Shuttle service from Mainz to the Frankfurt

We used the train. Would that be an option for you?

https://www.rome2rio.com/map/Mainz/Frankfurt-Hbf

Train, but better use www.bahn.de for planning. Just enter the street address of your hotel as departure point to find the best stop/station.

It would help if you told us the name or address of the hotel so we could check you proximity to public transportation.

The S8 S-Bahn makes three stops in Mainz, at Mainz Nord (Mainz North), Mainz Hauptbahnhof (Mainz main station), and Mainz Romisches Theater on it's way to the Regional Bahnhof in the Frankfurt airport. Check with Google Maps to see if your hotel is near any of those stops.

There are multiple train options from the Mainz train station directly to the station at the airport. Shortest time is 16 minutes for about 10€ each. When public transportation is so easy, shuttles are not as popular and therefore are more expensive.

That 10 EUR fare is only available on the occasional ICE train and is an advance purchase nonrefundable ticket. Otherwise it is 17 EUR. You are much better off taking the frequent local S8 or RE2 trains that take a few minutes longer (more stops) and costs only 5.80 EUR.

Not only are the ICEs more expensive, they use the Fernbahnhof, which is a longer walk to the terminals.

Not only are the ICEs more expensive

... and currently also less punctual than the local traffic.

Regular train service between Frankfurt Airport and Mainz has existed for many decades. My first train trip ever in Germany took place on this very route in 1973.

sla019 wrote that the ICE trains are...

"...currently also less punctual than the local traffic."

Quite true. But perhaps not clear to skibuff1005. What sla019 means by "local traffic" should be understood as "local and regional rail service." The long-distance / high-speed trains in Germany (ICE, IC, EC) currently have a very poor on-time performance record compared with the local/regional trains. German speakers using English tend to use "local traffic" when referring to a broad category of transport options (subways, trams, buses, local trains, regional trains) just as they use the term "Nahverkehr" in their own language ("Nahverkehr" translates literally as "local traffic.")

Will you be coming back to Germany sometime? If the €5.80 fare from Mainz to FRA sounds comparatively good to you, then you will probably love the low cost of getting around by "local traffic" - Travel by local and regional train in Germany is an outstanding value by comparison with bus-tour travel and something most people can accomplish independently as well.

Russ thanks for your help. Didn't know what local traffic meant. Very impressed with the responses I've received. We used the train a little last year in Bavaria. The regional trains run so frequently that it amazed us. And also, the Bavaria pass is quite a bargain.

I've been thinking about why local and regional trains seem to run on time while the more important, long distance trains seem to be getting delays.

I think on reason is that the long distance trains run much longer routes (time and distance) and thus have more chance of getting delayed.

For instance, one ICE starts in Hamburg-Altona and goes through FRA Fernbahnhof to Basel in 8 hours with 18 intermediate stops -plenty of opportunity for delays.

On the regional side, trains usually run in one or two German states. There is a regional train that starts in Koblenz and ends at Frankfurt Hbf 1¾ hours later after 11 stops.

A typical S-Bahn in Frankfurt might run from Offenbach to Mainz in about an hour. It makes lots of quick stops but generally does not have much chance of getting delayed.

The other reason long distance trains get delayed is that they are more likely to wait for another delayed train and the effect snowballs. Local (S-Bahn) trains don't wait for anything. After-all, there is another one along in 10 to 30 minutes. Regional trains often run on 1 hours schedule, so there is less need to wait, whereas, on some ICE lines it might be 2 hours until the next train, so the ICEs are more likely to wait.

I was once on a regional commuter train coming out of Stuttgart on a Friday afternoon. Due to heavy traffic and full trains, it was running ½ late. When we got to Ulm, the conductor read of a list of all the trains, mostly long distance ones, that had waited and the track number they were waiting on. When he got to my train, a regional going to Lindau, he said, 'Sorry, it did not wait'. The next train on the line was leaving Ulm in another ½ hour anyway, so it wasn't worth holding the earlier train.

Some theories on the current state on the DB here:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2023/oct/08/german-train-travel-deutsche-bahn-kafka

Uh, that is a fallacy that the local S-bahn trains don't wait for anything. The ICE trains have priority over S-bahns and regional trains and I have waited on a S-bahn and other regional trains so many times because of this. Biggest delay? People holding the doors open so the train cannot leave the station. It happens so often that the driver has to make announcements about it. My S-bahn from Mainz into Frankfurt the other day was 27 min. late because it had to wait due to the ICE in front of it having some problems. Yesterday, my friends were late coming in from Wiesbaden because someone had jumped in front of the train. This happens a lot unfortunately. Or, there is someone in the tunnels, usually someone who is drunk or high or teens being stupid. This causes a delay which can then continue for hours due to back-ups.

Use www.rmv.de for the train schedule for Mainz into Frankfurt.