German rail fares
 

We need some advice from someone with experience of German railways
and their fare structure. Hopefully someone on the newsgroup can help.

We need to travel from Frankfurt Airport to Villingen (Schwarz) with a
24hr stop in Heidelberg. We've checked out the trains on the excellent
German Rail website and found a suitable service for our purposes, and
also the price of the ticket. What we don't know is: Would the price
be the same if we just turn up at the airport station and buy the
tickets there, or am I getting a special deal on-line? Our date of
travel is three weeks away. The advantage to arriving and buying the
tickets is if our plane is late in which case we could miss our booked
train. However, if it's cheaper to buy the tickets on-line I'll do
that and risk the plane being on time. (They always are unless you
really need them to be...)

By the way, the service I'm looking at is the regional service via
Mannheim, and the on-line price one way for two adults is E55.20

Anyone have experience of this situation?

Help apprectaied,
Paul
New Zealand.

German rail fares
 

(Paul) wrote in
m:

Would the price
be the same if we just turn up at the airport station and buy the
tickets there, or am I getting a special deal on-line?

No, the price is the same. The point of online booking is just convenience,
you can print out the ticket at home.

One thing to consider is that various saver options are only available if
you book a couple of days or weeks in advance, and since you're from abroad
you could do that only online. But your travel plans probably don't entitle
you to one anyway (one conditon is that you buy a return ticket for the
same route which you apparently don't want to do), so you probably
shouldn't bother.

By the way, the service I'm looking at is the regional service via
Mannheim, and the on-line price one way for two adults is E55.20

Regional services run frequently, every 30, 60 or 120 minutes depending. So
it's not a big problem if you miss a train. Reservation on these services
is probably not necessary, as they are rarely that full.

Regards

--
Lasers in the jungle somewhere

http://www.wschwanke.de/ usenet_20031215 (AT) wschwanke (DOT) de

German rail fares
 

Paul schrieb:

We need some advice from someone with experience of German railways
and their fare structure. Hopefully someone on the newsgroup can help.

We

That is 2 persons?

need to travel from Frankfurt Airport to Villingen (Schwarz) with a
24hr stop in Heidelberg. We've checked out the trains on the excellent
German Rail website and found a suitable service for our purposes, and
also the price of the ticket. What we don't know is: Would the price
be the same if we just turn up at the airport station and buy the
tickets there,

Yes.

or am I getting a special deal on-line? Our date of
travel is three weeks away. The advantage to arriving and buying the
tickets is if our plane is late in which case we could miss our booked
train. However, if it's cheaper to buy the tickets on-line I'll do
that and risk the plane being on time. (They always are unless you
really need them to be...)

By the way, the service I'm looking at is the regional service via
Mannheim, and the on-line price one way for two adults is E55.20

Anyone have experience of this situation?

Airport to Heidelberg is 22,50 for two adults on regional trains.

Baden-Württenberg-Ticket valid after 9 a.m. on weekdays is 21 EUR an
will be valid for up to 5 persons from Heidelberg to Villingen on
regional trains.

Regards, ULF

German rail fares
 

"Paul" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
m...
We need some advice from someone with experience of German railways
and their fare structure. Hopefully someone on the newsgroup can help.

We need to travel from Frankfurt Airport to Villingen (Schwarz) with a
24hr stop in Heidelberg. We've checked out the trains on the excellent
German Rail website and found a suitable service for our purposes, and
also the price of the ticket. What we don't know is: Would the price
be the same if we just turn up at the airport station and buy the
tickets there, or am I getting a special deal on-line?

The price for normal (open) tickets are the same.
Only if you buy return tickets online in advance (min. 3 days) and for fixed
booked trains (!) you CAN get a discount of 25% or 50%.

Our date of
travel is three weeks away. The advantage to arriving and buying the
tickets is if our plane is late in which case we could miss our booked
train. However, if it's cheaper to buy the tickets on-line I'll do
that and risk the plane being on time. (They always are unless you
really need them to be...)

By the way, the service I'm looking at is the regional service via
Mannheim, and the on-line price one way for two adults is E55.20

The price with using the ICE from Frankfurt Airport to Mannheim and IC from
Heidelberg to Villingen would be 68,40.

You can buy these tickets online (and print them on your printer) as these
are all normal tickets. Valid 2 days and you can use any train of the
covered train types on this route.
If you buy online seat reservation is included for free, however only
possible for the ICE and IC trains - not for the regional ones.

My suggestion.
Direct ICE train from Frankfurt Airport to Mannheim. Change there for
Heidelberg.
EUR 33,- for 2 adults 2nd class.
With other trains you have to travle first to Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof (main
railway station).
ICE is also nice, esp. if you've never travelled with a high speed train
(not really that high speed on this part).

