The SECRET German High-Speed Train they don’t tell you about! 

i went on the Metropolitan when it used to run between Cologne/Düsseldorf and Frankfurt. And as i was part of a group being shown around by a corporate travel agent, i was allowed to be in the cab with the driver when we hit max speed. This was more than 20 years ago

Definitely. Too bad that DB will sell them...

Maybe. I personally avoid public transport in Germoney becauseI don't want to be slaughtered.😁

Imho a regular ICE is much better. The Metropolitan is rather old fashioned and outdated. I avoid these trains.

@@crazyedo9979 Traveling on roads is way more dangerous.

Thank you, glad you appreciate the effort! :)

@@SuperalbsTravels You made me smile the entire video with Your German pronunciation which is on a high level indeed. Thank You! Greetings from Berlin.

@@SuperalbsTravels Thought the same. Your pronunciation was almost always on point.

I agree, pronunciation was excellent. My Bavarians neighbours however might disagree..

Thank you everyone! :)

The toilets had self cleaning seats when used as Metropolitan - this feature was removed, as soon as they used the coaches as ICE.

You can call yourself lucky, that the toilets were working HAHA! My wife was riding on an ICE from MUC to HAM, and they also did not sell any beverages. And that was just because the toilets were out of order. Can you imagine, on such a long ride?! Tzänk ju for träwelink witz Deutsche Bahn…

@@evilkneevilofgermany 😄

At the very end, they switched the bird sounds to like a normal kind of "elevator music"... so it has been just normal quiet music sounds, which has been played even in the entrance areas

Thanks, it's a real shame to be honest, this train was something special.

But didn't they build a new luxury (high-speed) train in the meantime when this is 25 years old? I really want to know which modern train comes closest to this luxury train since I think Germany has almost no luxury transportation or facilities to offer..

@@John-b8j try a ride on the new ICE4: consequently optimised for the reduction of running costs and comfort. Okay, they are not as fast as their predecessors anymore, but that gives you more time to enjoy the tortures, the new seats have to offer. As a distraction you can count the switches the train passes over or enjoy the long forgotten rocking merry-go-round feeling, because they also did their best to give you both an audible and a physical feedback of the track underneath. All in all a master piece in how not to do it.

The Deutsche Bahn in general is a masterclass in how not to do efficient and affordable public transportation.

What do train nerds dislike about the ICE4? I found it to be rather impressive when using it this summer.

Best train now to get on that route is the Czech train from Prague to Kiel. Its older, but the service is a lot better than DB trains and the restaurant is really good.

@@Whywouldyounot Only issue with the route coming from Prague is that it often times already has massive delay before entering Germany.

​​@@Whywouldyounot nah, the only advantage on that one is that I can go nonstop Berlin>Kiel, maybe on a slightly cheaper Supersparpreis as the ICE connection (which I can book as cheaply as 13€ with BC25...) Let's be real. The trainset is super crusty compared to ICE (I'm NOT a train buff reaping additional intrinsic value from superloud transitions between coaches that remind me of my childhood in the 80ies) My personal "favorite" is the blaring PA in the compartments that comes at a volume to frighten the dead, whacky jingle 'n all ; ) I' ll continue to ride on that EC train for the price and nonstop connection but as far as service goes I've rarely had a bad DB experience, especially in the age of Komfort-Checking (I'm an avid feedback giver though, but always in a productive kinda way). Finally, got to ride the train featured in this video some years ago, I remember it feeling like an over the top pimped out interior but weirdly old fashioned compared to ICE3 and 3.

Haha that's awesome! Did you buy a seat too?

@@SuperalbsTravels Unfortunately, no. Those mugs were on sale around 2004/2005, when the original brand vanished and before the rolling stock was repurposed as ICE. The Met (as they liked to call themselves) had lots of perks for their travelers: Complimentary drinks (an awesome green tea) even in second class and you could borrow a portable DVD player with a tiny screen and a selection of movies (to mimic in-flight entertainment). Bear in mind that this was in 2000, 2001 when DVD drives in laptops were a novelty. The demise of Metropolitan was certainly due to the rise of low-cost airlines. However, not being able to buy a single ticket with connecting trains was a disadvantage. If you weren't traveling from Hamburg to Essen, Düsseldorf or Cologne you had to buy different tickets from different agents. Not very compelling. For business travelers the Metropolitan lacked a very enticing feature: Air miles or a comparable bonus system. All those business travelers who went by plane from Hamburg to Düsseldorf or Cologne on a regular basis would collect their precious Lufthansa miles. Metropolitan had nothing of that sort. That made them a lot less attractive for people who wanted to collect miles to take their families on weekend trips or spend their miles on Rimowa luggage.

wow.. that's rare. 😂 sometimes we arrive at a station earlier than planned, but DB somehow manage to screw us up with 20 minutes delay in the end.

