Deutsche Bahn AG Reviews 5,257

Shittiest train system on the planet for sure!

Absolute shambles. So many delays, cancellations, no info, no alternatives. Missed flights and all that chaos. Very bad and stressful. Not to mention loss of money ! So disappointing…

Train Berlin-Amsterdamm is terrible. No restaurant for 7 hours travel time, but the prices are overwhelming. Quality like in third world country. Just embarrassing.

No competition and DB gets away with pathetic services, delays and high prices. Germany, please do something about this monopoly!

Det värsta man kan tänka sig. The worst ive ever seen.

Disgusting company. In June 2024 I bought a special Euro 2024 ticket from DB which was only available to fans traveling to and from matches at the tournament being held in Germany so I could travel from Berlin to Cologne to watch England v Slovenia. My train arrived SIX hours late and I had to abandon the journey approximately 80% of the way there (as DB had left us all stranded in a station 1 hour away from Cologne with no updates forthcoming so my friends and I decided to take a taxi to the stadium to make it there shortly before kick-off).

I've spent a year trying to get compensation out of DB and gone through an external ombudsman service who recommended DB offer a 50% refund (which I am entitled to) plus a further 75 EUR cash payment for the inconvenience, however DB have rejected this conciliation proposal, and insisted they will only offer 75 EUR in the form of a travel voucher - which is completely useless to me as I live in England and have zero ability (or intention) to ever use DB's services again.

I honestly though trains in the UK were bad, but they're nothing compared to those in Germany. DB are a dreadful company who hold their customers in contempt and I feel sorry for the people of Germany who are stuck with them.

A full package of harassment. From Munich to Hamburg they delayed and due to their fault we missed the connecting to Copenhagen. It was written in their website that this type of problem will be solved by the DB ticket booking office whoever the ticket seller is not a matter of concern but when I talked with them they ask to contact the ticket provider because they don't have any more sit yet for next train. At last they manage without sit. Family with kids travelling without sit reserved is really terrible because I paid with sit. For their fault why I have to suffer? It's really terrible.

Frequent customer.

99% of my rides end up in delay or total train breakdown. Its incredibly bad.

First timer! Awful. Booked three trains from Brussels to Cologne, then two days later to Hamburg, then next day to Copenhagen. At Brussels-MIDI, lift got stuck for 25 mins with 15 people inside. Useless emergency call operative. On a later than reserved train, we had no first class seats. On our train to Hamburg, it was very late. People sitting in our reserved first class seats did not want to move. Carriage compartment was hot and cramped. Useless air
con. On train to Copenhagen, platform changed 5 mins before it departed - chaos with passengers resulted - 38 mins late leaving and arrived into Copenhagen 60 mins late; was old, very hot, had poor air con and uncleaned when we boarded. First Class was like second class in UK inter city trains. Horrible experience. Will fly in future. Shame.

I have been to over 70 countries and this is probably the worst transport company I have ever had the pleasure of using. Without fail, everytime I need to use DB, trains are late, travel at a snails pace or are experiencing issues and will be cancelled. How the hell is this company still in business.

I discovered through eurostar that the train I booked through bahn.de was cancelled. Bahn.de did not inform me. The customer services agent was extremely unhelpful and quite rude. I won't use them again.

I’m writing this review out of sheer frustration and disappointment with the way Deutsche Bahn handled what turned out to be one of the worst travel experiences I’ve ever had.

Our train was scheduled to depart at 7:40 AM. My friend and I arrived early , at 7:10, specifically to find two unreserved seats, since we didn’t want to spend more money on seat reservations. We carefully checked the reservation displays above each seat and sat in ones that appeared to be unreserved. Everything seemed fine until, just five minutes before departure, a group boarded and claimed those very seats, showing us that they had, in fact, been reserved. We stood up immediately, no problem, except there were NO more free seats.

Why? Because passengers from another train — which apparently broke down — had been moved onto ours and occupied everything. We tried to explain our situation: we were early, we were careful, and we followed the rules. Yet we were left standing like we didn’t matter at all.

We asked to speak with the train manager, hoping to be offered a solution. We had been on the train before most other people and deserved to be helped. Instead, the group leader we had the disagreement with went to fetch the staff. Did someone come to us to help? Of course not. All we got was an impersonal announcement over the loudspeakers in German only, essentially telling us to move — without offering a single alternative. No effort to speak English. No empathy. Nothing.

We were humiliated, insulted by the group leader, and ignored by the staff. As the only person in my group who spoke German, I tried to explain everything — in tears — to the train manager I finally found onboard. I kindly asked for help, a solution, even just a bit of understanding. What did I get? A cold, careless answer: “If you didn’t reserve a seat, it’s not our problem.” She literally continued eating during our conversation. I reminded her that as train staff, it was her job to help passengers. Her response? She turned her back and walked away.

After sitting on the floor for 20 minutes, she finally told us — still in German, way too fast for any non-native to understand — that there were “two seats in car blablabla” (no effort to repeat or explain). No English, no guidance. Just apathy.

We eventually managed to find those seats by ourselves. And what did we notice while walking? All the business class seats were empty. Why weren’t we offered those temporarily? Would that have been too much effort?

Honestly, I’m disgusted. Disgusted by the disorganization, the failure of the reservation system, the chaos caused by rerouted passengers from another broken train, and especially by the rudeness and unprofessionalism of the train manager. Never again. This company is a joke compared to others. Flixbus is cheaper, more reliable, and, most importantly, they treat their customers like human beings.

Avoid Deutsche Bahn at all costs.

Got stuck on a train (RE3) for 4 hours -still waiting as I am writing from the train. We are not allowed to leave and they still do not know what is causing the issue. We have no food, no water, no electricity and bo air conditioning. Cannot reach customer service and no solution is being provided. They should close this sorry excuse of trains. Never again!!!!

I will never use DB again. On May 14th, because of some kind of problem with the Amsterdam-Berlin train lines (they didn't even give a proper explanation in English), my train that departed from Amsterdam at 06:00 was supposed to be at Berlin HBF at 11:51 but I could only arrive at Berlin HBF at 16:47. The train that was supposed to go to Berlin HBF stopped in Hannover, they changed us to another train from there and I spent the last 1 hour and 35 minutes sitting on the floor of the train. As if this nonsense wasn't enough, the e-mails I received on May 4th and 12th stating that my return train was ‘no longer possible’ indicated that my train journey on May 18th was no longer possible, so naturally I changed my plans. It turned out that it would depart from a different station, but since I changed my plan, I told them that I had to return on May 17, but of course they didn't care about the difficulties the company caused me, so they didn't even change my ticket. Of course I could buy a new ticket for 99€ and of course this is the cheapest price. These are completely money traps. I will never use this DB company again. I don't recommend it to anyone. If necessary, I will never come to Germany again. They also gave us a card saying sorry, they said they are going to send us a gift. When I went the DB office today, they said it was a voucher, I tore it up and threw it away cause I will never use that, and of course I will never give money to this company again and I will tell everyone I know to stay away.

Always late, always excuses, always a bad reputation. Even the employees laugh about their own employer, and still nothing changes. And why? Because there is no real competition, the only hope is FlixTrain...

I thought that only regional trains run late, but the ICE also has delays of an hour or more, even at night when regionals do not run as often as during the day. It is a SCANDAL to have trains delayed for such money. I have not seen such Hopeless communication anywhere yet and I travel very often. WORST COMMUNICATION , GERMAN DB IN EUROPE!!!

I purchased first class ticket but was not given a first class seat. All seated are occupied and the staff don’t bother to check Ask for help but they did nothing. Wrote to their CS but no one reply. This is the most stupid train system

One of the most overrated companies in the world just like the made in Germany story...etc.

Terrible customer service in case of problems

We were traveling from Berlin to Brussels with a school group of 70 young students. Following the bomb threat that was supposed to be defused on Friday the 20th, our train was delayed by several hours. While on the train, nothing was properly explained to us and we did not know if we would miss our connections in Cologne. After a delay of three or four hours, we did indeed miss our connection.

We were given a blue ticket that we were supposed to hand over to buses waiting for us in Cologne to take us to Brussels. There was a phone number on the blue ticket to assist us if there were any problems. Upon arrival in Cologne, we realized that there was only one bus going to Brussels and the other reserved bus was going to Liège.

I called the phone number, someone answered immediately and told me there had been a mistake but that they had called back the bus company to change the destination. I asked them to wait two seconds while I checked with the bus driver, and during that time the DB person simply hung up.

I went back to the second bus driver who was going to Liège to tell him that he was actually supposed to go to Brussels, and he told me that this wasn't possible as DB had booked for Liège and not Brussels. I called the customer service phone number again, but the person never answered again, leaving us with 25 students on the street at 2am in Cologne with no idea what to do with all my students.

Thanks to some train conductors, I was able to go to the DB counter in Cologne who explained that they weren't even the same service that had issued the blue tickets. Nevertheless, the station manager in Cologne was very professional, helped us a lot and found a solution so we could finally return to Brussels after stressing about not knowing what to do with our 25 students. A big thank you to him.

However, the attitude of the service that was supposed to help us get back to Brussels was deplorable - hanging up on us and not answering again after their mistake is scandalous. Leaving young students on the street like that and not fixing their error is purely scandalous.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

If you need to travel for 2h+ rides on weekly basis it’s will be easier for you to buy a car even if the train tickets will be cheap( they not).
1h ride trains delayed for 1h. Classic from db. I you want to have compensation - forget about it. I’m waiting for me compensation from 2023 for a train delayed by 2 h.