Flwrhead

Our flight arrives at 7:50 a.m. and I'd like to go ahead and buy the train tickets to Freiburg. We're only bringing carry-on, so after we land we need only to find a shop selling local SIM cards that will activate the cards on-site, and probably hit the loo, and then straight to the train.

Do you think I should allow for more than two hours? There's a 9:52 train (0 stops) and a 10:09 train (1 stop). I can book either although I'd prefer not to have a stop, but maybe the extra 17 minutes would come in handy?

Thanks!

mokka4

You 'should' be okay with the earlier train. However, if it was me, I'd more likely aim for the later to make a miss more unlikely!

janisj

"Our flight arrives at 7:50 a.m . . ."

Maybe it will, maybe not. That is 'scheduled' arrival time. But even if you land on time, you may have to taxi for 15 mins, or there is a wait for a gate, or immigration queues could be really long (a lot of long haul flights arrive in the early AM). Heck - if this is a jumbo and you are sitting coach, i could take 15 minutes just to get off the plane. In these scenarios even the extra 17 minutes won't be useful. If your tickets are for a specific train I might not book either one of those. All things going to form and either train would be easily doable . . . but any glitch at all and you'd have to buy a new walk-up fare ticket.

greg

What is the determining factor driving you to buy tickets now? Is cost the one and the only factor? Are you looking for a rigid plan only?
2 hrs is enough catching a train from the long distance train station at FRA if the plane arrives on time.

If you fall short, there are options. The downside.
"find a shop selling local SIM cards that will activate the cards on-site, and probably hit the loo, and then straight to the train."
Do you have to buy SIM cards at FRA? When I had to but a SIM card in Germany, I would just buy one in town. What if it takes too much time to find the shop, and wait in a queue. Do you still insist on buying one at FRA? I don't have this issue anymore when I switched my US carrier to T-Mobile.
ICE trains, the kind you are likely to take from FRA, have clean loos on board. In this type of circumstance, I would plan not using one at the airport unless I have to wait for the train anyway.

If you arrive much earlier. The upside.
Is it ok to let go with sudden money on the table? If you can catch a 8:52 train, does it give you a return worth spending a last minutes price? Only you can answer this question.

Depending on how many ICE trains are involved on a trip, one way I have dealt with upside/downside question on some of my trips was getting a German railpass. I could tolerate the downsides and take advantage of the upsides at no additional cost.

Flwrhead

@janisj - Very good points, especially since we are in coach.

@greg - Yes, cost is the only reason I would buy tickets in advance. It could be double the price if I wait, or the train could be sold out and we're hanging around in the airport even longer after a long flight. I've done a complete evaluation of buying a rail pass v. tickets day-of-travel (including a spreadsheet of various day trip options, the min. cost v. max. cost for day-of tickets) and opted to go with day-of. Unless we take several long distance journeys, it's more economical. For instance, if we day-tripped to Strasbourg or Salzburg from Freiburg, the pass would be worth it - but we can day-trip to Colmar and it's a fraction of the price. Or just day-trip within Baden-Wurttenbger and use the regional fare.

I think I'll buy an Orange phone card before leaving the states and remove getting a SIM card from the equation altogether, which will save time and likely money.

Thanks for the weigh-in!

J62

I've been flying into FRA 1-2x per year for decades and would be very comfortable booking the 9:52 train. Since your flight is scheduled to arrive (at the gate) at 7:50am that gives you some buffer in case of late arrival, slow deplaning, or immigration queue. If you are risk averse, then you'd likely want to give yourself another hour buffer, not just 17min.

For trains, I always prefer direct (no changes), as in the 9:52 vs needing to make a connection especially if the total travel time is similar. Both trains will have other stops along the way.

annhig

Which terminal does your plane arrive at? The airport station is at Terminus 1 so if it arrives there on time or even slightly later you should be fine.

If you arrive into Terminal 2 things are a bit more complicated. There is a monorail which I failed to find either arriving or leaving, and a free shuttle bus which departs from downstairs outside arrivals and goes via several car parks to Terminal 1, and involves then a long escalator ride and a longer walk along a long corridor to the entrance to the station which is downstairs [escalators and lifts]. Nevertheless I think it took me no longer than an hour to get from the plane to the station so two hours should be fine. So I agree that the 9.52 should be fine, so long as your plane arrives on time.

Flwrhead

Thanks @J62 and @annhig, We arrive in Terminus 2.

I went ahead and made seat reservations on the 9:52 train. I'm giving another look at a four day flexible twin rail pass, as I think the price is about the same as individual tickets, and just making seat reservations on the trains we will likely take. My understanding is the seat reservations can be changed once without charge. That way, if the plane is late, I can change the seat reservations and not be out the ticket price at all. Plus, I can wait a week or so before buying the rail pass, in case covid-19 explodes and Delta cancels my flight!

annhig

<<Thanks @J62 and @annhig, We arrive in Terminus 2. >>

In that case I strongly suggest researching the mono-rail, which should be a lot easier than the bus, if you can find it.

Good call on the rail pass.

Cowboy1968

Well, actually it isn't.
The train between terminals is signposted as the "SkyLine". It can be used both landside and airside, but it runs on the opposite side of the terminals, and on the top level of the buildings. From arrivals level at T2, you'd need to go up and up and up to catch the train, go several levels down again in T1, walk longer to exit T1 to the connector tunnel to the stations.

The shuttle bus is the most convenient way to get from T2 arrivals to the railway stations.
Though, 'convenient' is always relative at Frankfurt airport.

The only advantage of the SkyLine is that it runs every 3 or so minutes, while the shuttle buses run only every 10 or so minutes. But when you're not familiar with the layout of the airport, you will probably lose that advantage on the way to and from the SkyLine stations.

annhig

Cowboy - it wasn't that easy to find the bus either, so i foolishly assumed that the Skyline would have been easier - thanks for putting me straight on that. However the bus [when I used it] was very crowded and was more like every 20 minutes rather than 10, though i suspect that may not be such a problem at the moment.

Another time, I would definitely try to find the Skyline in one direction at least.