down my experience i have with this company, would not do it justice. Therefore, instead of your usual review, i will paste the history of messages i sent to my friend during my weekly commute on the 10th of december 2023. (This has happened countless times before, and since. I chose this date because i feel like it encapsulates my feelings towards DB the best.)

18:55
oh no
oh no
OH NO
OH NO
F#CK F#CK F#CK NOOOOOOOO
DEUTSCHE BAHN

19:32
F#ck
I HAVE A HISTORY EXAM TOMORROW

19:38
Still at the station btw.
Keep in mind
I should have already been home by 18:00.

19:43
Finally. I'm on the train.

20:12
I hate my life.
I hate this place, hate everything.
It says here that once i'm in Cologne, i'm gonna have
to wait there until 20:50, so i can taje the F#CKING SUBWAY to bonn.

20:13
That's right, Bonn is disconnected from the rest of society again.
Remember when DB was sabotaged that one time?
How some dudes cut some cables and stopped all communication?

20:14
I WAS TAKING THE TRAIN THAT DAY.
AND IT WORKED 10 THOUSAND TIMES BETTER THAM HOW ITS WORKING NOW.
i don't understand

20:17
how can you f#ck up so bad that sabotaging the system makes it BETTER

20:24
30 MINUTES BY CAR
GOOGLE SAYS THIS WHOLE THING IS 30 MINUTES BY CAR
FROM ESSEN TO BONN
I'VE BEEN HERE FOR LIKE 4 HOURS AT THIS POINT

20:26
OH MY GOD
ITS FASTER BY BICICLE

20:22
The conductor sounds like he's sick of living.
You can just hear how he's on the verge of crying.
So am i.

20:24
Finally in Cologne.

20:34
And now there's stoners listening to dutch rave music at max volume.

20:35
It's literally Polish Toilet Spin Basshunter Homosex K19191 but as a gabber remix and mashed with Axel F.
How do you even find this.

20:47
They're nearly f#cking throwing themselves into the train track dancing.

20:48
And now they're making out.
Yeah, they're probably on crack or something.
Cop is just sitting there in the corner.
Smoking.
In the subway station.

20:49
OH NO
THEYRE GOING IN THE SAME TRAIN AS ME

20:50
YESSSSSSS THEY WENT IN THE OTHER WAGON
I FOUND A SPOT

20:51
OH NO

THAT'S THE WAGON WHERE THE TRADWIFE WENT WITH HER 30 CHILDREN

20:55
THE DISTORTED KICKS ARE GONNA MAKE THEM AUTISTIC LIKE WHAT HAPPENED TO ME WHEN I LISTENED TO HALLEY LABS

20:57
AND NOW
THERES A F#CKING 80 YEAR OLD BOOZE PIRATE TALKING TO HIMSELF NEXT TO ME

20:58
I can still hear the bass kicks from the other wagon.
Rip those kids ears.

21:02
Its so crowded, thank god i have a seat
Even if it's right next to this old guy rambling to me about... probably soccer

21:13
Now that the booze pirate is gone, i feel srangely...
...At peace.

21:14
The train is still crowded but
It no longer smells like cheap alcohol, weed and puke
The stoners have long exited the train
Dansing off into the night
I'm happy for them

21:15
I wish i could be as happy as them
But then i remember

21:16
None of this would have happened if some dipsh#t didn't rewrite the basic law in order to turn this government entity into a private for-profit company that's still funded entirely by taxpayer money
How did they let this happen

21:21
It's still loud but
I could sleep right now.

21:27
Here's a video of the giant refinery the line cuts through
Looks like some star wars type sh#t at night
How cool is that

21:39
There's a station in this line that's just such a f#cking liminal space, i'll see if i can record it
Also thank god the cologne subway connects to Bonn

22:34
Finally at the bus stop
It's cold as f#ck
18 minutes till the next bus cuz it's nighttime

22:40
You could make an anime out of my commutes
never forget that one time with the gang of 2,5m diameter mega fatsos singing while spanking eachother's bare asses
Or the time i waited 5 hours for a train, only to have it be invaded by soccer fans, forcing me to leave for the sake of my lungs and liver

22:43
Wdym we're oddly happy?
We're like
the most depressed (non-eastern) european country

22:52
this place is super f#cking saddening

22:53
the only way people here know how to entertain themselves is by getting drunk

22:54
This was still better than the sh#t that happened last month though

22:55
I thought about jumping into the tracks last month.
NOT BECAUSE I GOT TIRED OF LIVING THO
I just felt betrayed by this place.

22:26
It says we're like the 9th or so richest and the 8th or so least corrupt country in the world.
Yet look at this sh#t

22:27
Look at Duisburg Hbf.
That place is from a timeline where there was no marshall plan

22:28
Meanwhile look at how much our country invests in making sh#tty cars that don't even work anymore.
If this is what living in the 8th least corrupt country is like, then i have no hope for humanity left.

22:29
Genuinely.

22:38
This is why people vote far-right and far-left and sh#t.

22:39
Everything looks like sh#t, and the numbers look as if they're made up. Then, people blame eachother for it out of frustration for nothing being done. I'm scared for the future.