ibz40

Hi, Reality check please. I am trying to plan trains onward from Frankfurt airport. We land from the US (carryon luggage only) at 9:50am. I'm trying to figure out if I could make at 12:06 train from the Frankfurt HBF. The questions really have to do with clearing immigration. Is 1 hour enough? I am allowing 30 minutes to get to the train station and find the train! Assuming I buy my train tickets in advance, is that realistic? The next train is at 12:49, and I will get a train ticket I can do a same day exchange. Thanks.

bhuty

What seat number are you?

It looks very tight to me. Everything will have to go exactly right. The time of arrival gives you some hope of that if you're first off the plane (which is why i asked about seat number) but if one thing goes wrong then ..... but then with the exchange ticket possibility for the 12.49 then it's worth trying

now the other thing is how long before the train departing do you need to check in? My memory is that it's 60 minutes which, if so, would make me worry.

nylilly

We landed in Frankfurt two weeks ago (on Good Friday) at 12:05 pm. We had only carry on luggage and had cleared immigration in Iceland at our layover. Our train to Freiburg left from the airport train station at 12:51. We caught it easily - even had time to grab pastry and coffee prior to boarding. Not sure if that’s typical or not.

J62

It doesn’t look very tight to me. The S-Bahn train from the airport to the Hbf takes less than fifteen minutes, and run frequently all day long.

I don’t recall ever having to check in for a train, let alone 60min before departure. Is that new?

If you got on an S-Bahn as late at 11:40 you’d be in time for your noon train. Not suggesting you wait that long, just that you have plenty of time assuming your incoming flight is not long delayed.

Have you looked if there is a direct train from either the airport or Mainz to your destination? Getting to Mainz from FRA is also quite easy.

If you’re trying to catch the 12:06 ICE towards Mannheim/Basel you could take a direct train from the airport at 11:51.

Melnq8

I don’t recall ever having to check in for a train, let alone 60min before departure. Is that new?

The only place I've ever had to check in for a train was in Spain; which I found odd, as it was the first time I'd run into it, and it was just a domestic train.

I was in Germany in December, and there was no such check-in at that time.

lavandula

I was also going to ask the OP if they had looked for a train departing the airport. It is rare that trains that depart Frankfurt Hbf do not also call at Frankfurt Flughafen Fernbf, which means you don't have to spend that extra 15 mins getting to Frankfurt proper. I think budgeting an hour to get out of the bowels of the airport is sufficient time. The time is mostly taken up by immigration and retrieving your bags, customs is almost non-existent there. The train station is underneath The Squaire, which is just adjacent to the airport, and the connecting passageways are all enclosed so you just wheel your bags in and down the escalators to the trains without worrying too much about the weather.

Lavandula