Transfer time at train stations

If the train is on time and you are ready to get off the train immediately when it stops, and the train station is not Bologna Centrale, and you (possibly) can go down a flight of stairs, through a tunnel, up a flight of stairs (or take an elevator at some stations), you should be fine.

Which train station is it?

We will have this situation in several train stations over our 2 week trip. In Belgium - Gent and Antwerp. In Germany - Dusseldorf and Mannheim and Buchloe.

It's likely that most of your trains in Belgium and Germany don't actually require reservations. See the DB link at How to Look Up Train Schedules and Routes Online for a more objective view of that issue. If you're booking advance-discount tickets, then you are locking in specific train departures, though the railway could make accommodations in case of a train delay. However, if the train you're connecting to is a long-distance, reserved route such as a TGV to Paris, or an overnight train, then I would increase the planned connection time. The DB schedule has an adjustment feature.

If I add more time to the transfers then it sometimes adds too much time and we have to wait in the station much longer and we have to take a much later connecting train. I'm making reservations because some of the railways require and because some of the days we have to be to the next town with time to sight see (versus winging it without reservations and possibly getting on a later train and wasting part of the day). This website is so informative but there are just so many variables! :)

We have always make out tight connections when the trains are on time. We always ask the conductor when he comes around if he knows the platform number for our next train. Nine out of ten times he does and sometimes offers suggestions on how to get there if it is a little tricky. Most of the time it is step off of one train and walk the platform to the next train or under the tracks for the next set of platforms. And sometimes you get off, stand there till the next train pulls in. Often the conductor will tell you that.

In Germany, when the conductor checks your ticket, if the train is just a couple of minutes late they will contact the connecting train and it will wait for you - at least that has been my experience, three or four times.

Assuming you are physically able to negotiate stairs with your luggage, you should be fine. I haven't ridden the train in Northern Europe but I found the Italian trains to be the epitome of timeliness - never departing early or arriving late.

This is another really good reason to pack "Rick Steve's Light."

In most cases, the German Rail schedule webpage shows the platforms for connecting trains at stations in Germany. When planning my trips, I always note the platforms (arriving and departing). That way I am prepared for the change before I get there. In 30 years of travel in Germany (over 20 weeks), only once (1988) has a train not used the platform indicated (an express train was coming through late, so they pushed the local train off to a side platform, and they announced it on the speaker).

In a lot of stations, there will be a lighted sign over the track showing the train number, destination(s), and time of arrival. Always check to see if it is the right train. Sometimes, when you get there, the train you want will not be the next one on that platform. The train cars will have a placard in the window near the door giving the train number and the destination of that car. Remember, the same train can often have cars going eventually to different destinations.

Here are the station layouts for Düsseldorf and Mannheim.

Buchloe is a very small station. In most cases your change will be cross platform. For instance, the train from Munich comes in on track 4 and the train to Füssen leaves from track 5, across the platform.