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Travelling in UK vs. Germany

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SouthPaw:
My apologies...I got confused. And here's a shot of the departure board at Nuernberg for good measure.



However, it's still a big difference from departure boards in the UK, which show ALL of the intermediate stations, but don't show Train Numbers, as they're: a) not published in public timetables and b) duplicated all over the place (e.g. 2B20 on Saturday referred to no less than 12 different trains, with departure times between 08:37 and 21:07, all over the country).

And here we have a picture of a typical UK board, this particular example being from Glasgow Central in Scotland.



Erm...I'm rambling now aren't I? I'll get me coat...

Cheers,

Southie

Alexfox:
WOW! British rail* has something over Die Bahn? Better thought out departure boards (though equally militant staff).

Being fair though the only thing with the departure boards is knowing what stations a train is calling at, which is sort of important (the DB ones don't cover this in much detail).

*Not that its really BR any more.

Wawik:

--- Quote from: SouthPaw on 05.08.2007, 01:05:26 ---However, it's still a big difference from departure boards in the UK, which show ALL of the intermediate stations, but don't show Train Numbers, as they're: a) not published in public timetables and b) duplicated all over the place (e.g. 2B20 on Saturday referred to no less than 12 different trains, with departure times between 08:37 and 21:07, all over the country).

--- End quote ---

To get at least mildly on-topic again, one concept you'll see in Germany an awful lot is the concept of hub cities. It's a good idea to know the larger waypoints on your route, no matter whether you're travelling by car or rail. Whilst some countries (like the US and the UK) are more adhering to the idea of directional location (i.e. Interstate 6 West and M1 (The North)), in the German system the waypoints, not the general directions are given. Observe the following motorway butterfly:



Let's say you're travelling from Bremen to Cologne, which is roughly in north-south direction, with a slight slant to the west. You'll notice that there are no signs pointing to Cologne. Yet the A1 sign does point to Osnabrück, which, as it is on top of the sign, is the most distant waypoint on the road. Therefore, going from Bremen to Cologne, you'd need to memorize that you get past Osnabrück, then Münster, then Dortmund.... you get the idea. Likewise, the next exit ahead past the current one will be Groß Ippener, but it won't tell you three interchanges ahead.

The railway system works likewise. Let's say you have a long-distance service calling at Munich, Ingolstadt, Nuremberg, Würzburg, Fulda, Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe, Göttingen, Hanover, Hamburg-Harburg, Hamburg Hbf and terminating at Hamburg-Altona. Most likely, were you to depart at Munich, it'd read "Ingolstadt-Nuremberg-Kassel-Hanover-HH Altona" on the station indicator. Stations considered unimportant from your point of view will be omitted, so Göttingen isn't shown in Munich, but of course it'll be shown when the train is announced at Kassel.

Another good advice is to familiarise yourself with at least the basic combinations for car number plates. They're used in many cases, and knowing at least the shorthands for the larger cities facilitates things a bit for the experienced travellers.


--- Quote from: SouthPaw on 05.08.2007, 01:05:26 ---Erm...I'm rambling now aren't I? I'll get me coat...

Cheers,

Southie

--- End quote ---
There's many things to be said about the UK announcement boards. Most don't belong into this forum, but buy me a beer at EF and I'll ramble mindlessly.  ::)

MOW:

--- Quote from: SouthPaw on 05.08.2007, 01:05:26 ---However, it's still a big difference from departure boards in the UK, which show ALL of the intermediate stations,

--- End quote ---

There are no connections with more than 15 intermediate stations?

SouthPaw:

--- Quote from: MOW on 06.08.2007, 19:18:31 ---There are no connections with more than 15 intermediate stations?

--- End quote ---

Plenty...In which case it shows more than one "Page", and tells you what page it's currently showing. Though newer installs tend to have horizontal scrolling displays rather than the full size "boards".

Cheers,

Southie

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