Trying to understand German Rail Prices
 

I will be spending a couple of nights in Cologne and I am looking at traveling by rail for some day trips. For example, I'd like to spend the day in Aachen. When I check bahn.de, the cheapest I find is 20 euro going there and 28 euro going back. This seems crazy expensive for a thirty minute ride. For some trains, no price is listed. Others, I see VRS, but can't figure out that means.

I'm also spending time in England and find their rail prices much more reasonable. For example, 20 pounds roundtrip from London to Salisbury, a journey of about 1.5 hours.

Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Sieg is the regional public transport system.

Hi aggiegirl,

I have the DB app, and I just did a dummy booking.

The single ticket journey on VRS (as St Cirq notes, that's the local transport network) is 16.29€. You can get an all-day (24 hours) ticket for 28.59€, so that would be the way to go.

Have fun as you plan!

s

Cologne - Aachen is served by long-distance highspeed trains and slower regional trains.

The highspeed trains follow the regular fare system of Deutsche Bahn.
Low fares start at €19, regardless of distance. So, you could find that low fare for Cologne-Berlin as well as for Cologne-Aachen.
Since Cologne and Aachen are not that far apart, the low fare is not really that low in this case.
Low fares mean you must use a certain train at a certain time.

The regional trains follow the fare system of the regional transport system.
From the perspective of the regional fare zones, Aachen is at the edge of the system.
So it's a relatively long distance and a relatively expensive fare.
The trains take longer (almost an hour), but the ticket also includes local transport in Cologne and Aachen (e.g. to get to and from the station).
The day pass for the whole regional transport network for the state of Northrhine-Westphalia costs €31.
No highspeed trains, but full flexibility.

Yes, but on weekdays only after 9AM! You can get fined if you take an earlier train. On weekends it can be used all day.

It's a fixed price of 31€(for the single person version) if you buy it online or from a ticket machine. It costs an additional 2€ if you buy it from the ticket office.

I wouldn't say this too loudly in England or you will be laughed off the train.

Even if most Brits are convinced that they're paying some of the highest rail fares in Europe, the reality is a bit different.


https://www.seat61.com/uk-europe-tra...omparison.html