What's with the trains?

I haven't had a single cold this winter. Not even so much as a running nose. That has changed, thanks to Deutsche Bahn (national railway, for those who are not from Germany). I started feeling a little uncomfortable after having to wait on a platform outside for 45 minutes at -15 degrees, because my train was cancelled, and no one thought it necessary to make an announcement. That was the end of my flu-free winter.

Today, I started coughing and generally feeling a bit under the weather. So I left the office early to go home, take a bath and to sleep the bug away. Sounds good in theory, right? But, alas, my train was cancelled (no notification) and again I waited for half an hour outside. Not exactly helping.

And this is what has happened all week long. Trains are cancelled, if they aren't cancelled, they're late, and I don't get my connections.

That would be really annoying if it weren't for the totally senseless excuses. I particularly like this one: 'we regret to inform you that the train is delayed due to dense traffic'. Dense traffic? These are trains, for flip's sake! The same number of trains are going at the same time every day! It's not as if there's rush hour or something.

And this is my absolute favourite: 'we regret to inform you that the train is delayed because it is delayed'. No shit, really?

I'm not very partial towards Deutsche Bahn right now, but I guess I'll just have to deal with it.