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Validity of the German Rail Pass for long distances and the public transport

Hi I would really appreciate if anyone could enlighten me; can the German Rail Pass be used for travel from Frankfurt Airport to the city and then to Berlin and Dresden and also be used in the public transport system in Germany ?

Posted by
23178 posts

Where is Lee when we need him? Lee is the expert on German rail passes. He should be along shortly.

In general rail passes are not accepted on intercity transit or private lines.

Posted by
14482 posts

Hi,

I'm assuming that you want to use a Pass day from Frankfurt airport (FRA) to Frankfurt Hbf. (central station) and then taking the next train to Berlin...all in one day. Yes, that can be done. I did exactly that the end of April 2014.

First, have the Pass validated at the airport, take the S-Bahn subway or regional train to Frankfurt Hbf. Then change to an ICE train for Berlin. Now, if you intend to stay in Frankfurt on the day you land at FRA, don't waste Pass day for such a short ride. Get a ticket for the S-Bahn instead. The Pass is valid on the S-Bahn in Germany, not on buses, not on the U-Bahn

Posted by
6590 posts

"Hi I would really appreciate if anyone could enlighten me; can the German Rail Pass be used for travel from Frankfurt Airport to the city and then to Berlin and Dresden"

Yes. It's good for all trains in Germany (with the possible exception of the rare ICE Sprinter trains.)

"...and also be used in the public transport system in Germany ?"

The train trips you just spoke of ARE taken using Germany's public transport system. If you mean transport within large cities like Berlin and Munich on the subway or trams or city buses, the answer is no.

Please understand that a railpass is not necessary for travel in Germany, and that it is very often more expensive than the other options (individual tickets for each trip, local and regional day passes.) Germans use the rail system all the time - and they do not buy German rail passes; most of the same low-priced travel options they use are available to you as well.

If you want some advice on this matter, it would be good to post your itinerary, travel dates if possible, and passengers and their ages.

Posted by
5 posts

Hi All thank you for your kind inputs.
Well I intend to travel from Jan 2015 . Intended to stay 2 days in Frankfurt . Leaving for Berlin for 3 day then going to Dresden for 1 day before going to Prague for 3 day and 3 day in Vienna and finally back to Munich for 2 days. So the big question is is it worth buying a German Twin Rail Pass for 2 adults and 1 Youth Pass under 26 yrs old or just buy 2 German Rail Pass for 7 Days! Thank you all once again.

Posted by
32523 posts

I think it unlikely that a pass would pay off in this case. You'll need to do the math. Spar Preis tickets can save lots of money, and local travel district tickets are what you need in the cities.

Intended to stay 2 days in Frankfurt.

It is only a very few euro from the airport to the centre of Frankfurt, only about 15 minutes. A pass day would be a complete waste of money. The pass can't be used for local transport within Frankfurt.

Leaving for Berlin for 3 day

Getting to Berlin would be a valid use of a pass day. Buying an advance purchase Spar Preis or other discount ticket would be a lot cheaper. Once you are in Berlin your pass is worthless, you need local transport tickets to get around.

then going to Dresden for 1 day

That's only about 100 miles, and a pass day would be a very expensive train indeed. Again you will need local transport.

before going to Prague for 3 day and 3 day in Vienna

Your pass will only get you to the German border, after which you will need Czech and Austrian tickets. The German pass is only valid within Germany.

and finally back to Munich for 2 days.

Your pass would only be valid from Salzburg to Munich, which is only a €30, 90 minute journey. The long trip from Vienna to Salzburg would need an Austrian ticket.

Posted by
6590 posts

You didn't provide your travel dates or the age of the younger person. But individual tickets for those legs will be cheaper. I did a quick look at the German Railways site to see what the lowest prices might be for 3 adults on a sample date in January.

Frankfurt-Berlin: €69 (DB Savings Fare)
Berlin-Dresden: €39 (DB Savings Fare)
Dresden-Prague: €57 (DB Europa-Spezial Fare)
Prague-Vienna: You can buy a Dresden-Vienna ticket from DB (Europa-spezial fare) and use it only for the travel segment between Prague and Vienna: €87
Vienna-Munich: €117 (DB Europa-Spezial Fare)

So that's €369 for the major travel legs. Add maybe €40 tops for normal tickets/daypasses on the other two short trips (into Frankfurt, to MUC airport) and your total cost is around €410 for 3 adults. The actual prices you find may be a little higher or lower. It all depends on your travel dates.

The DB tickets above are train specific - you must ride the trains you book at the time of purchase. You can check, but I'm sure you'll find that the flexible select pass options to cover your 3-country itinerary will cost well over €1,000 for 3 adults.

