I was travelling from Zurich-Berlin by ICE's on a full price ticket. The train passes through Mannheim and I am thinking of grabbing lunch with a friend there. My ticket has a validity of one month printed on it.
Just curious if there are any rules concerning how often and for how long I'm allowed to break the journey? The original ticket gave me an ICE change at Hannover: does that constrain me to always passing via Hannover as well? I suppose there are multiple routings from Zurich to Berlin that make sense.
pacer142
Nov 9, 11, 1:42 am
I was travelling from Zurich-Berlin by ICE's on a full price ticket. The train passes through Mannheim and I am thinking of grabbing lunch with a friend there. My ticket has a validity of one month printed on it.
Just curious if there are any rules concerning how often and for how long I'm allowed to break the journey? The original ticket gave me an ICE change at Hannover: does that constrain me to always passing via Hannover as well? I suppose there are multiple routings from Zurich to Berlin that make sense.
I don't know about Break of Journey on DB, though I suspect you would most probably get away with a same day Break of Journey even when not allowed (certainly this was common practice in the UK on outward Saver portions).
The route is relatively easy - you will have a "Via/Ueber" section on the ticket giving a string of station codes split with *s and /s. As an example:-
MUE * (NUE / AUG) * ICE1234 * NV
would mean you must travel via Muenchen, then either Nuernberg or Augsburg, then on ICE1234 only, then by any (sensible) local train. (The actual codes are guesses).
What does it say on yours?
Neil
rpninfinite
Nov 9, 11, 9:46 am
Mine says
von Zuerich nach Berlin Spandau
via: <1185>Basel Bad Bf<1080> (KO*K*D/L)
Not sure of the station codes. Is there a list?
Short breaks seem OK, like you said. I'm still wondering about longer ones (could
be relevant on my future trips) The ticket does say Gultigkeit: and a one month duration. That's what I'm curious about.
My past flex tickets didn't have this longer duration.
pacer142
Nov 9, 11, 10:25 am
Mine says
von Zuerich nach Berlin Spandau
via: <1185>Basel Bad Bf<1080> (KO*K*D/L)
Not sure of the station codes. Is there a list?
Not aware of one. The first means you need to cross the border at Basel Badische Bahnhof (the numbers are the UIC codes for the country).
Looking at a map of Germany my guess is:-
Basel Bad -> ? - > Karlsruhe -> Dresden / Leipzig
I can't see what KO might be. Possibly Kollmarsreute or Koendringen. Unless it's Koeln, but that seems rather out of the way.
My past flex tickets didn't have this longer duration.
May be because it's an international ticket?
Neil
adventureadam
Nov 9, 11, 2:13 pm
Koblenz?
pacer142
Nov 10, 11, 12:59 am
Koblenz?
I originally thought K*KO would be Koblenz-Koeln, but that routeing seems *way* out of the way.
Neil
stut
Nov 10, 11, 2:03 am
Dresden's pretty out of the way, too, and Koblenz isn't on a high-speed line, so would seem odd.
Even the route via Cologne and Dortmund seems rather out of the way.
KQ321
Nov 10, 11, 4:19 am
Mine says
von Zuerich nach Berlin Spandau
via: <1185>Basel Bad Bf<1080> (KO*K*D/L)
Not sure of the station codes. Is there a list?
Hmm. I'm not sure that "KO*K*D/L" are station codes. There seems to be a full list of station codes here (http://www.deutschebahn.com/site/dbnetz/zubehoer__assets/de/anhaenge/betriebsstellen/betriebsstellen.pdf), but there are no single letter station codes.
It seems the single letters can be used to indicate regions (see this article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Deutsche_Bahn_station_abbreviations)) but I am still not sure that this how they are being used in this context (as KO isn't on the list, and the route would presumably need to go through other regions (eg: Stuttgart, Frankfurt, etc) as well.
I wonder if the letters represent routes (according to some code which I haven't found yet) or perhaps indicate the outer boundaries of the area which can be travelled through? If anyone has any contacts at DB it could be interesting to ask them for a proper definition of these codes.
Short breaks seem OK, like you said. I'm still wondering about longer ones (could be relevant on my future trips) The ticket does say Gultigkeit: and a one month duration. That's what I'm curious about.
My past flex tickets didn't have this longer duration.
I thought full-fare DB tickets had fairly generous duration and stopover (and routing) provisions - but I can't find confirmation of this anywhere. It might be buried somewhere in DB's t&cs (http://www.bahn.de/p/view/mdb/bahnintern/agb/gesamt2011/MDB96612-gesamtdatei_fassung_07_11_2011_mit_ta_34_2011.pdf) , but I'm not able to skim-read all 179 pages to check!
pacer142
Nov 10, 11, 4:40 am
I wonder if the letters represent routes (according to some code which I haven't found yet) or perhaps indicate the outer boundaries of the area which can be travelled through? If anyone has any contacts at DB it could be interesting to ask them for a proper definition of these codes.
I think a / defines a region i.e. if you have A * (B / C) * D it means you can also travel any line that lies between A-B-D and A-C-D.
I think it is a different set of codes than the ones you link to, because the link from that gives:-
FREI Reinheim (Odenw) Bf
RO Offenburg Bf
whereas a ticket from Muenchen to Salzburg is routed RO * FREI, which means Rosenheim -> Freilassing and doesn't go anywhere near either of the above.
Neil
rpninfinite
Nov 10, 11, 5:40 am
I did some more research. The ticket does come with the suggested (not mandatory) trains: ICE-74 till Hannover and then ICE-951 to Berlin.
