Help! Newbie rail travel in Germany.
 

Have never used the trains in Europe.

Will be arriving Frankfurt Airport.
Train from Frankfurt Airport to Rothenburg.
Train from Rothenburg to Munich.

Ive checked the bahn website for information.

My concern are the connections times. Sometimes they are only 5-7 minutes and indicate different tracks.

I have never used the train system and do not read or speak a word of German. Are these connections easy to figure out? Is there any advice or recommendations you can offer? Maybe I am worrying for nothing. Thanks for the help.

-Penne

>Sometimes they are only 5-7 minutes and indicate different tracks

Deutsche Bahn schedules include connections that can be easily made. E. g. a 4 min connection won´t be in the system unless it is across the same plattform. In 7-8 min you can easily cross a mid-sized station if you are not burdened with too much luggage.

Now if your train is delayed it is another thing. In most cases you will have no alternative but to take the next one... (meaning 1 h in a cafe in or near the station)

In a typical station, there is a tunnel under the tracks, running perpendicular to them, that is used to get from one platform to another. The platforms are generally numbered with 1 adjacent to the station, 2-3 across a pair of tracks from 1, 4-5 next, and so on.

To change from one platform/pair to another, duck down the nearest stairway (or elevator if you're carrying too much luggage) and follow the copious signs with the numbers on them. The only German I think you will need to accomplish this is <i>gleis</i> (track).

Any time you disembark from a train, be at the door with your luggage in hand, ready to pile out when it opens (sometimes you have to press a lighted button to operate the door).

You won't have any problem as altamiro and Robes point out. Just don't worry - bahn.de gives you the platform numbers and changes on this routing are often from one platform to a nearby one.

and like they say if you miss one train there will be another in 30 mins or an hour so you will not be stranded.

German trains were often late when i was there in Jan and rode about 100 - so the 5-7 min connection may be missed anyway - no problem there will be another shortly.

Thanks everyone.

Is there a site where I can find tips about using the train?

Things like how the platforms are setup, needing to be at the front or back of the train go to get off at the proper location, etc.

I read some useful information here:
http://www.geocities.com/reise_deutschland/ but am looking for more.

&gt;Things like how the platforms are setup, needing to be at the front or back of the train go to get off at the proper location, etc.

Not to my knowledge. But the reasonable and easy thing is to ask the conductor, or your neighbours.

&gt;Maybe I am worrying for nothing.

You are.

&lt;Is there a site where I can find tips about using the train?

Things like how the platforms are setup, needing to be at the front or back of the train go to get off at the proper location, etc.&gt;

no but here i'll take a swipe

Platforms - in Munich size station there will be dozens - all clearly labeled by number and a large overhead indicator sign saying which cities that train is heading to as well as a train number and time of departure.

Often there are on the platform Train Composition boards telling where each car will stop - which ones are first class and which second. If you have a seat reservation there will be a specific car number and the chart will tell you where to wait for that car.

every car has two exits - no need to move to front or back of train - just get off at where you car stops - platforms are very long.

Often there will be luggage carts available but you'll need a coin to put in which will be returned when you put the cart in another rack near the station exit - carry coins if needing luggage carts.

Be ready to get off when the train comes in as it may not wait very long.

Frankfurt airport - Fernbahnhof is long-distance train station while the Lokal or Regional bahnhof, whatever it's called, is mainly for S-Bahn trains to Frankfurt itself or nearby towns. Follow signs to either one - Fernbahnhof is farther away.

Finally go to www.budgeteuropetravel.com and request their free European Planning &amp; Rail Guide that will answer many of these type questions.

But don't worry - German system is amongst the finest in the world and ask questions here as folks like altamiro know eveerything about German trains, having ridden them so much - i believe he's from Germany but in any case knows everything about the trains so ask.

&gt; i believe he's from Germany

I am indeed

&gt;but in any case knows everything about the trains so ask.

Although I spend about every second weekend in the things I have sometimes a feeling that you have more &quot;quality time&quot; on German trains than me, PalenQ :-)

Thanks you two. I appreciate you taking the time to reply. Unfortunately I am the worried traveler who needs to plan obsessively.

Since I have your attention. For the below specific routes would you suggest I buy in advance and make seat reservations or just play it by ear? Id prefer not to be locked into specific times of the day.

