How to get from Aachen to Maastricht
 

On our vacation in May, we will be dropping our rental car off at the central Aachen train station and need to get to Maastricht from there via public transportation. (Trying to avoid drop charges on the rental.). I believe we can take either a train or a bus. Does anyone know which is easier? If bus, is the bus station within walking distance of the train station? It seems relatively easy, but I want to be sure there is nothing odd I need to keep in mind. Thank you.

If you go to bahn.de you will see the schedule for buses - very frequent and taking about 1.5 hours with just one change.

Does the bus leave from the train station? We need to drop our car there. Thanks.

The bus station is on a roundabout just outside the railway station at Aachen.

There's no direct train or bus. The train requires a (from memory same-platform, but I've only done this in reverse) connection at Liege: the "bus" usually requires a walk at the Dutch town of Heerlen to the railway station for a connecting train.

Both methods take about 90 mins: both cost pennies, and one or other runs every 10 - 15 mins. I suppose it comes down to how messy getting your bags between the bus and train might be at Heerlen: something it's probably a doddle to google.

Huh? There are direct buses from Aachen to Maastricht (Veolia line 50) every 15 minutes on weekdays during the day, every 30 minutes on weekends and in the less busy hours. Travel time is about 1h15-1h20.
The bus stop is in the station square, in front of the station building. Easy to find. Tickets can be bought from the driver.

Timetable: https://avv.de/files/avv/files/fahrp...050_veolia.pdf

Perfect. Thank you very much for the info.

Hi - one more quick question. We actually have to drop the car at this address:

JUELICHER STRASSE 324
AACHEN, GERMANY 52070

It looks to be about 3.2 km from the bus station. Is this an easy taxi ride? Or is there a bus that we should take?