InsideTransit

I can only imagine what 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Farenheit) trapped in a train must feel like. The German ICE train was headed from Berlin to Cologne on one of the hottest weekends of the year. My friends in Germany have told me about the massive heatwave Germany was under last week. ICE is Germany’s high speed train and if I remember from my trips on ICE several years ago, you couldn’t open the windows.

From The Local, “Nine students and elderly passengers were taken to the hospital, where some received IV drips. The student group from Remscheid and Willich in North Rhine-Westphalia had been on its way back from a class trip to Berlin.

Witnesses described dramatic scenes on board the ICE train as dehydrated students reportedly lay down in the aisles, and one woman smashed a window during the trip in hopes of getting fresh air.”

A train crash between Hannover and Braunschweig in Germany has injured 16 people. The Local has the full details on the crash.

From The Local, “An oncoming regional passenger train at around 11:20 pm rammed into three cars of a freight train, which had derailed just ahead of a bridge in the city of Peine. A passenger alarmed police from the train, which was carrying 65 people. The regional train conductor was severely injured, while 15 passengers sustained minor injuries, police said. The driver of the freight train, which was laden with gravel, walked away unscathed, according to initial reports.”

Back in March we took a look at snakes on a bus. Now thanks to our main street reporter Mark, you can see below a bus eat a lady. Mark noted that the woman appeared unaware as she entered the bus that it was about to eat her.

We were able to grab a few minutes with the lady inside of the bus after being eaten. She said that she will be using her car from now on and appeared very upset and frazzled. I guess I can understand her mood after the bus ate her!

OK, tell me…when you look at the photo below, do you see one bus or two? Look closely…

It’s one bus with a full bus wrap – the old bus is actually wrapped into the new bus! This is the coolest bus wrap I have ever seen and would probably freak out drivers who are driving on the side of this new bus.

Many of you have heard of snakes on a plane,  but have you heard of snakes on a bus? Our man on the street in Berlin, Mark, sent in the photos below of a bus that has a wrap promoting the zoo. We’ve seen tons of transit ad wraps here at InsideTransit – for both buses and trains – and this is the best looking wrap I’ve ever seen.

I don’t know about you but I would be a bit nervous if that bus showed up at my stop in the morning.

We’ve written about odd buses before including the Fucker Bus. Here in NYC there is a bus called the Duck which can float around in the water and then become an open-top bus. The Duck bus is for tourists coming to NYC.

Today our reporter in Berlin, Mark, has found us a new type of bus. It’s a bus that can transform into a boat and head into the water.

Check out the full story on Spiegel Online. The boat part of the bus is powered by two massive engines and the bus can carry 45 passengers across the river.

All I can say is that I want this water bus. You could easily live inside this bus and slap an Internet connection on the roof and go anywhere! I wonder how long a trip on this boat-bus would take from NYC to London. Place your bets in the comments.

This story was sent in by Mark, our German transit reporter. Apparently the passengers on the bus seen below didn’t want to wait in the ATM line to get their cash and make their deposits. Instead the bus driver decided to go above and beyond and just drive the bus directly into the bank. That’s what I call “door to door service”!

More photos are available on Der Tagesspiegel.

Ok picture this… a man is removed from a train for not holding a valid ticket. Most people would purchase a ticket and be on their way. Not this guy! He takes his pants down and moons the transit staff.  He’s thinking “hah I showed them!”

Only one problem… when the doors closed, his pants were caught in the doors and as the train started to move, he was dragged along the platform with his pants down around his ankles. A passenger pulled the emergency brake which probably saved the man’s life.

From Reuters, “The man — unharmed except for cuts and bruises — now faces charges of dangerous interference in rail transport, insulting the train staff, and may face sizeable a compensation claim for the delays he caused, police said.”

“He was full of remorse when I talked to him,” the spokesman said. “And he advised others not to try the same thing.”

What’s the lesson we learned from this? Don’t moon the transit staff!

This story out of Hamburg, Germany is pretty darn exciting. It appears that, “Siemens and the German Rail want to get together in the U.S. railroad business.” Spiegel Online is reporting (translated link) that since the U.S. wants more rail from cities including Orlando to Miami, the German collaboration wants a piece of the action.

German rail isn’t with its own problems – there have been lots of talk about axle and rail issues as of late. The one thing I noticed when riding the rails in Europe was that the trains were always on time or very, very close. Here you are lucky if the train just shows up

I’ve been on ICE a few times and can tell you that it was so much sweeter than AMTRAK can ever hope to be. Even if the routes (which will sadly never be built anyway) are U.S. made, I hope they allow the best of rail from across the world to influence both the design and the technology.

Found via German railfan Till, here’s a link to an excellent photoblog from Germany. The text is in German but you can navigate and view all of the photos. I love the angle of all of the photos – this guy takes time to create awesome photographs.

Here’s the latest photo: