Salzburg to Munich train—border check

That's unlikely at borders within the Schengen zone. Your passport is scanned at your first entry into and exit out of the zone. They may do random checks within the zone, but it would just be a quick look.

I've bee on the train twice and there is no border check or scanning of passports. The conductor only looks at your train tickets, they don't care about visa/passports.

Thanks for your replies.

I did hear that there may have been a check at Freilassing but anyways, I'll assume I'm on time!

check the date on what you are reading. Was this during lockdown?

Actually yes it was from then, I'm guessing things were a bit stricter around that time.

I took the Salzburg to Munich train in June. No border nor passport check. Only looked at my ticket which was on my phone.

yes it was from then

that's the answer.

no more

My sister and I took the train from Salzburg to Munich in Sept. 2022 and there was a passport check in Freilassing. Three officers boarded the train at that stop and checked our passports. They just flipped through my passport pages but really spent time looking at my sister’s and took a picture of it.

There was a note on the DB app about the check, so we were aware ahead of time and had our passports ready.

Due to the migration crisis, such passport controls are relatively frequent in Freilassing, but the delay rarely exceeds 15 minutes.

Your passport could very well be checked if you're crossing from Austria to Germany. I had such an experience in Freilassing in June, the train had stopped, I had dozed off. The Bavarian police appeared, asked me for my Passport in German, surprisingly. (the 2nd time that happened when crossing the Salzburg-Munich corridor.) The first time was in 2015.

No scanning but they will flip through the pages, it isn't really a cursory glance either. They're looking for more than merely your name and photo. (I didn't know that in 2015, this time I was prepared to deal with them as I knew what they were after). The one guy asking the questions as he was flipping through the pages of my US passport asked me if I spoke English (which really ticked me off). I just shot back the answer at him.

I noticed whenever I made a border crossing between Germany and Austria at another point / location other than the Munich-Salzburg corridor I never encountered a passport check, day or night.

Did this journey to Salzburg from Munich in March 2023 and did not experience a passport check.

Enjoy your trip!

Yes, this happened to us too on that train in the summer 2022. Police boarded the train, but only checked the passports of a specific group. I'm not sure if there was a reason, but I remember that I was texting with my husband back home at the time and said, "if your skin is dark, have your papers ready".

LAB are you saying that the police were limiting their passport checks to only non Caucasians?

CJean, yes. That is what we experienced. The police boarded the train twice and only checked the passports of people who had very dark skin. We never found out the details, but I guess they were looking for a specific person who fit that description.

A few posts ago I said that there was not a passport check and there was not. However, on the way back from Salzburg the police did board the train and seemed to be looking for someone that fit a specific demographic. After a delay, they did find the person they were looking for and took that individual off the train. At the time, we dismissed it as a one off situation. I’m am starting to wonder.

This event did cause our train back to Munich to be delayed significantly. That meant that our train did not go all the way back to Munich and we had to get off somewhere near Munich OST and catch an above ground train back to Munich. Oh the unpredictable things that travel brings on!

I've experienced occasional Passport checks on trains over the years. In some cases they appeared to be looking for someone specific, so they just glanced at me and continued on. When they have checked, it seemed to be just a cursory examination for nationality and a Schengen stamp.

Regarding the previous comments about "profiling", I have seen that on one occasion but it was due to the specific circumstances at the time. Several years ago when there was a huge influx of migrants to Europe, there was more police presence in the stations and on the trains. On a rail trip from Austria to Italy through the Brenner Pass, police were checking Passports but they didn't check everybody. When the train arrived at the border station in Brennero, there were a dozen or more Italian police on the platform waiting, so they were being extremely vigilant.

On a train trip from St. Johann im Pongau to Rosenheim this July on an ÖBB train we had German border agents do a cursory check of the entire train in Freilassing. They were certainly profiling for folks, tho not necessarily by skin color. I was completely passed over because I looked like a regular citizen (i.e. didn't look like a tourist from anywhere) who was taking his bike from point to point. With all my bags attached to my bicycle, save for a small backpack that I used for snacks and my iPad while on the train, I guess I blended in.

The total stoppage time at the station was less than 10 minutes. The guards were armed and looked super serious, but that's kinda the thing with German police and border folk: all business. And if they have to scan a passport it likely won't take more than a few seconds as they use handheld devices to confirm data (after flipping through any entry/exit stamps).

Good luck!