I've searched the posts. Can't find answers to this question so here we go. Need to get from Rothenberg to Passau for a River Cruise with arrival time at 4 p.m. on a Saturday in July. Can we make it from Rothenberg by train to Passau same day? Should we worry about delays? About how long is the trip? When I do a search on the German rail site there is narrative attached to the schedules between those two cities that says train does not run every day. Does anyone know what this means (I am sorry but there is probably some obvious answer to this question - please forgive me) ? If there is a labour action or a natural disaster and the trains don't run that day (lets hope not) is there the equivalent of a "Greyhound" bus as an alternative option? If we really get desperate can cars be rented in Rothenberg? l think the problem is I am North American where the train service is lousy and unbelievably expensive and for the most part unreliable; therefore my need to have multiple options. Don't want to miss the boat!
Posted by
Paradise
6650 posts
"Can we make it from Rothenberg by train to Passau same day?"
Yes. If a schedule comes up with a departure time from R'burg and arrival time in Passau for a specific day, the train is planning to run that day.
Looks like you'll have 4 trains if you leave Rothenburg at 11:06 and arrive in Passau at 14:34. But that's somewhat iffy. There's always a chance you'll miss a train because the previous one is late.
IMO Passau is a totally lovely and perhaps more interesting town than touristy Rothenburg, a place you ought to stay in the night before your cruise. Leave bags at the front desk after breakfast and enjoy the morning and early afternoon in Passau. If you have more than 2 nights scheduled for Rothenburg, problem solved. Keep one night and spend the 2nd in Passau. If you have only one night, then maybe just spend the day in Rothenburg (there are lockers) and the night in Passau.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19099 posts
When the Bahn says for a train "not every day", it usually follows that statement with the days the train runs. If you have looked up the schedule for the day you want to travel and it shows a train, then that train runs on that day.
Since you are going on a Saturday, you could leave any time in the morning and still use a Bayern-Ticket, 31€ for two people. Leave at 8:06 and you should get to Passau by 12:39 to 1:36. This gives you plenty of time if you miss a connection.
But if you are really worried about missing a connection, I agree with Russ, go the evening before and spend the night in Passau. You could also arrange to spend the night in somewhere in between, like Regensburg or Landshut (depending on your route), and have more time to get to Passau the next day.
Posted by
Augsburg, Bavaria
2335 posts
Looks like you'll have 4 trains if you leave Rothenburg at 11:06 and arrive in Passau at 14:34. But that's somewhat iffy. There's always a chance you'll miss a train because the previous one is late.
There's no way to reduce the number of trains. But the first three of them are inside the VGN system, where trains run frequently. Assuming that the Würzburg - Ansbach train arrives late at Steinach and you miss your connection in Ansbach, you simply can take the next S-Bahn from Ansbach to Nürnberg. You then will miss probably your Regensburg train, too, but there are two trains per hour from Nürnberg to Regensburg. Still, I second the opinion of Russ and Lee that it would be a shame not to have time to visit Passau. Even if it is not marketed as aggressively as the highlights along the Austrian part of the Danube, it's well worth seeing. You might want to skip one night in Rothenburg and to go to Passau with an evening train (leaving 18:06 and 20:06, resp.).
Posted by
Port St Joe Florida
513 posts
I too recommend traveling from Rothenberg the day before, but I would spend the night in Wurzburg. This is a beautiful city and if you arrived in the afternoon you could see some of it that day and more again the next before you caught your train to Passau and your cruise.