​@@Paarthurnax_Apparently that Railroad was a time traveling machine! 😁

Actually, one should make a distinction here: places like Stralsund, for example, have no English translation, so it makes sense to pronounce them the German way but cities such as "Warszawa" and "Praha" do have English names , so it's just normal to say "Warsaw" and "Prague" in an English sentence, as these names are simply part and parcel of the English language. "Warszawa", "Praha" and the like simply do not belong to the English language and have nothing to do in an English sentence as a result.

You mean they didn´t honour your request of "the coffe with the hightest caffeine content please."?

Well it did when that one ICE set went to the USA. Only problem was that nobody knew how to use it.

A friend and I visited letter friends in the GDR in September 1989. Same with us: There was no indication - at least for us - that two months later the iron curtain would fall.

*Würzburg

In 2019 I also found one of these hidden gems. From Cologne to the North Sea in a declassified 1st class intercity coach with compartments.

Damn he should put you in the video credits, maybe give you an employment contract and start paying your pension contributions.

​@@John-rw9bvbruh

I can understand the confusion! 😂

That, I believe, is a problem of the MacBook adapters being double insulated and not grounded, therefore the MacBook chassis is "floating" and a small leak current can exist between the housing and any actually grounded object.

That's the thrill of demonization for u. 🤔demonetization

et haha....far out

Whatever did he mean? et was smack dab right in the middle of it the whole time

Shut up stoopid

Mkay shaggy

Thank you, hope you enjoyed!!

Exactly! 🥰

As the railway capital of the world Japan already has 3 classes in some of the Shinkansen. Check out the "Gran Class", it's pretty much what you're describing. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw the same thing in Europe on very popular first class routes.

Executive class on the Frecciarossa 1000?

Railjet trains also have a Business Class section - it's a separate carriage on the ÖBB trains and a small open section on the CD ones. definitely seems like there's a market for this kind of stuff where train connections ought to be of high quality.

Yup, I believe they did sell off the seats when they originally overhauled them.

@@SuperalbsTravels Some of the seats were in the koblenz DB Museum as cinema seats.

Watch until the end but I thought that Superalbs had already made a video about this service.

The last ride was in 2022. Its ended.

@@DirkZimm last ride was in December 2021

11:22

@@DirkZimm RIP

Wow, just goes to show how fancy the design was! Glad you enjoyed my video. :)

It’s so rare to see someone in RU-vid try to pronounce German right

Hahaha thanks for watching!

Sadly this no longer operates... :(

@@SuperalbsTravels Oh that’s really sad… may it rest in peace, that perfect train. thanks for the quick response. Any comfortable luxury option you can recommend for the route Frankfurt - Berlin?

@@barclaymovingpictures3041 Many people hate the firm seats of the new ICE4 line. You should be able to book an Ice1 or ice1 refresh (ICE Kurz) on that route. Don't book a seat in a small cabin. You can't recline them in the second class. Book a seat in the full cabin.

Thank you!! 😊😊😊

yes but france isnt :) theyre shit

Deutsche Bahn has become very unreliable with delays and cancellations as of late but all the local rail networks, such as subways and trams in the cities are quite impressive with good coverage. Over 20 German cities have some sort of subway or subway/tram hybrid network, over 30 others have street level trams and Wuppertal has a hanging monorail line that opened in 1901.

Switzerland is unbeatable for trains IMHO 🙌 Sadly, you have to bring more or less a whole bank to afford a longer stay there 😉

@@lazrseagull54 the regio trains are actually quit good on time, its only the "fernverkehr" which struggles horribly (most of the time)

@@Snowshowslow but to be fair, while Switzerland is indeed doing a great job, Germany as the dominant center in Europe with most borders to other countries in the EU and highest frequencies of trains, cares and traffic in Europe is also since the 21. century with a much higher fluctuation more under stress of the existing structures than most other countries (which does not take away some mistakes which were done additionally). I hope the re-structuring and updates will result in an overall better system. at the moment many 'delays/problems' appear much more as the real problems behind are (it just causes permanently chain reaction problems even for many things which are fine in itself. lot of bottleneck stuff) ...

So is Warnemünde not a city but a district of Rostock.

The comma is intended to indicate a list, so it is Hannover AND Nordrhein-Westfalen. 😁

Was it "Zoologischer Garten"? I was unable to get that one so, yes, it must have been a real struggle for him.

@@yagi3925 zoological garden, the Berlin zoo. ( Well one of two, this is the one in west Berlin, there is also one in east Berlin)

@@tzarcoal1018 Thanks. Yes, I know: there's the Zoologischer Garten in the West and the Tierpark in the East (Berlin is now left with lots of duplicated institutions, as a result of the former division of the city) but I mean that the pronunciation in the video was so unclear that I was completely unable to identify the words "Zoologischer Garten".

@@yagi3925 It’s the Zoo Station

They where taken out of service in December 2021

@@bahnfahrenaufschlau Damn... Sad.

