Originally Posted by
bruce80
Yep, but that does only apply to tickets involving a journey involving some long-distance train. When you try to book a ticket within VRR (or even some types of regional train tickets within Northrhine-Westphalia), the DB website says "Preisauskunft nicht möglich" ("Price calculation not possible") and doesn't offer you the option to buy online. Your only option would be the Rheinbahn ticket machine at the Skytrain station (which only sells VRR tickets). There would be the option to buy your ticket using your cell phone (provided you have an internet connection), but for those living abroad, this doesn't really make sense as the connection fees are probably higher than the ticket itself.
OK, good point. I guess I've never tried to purchase an urban-area ticket online. However, Länder Tickets are now available as self-print tickets online - which is very useful if you're travelling medium distance, and are happy to use regional trains. (As this means you're not tied to a specific train (as you would be with the Sparpreis tickets on ICEs/ICs) and therefore you don't have a problem if your flight is late and you need to take a later train, but also you don't need to waste time queuing if you've bought your ticket online in advance). However, a Länder Ticket would be an expensive alternative if in fact you only need an urban-area ticket.