The recent post about Frankfurt vs. Munich airport has made me a little nervous. We'll be arriving at the Frankfurt Airport at 11:30 am on a tuesday. We want to connect to a long distance train. Assuming our flight is on time and we have carry-on luggage only how long would you guess it would take to clear customs and get to the airport train station?

I've done plane to train without any check in baggage in half an hour in Frankfurt airport. However I normally rushed out of the plane and I am familiar with which train station to walk fast toward. Passport control is quite fast & efficient in Frankfurt nothing like in the US.

The regional train station (S bahn to Frankfurt & Mainz is much closer (easily reached in half an hour from the plane) than the Fernbahnhof (Long distance train station for ICE, IC trains) which is located in the building across the parking lot (use the bridge to cross to the other side).

It's been several years since I did this, but it didn't seem long or complicated to do. I recall that clearing passport control and customs was fairly quick. Directions to the long distance train station were easy to locate and follow. (You'll need to go up one level from arrivals) It took perhaps 10 minutes to walk to the station. It is a simple and convenient facility, so validating your rail pass or buying a ticket will be easy. There are only a few platforms, so locating yours will be simple, too. Altogether, I would suggest that it will take no more than 45 minutes to an hour from the time you leave the plane until the time you're in the Fernbahnhof. (Don't forget there's a Regionalbahnhof for local trains, which you don't want.)

You can familiarize yourself with the airport using this website (select TERMINAL MAP on the left side). The map shows where the Regionalbahnhof (short distance) and Fernbahnhof at the bottom of the map. You can even find out where your airline gates are so you can navigate through the airport quickly.

http://tinyurl.com/7twnx

Thanks for all your replies--I feel better about it now. I won't have tickets for a set train but I was hoping we could get one at 1-1:30 pm and it sounds like we probably can.

Are you familiar with the Deutsche Bahn site for planning rail trips? It's excellent!

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/que...col=http:&