Getting on bus in Germany- first trip
 

My first trip to Germany with a question about getting on a bus. I have a railpass and from what I understand, unless you have to make reservations, you just jump on any train and show your pass to the conductor.
It says that the railpass covers bus trips. Do you do like a train and just jump on a bus and sit down or do you have to go to the ticket window first and show your pass?
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I know this would not work for a tour bus but does the railpass work for mormal bus routes all over Germany?
Thanks

I doubt the railpass works for the normal buses that are part of the public transportation network in Germany. Can you give specifics on the railpass?

Got a Eurail pass for ten days of unlimited travel. And really I do not know much more. I saw where that it works on Germany bus lines.
And to honest I am not sure what that really means.

Railpasses usually don't work on local transportation, like trams/streetcars and buses. It's meant for intercity trains. In Germany, that's Deutsche Bahn. I imagine it would work on buses operated by Deutsche Bahn, but again, that would only be intercity routes.

As far as the procedure goes, if you need a reservation, you show your pass at the ticket booth and buy a reservation only. If you don't, you just get on the train and the conductor will stamp your pass when he comes by.

No the railpass does not work on buses in general in Germany but only on buses that are subtituted for trains like on services where trains have been removed and buses substituted and on one major bus link - Nuremburg to Prague - but not on any other buses - not the Romantik Road bus as passes once were so the information you got has been miscontrued by you - I'm sure if you re-read the conditions of use it will qualify buses as to which are covered - very very few and in Germany anyway trains go everywhere, even thru the hearts of big cities as S-Bahns - like metros and you can use your pass on those but not on U-Bahns, run not by the railway system but local municipalities.

Lots of great info on German and European trains - www.budgeteuropetravel.com; www.seat61.com; www.ricksteves.com and for schedules of all European trains www.bahn.de - the official German Railways sites with schedules for trains all over Europe.

And the fact that railpasses are not accepted on buses in Germany in general means nothing to you as the average traveler will rarely if ever want to take a bus outside of big cities and inside cities day transit passes covering all buses and commuter trains are dirt cheap - few bucks a day for unlimited transit in say Berlin or Munich - unless you have a consecutive-day pass it would not be cost effective to use a day of a flexipass to ride city transports - with a consecutive-day pass yes ride the many utilitarian S-Bahns that slice thru cities like Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, etc.

thanks

Hi pbt140,

The DB runs a few bus lines here in Bavaria, and I guess your pass would be good for that.

In some cases, the bus line duplicates the train line (Garmisch to Mittenwald for instance), but in other cases, the bus goes where the train doesn't go (Garmish to Oberammergau direct, Garmisch to Füssen direct, to Krün, to Wallgau, etc).

I guess it'll depend on where you are and where you're going to. You can see the schedules for the trains as well as the DB busses at the German rail site

www.bahn.de

Have fun!

s

No a railpass I believe would not be good for buses between Garmisch and Fussen as according to bahn.de site the fare covered is only 2.2 euros with the rest a supplement to be charged for the non-DB segment. At least that's how I read that info. There are rail links that cover most of the G-P to Fussen journey that takes a route thru Austria via Reutte and then a bus from there the few miles to Fussen. Railpasses would be valid on most of this route.

anyway bahn.de seems to say this but I am not sure.

Railpasses usually don't work on local transportation, like trams/streetcars and buses. It's meant for intercity trains. In Germany, that's Deutsche Bahn>

this is generally true but not correct in that railpasses are valid on intracity transporation on S-Bahn trains in many German cities - these act like U-Bahns or metros - even at times running over the same tracks as U-Bahns - like in Munich and Frankfurt. A railpass is valid on S-bahns because they are run by the German Railways and thus like any train railpasses are valid even if just traveling inside say Berlin, where S-Bahns are very very useful for the tourist.

For your travels in the Bavaria region (Munich, Garmisch, Oberammergau, Mittenwald, etc. you could use a Bayern Pass for many buses.

According to the RVO website (http://www.rvo-bus.de/site/rvo__bus/...nticket.html):

The Bayern Ticket is NOT recognized on the following routes:
RVO lines
9547 / 847 ALM-ERLEBN BUS IS-summer
9548 / 848 Oberau - Roßfeld
9549 / 849 Eagle line in the summer
Seegatterl 9507 - Winklmoosalm
9630 city traffic Weilheim (Upper Bavaria).
9000 local traffic Holzkirchen

Night express routes in the district of Traunstein
Night owls lines in the county Berchtesgaden
international routes, ie only up to the last German stop (except exclusively HBF Salzburg)

RVA curves
74 feet - Reutte / Tyrol
9742 Oberstdorf - Baad (Kleinwalsertal)
9762 Oberstdorf - Birgsau