Rail ticket valid on DUS skytrain?
Aug 9, 2016, 11:18 am
#46
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Aug 9, 2016, 11:22 am
#47
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I believe, however, that this is more "philosophical" issue. In this country we hate 100% control, we hate gates and borders and we believe very much in people being honest. Given that we put trust in everybody using the system and punish these misusing the trust (albeit the chance of getting caught is pretty low).
The same is true for every regional train. On probably 90% of the trains (and in particular on the S-Bahns) you will not see any conductor. Most (95+ percent) people, however, do buy a ticket or hold a pass.
Aug 9, 2016, 11:24 am
#48
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Aug 9, 2016, 2:45 pm
#49
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Clear as mud. 
From a foreigner's perspective, all I know is I brought a ICE ticket on bahn.de from "Frankfurt(M) Flughafen Fernbf" to "Düsseldorf Flughafen." One would have expected that would coverage transportation to the terminal. Who knew you had to buy an additional ticket for Skytrain or walk the 2.8 km between the train station and the terminal.
From a foreigner's perspective, all I know is I brought a ICE ticket on bahn.de from "Frankfurt(M) Flughafen Fernbf" to "Düsseldorf Flughafen." One would have expected that would coverage transportation to the terminal. Who knew you had to buy an additional ticket for Skytrain or walk the 2.8 km between the train station and the terminal.
The fault must lie to a large extent with DB (and I'm a big DB fan) - surely they should indicate on their website that an additional charge may be payable to get to the airport from the "Airport" station? Presumably they don't, for fear - as someone said upthread - of losing further custom at an under-utilised station.
Comparisons with the US are a red herring - this is Germany, for heaven's sake, with one of the best integrated public transport systems in the world. Surely it is not beyond the wit of DB to do a deal with the VRR?
Aug 9, 2016, 3:24 pm
#50
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I agree with you, sure. DB has however a deal with VRR and others. You can buy a long distance ticket including local transport, see post #34. You simply need to do it. We don't live a country telling and ordering everybody how to deal with certain issues but we expect that people take responsibility and get informed.
Aug 10, 2016, 3:59 am
#51
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BHX has a free (albeit short) shuttle train, there's the shuttle bus at FRA that goes between terminals (and the train station), which is free of charge too. There's more examples than just the one. DLR at LCY is a bad example since LCY is just a stop along a regular light rail line - SkyTrain just goes back and forth between the airport and the train station.
Aug 10, 2016, 4:00 am
#52
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Agree with your point about it being a philosophical issue, but also agree with others that the Skytrain issue is pretty confusing. It really is a German thing to have a rulebook about which ticket might or might not be eligible for a free ride on the Skytrain. Especially since the English website of DB sells the nonstop ICE ticket from Cologne to "Düsseldorf Flughafen" - not Fernbahnhof, Jamaica Station or anything else. Reasonable for an unsuspecting foreigner to believe it's part of the actual airport.
Aug 10, 2016, 5:48 am
#53
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Well, you have been required to show your ticket to bus drivers in DUS for a couple of years now.
Agree with your point about it being a philosophical issue, but also agree with others that the Skytrain issue is pretty confusing. It really is a German thing to have a rulebook about which ticket might or might not be eligible for a free ride on the Skytrain. Especially since the English website of DB sells the nonstop ICE ticket from Cologne to "Düsseldorf Flughafen" - not Fernbahnhof, Jamaica Station or anything else. Reasonable for an unsuspecting foreigner to believe it's part of the actual airport.
Agree with your point about it being a philosophical issue, but also agree with others that the Skytrain issue is pretty confusing. It really is a German thing to have a rulebook about which ticket might or might not be eligible for a free ride on the Skytrain. Especially since the English website of DB sells the nonstop ICE ticket from Cologne to "Düsseldorf Flughafen" - not Fernbahnhof, Jamaica Station or anything else. Reasonable for an unsuspecting foreigner to believe it's part of the actual airport.
The Skytrain was not built with the Airport's (Shareholder City of Düsseldorf and indirectly a JV of Hochtief and Aer Rianta) money but entirely with the taxpayers' money. Given that it had to be part of the public transport system in the state and given that it can be used with all tickets good for public transport in the region (as regional and local public transport is under the supervision of the state and subsidiesed by the state).
Tickets of the long distance operators like Deutsche Bahn are not good for regional transport not operated by Deutsche Bahn, so they are not good for the Skytrain.
Probably 95% and more of the pax do not care because they either continue on a regional service and need a regional ticket anyway, hold a pass or a Bahncard (giving you free local transport on long distance tickets) or have another instrument allowing to use the Skytrain. Several others are buying a ticket and we probably survive the few fare dodgers
Oct 15, 2016, 2:57 pm
#58
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I think it's a rip-off to be charged to move around within an airport's perimeter. Would you expect to pay extra for a car rental shuttle if you weren't leaving the airport, just because the car rental location is too far to walk?
Oct 17, 2016, 5:05 pm
#59
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First off, thanks for all the good info folks. I'm flying into DUS in a few weeks with a Eurail pass and had no idea if the Skytrain was included. Now I know it isn't!
I have a follow-up question. I'm going straight to Cologne from DUS. Since the rail pass is good on the S-bahn, per your info, I would like to take the S11 into Düsseldorf and connect from there. But I'll need to activate the pass first. Does the S-bahn station in the airport have a manned ticket counter somewhere where I could probably do this? Backup plan is to pay the Skytrain fare and activate the pass at the Düsseldorf Flughafen.
I have a follow-up question. I'm going straight to Cologne from DUS. Since the rail pass is good on the S-bahn, per your info, I would like to take the S11 into Düsseldorf and connect from there. But I'll need to activate the pass first. Does the S-bahn station in the airport have a manned ticket counter somewhere where I could probably do this? Backup plan is to pay the Skytrain fare and activate the pass at the Düsseldorf Flughafen.
Oct 17, 2016, 7:14 pm
#60
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