New German Rail prices

And here is what the local media so far knows about the updates: More frequent IC stops in smaller towns, since on the main routes ICs are pretty much completely replaced by ICEs now. New form of IDs for travelers with self-printed online tickets. Obviously ID cards are premitted, too, now. Not sure if this only goes for German or EU citizens - we'll have to wait until Saturday I guess. But everybody now can book online tickets on behalf of other people. So far you could only do it for yourself. And after downloading the ticket you can now also download a free Marco-Polo tourguide for your destination.But the coolest new feature is DBs first own iPhone application called "DB Navigator". Using the built-in GPS it'll guide you to the next train station from whereever you are - in addition to other features like mobile booking, schedules etc. As of right now it's not available in the AppStore yet though...

Here are some more basic facts about the new 2009/2010 rail schedule:The average fare increase is 1.8%, i.e. the maximum 2nd class one-way fare within Germany is now €129 instead of €127. Bahncards and specials like Dauer-Spezial and Europa-Spezial keep their prices. New is that you can now apply a Bahncard25 discount even on Dauer-Spezials and Europa-Spezials - i.e. instead of paying €39 for the Frankfurt-Paris one-way you can discount it down to under €30. There are now new family Dauer-Spezials. For a journey up to 250km a family only pays €19 one-way. Also new is that all of those Spezials are now refundable - up to 1 day prior to departure you can get them refunded and only pay a handling fee of €15 per ticket. Schedule-wise the main changes are: More high-speed ICE service to the popular tourist destinations Garmisch-Patenkirchen, Warnemünde and Innsbruck and the bullet-train ICE shuttle between Berlin and Hamburg (journey time just one hour) now runs even more frequently.

If the rates have really changed since midnight Dec 12/13, I see this. A Bayern-Ticket or Baden-Württemberg-Ticket is still €28. A Rheinland-Pfalz-Ticket has gone up to €28. What was called Dauer-Spezial is now SparPreis (straight SparPreis, not SparPreis 25 or 50) and for journeys over 250 km is €29 Euro for the first person, €20 more for each adult "Mitfahrer". Children under 15 are free with the new SparPreis (former Dauer-Spezial) fares.

That was what I just noticed at first look.

The App "DB Navigator" is now available for free download in the iPhone App Store and the Palm Pre's app store. I haven't gone thru the entire booking and ticketing process using this app yet and don't have a train ride planned until early next year (January) after which I will post a full report on here. First impressions are very positive though. The app obviously even acts as your ticket...

The DB Navigator might be useful if you were already in Europe and you wanted to buy a ticket 3 days in advance to get the SparPreis, but if you waited that late, you wouldn't be likely to get the best price. However, with a regular computer and a printer, you can already buy tickets online at the best price and print them out before you go.

Yup, Lee is right. Just mentioning it as another tool to travel along with you in case you need it...