Originally Posted by USAFAN

I am not sure, if this is a good advise and somebody might comment:

I have gone (some years ago) several times from DUS to Cologne Central Station....and didn't pay!That's how it happened. I lived in Hamburg near the Airport and missed several times the plane to Cologne (where my company's headquarter was). So I took the plane to DUS and then the train to Cologne ... I went right on the train ... you can pay at the train. No train "conductor" ever showed up.BTW, the train was always the (slow) night train from Hamburg to South Germany.