German Rail Fares and Price Reductions
(changed on March 5th, 1995, to cover some tariff changes of 1995)
This file gives you an overview about German Rail's price
system. It is not official, nor does it contain everything about
the prices, but it's something to start with.
Contents overview (Hyperlinks move you down within this file):
1. Standard fares
2. What the RailServer delivers
3. Reduced prices
(new: 3f the "Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket" offers cheap weekend travel)
4. Reservations
5. Bikes
There is a special page on overnight travel
which contains some price information on sleeper an couchette cars.
The standard fares are calculated based on the length (in km) of the
route. The price is approximately DM 0.25 per km (2nd class). I have
to say 'approximately' because according to a special table very
short rides are more expensive, medium length rides are cheaper and
very long rides are exactly DM 0.25 per km.
These differences aren't very large; some examples:
A standard ticket for ... costs ...
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
10 km DM 3.00
20 km DM 5.40
50 km DM 10.80
100 km DM 21.40
500 km DM 84.00
There's a 20% reduction off the standard fare for rides within
'Tariff Zone B' which is exactly the territory that once was the
German Democratic Republic, including Berlin.
Rides that cross the 'border' are
divided into two parts to calculate the resulting fare.
First class tickets always cost 50% more (+/- 1% due to rounding).
This 'standard fare' ist valid for all trains, with the following
exceptions:
- ICE trains. For ICE trains, there's a special fare that depends
on the attractivity of the route; as a rule of thumb, ICE rides
are 10 to 20 percent more expensive than standard tickets.
- EC/IC trains. These cost the standard fare as discussed above
plus a DM 6.00 supplement no matter how far you go. This DM
6.00 supplement ist not reduced by anything (e.g. if you have 50%
discount on all tickets, the base fare will be reduced, but the
supplement will not). You do not have to pay a supplement for an
EC/IC if your route contains an ICE ride.
Example: You go from Karlsruhe to Frankfurt(Main). In Karlsruhe,
you start with an IC train; in Mannheim you change trains to an
ICE that brings you to Frankfurt(Main). Then your fare is the ICE
fare Mannheim-Frankfurt plus the standard fare Karlsruhe-Mannheim,
you don't have to pay a DM 6.00 supplement.
- Train rides within traffic cooperations ('Verkehrsverbund').
Often such orgnaizations provide regional and short-distance
traffic around large cities; if start and destination of your
ride fall into the same traffic cooperation area, you have to pay
their fare which may be more expensive, especially for small
distances.
Example: In Frankfurt, there's the FVV cooperation which connects
the smaller towns and the outskirts to Frankfurt city centre. Say
you want to go from Munich to Hofheim (a town 20km to the west of
Frankfurt) which is an FVV member: This is no problem as your
starting station is not an FVV member, and the standard German
Rail fare is vaild. But if your ride begins not in Munich but in
Offenbach, 10km to the south of Frankfurt and also an FVV member,
you'll have to pay the FVV fee.
As a rule of thumb, it is quite unlikely that a train ride of
more than 40km will start and end in the same traffic cooperation
area; for rides shorter than 40km and in the vicinity of big
cities or conurbations, you should ask someone who is familiar
with local rail.
The RailServer tells you the 1st and 2nd class fare for almost any
connection you receive. This fare includes everything said above:
The standard fare, the 20% reduction for Eastern Germany, and the
special ICE fares; the price stated by the RailServer will include
the IC/EC supplement where appropiate.
The RailServer will not give you prices for
- Some routes that include local traffic cooperation rides (see
above); in these cases it may help to ask for a connection that
goes to the nearest large station instead of your real
destination. Mail me if you have problems.
- Routes that do not begin and end in Germany. The foreign rail
companies have different prices; you'll have to ask your travel
agency for details.
The following reductions are not automatically calculated by the
RailServer although they may be applicable.
3a. Guten Abend Ticket ('good evening ticket')
If your ride starts at 19:00 (7pm) or later and ends before 2:00 (2am) in the
following night, you can buy the so-called 'Guten Abend Ticket'. It
costs DM 59.00 and is valid for any train ride(s) within Germany;
you do not have to pay EC/IC supplements if you use these trains.
(The 1st class price is DM 99.00, and the 'Guten Abend Ticket' is
not valid for sleeper cars.)
Since February 1st, 1995, there is a DM 15,- additional charge if you
want to use this ticket Friday or Sunday night.
If you want to use ICE trains, the ticket costs DM 69.00 (1st class DM 109.00);
the other conditions remain the same.
Compared to the standard fares, the 'Guten Abend Ticket' will
generally help you save money if you travel more than 200km, but you
will not always find a connection that matches the time
restrictions.
There's one last restriction: The 'Guten Abend Ticket' can (to my
knowledge) only be bought at a station that is no farther than 30km
from the station where you'll begin your ride; you'd best buy it
just before you want to leave.
3b. Accompanying persons save 50%
This offer is only valid for more than one person and only if you
buy a round trip ticket (e.g. Frankfurt-Berlin and Berlin-
Frankfurt).
If the first person pays DM 50.00 (for 1st class tickets: DM 75.00)
or more for both rides (this usually is the case for rides of about
100 km and more), all the others only pay 50% of this price. (Valid
for up to 5 people).
Example: You and your friend go from Frankfurt to Munich and back
(the return, of course, does not have to take place on the same day!). The
standard fare for the 428-km Frankfurt-Munich ride would be DM
102.00 per person (= DM 204.00 per person for the round trip). You
pay the full DM 204.00, and since this is far more than DM 50.00,
your friend gets 50% off and pays only DM 102.00. If a third and
fourth person were with you, they'd also only pay DM 102.00.
