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Navigating Daylight Saving Time: How Deutsche Bahn Manages the Clock Change

Navigating Daylight Saving Time: How Deutsche Bahn Manages the Clock Change
photo: Deutsche Bahn/Navigating Daylight Saving Time: How Deutsche Bahn Manages the Clock Change
24 / 03 / 2023

On Sunday night, 26 March, daylight saving time begins in Germany, as well as in many other European countries. At 2 a.m., Deutsche Bahn will set around 120,000 clocks at stations, DB ticket machines, in service rooms and information and security systems forward by one hour.

The changeover to daylight saving time will take place during ongoing rail operations. From 1.59 a.m., the clock hands jump to 3 a.m. Suburban trains that would run between 2 and 3 a.m. will be cancelled unnoticed by passengers. Freight trains and long-distance trains running at night usually have longer stops or journey times anyway, which are shortened accordingly on the night of the time change.

Radio signal triggers change to daylight saving time

The clocks at DB are supplied by the time signal transmitter DCF77. This long-wave transmitter, located in Mainflingen near Aschaffenburg, is linked to the atomic clock of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt in Braunschweig.

At more than 4,400 railway stations, about 6,800 dynamic text displays (DSA) are installed to inform about timetable deviations. The time change takes place automatically here, as with many smartphones and computers.

Uniform timekeeping in Germany with Central European Time (CET) goes back to the initiative of the railways in 1893. Until then, cities set their clocks at their own discretion.

Daylight saving time ends on Sunday, 29 October 2023.

Source: Deutsche Bahn

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