Train from Frankfurt to Bacharach (Rhine)

Kitty,

We stayed in Bacharach in May 2009 and travelled there by train from the Frankfurt airport. We had to switch trains in Mainz. There are no stairs involved in this switch.
The bad news is that at Bacharach crossing over to the town side of the tracks involves an underpass with stairs - no escalator or elevator. In his book Easy Access Europe, Rick Steves notes the Bacharach station access problem when arriving from the south - the direction that you will be coming from.
Rick Steves indicates that the stairs could be bypassed by getting off the train at a town with better station accessibility and where you could take the K-D boat line to the dock at Bacharach - the dock involves only a ramp. Easy Access Europe is no longer in print but is still available through Amazon.

Thank you so much. I have located a library near our house that has the book and will leave soon to go get it.

By any chance, did you also stop in Rothenburg ob der Tauber? We will be in Munich, taking a train to Frankfurt. We would like to instead take the train from Munich to Rothenberg, spend a night, then continue on to Frankfurt via train. Therefore, we have the same question: must you use stairs at the connecting train station, Steinach, or is there an escalator or lift?

Kitty: The Mainz station was recently redone and has escalators and elevators on every platform serving an elevated walking area with shops. You should have no mobility problems there. Just change trains for Bacharach in Mainz rather than in Bingen. Here is a map of the station:

http://www.bahnhof.de/site/shared/de/dateianhaenge/bahnhofsplaene/bahnhofsplan__mainz.pdf

As I remember, there is a mall over the tracks in Mainz with escalators from each platform.

Kitty,

The Mobility Service Center section on this Deutsche Bahn page indicates that you can contact them (email or phone) to get accessibility information on specific trains and stations:

http://tinyurl.com/npcjhj

We had initially planed to go to Rothenburg but we were amazed with all we could see and do based in Bacharach. You can see our May 2009 trip at www.eclecticjourneys.com - still a work in progress.

One more note about Mainz - when we bought our tickets to Bacharach in Frankfurt we were told to go to the front of the train to make the connection easy. The train that we transferred to was positioned slightly ahead and to the right (based on incoming direction of travel) of the train from Frankfurt. There was no need to cross any tracks. It would be worth asking if this is still the situation when you travel.

If I remember, the Bahnhof in St. Goar has a center platform (I have a picture of it on my computer at home, but I'm not at home). If so, if you are on a railpass or a Rheinland-Pfalz ticket, for no extra cost you could go to St. Goar, get off on the center platform, then get on a train back to Bacharach and get off on their southbound platform.

Dear Lee,

I looked in Rick Steve's Easy Access Europe book and it said that the St. Goar train station is not accessable - "...23 6" steps lead down to a long landing, then another 24 6" steps up to town". However, are you saying that we could get off the train from Frankfurt in St. Goar and we could then get on the train going to Bacharach at the exact same spot, thus avoiding these 23 steps? From the RS book, I think we could take the train from Frankfurt to Koblenz, then take another train from Koblenz to Bacharach. We could take the K-D boat from Bacharach to Koblenz the next day (that is our reason for going to Bacharach)The RS book says that the Koblenz train station is Level 2 - Moderately Accessable. However, your idea would save time

Sorry, but I am new to this and a bit nervous about getting on the wrong train. How do I know which train to get on in Frankfurt. Once I get to Mainz, how do I know to which train I switch? I would have never known I needed to switch trains if I hadn't stumbled across this post. Thank you.

Scott: to get itineraries and changes of train, including platform numbers, use this German Railways webpage: http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en There are dozens of different stations in Frankfurt; to find the itinerary, get the station names correct. Frankfurt main station name: Frankfurt(Main)Hbf (Hbf means "main station", "Main" means "on the Main River") Frankfurt airport: Frankfurt(M)Flughafen

First, to find the train and platform number in Frankfurt, look at the departures schedule (yellow page) in the display cases on every platform. You didn't say to where you are going. From Frankfurt Hbf, there should be Regional Express trains stopping at Bingen, Oberwesel, Boppard, and Koblenz. If you are going to Bacharach or St. Goar, yes, you will have to change trains in Mainz or Bingen.

Kitty, in Mainz there isn't a problem, they have escalators and you will go down to the main floor, and go out the back to the right, and there will be a regional /rhine platz train waiting. (it was at this location in 2009). This will take you toward Bacharach, however, you can get off at St Goar and go in the opposite direction back to Bacharach to avoid the step problem in Bacharach. St Goar has a central platform as a previous person said, however, if you want to go into the town by the river, which you can see from the front of the station, you will have to go down some steps and then back up them to catch the train. So you probably wouldn't want to do this. I usually stay at the Hotel Hauser and I always like it, but not the steps from the platform to inside the station and then outside steps in front of the station. Enjoy your trip.

Every 2 hours there is a train going straight to Bingen from the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof with no changes at Mainz. It also stops at the airport, so I don't know if you are leaving Frankfurt city or Frankfurt airport, but you can get a train with no changes. I like using the RMV website for towns that are near Frankfurt. It switches into English and is very user-friendly.
http://rmv.de/ The train leaves from the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof on track 20, at 09:08, 11:08, etc.

Kitty, The others have provided some excellent information. However, I wanted to ask if you'll be travelling directly from Frankfurt Airport or from some other location in Europe? There is a rail station right in the airport, so if you're arriving on a flight from the U.S., you can travel to Bacharach directly from there. Aside from the one trip you mentioned, many of the older or smaller rail stations still use an underpass to get from one platform to another, so you may encounter problems if you're planning to take other rail trips. One other point to mention is how you'll getting from the station in Bacharach to your Hotel, as you'll probably have to walk. It's mostly level, so shouldn't be much of a problem. Which Hotel are you planning to stay in? Cheers!

For those who are nervous about getting through the train maze, there is a very good, if slightly dated, video. I hope it helps. It is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moLGxdId9uU For some reason I can't make the link work today.