Deutsche Bahn and Spar tickets
 

I am considering buying a Spar ticket between Freiburg and Gdansk / Danzig in Poland. However, the most suitable connection involves a change of trains in Berlin with a 18 minute connection. Now I have done plenty of those connections in Japan, but unfortunately DB, while pretty good, is not JR as regards punctuality. Plus, having never been to the station in Berlin (lower level), I am somewhat apprehensive of making the connection, failing which my ticket becomes invalid.

What do the 'profis' suggest?

Under normal circumstances 18 minutes are enough in Berlin to change trains but it does not give you any buffer in case of a delayed train to Berlin. I guess there are only a view trains going from Berlin to Gdansk per day and missing it would cause you some long delay. If possible you should try to take a train earlier to Berlin to have between 30 and 60 Minutes. About the validity of your ticket. If the whole journey from Freiburg to Gdanks is on one ticket than in case of a delayed train you can take the next train to Gdansk. You just go to the Bahn Infopoint and get a note about the delay that caused you to miss the connection (this is the official way, many people just skip this and just take the next train which can theoretically cause some debate with the train staff). If you have separated tickets the same rules as in air travel apply meaning if you miss you connection you out of luck.

This is very good advice. I would say the same thing. Connecting trains at Berlin Hbf can be done in five minutes, but you obviously don't have much buffer.

This thread might be better placed in the "European Rail Travel" Forum. In so far, I move it from the Germany Forum to the aforementioned forum.

FLYGVA
co-moderator Germany Forum

And you might wish to check the fare on the website of the Polish railways.

Thanks for the tip! I did not even know about the Polish Rail site, but did check it out. Unlike the DB site, it did not offer Freiburg as a starting station and splitting up the trip in Berlin would make it much more expensive. In any case, it was good to know about another resource for future trips.

If your train to Berlin is delayed sufficiently (so that the MCT in Berlin isn't met), you can take any train after that. The obligation to take a certain train is removed in that case. At which station in Berlin are you transferring, Hauptbahnhof or Ostbahnhof?

But just a thought: Why not fly? Freiburg to Gdansk on the train takes like 13 hours minimum. And DB is much less reliable than JR indeed! The train from Freiburg to BSL takes an hour and then it's roughly 3:30 hours flight time (with a connection in MUC or FRA). Alternatively, you could take the train to FRA (2 hour ride) and then a direct flight to GDN.

If he's talking lower level at Berlin in a previous post then he almost certainly is changing at the Hbf

Flying is so boring so some of us like to avoid it when better opportunities exist for seeing the country.