If I book a daytime train from Milan to Frankfurt through the German Rail web site bahn.de, can I use the ticket print out on the first Italian leg from Milan north? The bahn.de web site has a good price on the ticket, but I'm concerned that perhaps the ticket that I would print out is not acceptable to Italian conductors on the train out of Milan. Is there any problem with this? CR
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
The German Rail site doesn't allow a person to print tickets for that route. If you go a little ways into the booking process, you will see that your only choice is to have regular tickets sent to you in the mail. They certainly will work for all legs of your trip.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19274 posts
Personally, I would just use the mail option to get the ticket at a favorable price. I think that the reason you cannot use self-print tickets from Milan is that the train has Italian conductors from Milan to Verona. While German conductors carry a "tricorder" that allows them to scan an online ticket and check the validity with the Bahn's database, Italian conductors do not have that access. Therefore, the conductor on the Milan-Verona leg cannot check an online ticket. However, if you take an Italian train from Milan to Verona (discounted prices available from Trenitalia) and board the EC in Verona, you can use an online ticket from Verona to Frankfurt, but, including the Italian part, it would cost more.
Posted by
OP
Tucson, AZ, United States
2 posts
Tim, Lee,
Thank you both very much. Your help is greatly appreciated. I don't have time for the tickets to be mailed, so I booked the first Italian leg through TrenItalia and the second leg through Swiss Rail. Costs a little more but I can get all of the tickets for sure.