Advice re train tickets from Amsterdam to Aurich

The journey I was looking at disappeared in the time it took me to copy and paste from the Bahn website and write my post here! Maybe it's to do with it being the first of the month in the northern hemisphere and the second day Downunder. So now I'm looking at an 08:36 train out of Amsterdam. I also think the issue with the tickets is the bus leg. This train too seems to have disappeared too - if I hadn't been copying and pasting the information I would've thought I was going mad. It's now an 08:56 train!!

Three points. You can only buy tickets on bahn if the trips starts or ends in Germany. Two, bahn tickets can be printed on you home computer but you need to carry the credit card that was used to purchase the tickets - very important. Three, you are too early to purchase tickets for March. Doubt if the schedules have been posted. 60 days out is about the limit for advance purchase. And this is why the fare cannot be calculated. Only reason to buy in advance is to take advantage of discounts but that locks you into a fixed, no refund schedule. Except on big, major holidays trains in Europe rarely if ever sell out. And most regional trains have no reserved seat so they never sell out.

Arriva is a regional train company operating regional trains under the Bahn privatization policy (apparently Arriva is a British company which Deutsche Bahn bought out, but the EU considered it a conflict and made them sell the German operation to Italian Rail ?). It looks like the connection starting at 8:56 comprises only 3 ICs and a bus. The connection at 9:56 uses the Arriva train. The reason you are getting the first message is because the Bahn won't sell tickets, and doesn't show fares more than 92 days in advance. The next problem is that the entire trips include trains with the start and end outside Germany. German Rail does not sell these tickets online. That's why it says "unknown tariff abroad." Hilversum, Amersfoort, and Groningen are outside Germany. Next, the Bahn does not sell tickets for segments using a bus. So you could only buy a ticket for that route from Hilversum to Leer. IMO, you won't need reservations for the ICs on the route, but if you buy tickets in Amsterdam (you can buy them for the entire route) you could probably get IC reservations. There are no reservations for regional trains, like Arriva. Although the Bahn sells lots of tickets for self print, for some routes outside of Germany, they only mail them.

Thanks for your replies Frank and Lee - you've confirmed some of my thoughts and given me a fair bit of information. I had thought you could buy tickets 90 days out and when I went back in after I posted earlier I can actually buy the segments Amsterdam to Leer. Because Aurich is a bit out of the way (family history research) I thought it easier to lock in our travel, which will be March 1st. Thanks again.

Why, I don't know, but when I looked up those connections this afternoon, fares were not shown. Now, Thurs evening, the Bahn shows fares from Amsterdam via Hilversum to Leer at €56,80 and via Groningen at €32,10. (The Bahn works in mysterious ways.) More importantly, since you seem to want to commit to a train, there is a train specific, non-refundable Sparpreis fare via Hilversum for €19/p. You can also reserve seats in the two ICs from Hilversum to Leer for an extra €2,50. You'd have to reserve the Amsterdam to Hilversum train in Amsterdam, but you might not bother 'cause you'll only be on it for 20 min. BTW, "leer" in German means empty. Do you suppose there is any significance?

Yes Lee - I know about those mysterious ways, seeing as my latest itinerary was the third generated in less than 30 mins! The price I ended up with this morning when I did a "dummy" booking was 72E for three of us - 1st class special including reservations for the 2nd and 3rd legs. It told me no reservation was possible for the 1st leg. And whilst I can't generate a ticket online the bus fares were ~22E. Thanks again any posts either confirm my thoughts or give me something else to think about. We will only be in Leer for ~30 minutes, so won't have a lot of time to find out if the place is empty or not . . . LOL

Train seats in domestic services in Netherlands can't be reserved, except for the Fyra high-speed trains (Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Breda) and the domestic sections of international trains to Berlin, Basel and Frankfurt. The route via Groningen uses more domestic trains and an international regional train which gives no discount (fixed price always).

Just as a follow up to my bus ticket dilemma: I had a German friend ring de Bahn without success. The operator told my friend they don't sell bus tickets. On my friend's advice I then decided to book the bus tickets online - Leer to Aurich, and take the only option of having them posted to me. I received them about 10 days after I did the online booking, so great service. The last time I looked I still couldn't buy the return journey, but we can do that once we are there. I was more concerned about the time constraints of the initial transit, plus the additional issue of language. Thanks for advice given.