Non-NonRev

Yes.

There are two stations.

The first is the Regional Bahnhof, and the name tells its purpose. Mostly S-Bahn to places like central Frankfurt, Wiesbaden, Mainz and the like. This station is underground, under T1 Arrivals.

The second station is the Fernbahnhof, roughly the long-distance station. This is where the ICE and other faster trains go from. From T1 you walk over an enclosed bridge, past the Sheraton to a complex called the Squaire. The Fernbahnhof is on the lowest floor of the Squaire.

Frankfurt Hbf is in downtown Frankfurt and can be ignored for this trip.

linglingfool

Frankfurt(M)Flughafen and Frankfurt(Main)Flugh are the airport station, while FRANKFURT(MAIN) and Frankfurt(Main)Hbf are the central station in town. As Non-NonRev mentioned, you can ignore the latter.

Connections are available in Stuttgart or Mannheim.

SmilingBoy

The name of the airport long-distance station as used on the bahn.de website is "Frankfurt(M) Flughafen Fernbf" and most connections to Zurich would start from this station.

However, at some times during the day it may be a little faster to take a connection from the regional train station, which would be called "Frankfurt(M) Flughafen Regionalbf" on the bahn.de website. You would then than take a regional train to Mainz first. These connections do not use the ICE though.

Note that except for a night train there are no direct trains from Frankfurt Airport to Zurich; you would typically change trains in Mannheim or Stuttgart.

rxgeek

Thanks everyone for the quick, clear response.

Non-NonRev

A bit of follow-up. If you go on the DB booking site and accept the default "prefer fast connections" option, most of the one-change options will be via Mannheim.

If you un-check the option, you will see the Stuttgart connections.

The reason for this is because Frankfurt Airport to Stuttgart is on IC trains, not ICE.

Frankfurt Airport to Mannheim takes only 30 minutes on the ICE - you then have a 22 minute period to get to the ICE train that takes you to Zurich. Typically, the train from Frankfurt arrives on Track 4, while the departing ICE to Zurich uses Track 8.

This map shows the arrangement of platforms and tracks at Mannheim:

https://www.google.com/search?q=mann...NzkVb-wG0pM%3A

Be sure to reserve a seat on the Mannheim-Zurich segment. The cost is minimal, and you will be assured of a seat, even if the train is crowded.

jt82

Dumb question - I needed to get from Köln to Düsseldorf last night, and had a football ticket which was good in VRS, so through to around Leverkusen-ish. I couldn't for the life of me get any of the ticket machines at Köln to sell me a ticket for the remainder, so just hopped off at Leverkusen (train to there was an S-Bahn and next was RE so only cost me 15 minutes or so) and bought one there, but is there a way around this in the future?

linglingfool

VRR app, perhaps?

mosburger

There is an "Anschluss-Ticket" (extension ticket) option but as Leverkusen is within VRS, your ticket was valid anyway.

The border between VRS (Cologne area) and VRR (Dusseldorf area) is Langenfeld (Rheinland) so if going to a VRR destination, the origin of your trip should be aforementioned Langenfeld station.

PDXpress

I cannot find the Deutsche Bahn IC buses on the Christmas schedule that Deutsche Bahn just released today. Through 10 December, the end of the previous schedule, there was a daily nonstop bus from Prague to the Munich airport. It does not appear in the new schedule for the rest of December, nor does any other Prague to Munich bus, of which there are currently several a day. Is it possible these buses are really gone or should I expect them to be loaded later?

seacarl

When I was in Germany in September, there was an article in the newspaper stating that DB intended to exit the long-distance bus business. I gather that it was not profitable. And with revenue management and Sparpreise, they can compete with their rail service, at least on non-peak days.

I don't recall what the effective date was to be, but perhaps it is at the timetable change in December.

linglingfool

I believe they're dumping their BLB brand, not their IC bus service. See this article:

http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/s...ance-rail.html

bruce80

The catch to this is that "Anschlusstickets" are sold under NRW fare conditions, and you'll have to press the "NRW Tarif" button in order to buy one, not the VRR/VRS buttons, and you can only do so at DB ticket machines, not at VRR/VRS machines.

When buying a ticket for the reverse direction (i.e. travelling from a fare area where you don't have a ticket into one for which you hold a valid ticket), you'll have to buy either a normal ticket for the Verkehrsverbund you are starting at, or an NRW-Tarif "Schöne Reise Ticket" (a single ticket) to the second station after the area border (which is Leverkusen for VRR->VRS, Erkelenz for VRR->AVV and Langerwehe for VRS->AVV). That may sound a bit weird (and is pretty complicated), but in certain cases the former may be cheaper, and in other cases the latter (particularly if you own a BahnCard). The entire thing of travelling between VRS, VRR and AVV is actually extremely complicated and may easily overwhelm any unsuspecting person.

Shanqx

wow this is good. You wrote a book.

rfrost

I have a flight later this month from Entzheim airport, and will be coming from Baden Baden. There's a train leaving Baden Baden at 7:15 that connects a couple of times and would get me in at 8:38, in plenty of time for my 10:25 flight, but the first connection, at Offenburg, only gives me 5 minutes and with a platform change (from 1 to 4, I believe). I've had some on-time experiences with trains from Baden at this time of year, but also some less than punctual ones. It looks like, even if I misconnect, there's a later train from Offenburg that would get me to SXB at 9:05, which should still be adequate time for my flight; if I do misconnect, would I have to get reticketed at the ticket window, or could I just hop on the later train?
There's an earlier departure from Baden, at 6:13, with a more comfortable connection, but I'd really rather have the extra hour's sleep, unless I'm running a risk of missing the flight.
As always, your advice is appreciated!

SkyBuck

One more option: The 6:25 RE would give you an 0:13 connection at Offenburg (or an 0:23 connection at Appenweier, though a bit of a walk, unsheltered, between the north-south tracks and the east-west tracks) and an 8:03 arrival at the airport, in addition to being cheaper.

I'm only seeing Flexpreis fares, which as the name implies are fully flexible (within the class of train; don't buy the cheaper regional-only ticket and try to use it on the ICE). If you do find a Sparpreis fare, it will typically only tie you to a specific long-distance train; the Über field on the ticket will end with "*NV" which gives you a wildcard on the regional trains. In either case, no worries on simply boarding a later train if you miss the connection.