anyone book German train tickets online?

chancer_007

Am going to Dusselfdorf next week.
Will be taking the RE(Regional) train to Dortmund.

Thanks in advance

Euro_Kraut

Its possbible to book them online. However as it is a Regional train it is not really nessary. There are loads of machines in the stations that can be used in English.

However if yu need a bit of help booking online just let me know.

Fr Tod Umptious

chancer_007 wrote: »

Am going to Dusselfdorf next week.
Will be taking the RE(Regional) train to Dortmund.

Thanks in advance

No need to book online, you can buy those tickets from the machines at the station, and the machines are very easy to use

The trains run fairly regularly too (every 10/20 mins).

Look at http://www.bahn.de/international/ for more details

axer

I know if you want to book online for regional trains in Brandenburg you do so on the RBB website and not on the DB website. I think if you want to purchase RB tickets you do so here. As said earlier, you don't really need to do this as the machines are very easy to use.

chancer_007

thanks for the replies
I'll get them at one of the machines
cheers

undo

The train you are planning to take is a local train. Rather than getting the DB ticket, get a local VRR ticket. The journey from Düsseldorf to Dortmund is in travel zone D. If you need to go just one way or at most do a return some other day, single tickets will be best value. Each single ticket is €10.90.

If there is two of you traveling return (no matter whether same day or not), the "4er-Ticket" (4-ride ticket) will be better value. You stamp two sides of this ticket when there are two people traveling on it. For your return journey, you do the same thing with the remaining two sides. The ticket is €37.10 for a total of four rides.

Note that a VRR ticket is valid on all public transport within the travel zone it covers. If you need to change in Dortmund into bus/metro/monorail, all of those are covered by your ticket from Düsseldorf for up to four hours after the start of your journey. You can also use the journey planner on www.vrr.de to find out which combination of transport modes will get you to your destination fastest.

One IMPORTANT thing: VRR tickets are only valid after they have been stamped in the machines on the platform. So make sure your ticket is stamped. Otherwise, if caught (and they do check), you will have to pay a €40 fine.

If you buy a single ticket from the machine, that is actually pre-stamped for you - the machine prints the stamp right onto the ticket.

Because the VRR ticket covers all public transport in its region, you can get a ticket first and then hop onto the next local train (RE, S-Bahn) going in your direction. The RE is fastest, taking about 1 hour to Dortmund Hauptbahnhof (Dortmund Central). With the S-Bahn, the same journey takes a bit longer (1 hour 20 minutes) and you need to change in Dortmund-Dorstfeld. But if there is no RE coming for the next 40 minutes or so, catching an S-Bahn is better than standing around on the platform.

When in Dortmund, make absolutely sure not to miss the Christmas market! Dortmund has the world's tallest Christmas tree and one of the biggest markets in Germany... it is totally stunning.

And finally, I am from Dortmund myself and travel via Düsseldorf all the time. I have done this journey a hundred times or more - I am 100% positive all the ticket information is correct.

rockwell

thanks for that train info undo very useful. we're heading to Dortmund at the end of November for the markets. What else would you recommend to see in Dortmund? We're travelling with a 10mth old.

undo

Dortmund is not a tourist town at all. Other than the Christmas Market, there is nothing to see really.

But in Bochum, just some 10km from central Dortmund, you have the excellent Mining Museum (Deutsches Bergbaumuseum) where they take you underground into a coal mine, you get to explore the real technology behind it and the history of the Ruhr area.