Hello,
Can I bring a double stroller (1 child behind the other) on the train?
Is luggage checked in (as is done on airplanes) or is luggage generally stored on overhead racks?
Are there size limits to luggage that can be brought on a train?
(I will be traveling out of Frankfurt and have not taken the train before.)
Thanks for your help!
David, German Rail doesn't put any limits on what YOU can take onto the train. But YOU have to put it on. If it folds up, you might be able to put it in the overhead rack; otherwise there is space at the end of the car for oversized luggage. If the train is half full, which is the norm in my experience, you can even put it on an empty seat.
German Rail will, I believe, still check luggage through for you but it might arrive three days later.
You can bring as much "hand luggage" with you as you can store under and over your seat, and one peace of "carriable" (by one person) luggage which can be stored somewhere in the aisle (your responsibility).
For strollers the best places are generally at the beginning and end of the car where the seats can be fold up. It's advisable to reserve such seats, ask at the ticket counter.
DB outsourced luggage transportation in 1995. Which means that "checking in luggage" is really "sending them as parcels with the Hermes courier service". You might want to compare prices with other courier companies, DHL and UPS tend to be cheaper than Hermes, especially with heavier/bigger parcels.
You should keep in mind getting on and off the train quickly.
Sometimes the train will be in a Bahnhof and give you plenty of time to load or unload.
Other times it's a brief stop at a smaller station. They don't wait for you. You need to be ready to hop off when the train stops and/or quickly board with all your stuff.
It may not be that bad for you but we missed a stop once because my wife didn't know how to open the door. I was bringing up the rear with our kids between us. By the time I realized she wasn't getting off and got passed the kids to help, the train was already leaving the station. The conductor watched us miss our stop without the slightest hint of remorse (and we only had carry-ons).
Thanks Lee for the dose of reality.
Thanks Mark for the recommendation on the strollers.
Thanks Brad for the pointing out the timing. I was a bit concerned about that. We will pare down luggage to the minimum, but I was wondering if there are published timetables for how long the trains stop? The bahn.de website just shows arrival/departure times without stopping time. We will travel from Heidelberg to Speyer (S-Bahn) and then back to Frankfurt. I'm guessing that the S-Bahn will have only short stops?
The Die Bahn timetable does show the arrival, departure times and the platform number for each stop.
Click on the arrow next to the train (to show details) you think you may take (for practice) and it will show you all of the above.
Practice with the site. If you know your travel days print the timetables with the arrival,departure and platform #'s.
On S-bahns, the route is on a map above each door, so you can look there. Yes, these stops are very short. There is no need to fold your stroller up on an S-bahn, just sit in one of the seats by the door, leaving the stroller in front of the door that is the opposite of the one opening. This sometimes changes, but usually is always the same side of the train.