I wish I had a few more rides now... :(

Interesting fact, thanks!

@@SuperalbsTravels And Berlin Ostbahnhof was Berlin Hbf for a time under Honecker.

This design is used in first class at nearly all modern ICE. Sometimes you could grab an upgrade to first class for x2 the seat reservation price if the train is full. (they move some passengers to first class for cheap). I road in this train only before a mayor holiday when DB-AG putting every train on the rail which might drive. It's a setback if you book a 320km/h ticket and you got a 200km/h ride (but with style). There where other mayor setbacks (a old IR/RE regional train used as a ICE or IC).

Second best? Wow, I want to know what your best journey was!

@@SuperalbsTravels that was on a normal ICE train. Not due to the comfort of the train itself, but the route and the silency I had: it was on a trip from Berlin Central Station northbound towards Stralsund Central Station, a trip of roughly 3 hours which usually has a few stops in between. But due to construction works along the track the ICE had to be rerouted on an entirely different track, leaving out ALL stops in between Berlin and Stralsund. Thus, all people which wanted to leave the train at one of these stops were on board of other trains and buses instead, with the result that the train was pretty much empty. In my coach there was only one man and myself; THe power socket didn't work so I moved in the next coach which was completly empty. It was such a pleasent non-stop trip between these two cities and I watched 2 movies on my laptop.

Thanks! 😃

Such a great way to travel!

Tomorrow I'll be visiting friends 40km away. I have tons of direct lines an with the direct one would be there in 25min. But I'm crossing states so the cheapest ticket is usually 25€. I once got a "Spar" ICE Ticket from NRW to Berlin for 22€ because it was the cheapest option for those 40km. Tomorrow Ill take the car. Mai can't come soon enough.

Man bekommt Tickets für 19 Euro für die ICEs, wenn man ein paar Monate im Voraus bucht. Und die Strecke ist egal, solange die in Deutschland liegt....

The recording is over a year old, I was personally on the very last ride.

It looks a little bit like the video from the train is from the beginnings of the Corona "pandemics" with all these "lockdowns". Normally, an ICE Sprinter train between Berlin and Frankfurt/M has way more passengers in it. Usually, half of the available seats are in use.

I don't, as it's simply wrong. "Praha" and "Warszawa" are not English words, they have no place in an English sentence.

@@yagi3925 lol are you serious

@@dariuskromoser8936 Of course! The Polish capital is called "Warsaw" in English, not "Warszawa, Varsovie" or whatever else. And so on for every city that has an English name.

yes, I must agree with @yagi3925. All those cities have English names. There is no need to put on a (bad) German or Polish accent to make yourself sound more learned or whatever. (Context - I speak fluent German)

@@sambsstt Thanks for your input. Actually, I'm not a (native) English speaker, so my post was non partisan. It's just that every language should us its own toponyms whenever it has one. I speak Czech and German but the Czechs call London "Londýn" and Rome "Řím", and it's perfectly OK, so there's no reason why English or Italian speakers should call their capital "Praha". An English speaker travels to Venice, a German speaker to Venedig, a Dutch speaker to Venetië etc. Alll these languages don't use "Venezia" and it's perfectly normal.

Thank you!! :)

It was a regular ICE service. No upcharge or mandatory reservation required. So it very much would have been valid. After all, this is DB and not SNCF or Renfe we’re talking about.

In the Metropolitan days, I would presume it was not valid. During the ICE days, it was no problem. For a short period, reservations may have been required as ICE Sprinter routes were compulsory reservation.

That ("l'usage des cabinets est interdit pendant l'arrêt du train en gare") was (is?) pretty standard practice in France, too, precisely for the reason indicated :)

We have many of the same train toilets still in Hungary. (Along with more modern stuff.)

Yup, I always like the ICE too!

😁

Thank you!

Such a shame... :(

That's a shame, too bad it's all gone now...

They should still exist. I remember travelling in reclinable seats from Geneva to Barcelona some twenty years ago. But it was an overnight train and the reclinable seats were intended to allow you some form of sleep at least, so you might not find them in ordinary trains.

If you book months in advance the Deutsche Bahn long distance tickets are cheap....

Thanks, and thanks for the information too!

It is a shame. Too bad you never got to try it.

Agreed!

The train ferry sadly stopped running in 2020, I would've liked to take it. It's due to engineering works related to a high-speed line leading to a undersea tunnel being built where the ferry is, the Danish IC3 train (no more DB ICE trains either, also a shame) instead takes and L shaped route via the Storbælt bridge

@@epender I took it some couple of years ago when we visited Copenhagen by Train. It was a fascinating experience

Not really as ICE1 & ICE2 have a special connection so you can split a unit "Just during "maintenance" in the workshop and not during normal operation :) The first generation of European Highspeed trains used the system of "Powercars" Italian ETR500, French TGV :),

Interesting, thank you! :)

🤣🤣🤣

Thank you! :)

Thank you, I agree!