Posted by
19052 posts

Hi,

I haven't finished reading all of this thread, but I wanted to clarify a few points from what I have read.

The ICE Sprinter is an express version of the ICE. There are, for instance, a couple per day between Frankfurt and Berlin. They run non-stop, so take less time. A German Rail pass IS valid on the ICE Sprinter if you have a reservation. Most German trains do not require a seat reservation (4,50€ single), but they are available. For the ICE Sprinter, the reservation costs a little more (11,50€) because it includes a surcharge for this premium train. This is similar to the situation using the TGV in France.

In cities, one of the "subways" is the S-Bahn, which is a train run by the Bahn, and it's use IS included with a railpass. However, use of transort run by the local Verkehrverbund (transit union) is not included with the pass. These include the U-Bahn, streetcars (trams), and buses.

Some private companies running trains on their own rail lines do not accept rail passes (Eurail or German Rail). This is the case with the Bayerische Oberlandbahn (BOB) running trains south of Munich from Holzkirchen to Bad Tölz, Tegernsee, and Schliersee. Railpasses are also not accepted on Zahnradbahn (cog rail) trains like the Zupspitzbahn or the Wendelsteinbahn.

There are a number of private companies (eg, MRB and VIA on the Rhein, ALX and Meridian in Bavaria) that run trains on Bahn tracks. These trains DO accept rail passes.

The standard fare from Czech Rail (go to eShop) for Prague to Vienna is 538 Kc (about 19,50€) per adult, so it would be less expensive that way than trying to use a German Rail Savings Fare ticket from Dresden to Vienna for just Prague to Vienna, and I'm not sure the ticket would be accepted for Prague to Vienna if it had not been used for the Dresden to Prague segment.

You seem pretty committed to a specific schedule v-v days. Just commit to the train time and you can save considerably with advance purchase, Savings Fare (Spar Preis) tickets from the Bahn.

Posted by
145 posts

I am no expert, but to add to what Lee said, I can give my personal example from the last couple of weeks:

We traveled from Paris to Berlin via Frankfurt. I purchased the tickets in advance (caveat - tickets not valid for any other train but the ones ticketed for) and paid 49 Euros per ticket (for wife and me). And both our kids (under 14 is the cut-off IIRC) were free :-) This was our first trip to Europe and I did not see the pass (any pass) helping us beat that deal!

In Berlin, the ABC welcome card with the museum island was the way to go for us. We paid 80-something Euros for two of those (ours were 72 hours validity, and they can be purchased for 24 and 48 hours as well); once again, kids were free. Though it is apparently a rare event in Germany, I was 'carded' both days during travel and proudly flashed our welcome cards.

Hope this helps and is not TMI!!

Porcupyn

Posted by
16893 posts
  • If you can commit now to any of the advance-discount tickets that Russ listed, then that would be convenient from the perspective of one-stop shopping and a nice total price.
  • The German pass let's you keep your schedule options open instead of reserving now, but it doesn't cover half your trip.
  • The Eurail Select Pass (Off-Peak version) costs more ($356 per person) because it would be in 1st class and cover 4 countries. You'd only choose that if you want both 1st class and an open schedule.

The German Rail Pass covers most trains in Germany, including airport trains, and private trains won't come up on the routes you've mentioned. Advance booking normally not required; only ICE sprinter requires a separate seat reservation. Rail passes also cover subruban S-Bahn in and around German cities, if you're using one of your counted rail travel days, but not U-Bahn or city buses or trams. The 3-day German Twin pass cost $205 per person in 2nd class, which you could use for Frankfurt-Berlin and Berlin-Dresden, plus a portion of your trip back to Munich.

Posted by
6590 posts

jastaurus: There are lots of options - and they get complicated when you're trying to get a good price. That's why we've dumped all this information on your fairly simple question. Sorry. You probably have TMI by now, so I'm reluctant to try to clarify anything. But here goes.

1.) Laura suggest a 3-day 2nd-class German railpass at $205 each. That's $410 for two or €332 total for 2 already. Your youth pass will be €154 (DB price.) That puts you at €486. You'll also need extra tickets for Dresden-Prague, Prague-Vienna, part of the Vienna-Munich trip (Vienna-Salzburg) and two tickets from/to airports.

2.) If you do somehow end up with a German railpass, do not worry about ineligible trains. You will not inadvertently board a private train on a private railway system somewhere. Any train using the DB stations that you'll be passing through will be accessible, except the ICE sprinter, which you cannot just randomly board. There are only a couple of these trains per day, timed for business people who are commuting, and they are only used on one of your routes, Frankfurt-Berlin, and almost exclusively on weekdays. They shave 20-30 minutes or so off the trip to Berlin, but I sort of doubt that getting on one of them is of great importance to most travelers.

