Köln Weekend Trip

[darloscott]

Hi all

Just a quick question on rail tickets in Germany.
I'm travelling with my mum on a trip to Cologne in November, we're flying into Düsseldorf and then travelling to our hotel near Köln-Messe/Deutz station. I stayed there last year when I was there for 4 days or so, but last time I just used an Interrail ticket (went all over!) so had no experience of buying single/return fares.

Basically we're flying in on a Friday night and leaving Sunday night... I've looked on DB's site and can see advance fares available but obviously coming off a flight I'm reluctant to book one of these in case it is missed etc.

Now my question is - there are 'normal price' tickets advertised for ICE services, I take it these are the walk up price? These aren't available on RE services, does anyone know how to find the price of these? I'm assuming that the higher priced walk up fare for ICE is valid on RE if need be?

Cheers for any help!

 

[radamfi]

In areas covered by local ticketing, the DB site does not give prices for local and regional ticketing. Düsseldorf is in the VRR area and Cologne is in the VRS area but there are cross boundary arrangements here. You pay from zone to zone rather than station to station, so you can use a combination of bus/tram/train to get from stop to stop.

https://www.vrsinfo.de/fileadmin/Dateien/downloadcenter/Folder_VRSVRR2015neu.pdf

shows that you need "price level 5" to get from Düsseldorf to Cologne. 11.30 single.

However, IC/EC/ICE is not covered by these tickets. If you want to use these trains, you can get a fare from DB, but you cannot change onto bus/tram like with the VRR/VRS ticket. On these tickets, you are just paying for the train fare alone. The normal price is walk up.

 

[30907]

Radamfi was quicker, so I'll just add that you CAN use the full price IC ticket on regional trains but it's NOT valid on the shuttle from the terminals to the mainline station, so not worth bothering about

Also, assume that local ticket machines will only accept notes or EC not credit cards.

 

[duesselmartin]

mind you, train services run until the late hours. With most flights in DUS by 22:00hrs you have plenty of time to get to Cologne.

 

[Gordon]

It's a comparatively short distance so if you don't want to risk a missed 'bargain fare' train you'll just have to buy a walk on ticket on arrival. I don't think the prices are that different because of the short distance. I suggest you aim by preference for the RE service but you have not stated your official flight arrival time.

 

[Gerald Fiennes]

Duesseldorf and Koln are so close that the RE service will be just fine and cheaper than ICE/IC/EC services. As others have implied, if you buy an ICE/IC/EC ticket from a DB machine it is valid on regional services as well, but the 'tarifverbund' fares are valid only on regional services, although they do add in bus/tram etc. etc. in the zonal area. So you won't a have problem; however, even this simple journey shows that the German ticketing system is almost as involved as ours!

 

[TPJ]

There is a S11 that leaves the airport direct to Koln Messe/Deutz which is easier than going to the airport railway station. Cash only however from the ticket machine on the platform. The Koln card I found good value when in Koln itself.

 

[stuartmoss]

Isn't the S11 the line that takes much longer to get to Köln. Personally speaking I do the DUS - Köln journey at least 4 times a year and I would rather get the free sky train to Duss Flug Station and a regional train from there. If I'm in a rush of pay extra for an inter city quite happily.

 

[blackfive460]

Although S11 goes from the terminal it takes forever to get to Köln as it stops at every lampost. Much easier and quicker to take Skytrain and an RE from the Düsseldorf Flughafen station.

Incidentally, Skytrain isn't free, a ticket of some sort is required to use it but there are ticket machines which take coins, notes and may work with a credit card (but don't count on that) on the Skytrain platforms.
https://www.dus.com/en/arrival-and-departure/skytrain

 

[stuartmoss]

Skytrain isn't free, a ticket of some sort is required to use it but there are ticket machines which take coins, notes and may work with a credit card (but don't count on that) on the Skytrain platforms.
https://www.dus.com/en/arrival-and-departure/skytrain

News to me...

I've used the Skytrain well over 50 times in the past 10 years and never ever paid. Neither has anybody else that I've seen go from terminal to skytrain...

Either I'm a mass fare dodger along with many others, or you're mistaken.

EDIT - After reading the page you linked to I'm innocent (I think). I always have a train ticket pre-paid! But I'm genuinely surprised to read that there is supposedly a fare for the skytrain.

 

[radamfi]

The Skytrain is basically local transport, so you would expect a similar fare situation if it was a bus or a tram, so it makes sense that a VRR/VRS ticket is accepted but a plain train ticket isn't. At least it isn't like the Airtrains at JFK and EWR where it is cheaper to get a local bus out of the airport to the nearest subway/rail station.