1. Frankfurt Airport to Rothenburg (Sunday morning in early September)

2.Rothenburg to Munich (Tuesday afternoon in early September)

&quot;...the chart will tell you where to wait for that car.&quot;

About 50% of the time, IME. The drivers don't always stop where the chart designers wanted them to.

&gt;For the below specific routes would you suggest I buy in advance and make seat reservations or just play it by ear?

You can ALWAYS play it by the ear - trains don´t sell out. Since you are only going one way you are not eligible for SparPreis fares, and the rest is not worth locking yourself in a schedule. You can buy a ticket within minutes of getting on a train.
Seat reservations are separate from tickets, cost 3,50 per seat (or 1,50 if you buy them online together with the ticket).
Te times you mention are unproblematic as well. Just avoid Friday and Sunday afternoons on main lines, the trains can get crowded.

&gt;The drivers don't always stop where the chart designers wanted them to.

Yes, but the error is not that bad, usually. If they stop 5-6 m off the mark it´s not the end of the world.

Five or six meters would be great.

The last time I boarded an ICE in K&ouml;ln, the 1st Class car was about four cars from its designated letter on the platform. We just got on and trundled through the cars so we wouldn't be left behind.

YMMV

I rode several ICEs in January and each car stopped nearly exactly where the chart indicated so that's my experience.

but in any case without a reservation you can see on the chart where the first class and second class cars on the train are located at least. 1st class i think is always in the last few cars???

Last summer we went to Germany and I was a complete newbie to European train travel. It was really easy though. Everything is well marked, but you don't have to read German - as long as you can read track numbers, times, and city destinations, you will be fine. I was worried about tight connection times, but I figured if that was the routing the ticket agent gave us, it must be ok, and the connections were no problem - usually just one track over so all we had to do was cross the platform.

I just returned from spending 19 days in Germany and Austria and we traveled by rail all but three of those days. I found the trains to be prompt and easy to figure out. I had purchased a 4 day twin flex pass for our longer trips, but we used the Laender passes for our travel within each region. For those you have to travel after 9 am and use only regional trains, which you will most likely do if you travel shorter distances. We traveled from Rothenburg to Kempten using the Bavarian Leander Pass without any problems. We never made reservations although I did print out, prior to leaving home, the various train schedules for the days we were traveling and found them to be totally accurate. I traveled with three teenagers- two being girls who were lugging a heavy suitcase, but we always made our connections without any problems. Like previously stated shorter times between connections mean you might be getting off one train and turning around to get on the one right next door. I too like to plan and we had not one single problem during our trip. Have a great time!

There are a lot of station layout on the internet. I only know some of them. Where are you planning to change stations?

There are a few odd-balls, but, as someone already mentioned, usually track 1 has it's own platform, 2 and 3 share a platform, 4 and 5, etc. In Offenburg, 1 and 2 share a platform (the track next to the station is fenced off), 3 and 4, etc. Bingen is unusual with the station on an island dividing 6 tracks. 101 to 103 are on one side of the station; 201 to 203 are on the other side. Vahringen in the Stuttgart area has 1 and 2 on either side of a platform and 7 and 8 on either side of another. 3-6 are through tracks without platforms. Those are the only deviants I can thing of. In some &quot;through&quot; stations, like Mainz, a few tracks are deadend and off to the sides.

Anyway, some of these station plans can be found online. These plans will show the relative position of stairs to the underpass(es) and if there are elevators. For Bavaria, go to www.bayern-takt.de, switch to &quot;Englische Version&quot; (if needed), and select the red rectange for Bayern-Ticket. Select &quot;Bahnhofspl&auml;ne&quot; or &quot;station plans&quot; in the LH column, and select your station in the box. I like these station plans because they have photos of the stations.

You can find rail and S-/U-bahn stations for Munich on the MVV website, www.MVV-Muenchen.de. Under &quot;Pl&auml;ne&quot;, select Unbegungspl&auml;ne, then Schnellbahnnetzplan. When you see the map of the S-/U-bahn network, click on the station node, which is a link.

There are also station plans for the Frankfurt area (www.RMV.de) and Stuttgart (www.VVS.de).

Those are the ones I know offhand. I also have a library of station plans for about 200 of the major stations of the Bahn.

Larryincolorado (or anyone who wants to comment), what's your opinion about the upcoming possible Deutsche Bahn strike?

