Eurail Passes and Local Trains
 

I will be arriving in Munich and staying for 3 days, then take a sleeper train to Paris and stay for 4 days, then on to London for 4 days. It seems to me that it would not be worth it to purchase a Eurail pass just for the 2 train trips unless it can be used on the Munich and Paris local trains. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
One other thing, I will be arriving in Paris 7am on a Monday morning at Est or Gare du Nord and going to the 7th Arris. at Rue de Buc. How would that trip be by train with luggage during rush hour?
Are the pickpockets just as prevalent during weekday rush hour?

Hi JB,

Enter your itinerary at www.railsaver.com and click "only if it saves money".

((I))

If you have a railpass which covers Germany, you can also ride on the S-Bahn network in Munich using the pass <b>but not on</b> the U-Bahn (since the S-Bahn is run by the national rail system.

As an alternative, you can buy the so-called &quot;Munich Welcome Card&quot; which allows unlimited use of the U-Bahn, S-Bahn, trams, etc., for a specified number of days while in the city.

Overall, I would agree that a railpass is probably a waste of money but check Ira's recommended site to be sure.

And using it on the local trains (also RER in Paris) uses up a travel day, which can be bought much (MUCH) cheaper.

Eurail passes can be used on local trains run by the national rail operators - Deutsche Bahn in Germany and SNCF in France. In Paris, for example, a pass will not cover the metro which is run by RATP, but most suburban lines are run by the SNCF.
In general, a pass is unlikely to be worthwhile if you're making only a one-way journey: passes are priced to appeal to people travelling around a country by train. However, if you have a pass, you can use it to make day trips from your base, which may make it worthwhile. Check train fares for sample journeys on www.bahn.de (for Germany) or www.sncf.com (for France). The Railsaver web site recognizes only big towns, so will be of no use in checking local journeys.

Thanks alot for all the info. Sounds like I won't be getting the rail pass, but I will check out railsaver.com anyway.
Thanks again.