Please sign in to post.

Train schedules in Germany--are they available well in advance?

Are German train schedules available well ahead of time, or only closer to departure? We recently returned from France, where we had to wait until about 4 months out for the schedules to be available. I'm looking to go from Munich to Salzburg, and while I can find some departures, they are relatively expensive (around 40 eur each way). Maybe I'm just looking at an expensive route, or is there a trick to getting cheaper fares?

Posted by
2308 posts

Munich-Salzburg can be traveled with the Bayern-Ticket (€26/1, 34/2), a day ticket valid on all regional trains in Bavaria from 9 am (on www.bahn.com select "only local transport"). Long-distance trains are only about 20 minutes faster. Train schedules are available six months out.

Posted by
233 posts

Thanks Sla019. I just googled Bayern-Ticket and it says it's good in Bavaria. Salzburg is just barely over the border, so I'm wondering how that would work. Can you direct me to a place where I can see how it connects to schedules etc?

Posted by
2308 posts

Salzburg is the border station and thus technically a German train station too.
As sayed above, look up www.bahn.com and select "only local transport". All local trains on that line have a "BRB" prefix (BRB = Bayerische Regio Bahn, which operates local transport between Munich and Salzburg).

Posted by
6590 posts

Were you planning to return to Munich that evening? The Bayern Ticket works as a day pass that would permit a return trip as well at no additional charge as long as you use the regional trains. That said, the Bayern Ticket's after-9-am on weekdays restriction makes a day trip to Salzburg and back a bit iffy as Salzburg is a place that normally requires more time - so you may wish to do such a day trip on the weekend instead for an earlier start.

You should not buy the Bayern Ticket well in advance in most cases. It's non-refundable should your plans change. And since it's not possible to reserve seats on the regional trains anyway, you might as well just wait until the day of travel to make your purchase. Like all the other Länder Ticket day passes, the Bayern Ticket never "sells out."

But it doesn't hurt to look at the scheduling options and to decide on which trains to use. Be sure to click on the "only local transport" box when you do your search. That will eliminate any of the high-speed trains (which are ineligible with the Bayern Ticket) from your results.

Additional Bayern Ticket information can be found here.

Posted by
233 posts

Thank you both, will have a look at the resources. I understand it better now! We plan to spend 2 nights in Salzburg, so it would be two tickets each. Nice if you can do it in a day, for sure, but we've never been to Salzburg and want to have a bit more time.

Posted by
6231 posts

I think Salzburg deserves more than a day - it's a beautiful city with a lot to see and do, and you can't go wrong spending at least 2 nights there.

Posted by
2376 posts

Schedules are pretty much the same the entire year and from year to year. There can be a slight glitch when they are uploaded for the year, I think in mid Decembet

Posted by
32523 posts

are you travelling before September this year? If so the 9€ ticket per person per month, yes 9 for the entire month, for the entire country, goes everywhere the Bayern ticket goes but for the whole month and no need to wait on 9am. Valid all day, and all month.

Posted by
233 posts

I wish...no, we are going in December for some Christmas market visits!