Nightmare trip from Hamburg: Swabian school class stranded in Frankfurt's train station district

The return journey to the Swabian province ends prematurely for a school class at the main train station in Frankfurt.

The train lets the students down on several occasions.

Frankfurt – The main train station in Frankfurt is notorious.

The surrounding station district also doesn't exactly impress with a great feel-good factor.

A school class from Bad Saulgau in Baden-Württemberg had to spend a whole night there because of the Deutsche Bahn strike.

And her odyssey didn't end the next day either.

The unexpectedly awkward trip happened on Thursday (April 20).

Instead of starting the return journey from a school trip in Hamburg in the evening as planned and being back in the tranquil home around 8.20 a.m., the group of 23 students stayed unplanned for one night in the station district.

The railway could not keep any of its promises, one of the teachers later told the

newspaper .

Bahn cannot keep several promises

The evening before the journey home, the teacher had found out about the return journey because of the imminent strike.

Everything looked good, so gave him to understand the track.

The night train is scheduled to leave Hamburg at 7:38 p.m. and the travel group should arrive in Bad Saulgau almost 12 hours later.

Teachers and students were at the platform in Hamburg in good time and were ready to start the journey.

A few minutes before departure, the message came that unfortunately this train would not run.

There was an alternative train, but it was already clear that the school class would be stranded in Frankfurt at least for the night.

Again the teacher consulted the railway.

This time the staff promised him that accommodation would be arranged for the class.

When the group arrives in Frankfurt at 12.44 a.m. (i.e. a time when there are significantly fewer passengers at the station even without a strike on the trains), the teacher at the information center tries to organize an overnight stay.

Unfortunately, nothing: the railway employees were "hopelessly overwhelmed" by the situation, the teacher later tells the

.

With a lot of luck and because he advanced money, the teacher gets enough rooms to accommodate the class in a hotel a few minutes from the train station.

Now the class faced a night in the middle of the notorious station district.

School class stranded in the Frankfurt train station district

Even in daylight, the area around Frankfurt Central Station is a place to love.

However, there is at least life on the streets between the open and unabashed use of drugs.

All sorts of shops are open, bank employees are on their way to the financial district, you meet one or the other tourist, there are police patrols, just average people.

At the weekend, in the later hours, the quarter increasingly turns into a trendy district, the nightlife awakens, the pubs and bars attract party-goers who want to party.

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The Frankfurt train station district at night.

© Boris Roessler/dpa

However, it is different on normal working days.

Then even Frankfurters who know the area well avoid the Bahnhofsviertel at night.

The average people are disappearing, leaving behind those who have nowhere else to go.

Just like the school class from Bad Saulgau.

Chaos class trip from Hamburg: Memorable return trip via Frankfurt

Each student only has a room at 3 a.m.

The teacher has to advance money to finance the unplanned stop.

The next day, after a few hours of sleep, the journey finally continues towards home at around 12.20 p.m. after the end of the strike.

Frankfurt am Main in pictures: A city full of surprises

Frankfurt am Main in pictures: A city full of surprises

The Chaos Tour could have a happy ending here, but the strike seems to have had an impact.

There was another unplanned stop in Stuttgart, this time luckily only 20 minutes and not a whole night.

Then the whole group didn't make it off the train when changing trains in Ulm - for three students and one teacher the journey continued to Günzburg.

While the rest of the class was back home at 5:20 p.m. – almost 22 hours after leaving Hamburg – the journey home for the unlucky four took almost a whole day.

They only reached the town of around 18,000 inhabitants near Lake Constance at around 7.30 p.m.

All in all a memorable return trip.

(pron)

The students from Baden-Württemberg were not the only ones stranded at Frankfurt Central Station because of the train strike.

List of rubrics: © Boris Roessler/dpa