As promised, I will write a report on every train journey I take. This one is about the return journey for my family visit from last time.

It started pretty uneventful. No last-minute changes, no cancellations or shortened trains. The first leg, to Dortmund main station, went very well. As usual on that route, it was an older ICE 2. I definitely prefer the seats on the newer ICE trains.

The problems started with my train from Dortmund to my final destination. It started out with 20 minutes of delay, and finally left Dortmund with 35 minutes. The only explanation was “Governmental Measure”, which could mean anything. I was a bit sad when I boarded this train and saw that it didn’t have the ultra-modern interior I got to experience during my last train journey:

A picture of a first class seat on a Deutsche Bahn ICE train. It's in the companies new interior design. Instead of the previous blue leather color scheme, the new interior has the seat made of fabric of the same kind you can find on premium office chairs. The arm rests are still made of leather. Both the seat and the armrests are in gray instead of the traditional blue Deutsche Bahn has been using for its interiors for a long time. The seat pictured here is a single-row seat. In first class on Deutsche Bahn trains, each row has only three seats, in a 2-1 configuration. Between the seat and the window is a small-ish placement area held in light wood, with the universal contactless charging symbol on it. The appliances in front of the seat, a table and a cup holder, are both folded in this picture. Their backsides are held in the same light wood as the wireless charging area. Overall, the seat area makes a very premium impression on me.

A single row seat in the new interior design of Deutsche Bahn.

Here is another one, showing what the table and drink holder look like when extended.

Another picture, this time made from the perspective of somebody sitting in the seat. The folding table and drink holder are now extended. The table's surface is made from the same wood as the backside, and when folded out, the area previously covered by the table is held in the same wood. The top of the cup holder is made of metal. The table has another slight indent for another cup. Above the table is a smaller appliance folding out, a lot shorter than the table and with some groves in it, made for holding a phone or a tablet. At the top of the picture is a metal hook which can be used together with the phone holder to keep the phone/tablet in place.

Same seat, now seen from a sitting position.

As I said, I’m a bit sad that I didn’t get a train with the new interior this time.

As I’m writing this, I’m still on my second train, trundling towards my final destination with still 34 minutes of delay. Let’s see how much the train can still catch up once we get out of the Ruhr area and Rhineland and get onto the high speed lines leading south.

Ah, the old adage holds true: Beyond 10 minutes of delay, it just gets worse for the rest of the trip. First, the train boss announced that we gathered a total of 60 minutes of delay now, mostly because they put a Vmax 200 km/h train in front of us on the high speed line between Cologne and Frankfurt Airport. Where we could have hammered through with 300 km/h if it weren’t for that train.

And now we’ve just been informed of another 20 minutes of delay added because we need to take a detour via Worms on the way from Frankfurt to Mannheim.

In the end, I was only about an hour late at my destination, so they were able to make good some time.

Tally

As I said last time, let’s keep a running tally.

DateInconvenienceDest LatenessOverall LatenessDuration
2026-02-1260m5m6h13m
2026-02-15058m58m7h9m
Totals329m/58m31m/63m6h41m/13h22m

While I was quite late at my destination, I’m still giving this one an inconvenience score of zero, as I wasn’t really annoyed by the delays.