Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me, Simon Calder. I've been taking a walk in the Black Forest. Now I'm travelling on by train on the amazing Schwarzwalban, the Black Forest Railway. So I need to buy a ticket. And here I am in the station hall. But there is

no ticket office. There is a video riser zentrum. And here's how it works. I've actually just used it.

So I'm now making my way to the train. it's a really interesting idea so the first thing is

that you press a button it's very clearly marked you wait there's a little hourglass thing so you know

that you're going to be seen and And then this smiling face popped up.

A lady who turned out was speaking from the town of Villingen,

about 20 miles away from where I am, which is Tribeck.

I explained what I needed.

She, unbelievably, you've got a screen next to you,

you can watch her actually sorting out

you're looking at her face-to-face which is nice but she's also got the

computer screen and so therefore you can very easily see what she's doing see

what the options are and work out which ticket you need. She does everything for you. There you are.

It's quite miraculous just walking past the electric engine which is going to push this train

along the Schwarzvara ban. She does absolutely everything. It's a wonderful system.

She'll tell you to put your money in the, or your card in the slot.

She prints out a schedule for you.

From all points of view, it's a very, very good system.

Just getting into the largely empty double deck train now.

And she's going to go into the next corridor. That one isn't as empty as I thought.

More travelers here.

Oh, Morgan, Dengkishen, more hikers in the Black Forest.

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