3.) The S-bahn (Schnellbahn or rapid train) is not a subway. It is, as Lee also says, "a train run by the Bahn." It's just a train, a simple train without food service and nothing fancey, one used within and around major cities, and you can use it like any other train - with a railpass or a train ticket. The "U-Bahn" is the subway.

Posted by
5 posts

Hi to All ; Thank you for your kind inputs and suggestions . Great ! Have a Nice Day !

Posted by
19052 posts

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, subway is "a railway system in which electric trains travel along passages below ground", so technically, in the center of town, either the S-Bahn or the U-Bahn is a subway. Many people have mistakenly referred to the S-Bahn in Munich as "the subway" because they have only traveled on it under town, where it is - an electric train traveling along passages below ground. To avoid ambiguity, we should refer to the underground trains in Germany as either the S-Bahn or the U-Bahn, not the subway.

Although I agree that jastaurus is not likely to encounter a private railway that does not accept rail passes on his stated itinerary, others reading these forums might. Specifically, Schliersee seems to be a popular destination for time-share holders, and that town is on the Bayerische Oberlandbahn. A rail pass will not be usable from Schleirsee until, you get to Holzkirchen. Holzkirchen is a DB station, serviced both by regional trains and by the S3 from Munich. So you can get there from Munich with a railpass, but be careful what train you get on in Holzkirchen. You can't use a rail pass with the BOB. BOB, however, does accept the Bayern-Ticket.

Posted by
6590 posts

"According to the Cambridge Dictionary, subway is "a railway system in which electric trains travel along passages below ground", so technically, in the center of town, either the S-Bahn or the U-Bahn is a subway."

U-Bahn = Untergrundbahn = underground railway, or tube, or subterranean railway, or subway in English (See Cambridge.) The U-Bahn is an underground affair by definition (even if it occasionally travels on the surface.)

S-Bahn: As touristberlin.com explains, "The S-Bahn is a fast overground train system..." And that's how most people understand it. But like the U-Bahn system, it doesn't behave itself 100% - it sometimes goes under the earth's surface for practical reasons, as it does in Munich for a handful of stations.

It would be confusing to call the EC train between Zurich and Milan, which spends 15 km underground, a "subway." Similarly, it will surely confuse posters if we start referring to an S-Bahn train as a "subway" train, since the U-Bahn already claims that translation. English doesn't have a word for S-Bahn that I'm aware of, but using "subway" for it will lead to ambiguity at best.

Posted by
8889 posts

Russ, I agree, the dictionary definition of "subway" (a purely North American term) is absurd. According to that definition the Channel Tunnel is a 'subway', but the London Underground isn't (It is 60% above ground).

U-Bahn = Métro (generic name). The London Underground is an example of this. But most U-Bahn / métro / Underground Railways spend a part of their time above ground.

S-Bahn is the same as the RER in French speaking countries, and the 'Thameslink' and currently-under-construction 'Crossrail' in London, and other names in other countries. A regular frequency suburban service, which (in many cases) goes underground in the centre but uses overground routes, shared with Inter-City and freight services, outside the city centre; and extends into the hinterland surrounding the city. I am not sure there is an example of such a service in North America. Therefore there is (AFAIK) not a common name for such a service in North America.

A U-Bahn/métro is usually owned and run by the city, but an S-Bahn/RER is run by the national railway company.

Posted by
32523 posts

Nigel gets to be pedantic.

Thameslink is now much larger than it was when it was born. It now goes all the way from Bedford, in Bedfordshire about 50 miles from London. And all the way to Brighton, about 50 miles in the other direction. Cambridge, Peterborough, and into Kent.

That is way past Suburban. While there are similarities in central London to RER and S-Bahn, I don't think that Thameslink falls into the same bucket over-all. And Thameslink is run by a privatized company.

I can think of S-Bahns run by the BLS in the Bern area of Switzerland which never run underground.

Posted by
145 posts

Some observations:

I think it is pretty easy to think of S-bahn as surface trains as these trains spend a majority of their trip above ground.

Similarly U-bahn would be metro/subway/underground as these cover a majority of their trip underground.

It took me a few months to grasp that in Zurich on the S-bahn system, I could not recall having gone underground (not that we spent a lot of time on the system - were there for a few hours only).

I loved the Berlin train colors - red for the S-bahn and yellow for the U-bahns, one line for sure was over the ground (at the eastern end of the East Side Gallery over the bridge there).

In Paris, the metro (line 1?) that goes above ground over the river west of Bir Hakiim (sp?); other than that, lines go above ground once in a while; similarly, the RER is underground (or at least mostly covered) in some places - RER C through central Paris for instance.

Porcupyn