starting my journey to the east coast of sri lanka always is a train leg to munich airport. now train for a long way was a authochtonous, down-to-earth affair, ‘deutsche bahn’, ‘österreichische bundesbahn’ and so on, where the nationality in the name quite often meant also basic facilities. but already decades ago it started to change with the introduction of the ice-trains here in germany, where the ‘fahrgäste’ (including the word guest) sudenly became passengers. and since some years in the trains we also enjoy bi-lingual announcements of the next stops.
but today’s trip with the ‘railjet’ (sic) topped this by far: announcement even in mandarin, or was it russian? three classes: premium, first and economy (and this is no translation – it was announced in this very words. so we are truly becoming international now, and get treated almost like plain passengers, moving map display inclusive. the name ‘railjet’ of course is a signboard for this change.
well, the construction of salzburg train station still shows it’s origins from quite some time ago, and the railway station shows its old character, ‘railjet’ naming of the train or not.