sockboy

Rick Steves has reported that you now need to use a day on your rail pass to get the discount on the Romantic Road Bus, see:
http://www.ricksteves.com/rail/railnews.htm

I hope it isn't true. He seems to get his information from Euraide which is also reporting the same thing. But I see no mention of this at either the Romantic Road bus website, or Eurail. Eurail still states on their site that discounts don't require a day to be used.

Anyone have experience with this??

ira

topping

sockboy

Thanks for topping Ira, I am suprised that no one has commented on this. I meant to call the Bus people this morning before leaving home, but totally forgot.

PalQ

Did you try e-mailing the bus company:
"[email protected]" as on the www.romantic-road-coach.de site?

Patrick

Don't always rely on the bus company or certainly the drivers to know what does and does not work. I'm reminded of getting on a bus in Schaffhausen which is clearly included as "free" on the list for our Swiss Saver Passes, which are identical to Swiss Passes, except for two people traveling together. The driver looked at his list and saw that it was free for Swiss Pass, but nowhere did it say for Swiss Saver Pass, so we had to pay or walk -- there was no arguing with him.

PalQ

Patrick: Good point. Twice in France with Eurailpasses conductors have insisted that i must fill in the survey sheet that you record your train trips on and then if mail it back to Eurail you get a free gift - anyway in no way is it compulsory to fill this in but one conductor even said i could be fined for not doing it - I confirmed with RailEurope that this was not the case. So yes what the conductor says goes - you can only complain later. If RailEurope sold you the Swiss pass and you had tickets you may have gotten a refund but probably was too negligible to hassle with.

sockboy

Thanks for the email address - I actually looked for one on their site - I guess I'm blind. I will email them.

I agree that the driver can make up his own mind about something on the day, I am actually worried about my German-Benelux saver railpass in some cases, as many places don't list this SPECIFIC pass as qualifying for things.

sockboy

Well I got an email back from them without an answer. They did attach a pdf of a flyer though, giving the prices and schedule for the bus. It mentions the discount with a rail pass, but doesn't mention anything about needing to use a day.

I am going to try contacting Eurail.

PalQ

Final Answer: No the bus discount does NOT constitute the use of a day on a pass. I called the European Rail Hotline (800-441-2387) and asked them. they said that they had had this question recently and that they called the person at RailEurope who is in charge of coordinating the bonuses with railpasses (German-Benelux same as German and Eurail for this purpose) and they said as far as they knew you don't use a day of travel but that they would check on it. The person at RailEurope called the German Railways in Germany and they said no you don't use a day on a pass - like always and the RailEurope staffer also called Touring, the bus company and the bus company confirmed what DB (German Railways) had said - no you don't use a day of travel to get the discount (60%). It seems that Rick Steves probably started this misinformation on his web site as early as November when he was crowing about his meeting with RailEurope's president and reported the big news from the meeting that the Romantic Road bus would in 2005 require the use of a day on a pass - obviously told that and perhaps Euraide picked it up from Steves, not vice versa, whatever the policy change obviously did not take effect and the bonus remains as always. RailEurope says they will stand by the non-use of a day. So i think that it's clear - don't use a day -- Rick Steves and Euraide are both wrong it seems, funny as it may be in Euraide's case as they are in Germany and have had relations with the German Railways.

sockboy

Thank you so much for all the research PalQ! I was beginning to feel like I was going around in circles with my emails.

With this information, I am going to stick with the bus! It takes the bus 6hrs to get from Rothenburg to Fussen, vs 5 hrs on the train. But it is only one bus (rather than 4 trains!) and we should get to see something along the way.

PalQ

Personally i'd rather take the train. I've taken the bus twice and it's OK - the commentary is nice and you do see somethings off the rail line, like the WeissKirche on the way to Fussen. But the bus can be tedious for six hours - ours was not a luxury touring bus and on one trip the driver was incredibly mean - he wouldn't open the WCs on the bus and upbraded folks for eating on the bus and making sure everyone removed any litter - OK as he obviously didn't want to have to pick up but the martinet way he ordered us to do this was unnerving. And the Romantic Road is anything but romantic - a busy traffic-plagued highway. The towns are romantic - Rothenburg and Dinkelsbuhl and Nordlingen especially. But give me the three changes of trains and a chance to stretch legs on the train. Just my opinion. I also took the Castle Road bus (same conditions as Romantic Road) that goes from Heidelberg to Rothenburg and it was super - a very scenic drive along Neckar Valley - a much more 'romantic' road and a shorter ride. In any case, as they say in Germany have a 'Gut Fahrt' (good ride)!

sockboy

Thanks again PalQ - I haven't heard anything particulary great about the bus. Your description of it sounds a bit like a bus I took in New Zealand - the driver said that the toilet was closed due to "health reasons", and also wouldn't allow anyone to eat on the bus. I am not a really experienced train traveller, so the idea of making all those connections is a bit intimidating, but might be worth it for the reasons you give. The other advantage to the train is that the bus leaves at noon - whereas we could be on a train early and on our way. . .

travlsolo2

Re being "not a really experienced train traveler" -- there's no need to be intimidated. Check all your connections online -- print it out and take it along. http://bahn.hafas.de/bin/query.exe/en It will tell you which "gleis" (track) your trains are on, and you'll have no problems changing trains in each station. It's fun! -- especially with a railpass.

PalQ

Ditto to Travissolo2's right on comments - the www.bahn.de will have all the info and as everything pretty much runs hourly in Germany, or more, in case you do miss one connection you won't wait long for another train. Very easy to do and German trains are so organized and easy to use.

sockboy

Thanks for the support! We will have taken the train a couple of times by the time we get to this ride, so we should be more confident by then! I just might go for the train!

PalQ

Actually the changes are a snap - from Rothenburg you take a shuttle train on the spur line that deadends at Rothenburgh to nearby Steinach, on the mainline to Munich and Augsburg. Like travisolo2 says print out schedules on the www.bahn.de (German Railways) site and have all the info, including platforms to get each link. The bahn site says Rothenburg-Fussen train links take about 4.5 hours and you need change 3 or 4 times - either at Treutlingen and Augsburg or both or at other stations on different links. Train fare is 34 euros in case you don't want to use a day on your pass - if traveling with someone else the second person in Germany gets 50% off what the first person pays so for two would be 51 euros. Fares are on the bahn site. Or you could buy the bargain Bavaria pass and go for even less i think - but pass have some restrictions on using fastest trains. Inquire at Rothenburg station.

sockboy

Well, I am going to go for the train, it will get me down to Fussen a lot earlier in the day, and I am confident we can handle the connections.

As an update - Rick Steves seems to be back peddling on his site now, saying that drivers have been validating rail passes, but in fact they are not supposed to . . . seems like there is some confusion there.