We will be traveling from Bamberg to Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The train I will probably book has two changes, in Nürnburg and Munich. Looking at intermediate stops, I see that we stop in Munich-Pasing before arriving at Munich Hbf, and then the train from the Hbf to G-P also stops at Munich-Pasing. Below the itinerary it says "Hint: train makes multiple stops at station" or something like that. Is there any reason we could nor skip going to the Hbf and just get off at Munich-Pasing, and board the G-P train there?
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19240 posts
I'll have to take a closer look at the schedule, tracks, etc, but in principle, no. I've done that. Assuming both trains stop at Pasing, it will give you more time to make the change and Passing is a smaller station, fewer tracks involved in the change. Some things to think about, you might have a much longer wait for the train you want in Pasing than you would have at the Hbf, and, as I remember, the Passing station is kind of exposed compared to the Hbf. On a crowded train, you would be more likely to get a seat if you started where the train originates (Hbf). I see one schedule that requires you to get from one of the tracks in the main shed of the Hbf to a track in the Starnberger Flügelbahnhof in 10 minutes - doable, but not a lot of time. If the rain is running late, you might want to use the Pasing option. Note also that if you are using a Spar Preis ticket, you are not required to catch the designated regional train from Munich to GaP. You can miss the scheduled train at the Hbf and take the next one, in an hour.
Posted by
OP
Seattle, WA
17252 posts
Good point about the seats. This will be on a Monday in September, so maybe not such a concern. The interesting thing is that the one-change route (omitting the change at Nürnburg) has you make the change at Munich-Pasing, not going in to the Hauptbahnhof at all. I'll just have to see what the prices look like when the seats go on sale tomorrow. We could always just do a Bayern Ticket, but the regional trains take an extra hour or so, plus more chamges. I'd like to get to G-P in time to have most of the afternoon there.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19240 posts
"the one-change route (omitting the change at Nürnburg) has you make the change at Munich-Pasing, not going in to the Hauptbahnhof at all." Might be because the second train leaves the Hbf 9 minutes before the first one gets there? With the Pasing change route you get 8 minutes to make the change. Also interesting is that the high speed ICE arrives at Pasing 10 minutes before it arrives (terminates) at the Hbf. The schedule doesn't show a departure time from Pasing as they don't sell tickets from Pasing to the Hbf for that train. However, the milk-run RB to Garmisch leaves the Hbf only 7 minutes before it leaves Pasing. Is the RB faster? (Perhaps the Bahn expects a lot of people to get off in Pasing, like you would, and allows extra time for it.)
Posted by
OP
Seattle, WA
17252 posts
Another mystery: if you change from ICE 1605 ( departing Bamberg at 10:07) to ICE 527 Nürnberg, you get to Munich 30 minutes sooner than if you had stayed on the ICE 1605. I didn't look at the route map, so maybe the explanation lies there.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19240 posts
Since I have been studying German Rail, they have built a special high speed line between Nürnberg and Munich, and ICE 527 takes that line non-stop, in just over an hour, while ICE 1605 takes a longer route, through Augsburg, with stops, in 1¾ hr. It's worth the wait of a few minutes in Nürnberg to take the faster train. (But, the non-stop train doesn't stop in Pasing , so if you're coming back out through Pasing, it might actually be faster to take a slower train.)