The routes of these trains might shed some light on those mysterious symbols.
ICE-74 goes through (got this from DBahn timetables):
Zürich HB
Basel SBB
Basel Bad Bf
Freiburg(Breisgau
Baden-Baden
Karlsruhe Hbf
Mannheim Hbf
Frankfurt(Main)Hb
Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe
Göttingen
Hannover Hbf
Maybe this list gives us a better guess about those cryptic symbols?
Of course, my original question is still partly unanswered. Can I make an arbitrary number of stopovers over the one month validity of the ticket?
This would (given the right route choice) almost make it like a Europass (for much cheaper)!!
My past flex tickets didn't have this longer duration.
May be because it's an international ticket?
Sorry, my bad. It isn't as simple as I thought. The one ticket says "Normalpreis (Eicfache Fahrt) This one has a one day validity. The other one is simply a "Normalpreis" and that one has a one month validity.
So even paying the full price for a ticket the validity doesn't seem standardized. The "einfache fahrt" is something that I don't get.
Yup. Right you are. This indeed seems the route based on the original suggested route. Now I just need to find the mandatory anchor stations so that when I choose alternative routes I can try and not run afoul of the requirements.
pacer142
Nov 11, 11, 4:18 am
I did some more research. The ticket does come with the suggested (not mandatory) trains: ICE-74 till Hannover and then ICE-951 to Berlin.
The routes of these trains might shed some light on those mysterious symbols.
ICE-74 goes through (got this from DBahn timetables):
Zürich HB
Basel SBB
Basel Bad Bf
Freiburg(Breisgau
Baden-Baden
Karlsruhe Hbf
Mannheim Hbf
Frankfurt(Main)Hb
Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe
Göttingen
Hannover Hbf
Sorry, my bad. It isn't as simple as I thought. The one ticket says "Normalpreis (Eicfache Fahrt) This one has a one day validity. The other one is simply a "Normalpreis" and that one has a one month validity.
So even paying the full price for a ticket the validity doesn't seem standardized. The "einfache fahrt" is something that I don't get.
If I read correctly, an international ticket gets the longer validity, while a domestic ticket is valid either one or two days depending on journey length. "Einfache Fahrt" just means one-way.
Neil
pacer142
Nov 11, 11, 4:20 am
Best thing might, though, be to check this with the place you bought the ticket - then you can be sure.
pacer142
Nov 11, 11, 4:28 am
Right, I just read those forum posts again. It seems I've been using the wrong precedence. It seems the / takes precedence, not the *.
So your route:-
via: <1185>Basel Bad Bf<1080> (KO*K*D/L)
means you can travel via...
Basel Bad Bf
then any route that lies between a route via Koblenz, Koeln and whatever D stands for (that'll be either Duesseldorf, Dortmund or Duisburg, I guess), and a route passing through Leipzig.
There are I think "sub-rules" like not going in the "wrong" direction or doubling back on yourself - but it sounds to me like almost anything reasonable goes.
Neil
rpninfinite
Nov 11, 11, 9:00 am
Best thing might, though, be to check this with the place you bought the ticket - then you can be sure.
Was an online ticket. Not much help there with the fare-rules. The English version of the Deutsche Bahn site is minimalistic.
Track
Nov 11, 11, 7:11 pm
Right, I just read those forum posts again. It seems I've been using the wrong precedence. It seems the / takes precedence, not the *.
So your route:-
via: <1185>Basel Bad Bf<1080> (KO*K*D/L)
means you can travel via...
Basel Bad Bf
then any route that lies between a route via Koblenz, Koeln and whatever D stands for (that'll be either Duesseldorf, Dortmund or Duisburg, I guess), and a route passing through Leipzig.
There are I think "sub-rules" like not going in the "wrong" direction or doubling back on yourself - but it sounds to me like almost anything reasonable goes.
Neil
These are the standard German city codes used on auto license plates and have also come into more general usage, including on German-language rail and streetcar forums. K is indeed Cologne, KO is Koblenz, L is Leipzig and D is Duesseldorf. And of the routings in this box can be used to get to Berlin.
pacer142
Nov 14, 11, 5:23 am
Was an online ticket. Not much help there with the fare-rules. The English version of the Deutsche Bahn site is minimalistic.
Your ticket is good for 30 days. You can make as many stopovers as you like, for as long as you like, as long as you arrive at your destination within 30 days of the first day of validity. What you *can't* do is take a longer routing then one of the "approved" routes as listed on your ticket. Now, for the specific case you described - a stopover in Mannheim - this is absolutely no problem, because Mannheim is right on the most intelligent possible routing from Zurich to Berlin. So, in your specific case, this will work just fine.
For the general case: this policy is valid in most of Europe, but there are special rules for France, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands. If you don't mind, I'll skip that special case, as it gets a bit complicated...
Please also note: this very liberal policy of having the ticket valid for 30 days is due to the fact that it is an *international* ticket. If you had a German internal ticket - say, from Basel Bad to Berlin - then the ticket itself would be valid for 30 days from the date of purchase, but the actual travel has to take place on *2 consecutive days*. Not nearly so good!
I got this data from the official tariff on the Deutsche Bahn website. If you're interested, it's entitled "Besondere Internationale Beförderungsbedingungen der Deutschen Bahn AG für Reisen mit Fahrkarten ohne (integrierte) Reservierung (SCIC-NRT)" Aren't you glad you asked... :D