Heidelberg - Villingen
a) Mo-Fr past 9am
Baden-Württemberg Ticket EUR 21,-
All local trains in Baden-Württemberg from 9am on till 3am next day.
http://www.bahn.de/d_regional/view/m...ike/baw/11.pdf
Valid for up to 5 people travelling together.
Also valid for public transport (trams, buses) in Heidelberg (VRN).
http://www.vrn.de/karten_plaene/lini...heidelberg.pdf
and in Villingen (VSB/VGVS)
http://www.vgvs.de/liniennetzplan.jpg
You can buy this ticket from any VRN or DB ticket machine in Heidelberg.

b) Sa, Su
HappyWeekendTicket EUR 28,-
Same, except it's valid from midnight on and valid for whole Germany.

German rail fares
 

...... The advantage to arriving and buying the
tickets is if our plane is late in which case we could miss our booked
train. However, if it's cheaper to buy the tickets on-line I'll do
that and risk the plane being on time. (They always are unless you
really need them to be...)...

I am trying to help my parents with some similar travel plans. They
will travel from FRA airport to Hannover on an ICE train. I'm not sure
if anyone really addressed this in their replies to your posting. What
if you DO book a ticket in advance and your plane IS late? Can that
ticket be used on a later train? Is there a service charge for
switching to a later run? Is there the risk that a later train is
booked and you can't switch?

Also, they plan to make it a round trip back to Frankfurt. I didn't
notice anything on the Die Bahn site about getting a discount for
booking the round trip ticket. Is the discount built into the price
they show already or do I have to hunt around for it?

Any help is appreciated...ProDad

German rail fares
 

"Professional Dad" wrote in message
om...
..... The advantage to arriving and buying the
tickets is if our plane is late in which case we could miss our booked
train. However, if it's cheaper to buy the tickets on-line I'll do
that and risk the plane being on time. (They always are unless you
really need them to be...)...

I am trying to help my parents with some similar travel plans. They
will travel from FRA airport to Hannover on an ICE train. I'm not sure
if anyone really addressed this in their replies to your posting. What
if you DO book a ticket in advance and your plane IS late?

If you have booked a standard priced ticket or one with a Bahncard
discount you can use it on any other train .

If you have booked a 'discount' ticket based upon using a specific
train you can change it by paying a surcharge that may take the price
up to more than the standard price This might only be possible if
you do it before the booked departure time, I don't know (and
I can't find the new rules)

Can that
ticket be used on a later train? Is there a service charge for
switching to a later run? Is there the risk that a later train is
booked and you can't switch?

DB don't have a "seating only" policy, if a train is full you can
stand, sit in the aisle, whatever (if you really want to)

Also, they plan to make it a round trip back to Frankfurt. I didn't
notice anything on the Die Bahn site about getting a discount for
booking the round trip ticket. Is the discount built into the price
they show already or do I have to hunt around for it?

Having just tried, you are presented with two fares: the
normal fare and the discount one so you can select either.

Personally if I were buying a ticket to connect with an
international arrival I would forgo the discount and pay the
full fare. If you just paid 500+ euro for an incoming flight
it seems stupid to add a lot of arrro onto the journey for
a 30 euor saving

BTW you get a group discount for more than one person
so don't forget to book all tickets together.

Having said all this. Can they actually send the tickets
to another country from the web site?

tim




Any help is appreciated...ProDad

German rail fares
 

Thanks to everyone who replied. With your help we've now worked out
what to do. We'll book an ICE train direct from Frankfurt Airport to
Mannheim and change there for Heidelberg, then buy a Baden-Wurttemberg
ticket for the next day to get from Heidelberg to Villingen. This is
cheaper than a straightforward rail ticket and can also be used on
buses and trams in the cities.

Thanks again - would never have known about that option without this
newsgroup.
Regards
Paul
NZ


(Paul) wrote in message om...
We need some advice from someone with experience of German railways
and their fare structure. Hopefully someone on the newsgroup can help.

We need to travel from Frankfurt Airport to Villingen (Schwarz) with a
24hr stop in Heidelberg. We've checked out the trains on the excellent
German Rail website and found a suitable service for our purposes, and
also the price of the ticket. What we don't know is: Would the price
be the same if we just turn up at the airport station and buy the
tickets there, or am I getting a special deal on-line? Our date of
travel is three weeks away. The advantage to arriving and buying the
tickets is if our plane is late in which case we could miss our booked
train. However, if it's cheaper to buy the tickets on-line I'll do
that and risk the plane being on time. (They always are unless you
really need them to be...)

By the way, the service I'm looking at is the regional service via
Mannheim, and the on-line price one way for two adults is E55.20

Anyone have experience of this situation?

Help apprectaied,
Paul
New Zealand.