Deutsche Bahn AG Reviews 5,257

What the hell. DB have updated their website. No international tickets can be booked anymore! Even their new site (international-bahn.de), nothing works, nothing sells.
I thought that trains should be a green alternative for airplanes, yet by the looks of it we need to go back to plane travel then?! What kind of decision making is this? Bring back the old functionality?!

To avoid. The worst service is EU trains. Inattentive staff unable to communicate in English while working an international train service. Be careful because they sell tickets with combined services from different companies and in case of delays and missed connection due to their fault, they never refund.

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...

I wish I can give -5 star for their worst management. One of the bad public transport company

We were supposed to be taking a train from Munich to Vienna and they cancelled our tickets. Leaving us spending hours on the phone trying to get in touch with someone for 2 days with no luck to get a refund. After having no choice but to book first class tickets online with another train the same day to get to our next destination and continue our vacation. At the train station we even went into the office there and once again no help because we don’t have a bank account with any European branch. All I have to say is they should be ashamed as a company with their customer service. We will never deal with this company again. Absolutely horrible.

You can’t plan with the app. The connection I was relying on changed overnight to ‘not possible‘ with alternative routes (replacement bus) taking ca. 1 hour longer. This was the case on my outward journey 4 days ago, so why wasn’t this showing in the app until the day of departure? I’m using my Deutschland Ticket to get to my departure station and now have to cancel my morning participation in a workshop because I can’t trust the alternative routes to get me there on time and risk losing my train-connected ticket. Always disappointing.

I always have bad experiences every time but this one was the worst. I had a trip a trip from Heilbronn to Köln with 4 connections. When I reached Mannheim after taking 2 connections I got notification that the train won’t stop there so I had to take the train back to Heidelberg and take another connection from there. And i should go down in Siegburg to take my last connection back home but while I am in the train my stop was canceled and the train is late and they offered another stop as alternative which is Bonn Buel, and they train kept going until the first stop I could go down in was Düsseldorf and from there I had to take 4 more trains and trams back home. Original time for arrival for me was 23:00 but I arrived home at 4:00 am.

You know why. Paying a lot of money for a ticket just to be standing the whole 2 hour journey because there is not enough room. Now I’m feeling like I’m in India and obviously the train is late as always so I can’t catch my connecting train.

They change my train and now instead arriving at 01:00 am to Hamburg I will arrive at 07;00 am… what a crappy service

Long distance trains are pretty expensive, but also, there are regular long delays. Officially passengers are entitled to get 50% of the price back if the train is delayed. However, even this is not as easy. In fact it is inceribly difficult in comparison to for instance Austrian railways OBB, or Dutch railways NS.

For example, I submitted claims for delays multiple times providing all my data, including my bank account number, and for some of these claims I keep receiving a paper letter to my address in the Netherlands, where DB is asking to again provide my bank account number by a paper letter that has to be sent from the Netherlands to Germany. Why do they do it, when I already have shared my account number? Is it just to create extra paperwork and to prevent me from getting the reimbursement back?

Another time I submitted a claim through DB app for a travel I booked through exactly that app, and still I received a paper letter to my address in the Netherlands, where they asked me to print out my ticket and send by post from the Netherlands to Germany. Is that a joke? They perfectly know the trip I did and the ticket connected to it, as the submission was done from the app by a button "claim delay" connected to exactly that ticket. And even in the letter itself they mention my booking number and the description of journey - which confirms that they perfectly know what I am applying for. I cannot believe that this is happening in 2024 in Europe.

Stole my money at Munich train station.

Gave me a receipt but no ticket. You can’t stamp the receipt in the relevant machine and obviously it’s not a ticket.

Stay away from these thieves and order a taxi or get a bus. It is safer.

Guy on the desk said ‘not my problem’ when he came back from his extended tea break.

It looks like an excuse to steal and fine the unsuspecting tourist.

Aside from the usual delays that I always confront on my travels with DB. Last time was just disastrous. I had six hours delay, it took me 12 hours to arrive to my destination. My friend was in a critical situation in the hospital and this just made my day 100 times worse both emotionally and physically. At the end I just got half of the price of my ticket refunded without any extra compensation!! Really shameful.

OMG...I should have read the reviews but it wouldn't have made a difference in my travel plans...except prepare for this nightmare.

We booked a train for earlier in Sep 2024. Due to fire on the track, we were rerouted . What was 2 connections became 9 connections. OK. I understand you can't control a fire (but I hear it was due to a malfunctioning switch or equipment).

Connecting times were so close - some only 4 or 5 minutes - and trains were consistently late that the scheduled times became only a suggestion. We had to go to various agents to find the next train since we were always missing a connection.

On top of this, two agents in Hamburg would not assign 1st class seats because as they told us: 1) it was too close to the departure time and 2) all seats on the train were full. Pure junk. I went on the app and got assignments in the dining car and there were multiple open seats around us. If your trains are terrible, then at least have agents do their job instead of spewing lousy excuses.

Eventually, we ran out of trains as service stopped and only buses were available so we had to stay the night. Crazy. Lucky we located a hotel.

I'm now trying to get $$ for the unexpected hotel stay and they won't take online submission because the request is over EUR 120 so I have to mail it in. Based on this fiasco, and their lousy agents, I fully expect them to say they lost the paperwork so sorry can't help you (as they laugh all the way to the bank).

Worst train system. In general, german trains are the worst. If you are tourist or decide to live in Germany, please start thinking about a car or car sharing. They simply do not care. They cancelled whenever they want (no concern for people who travel everyday for work), they are late. They just do not care. So if you want reliable transport, rent a car. You will pay a lot for this unpredictable service.

Sorry can't give 0 stars, always late like litteraly every single time, the quality of the trains is sooo bad, they have ruined the german legacy of precision, gr8 job guys!!

I don't get it even when the trains are on time they simply won't move, pleaaase hire better people

Remarkably unfriendly and unhelpful except when pressed to provide information. I never write poor reviews because in my experience one person might be having a bad day so I don't want to punish an entire business for one person's behavior. DB seems to have a systematic behavior attitude problem with their employees probably because they are state run. Yikes people try being nice.... It goes a long way.

2 trains same day no bathroom functional while having 2 kids travelling with us - s... as f...

I don't even have words... next time I better pay 300€ for a taxi than go with this shi!t company!

What in the world,Worst public transport ever…