(Note: The DM 6.00 supplement for EC/IC trains will not be
reduced.)
However, if you managed to find a train that leaves after 19:00 for
this ride, you all would have been able to use the 'Guten Abend
Ticket' (3a) which would have cost DM 59.00 per person and ride.
('Guten Abend Ticket' and 50% reduction for accompanying persons may
not be combined.)
3c. Sparpreis, Supersparpreis ('Saver Price', 'Super Saver Price')
These are special prices for round trips that include a week-end
(e.g. Frankfurt-Munich on Thursday, Munich-Frankfurt on Monday).
The price does not depend on the length of the ride.
The SP ticket costs DM 190.00 if you don't use ICE (no supplements
for EC/IC required!), and DM 270.00 if you want to use ICE trains.
Travelling 1st class adds 50%.
The SSP ticket costs DM 220.00, no matter if you use ICE or not (no
supplements for EC/IC required!). If you have an SSP ticket, you are not
allowed to travel on Fridays (until Saturday 3:00 am) and Sundays
(until Monday 3:00am). Travelling 1st class adds 50%.
The SP and SSP tickets may be combined with 50% reduction for
accompanying persons (see 3b).
Since the standard reductions 3a and 3b have been introduced, the SP
and SSP tickets make sense only in very few cases, for very long
rides.
3d. Children
Children under four years of age don't pay anything. Children from four up
to eleven years of age pay 50% of the standard fare, but this cannot be
combined with other reductions (e.g. a 'Guten Abend Ticket' for a
five-year-old will cost DM 59.00 as it always does).
3e. The BahnCard
The BahnCard is a very popular discount in Germany. As a BahnCard
owner, you get 50% off the standard fare and 50% off ICE fares;
however (as always) an EC/IC supplement will not be reduced.
The BahnCard can be bought by anyone and is valid for one year from
the date of purchase. If you plan to travel a lot in Germany and if
you cannot use the other discounts, the BahnCard may make sense even
if you only use it for a week - see example below.
The BahnCard prices are (standard BahnCard gives 50% off 2nd class
tickets; BahnCard First gives 50% off 1st and 2nd class tickets):
BahnCard BahnCard First
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
'Normal' people DM 220 DM 440
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
People of age 18-22
People of age over 60 DM 110 DM 220
Students under 27
People whose spouse already
has a BahnCard
Families with at least 1 child
below 18 but ONLY if this
child travels with you
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
People of age 4-17 DM 50 DM 100
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
If children of age 4 to 11 have a BahnCard, they'll get 50% off
their standard fare which already is 50% below normal, i.e. they
have a total discount of 75%.
Example: You want to go from Frankfurt to Berlin, from Berlin to
Hamburg and from Hamburg back to Frankfurt. You cannot or don't want
to use the 'Guten Abend Ticket'. The standard fares make up for a
total of DM 420 (if you use ICE). If you buy a BahnCard, you'll only
pay DM 210 for the ride, the Bahncard is DM 220, which makes for a
total of DM 430. In this case, the BahnCard doesn't make sense, but
if there only would have been one small additional ride (e.g. a one-
day ride from Frankfurt to Heidelberg), the BahnCard would have been
the discount of your choice.
This is a new special offer which might be of interest especially for
tourists: for only DM 30.00, this ticket allows unlimited use of all
low-class German Rail trains for one weekend and for up to five persons.
'Low Class' means that you are not allowed to use the
ICE, IC, EC, ICN, IR and D trains (the appropiate RailServer command
would be "#EXCLUDE ICE, IC, IR", or check all three train type exclusion
boxes in the WWW form).
While the remainig, allowed trains (CB, RB, RSB, E trains and 'Nahverkehr'
trains without type letter) usually only drive small distances (mostly
less than 150 km), you can nevertheless travel a lot. For example, there
are possibilities to get you from Munich to Hamburg or Berlin for only
DM 30.00 with this ticket, although you'll be 'on the track' for roughly
14 hours. And: you'll see a lot of the country...
Again in short: The 'SWT' is valid from Saturday, 0.00am, to Sunday,
12.00pm, costs DM 30.00 and can be used by up to five persons travelling
together.
3g. Other discounts
There's also the possibility to buy tickets that are valid for a
certain route for as many rides within a month or year as you like;
for about DM 7,500.00 you can get a ticket that is valid for one
year on all German Rail routes :-).
If you are no older than 22 years (or if you're a student and no
older than 26), you can get the so-called 'Tramper Monats Ticket'
for DM 350.00 which allows for travelling as much as you want for
one month (if you want to be able to use ICE, that's DM 115.00
more).
If you have a ticket, you can reserve a seat for a specific train
(most of the German trains do not require a reservation, but
especially when travelling on week-ends, it's highly recommended).
Reserving a seat costs DM 9.00 (DM 3.00 if you buy your ticket at the
same time); up
to five people can use the same reservation when travelling together
(i.e. 5 seats are reserved, but only DM 9.00 are paid).
Reservation is possible anytime before boarding the train (you can reserve
a seat even if your train is going to leave in five minutes).
You can take a bike with you on most RSB, E, CB and RB trains (see
TrainType column in RailServer's connections). IR trains have eight
special bike compartments which you can reserve (you need not
reserve them but you cannot take a bike with you if they're
occupied).
Taking a bike with you costs between nothing and DM 8.60; this
depends on train type and situation.
You can rent a bike at many German stations.
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