Originally Posted by
Flying Lawyer
I do not know whether your reading of German in Switzerland is different from mine in the heart of the relevant state, but the language is pretty clear and it is certainly not what you say:
You need to have valid ticket when boarding regional train in NRW unless:
- there is a vending machine on the train
- the driver of a tram or expedited tram (= Stadtbahn) sells tickets
DB staff is neither "a vending machine on the train" nor "the driver" of the unit, so you need a ticket. Full stop. The conductors on the RE1 have the opportunity to sell tickets a to deal (a) with dumb but bona fide tourists or deal (b) with the situation that there was no vending or a defect vending machine at an intermediate station.
Nice to see this heating up a bit
I was in fact also looking at the passage
"Falls nicht, muss er diesen unverzüglich und unaufgefordert lösen."
However, in my quest to be right I came across
http://www.db-fahrpreisnacherhebung....eit/index.html where it says
"Nachlösung im Zug
Grundsätzlich muss der Reisende bei Antritt der Reise mit einer Fahrkarte versehen sein. Eine Nachlösung im Zug ist nur im Fernverkehr (ICE/IC/EC) möglich. In Verkehrsverbünden ist das Nachlösen im Zug generell ausgeschlossen."
Since this is a DB site I assume it has some sort of final say over the DB procedures (the NRW page being made to cover a wide range of applications, including RUs others than DB, is of course worded in a way that has the common to all operators, but thus, least, rights). This, I assume, puts an end to this discussion.
So, if the OP is still reading: Buy-onboard normally only works on IC/EC/ICE trains. Sorry for the confusion - I was working with my experiences. But of course, I will now go ahead and recommend those IC/EC/ICE trains for their onboard bar with beer on tap