Germany and its neighboring countries are very well equipped with public transportation by international standards – especially rail connections.
The vast majority of rail connections are operated by Deutsche Bahn (DB), although there are also some private companies such as Bayerische Oberlandbahn (BOB), ALEX (formerly known as Allgäu-Express) or Agilis. In addition, there are good connections to the railroad companies of neighboring countries. Thus, German trains can travel from Munich to Austria, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic and vice versa. Thus, one can also use the trains of the respective railroad companies (Österreichische Bundesbahn – ÖBB (Austrian Railways), Schweizer Bundesbahn – SBB (Swiss Railways), or Ceske Drahy (Czech Railways).
For travelers from non-European countries, I can recommend taking a closer look at the website of Deutsche Bahn (German Railways) or downloading the corresponding APP to your smartphone.
Both the website and the app can be used in English.
The website is additionally available in the following languages:
– Danish
– Spanish
– French
– Italian
– Dutch
– Polish
German Railways website (English): https://www.bahn.com/en
In addition to the official website and app, there is another service that uses data from Deutsche Bahn and is (still) tolerated by them. This is the website
Bahn.guru
Unfortunately, the offer is only available in German, but it is almost self-explanatory and you can also have the page translated by translation tools. There are two cool tools available from this private developer:
Bahn.guru – Price Calendar
Here you can enter the departure station and destination station within Europe (yes, within Europe!) and it will show you a calendar where you can see the cheapest ticket prices of the German Railways.
Tips for use:
– You can only search for connections that start or end in Germany. A search e.g. Paris to London will not return any results. Paris to Munich, however, will.
– English entries are also accepted (Munich instead of München, Nuremberg instead of Nürnberg, Vienna instead of Wien).
– Prices are always displayed in Euro including taxes. You can then immediately book tickets on the website of the German railroad by clicking on the price.
Bahn.guru – Direct
This tool shows you which stations you can reach from a certain starting station without having to change trains. The travel time is also displayed. Did you know that you can travel directly from Munich to Vienna, Paris, Prague, or Rome without changing trains?
Tips for use:
– Your starting station can be entered in the map in the search field at the top right.
– English entries are also accepted (Munich instead of München, Nuremberg instead of Nürnberg, Vienna instead of Wien).
– It may not display 100% of all available train connections, especially if they are connections to neighboring countries. According to the author of the software, this is due to the different data sets of the respective railroad companies.
(see also at https://gist.github.com/juliuste/f9776a6b7925bc6cc2d52225dd83336e)
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash