Originally Posted by
djca
I came back from Germany almost a week ago. A friend of mine told me about this passport/identity card inspections by the police at train stations. He said this happens mostly for passengers of intercity trains.
I saw a bunch of German police on one platform at the Munich Hbf as I was getting to my train (different platform) to leave Munich. Wasn't stopped for inspection though.
On a related note, on a train from Basel, Switzerland to Freiburg, Germany, not all people's documents were inspected though the (presumably) border police looked at each passenger carefully. Mine wasn't checked, and I definitely don't look European. Train from Austria to Switzerland was another story. All passengers' documents were inspected by (presumably) Swiss border police.
This is due to the UEFA soccer event. Austria has reinforced border controls and German border police tries to prevent holigans even to board the trains to Austria. On trains from Switzerland there should be a full border control as Switzerland is not part of the EU or Schengen and they have a somehow more relaxed visa policy for tourist visas compared to the EU. However, this is theory. When crossing the land border in particular in the Lake Constance area between Switzerland and Austria or Switzerland and Germany, there are hardly any checks. The same is true for crossing the "sea border" at Lake Geneva - I have never experienced any checks there between Switzerland and France.
However, what you might see on all trains - in particular these from Switzerland - is customs. There uniforms might look pretty much the same for a foreigner. Allthough there is in general no limitation on goods within the EU (different story for Switzerland) they are in particular interested in money (from Austria and Switzerland) or - as a side remark - drugs from the Netherlands.