I returned last night from Germany. On Sunday I had dinner with a German friend and her husband. She told me that the strike situation is most likely going to become worse and there will be more problems in the future. We were very lucky not to encounter any during our trip there!

German trains historically rarely went on strike, now they're joining the likes of Italy and France as strike prone.

On suspects that the proposed sell off of the State entity may attribute to the hard nose stance of each party.

I've been to Europe many times, including numerous times to Germany. Trains in generally are very easy to use. Changing tracks is generally easy; sometimes, you need to walk down steps and go to another line and walk up another set of steps. If you're confused, just ask....usually conductors are readily available. If you miss a train, there generally are many trains a day going from place to place. Have fun! Rail trips in Europe are great!

at www.bahn.de German rail web portal you get all the schedules as well as what platform your train will be on - where you may have to change, again with platform info

and the site can also tell you what bus, tram or S-bahn to take you from any address to the train station

A Wunderbar site!

Definitely recommend BudgetEuropeTravel.com. You can call the 800 number and they have excellent information and helpful advice.
:)&gt;-

Between the clarity of the announcements, the charts and signs I found German rail stations the easiest to figure out. I have been quite confused in England and Scotland and I speak the language. You'll be fine.

And rail station staff and train conductors inevitably speak some 'train English' - again print out the schedules from www.bahn.de and have them ready in case you need to ask where the heck is my train. But like Danna says it's an easy system to use - and yes if you want to be baffled go to the U.K. where language is no barrier from confusing info is. (Like the train i was waiting for that forgot to stop at the station and screeched to a halt a few hundred yards away - rules said train could not back up so went on and announcements in English told passengers who wanted to reach some destinations to take a local train somewhere, switch to another train, etc. - the poor foreigner non-english speaker would have been totally nonplussed.

penne2538,

<i>Is there a site where I can find tips about using the train?</i>

Yes. http://tinyurl.com/eym5b is a good general introduction in 4 parts, including plenty of photos.

<i>Since I have your attention. For the below specific routes would you suggest I buy in advance and make seat reservations or just play it by ear? Id prefer not to be locked into specific times of the day.
1. Frankfurt Airport to Rothenburg (Sunday morning in early September)
2.Rothenburg to Munich (Tuesday afternoon in early September)</i>

Play it like a butterfly. As others have pointed out, there are frequent trains.

Rothenburg is only served by a local train, 2 per hour, from Steinach, and by buses from W&uuml;rzburg and Mannheim, 1 per day. Reach Steinach from W&uuml;rzburg which is convenient to Frankfurt Flughafen (airport).

Can't believe I never responded to these:

&gt;&gt;1. Frankfurt Airport to Rothenburg (Sunday morning in early September)

It is rather pointless to reserve for this connection as you don't know when your plane will actually arrive. If you do want a reservation, buy it with your ticket when you get there.

FRA to Rothenburg takes a little over 3 hours by express train and usually 3:47 by regional connections. Also, the regional station is closer in so you don't have as long a walk. With the regional trains you don't have to commit to a time. There is a connection every hour and there are no reservations. In the station, buy a Bayern-Ticket-Single for &euro;19 (one person) from a ticket automat and a local (RMV) ticket to Kahl am Main, the first stop in Bavaria, for &euro;6,60. Since this is a weekend day, if there are two of you, split a &euro;33 Sch&ouml;nes-Wochenende-Ticket. That will cover the entire trip, including FRA to Kahl, for less.

Take the S-bahn from the regional station to Frankfurt main station, come up from the underground S-bahn station, and find the next RE to W&uuml;rzburg. They leave at about 1/2 past the hour on track 7, 9, or 11.

2.Rothenburg to Munich (Tuesday afternoon in early September)

In some cases, express trains make the trip only a half hour faster than regional, sometimes no faster at all. You will save money by using a Bayern-Ticket for this trip.

Larry about express trains only being 30 mins faster

I checked yesterday Roth-Munich and express trains were over an hour quicker than regional trains. Not much for some - eternity for others it seems

any routing involving ICE trains are at least an hour slower in the, granted fairly epehermal check i made

Admittedly the difference of half an hour was a quick and dirty calculation. I think I overestimated the express times because I averaged all displayed express connections. DB often shows two leaving at the same time, one about half an hour slower, but included because it has fewer train changes, and they include some with a bus leg.

