What happened one day on my trip using “Deutsche Bahn”:

Taking your bike for a ride

I use the train everyday and bring my bike. To make this story short, I created a little sketch about the bike compartments in the train (Regionalbahn) and where I put my bike. If you put your bike where I put mine, it blocks a bit the way, but it’s still no problem to walk through. The only thing which can block, is a person sitting there.

“Because you don’t comprehend!”

So, after I put my bike there, the train driver came up, yelled at me why I don’t put my bike in the ‘bigger’ part of the compartment. I was surprised. What for a difference does it make? He said, I should put the bike on the bigger part of the compartment, because the signs outside of the train on both windows (see the sketch) say so. I kept arguing, that the clamps for the bike go right through the whole compartment. The driver yelled: “You don’t comprehend!!!” and moved away.

Now the attendant came and yelled at me, I need to put the bike away. This time, it was her, who wasn’t able to pass through. I had to laugh a bit, because she was standing right next to the bike and it was very obvious that she was able to just walk through. The train driver joined her again and now both yelled at me.

Shit hits the fan…

We reached a new level, after the station security joined. But instead of yelling, she played the card with the disabled people. She said, that they’ll pull in a disabled man, so I need to put my bike away. I gave up and moved my bike.

The train started, I was pissed. The attendant now checked my tickets very carefully and she was - surprise, surprise - very kind. When I got out of the train, I asked a passenger who was sitting right there where my bike was first time, if they pulled in a disabled person.

He told me, that it wasn’t the case. So I figured, that the train security just fooled me. I thought: “What the hell? Now they’re using disabled passengers to get those things straight?”

I filed a complaint. Let’s see what happens…

Update: I got a reply from the Bahn customer service. The wrote, that the statements from the Bahn employees are different to my ones (surprise, surprise!!). Though, they pointed out that the bike can only be placed in the marked areas (I did that already). To summarize: I think I can put it where I already put the bike.

Update: Customer service called a week later after I received their reply. They asked for my statement about their reply. We discussed the situation again. Well, at least that call was somewhat satisfying.