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Train station in Frankfurt

I will be flying into Frankfurt from Egypt and arriving at 5:30 am on a Sunday morning. I then plan to take a train to Munich as quickly as possible after storing a bag. How long do I need to allow to get through customs, store the bag and get to the train? Since I'm not sure how much time to allow, does it make sense to buy the ticket online if I will save money or just wait until I get there.
I'm assuming that the Frankfurt (MAIN) is the airport station because the other Frankfurt (MAIN) has the hbf for the main train station afterwards.

Posted by
8934 posts

Main is the name of the river that goes through Frankfurt and thus is part of the city name - Frankfurt am Main. In your example, they just want you to know that it is Frankfurt Main and not Frankfurt Oder which is up near Poland.

The name of the long distance train station at the airport is Fernbahnhof and has nothing to do with being the main station in Frankfurt, that is the Hauptbahnhof. There is also a Regional train station at the airport but this is for commuter trains and what you would use if you needed to go to the Hauptbahnhof or main station in Frankfurt to catch your ICE or IC train to Munich.

What prices are you seeing for your train? It will always be cheaper getting them ahead of time, but if you miss your train due to your flight being late, you lose your money unless you buy a Flexi-ticket.

How long will you be storing your bag? They charge 7 € per day for this.

See if you can get a Rail and Fly ticket, it is much cheaper than buying your ticket on the day of your arrival.

Posted by
19630 posts

The walk up fare from Frankfurt (Main) Airport Fernbahnhof (long distance train station) is 105 EUR and it takes a tad over 3 1/2 hours to get to Munich without train changes. Trains are about every half hour, although there is a bit of a gap from 7:36 to 8:52.

If saving money is a higher priority than convenience and speed, you could travel on local trains with a "Happy Weekend" ticket. You'd have to change trains at least 3 times, at Frankfurt (Main) Hbf, Wuerzburg, and Treuchtlingen, leave from the Frankfurt (Main) Airport Regionalbahnhof, and the cost is 44 EUR if you buy it from a vending machine, 2 EUR more if you buy at the ticket window. Connections are every hour and it will take over 6 hours to get to Munich. So is 2 1/2 hours of your time worth 61 EUR plus some sacrifice in comfort and convenience?

Posted by
14481 posts

That is a big sum of savings, 61 Euro. It is still insufficient to pay for a simple parking ticket in SF.

Posted by
2305 posts

Well, as Mrs. Jo has pointed out, buying a Rail and Fly ticket from your airline will allow you to board any high speed train without being commited to a specific one - R&F tickets work like Flex fare tickets and still are cheaper (ca. €30) as the Quer-durchs-Land tickets mentioned above. But you have to book it with your airline, it's not available from DB.

Posted by
6589 posts

"I then plan to take a train to Munich as quickly as possible after storing a bag."

Maybe Rail n Fly will work for you or maybe not.

€105 one way is a hefty price to pay. I assume you are returning to FRA later to get your bag. Are you making only that round-trip train journey, or will you be making other train trips as well?? If so, a German Rail pass might be the answer. You could use any train you like at any hour after your plane lands and on 4 subsequent days of your choosing. The GRP doesn't limit the train journeys you can make, only the number of days you can travel; a 5-day flexi-pass for one sells for €220 (so €44/day) - no reservations required. There are cheaper 3-and 4-day passes available as well:

https://www.bahn.com/en/view/offers/passes/german-rail-pass-conditions.shtml

Posted by
7448 posts

It would help if you shared a bit more about your larger plans.

Why are you storing a bag? Is it short term or long term? Are you just going into Frankfurt to visit the city before heading somewhere else? etc.

If just going into the city for example, that would be using Regional trains, so not much value in buying a ticket ahead and no reservations, so no worry about time to get through Immigration.

Same for the bags, maybe storing at the station in town might be better than at the airport, depending what the purpose is and where you are going.

Posted by
2 posts

I'm probably only going to use the train round-trip between Frankfurt and Munich. I can book a specific ticket for less than 100 euros roundtrip. Since I'll have clothes from traveling for two weeks in Egypt, I want to store the bag so that I can travel with just a backpack in Munich. I also can't figure out how to list my phone number on the Bahn site so that I can order to ticket. Thanks for all your suggestions.

Any don't miss sights in Frankfurt (I'll be there for a day and a half at the start of my vacation) or in the four days in Munich, I'd love to hear them. I'm traveling in January.

Posted by
32508 posts

phone number... doesn't matter, the won't text it to you... no spaces, no punctuation, no parenthesis, no dashes.... try that and only put in ass many digits as fit.