Confusion about Saint Louis (Basel) to Rust (Germany) trains

[Pumperkin]

Hi all,

I've looked through various sites and have got more and more confused so hopefully someone can help.

In October I am travelling with my family to Saint Louis (effectively a French suburb of Basel in Switzerland). On the Tuesday of the week we're looking to travel to Europa-Park (Rust station) via train.

Family are myself and wife (mid 30's), and two children aged 8 and 4 at time of travel (will actually be the 4 year old's birthday).

I have seen that trains are free for children in Germany, however our journey goes France (St Louis) - Switzerland (Basel) - Germany (Rust). I am thinking that it may be that I just need to get a ticket for the children to get from St Louis to the German border (or maybe Basel if they allow that?). Really struggling to confirm this anywhere.

Also, any idea when advance tickets are normally available (and the best method to purchase in the UK?). We are travelling very early (before 7am) so want to avoid getting stung by peak time fares.

Many thanks for any help you can give.

 

[bahnause]

In October I am travelling with my family to Saint Louis (effectively a French suburb of Basel in Switzerland). On the Tuesday of the week we're looking to travel to Europa-Park (Rust station) via train.

You might want to check out SBB Railaway. They offer tickets including the bus transfer to the park and admission.

Railcoaster

SBB Railaway

 

[nwales58]

If you want cheap and stick to regional trains, Baden-Württemberg ticket is EUR 26.50 for the whole family from Basel onwards, 0900 restriction M-F, includes bus es. Plus TER or tram into Basel obviously.

 

[dutchflyer]

Well, right now I sit in a HTL in MUlhouse and bypassed this line this morning, making an excursion into Swiss on my InterRail.
As Rust is quite some distance north of Bsl-think of around 2 hrs, to Rust+ 10 min connecting shuttlebus to park, this B-W ticket -which is 26,50 now (may rise till then!) NOT family-just 1 person, plus 8€ extra for the wife, valid from 9.00 and FROM Basel BAD! Buy from DB machine there or online.
So you have to pay addition from St Ls to zone Basel (covers all, either tram or local train also SBB-Bad-check a few days before what is best for your case) by the TNW=Basel Verbund tarif, its Swiss (as I also noted today) so quite pricey. Best buy for me seems the MINI-Tri Regio dayticket, as its same as 2 singles, covers Basel-city zone 10 and St LOuis (for the local bus to connect into Bsl tram), for CHF 11,20, 1/2 price for the 8-yr kid, so alltogether nearly same as that B-W-ticket for your group, as CHF is worth nearly € 1,10!

 

[Wandering Pom]

Something that might catch you out: Europa-Park is at Rust, but the nearest station is several miles away at Ringsheim, now named Ringsheim/Europa-Park. The Europa-Park website says to get tickets to "Rust Europa-Park" to get the connecting bus included - see https://www.europapark.de/en/theme-park/sustainable-travel-train

 

[Pumperkin]

Thanks all for your responses.

We are travelling on a Tuesday so I don't think the €26.50 ticket is going to work (I have read that a whole day still isn't really enough for Europa-Park, so getting there late morning will be somewhat wasteful).

I have seen that the train is to Ringsheim - does anyone know if the bus is included (or just complimentary) to the actual park?

 

[poffle]

For regional transport in Germany the prices are fixed. There are no reductions for advanced bookings.

There are reductions on lC/ICE trains for advanced purchase but on this itinerary you could only take a long distance train one stop from Basel to Freiburg and then continue on regional train/bus.

Go to bahn.de set St Louis, Haut-Rhin as the origin, Europa-Park Rust as the destination and on the Mode of transport option select Local transport only.

The German fare for a bwTag Ticket for the day is 43.50 for your party. This ticket is valid all day Monday to Friday. This covers regional trains and buses in Baden Württemberg but not the French bit. It may be valid Basel SBB to Basel Bad but I'm not certain of that.

Note although children travel free they have to be listed on the ticket. If it's a paper ticket bought from a ticket machine each person has to sign it. There is one ticket for the group.

The 07:58 RE7 train from Basel Bad to Offenburg gets to Ringsheim at 09:07. Bus 7231 departs Ringsheim at 09:15 and arrives at Europa-Park at 09:28.

The 08:28 RE7 train from Basel Bad to Offenburg gets to Ringsheim at 09:52. Bus 7231 departs Ringsheim at 10:00 and arrives at Europa-Park at 10:16.

Some connections change from train to bus at Herzbolzheim.

( I've looked at fares for a Tuesday in June. Tickets are only sold about 90 days in advance. The connections are rather irregular which I suspect is related to the bus part of the journey.)