Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Personenschaden - Great problem management by DB/PEG

Honestly I'm still overwhelmed of what happened yesterday. Running a little bit late after having a beer after work with some colleagues, the train driver announcement: "Personenschaden (damage to persons) - the train will not proceed after the next station" seems to indicate another upcoming public transport disaster. From experience the track is usually closed for hours, no alternative is offered during the first 2 hours. Maybe if it takes even longer they get some buses to move the people.
Yesterday it went perfectly different. Right after I checked alternative routes on the VRR website and informed home government they I'll be _really_ late, they announced taxi transport between the directly affected stations. So, get a group of four passengers and jump into the next taxi - paid by the DB.
Great - got only 20 minutes delay. Happy to be surprised by problem management of DB more often in this positive manner in general - obviously I would be even more happy if we could arrive to a point where less people choose to use "Personenschaden" as final exit strategy.