Question about Rail Passes for Germany

I find it useful to create an Excel spreadsheet to compare rail costs. Each row is a day or leg of travel, each column is for the type of tickets (pass, full fare, discount fares, combinations). Of course the railpass column has nothing but the cost of the railpass and maybe some reservation. On days when full fare or discount tickets cost less than a railpass day, use those numbers in the railpass column. Then let Excel do the math (add up each column) for you.

I've done this for all eight of my trips this century. For the first trip, I used a pass and did the analysis retroactively. I found that, for the trains I actually used, I broke even, but there were less expensive (albeit slower) trains I could have taken and saved money. Since then my analysis has never shown that a railpass would pay, and I have not bought one since.

This method is particularly effective for Germany, where there are a whole array of discount tickets and day passes to save you money.

Price out your two main legs (Berlin to Bamberg and Bamberg to Mainz) and see how close you are to the $200 USD cost of a saver Germany Pass. At roughly $50 USD (33 Euro) per travel day, you do not need to travel far to make the pass work, but you really do not have many travel days. Another option for day trips is a regional day pass, there is a Rheinland/Phalz Pass for about 15 Euro that allows you unlimited travel that day in that region, cheaper than a railpass travel day.

As for function, Germany is pretty easy, there are very,very few trains requiring reservations, so your cost is what you see, fill in the day you are traveling and go, hop on and off as much as you want. For a saver pass, both of you must travel together to use the pass.

For two people, a day trip from Mainz to Kindsbach would cost a total of €27 (€13,50 ea) for a Rheinland-Pfalz-Ticket. Mainz to Koblenz would cost the same.

From Mainz to FRA would be a €3,70 pP RMV S-Bahn ticket.

If you use regional trains from Bamberg to Wuerzburg to Mainz, you can use a €39 (€19,50 pP) Quer-durchs-Land-Ticket (weekdays) or a €37 (€18,50 pP) Schoenes-Wochenende-Ticket (weekend day).

Depending on how far in advance you can purchase online tickets from the Bahn, it's possible to go from Berlin to Bamberg in about 4 hours via ICE with a Dauer-Spezial-Ticket for as low as €29 pP (seat reservations €2 more pP). For a day in October, less than a month from now, the non-stop connections were sold out at €29, but I did find non-stop connections for €59 and 4½ hr, 2 change, ICE connections, as well as IC connections, for €29. Of course, you can always use the Quer-durchs-Land- or Schoenes-Wochenende-Ticket for Berlin to Bamberg, but that would take 8 hours by regional train.

You can find these connections and prices on the German Rail website.

So, two German Rail Twin passes would cost $398 (about €272). The two Rheinland-Pfalz-Tickets and a QdL-Ticket, which are always available from automats at the stations, would cost €93 total, leaving you with €179 (almost €90 pP) to work with. A full fare (walkup) ticket on an ICE from Berlin to Bamberg is €80 and there are less expensive option, so I don't see a railpass paying off.

Wow...

I can handle most aspects of trip planning but I gotta admit, my brain turns to mush when I try to figure out train schedules, and then on top of that -- math?! I was really lost.

Thank you for that most excellent explanation, seriously. I can't thank you enough.