Eurail and Deutsche Bahn

Posted by Christine (Los Angeles, CA) on 05/12/10 09:08 PM

This is probably the stupidest question on this website.
I am sorry; I am so new to this Eurotrip planning.

If I get an Eurail Pass, does that mean I can ride on DB (RE, RB, S-Bahn) without paying separately for DB?

I am trying to go from Trier to Frankfurt. I got Eurail Regional Pass for Germany-France. I don't see "Eurail" route from Trier-Frankfurt but I found that DB has a route.
Basically, my question is, How do I get to Frankfurt from Trier with Eurail Pass?

Please help!!

================edit====================
Oh, I understand now. Thank you so much.
Yes, I did not get my Eurail Pass yet but I'm thinking about it because my trip includes:
Trier-Frankfurt 7/19/2010
Frankfurt-Heidelberg-Frankfurt 7/20
Frankfurt-Paris. 7/21 and stay in Paris until 7/24.

Should I get still Eurail Pass or other suggestions?

Posted by Ms. Jo

Frankfurt, Germany

05/12/10 11:12 PM

9278 posts

Eurail is not a rail road company, they have no trains. It is a company that sells overpriced tickets.

Get your tickets and passes from the companies themselves. DB stands for Deutsche Bahn and they run the trains in Germany.

Posted by Russ

Paradise

05/13/10 05:10 AM

7156 posts

You're being very unclear. "If I get" a Eurail pass... "I got Eurail Regional Pass..."

Do you already have a pass, or not?

If not, you might want to just buy a Rheinland Pfalz single ticket which gets you as far as Mainz for 20 Euros on the regional (RE, RB) trains. From there it's about 5 Euros for a regular ticket to the airport, a bit more to Frankfurt.

Posted by Lee

Lakewood, Colorado

05/13/10 07:46 AM

19300 posts

Jo is spot-on. Their are no "Eurail" trains. The trains in Europe are run by the national rail companies, French Rail (SNCF) in France, German Rail (DB) in Germany, etc. Eurail is a marketing company, jointly owned by all the national rail companies in Europe, to create rail passes which are valid on the trains in the various countries.

You can get schedules for the trains all over Europe on the German Rail website. That is a much more complete list of available trains than on the pamphlet that Eurail gives you.

And, as Russ said, you might want to reconsider a railpass or at least the number of days. By S-Bahn or regional train from Mainz Hauptbahnhof it's €3,80 to the airport, €7,15 to the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof (on top of the €20 Rheinland-Pfalz-Single ticket [Click on Rheinland-Pfalz and Saarland. Caution: DB has old prices on this English language page] to Mainz).

If you do use a railpass, you can travel from Trier to Frankfurt on express trains (ICE/IC/EC), but the time saved is less than an hour.

You can also get an online, advance purchase, non-refundable Sparpreis ticket from Trier all the way to Frankfurt using express trains for as low as €19 (but that might be a little too complicated).

Posted by Leon

Defiance, OH

05/13/10 03:19 PM

2 posts

The least expensive Germany-France adult pass is $365 for 4 days, but you have only 3 travel days. The full fare for the 3 trips is 227 Euro (less than $300), and there are certainly ways to reduce that. The pass doesn't look like the best value in your case.