German Train Transfer

I assume you are looking at an advance purchase ticket (since the full fare tickets are the same price).

The 10 min change in Mannheim is a one-platform change (track 8 to track 5). Ten minutes is plenty of time if your train is on time. If you train is late, they will probably hold the connecting train. With a savings fare ticket, if you miss the connecting train because of a fault of the Bahn (like a late train), they will put you on the next available train gratis. Just go up to the ticket counter and show the clerk your ticket.

The main thing to remember is that a German train is not an aircraft; you don't have to remain seated until the train comes to a complete halt. Before you get into the station, get up and go with your luggage to the nearest door, ready to get off when the train stops. As soon as you get off, located the nearest stair to the tunnel. Other people will be going there, too; stay with the herd. Once in the tunnel there will be large hanging signs for the tracks. Find 5 and go up the stairs to the platform. If you're quick, the connecting train will have just arrived and people will still be getting off.

If there are trains on both tracks of the platform, make sure you get on the correct one. Look for signs on the car with the train number and destination.

If you found the connecting time on the Bahn website, you would also have seen the track numbers.

These transfer times are planned to be feasible. If you're packing light and standing at the door when the train pulls in, you should be able to make it. The schedule should also have told you the track numbers, since Germany tends to plan these ahead. But you also can request a longer transfer time through DB and see what you get for both time and price.

Mannheim Hauptbahnhof is not very big - it certainly doesn't take 10 minutes to get from one platform to another.

If it were me, though, I'd worry less about the short connection time than about the fact that (on most days of the week) the 21:31 train is the last one of the evening. If things do go badly enough awry that you miss the connection, it looks like you're stuck waiting until the overnight train comes through at 1:06.

The next connection is 3h45 later and get him into Munich at 6 AM.

Which is 5 1/2 hours later than initially planned, no? To some people, the slight risk of such a delay would be worth it to save some money on a train ticket. To me, it probably wouldn't be, because I'm a worrier about things like that. So I thought it was worth pointing out that the pros and cons might be different than if it were a midday trip when the next train would be along in an hour or less.

You guys are great!!! I always get value answers and information from you. Thank you all for your information.
Calvin

If it were me, though, I'd worry less about the short connection time than about the fact that (on most days of the week) the 21:31 train is the last one of the evening.

That the ICE from Mainz is so late that it does'nt make the connection to the Stuttgart ICE (which will wait a certain time anyway - paying for 100+ hotel rooms is not the thing the DB is longing for) is much les likely than that it will arrive late in Munich. There is much construction work in the context of the Stuttgart 21 project on the Stuttgart - Munich line, and in the past weeks two of three times my train arrived too late in Augsburg for me to catch the last bus home. Still, they are paying the €25 taxi undeterred.

What day are you traveling? When I specify a minimum 15 minute connection time, I get an even cheaper price. Leave Mainz on the IC train at 19:40 to Wuerzburg, arriving at 21:28, then a 37 minute connection to an ICE train to Munich departing 22:05, getting in at 00:25. Costs less and bypasses the slow-down in Stuttgart sla019 was referring to.

I am traveling on 08/30.

OK, I see what you mean, the 20:40 is only 19 EUR, while the 19:17 is 29 EUR. Given that the Flexpreis is 104 EUR, they are both great prices. Seeing as how the 20:40 is the last train that will get you to Munich that evening, and any little hiccup will leave you at Mannheim station for 3+ hours and you will not arrive in Munich until the next morning, sleeping on the train, I would take out a cheap 10 EUR insurance policy in the form of a ticket on the 19:17 train. Think of it this way; It is the cost of a single liter mass of beer at Oktoberfest.

Sam, you are absolutely correct. After reading all the suggestions, I agree it is worth the extra 10 EURO to get the ticket for 19:17 train. If this train is late, I still have a chance to catch the next connecting train for 20:40 schedule, and be able to get to Munich around midnight to have a bed to sleep. So, just booked the train for 19:17. Thanks again everyone for your suggestions.
Calvin

There are 3-4 hostels less than ten minutes from Munich Hbf, all on the same street one after another. They are all private independent hostels, Wombats is one of them. Ten minutes is enough time provided you don't linger and dilly dally.