I did a more exact analysis, for Tues, Sept 4, starting at 1 PM (a Tues. afternoon in early Sept), and including only the faster connection leaving at the same time. The first six express connections are 2:29, 2:58, 2:32, 2:58, 2:32, and 2:58 - an average of 2:44. The first six regional connections are 3:24, 3:26, 3:27, 3:27, 3:27, and 3:27 - an average of 3:26. That's a difference of 42 minutes - a little more than half an hour, but certainly not &quot;over an hour&quot;.

Also, the Bayern-Ticket costs &euro;19 for a single person vs. &euro;56, almost three times as much as for the express ticket (&euro;27 vs &euro;112 for two). Not much for some... .

Of course, if you purchase well in advance and don't mind being locked in to a specific train, you can travel by express using the Dauer-Spezial promotional fare for as low as &euro;29.

Larry i should have looked at notes i took yesterday - 45 mins is not over an hour and i stand corrected. But also i've ridden my fair share of regional trains and they IME are just not as comfy as plus ICE IC trains. Three hours in a fairly hard and more cramped seat it seems, with periodic crowding as i've seen due to school students groups swarming on board for a few stops - has happen more than occasionally leads me to think the ICE or IC would be more up to the comfy status of most Americans at least.

Um, I know that this is a train question, but have you thought of driving? Rothenburg is a very easy drive from FRA, and not an easy train trip, what with all the connections. Same for Rothenburg to Munich.

Just a thought.

Larry - however you point out such a price different so i would certainly sit in a harder seat for 45 mins longer to save so many euros. Lots of folks benefit from your pointing all this out. thanks.

We just got back from traveling in Germany (with the help of many from this site!). We had twin passes for 4 days but also used the RE trains for within areas when possible. We thoroughly loved our trip from Salzburg to Berlin (change in Munich) by IC and ICE trains. We found some of the local trains to be hot with no air conditioning. But, overall, we had no major complaints with the local trains. They weren't bad by any means and the seats were not uncomfortable. We were never too crowded. When the time difference is minimal and the cost so much less, I say go with the local trains and the Laender passes. You can't beat them!

PalenQ,

I think our mission here is to introduce less experienced people to as many options as possible.

And by so doing, Larry has saved many folks a lot of euros just by presenting options most folks find too hard to ferret out. Seems Larry should get a service fee for doing so.

I'm more pass oriented as i usually take long trips on ICEs but now will also supplement pass days with the Lander Tickets, which also can, i believe be used on local transport like U-Bahns and buses not covered by a railpass. A railpass, however, for Germany still remains a big bargain for those who want flexibility - i think ICE full walk up fare Berlin-Munich can run 100 euros or about $140 - making the cheapest pass at about $175 for four unlimited travel days a real bargain. Two longish ICE or IC trips could more than pay for it. But once in Berlin or Munich investigate the Lander options Larry has so tirelessly investigated to maximum your pass. (Or of course book online far ahead to get the 29, 39, 59, 69 euro fares, which are available but not it seems on or near the day of travel.

For longish trips such as the not too uncommon Frankfurt-Munich-Berlin axis the pass seems to be a great deal in light of walk up fares (again deep discounts available as Larry so often has pointed out, but for ones desiring flexibility or who didn't plan in advance)

Munich-Berlin ICE 105 euros 2nd; 165 euros 1st class - some IC trains are a bit lower.

Frankfurt-Munich 81 euros 2nd

Berlin-Frankfurt direct ICE 104 euros - some 89 euros depending on routing.

Thus for the Frankfurt-Munich-Berlin type trip, tickets at stations would cost about 275 euros or about $365 in 2nd class

vs Pass - 4 day (min) flexi in one-month period 1st class Twinpass $245 p.p.; 2nd cl twin $180 p.p.

thus at walk up fares the $245 first class pass would be $120 cheaper than 2nd class fares.

And 2nd class pass would be $185 cheaper and you'd still have one more unlimted travel day on the pass to boot

extra days on twin passes as $29/day 1st cl and $22/day 2nd - the $22/day or $44 for a couple compares favorably with Lander Cards for 2 (29 euro or about $40 and no restricted trains (but no buses or U-Bahns either - S-Bahns can be used with the pass.

But book early fares would yield 29, 39 or 59 euros on each route - making that the best route for those not wishing flexibility.