All Around Europe : Trains in Germany

Back to All Around Europe series!

For today's post, I would like to share the information about the train in Germany as train is one of the main public transportation in Germany and it is always essential for us, travelers to know the transportation systems in our destination country.

Driven from my experiences, I got confused about the types of trains in Germany because there are many types of train in Germany and I did not know what are the differences between each of them. Therefore, I hope this post could help you to get to know the types of trains in Germany!

The Hohenzollen bridge, Cologne, Germany.

• ICE (Inter-City Express)

The fastest train in town - with top speed up to 300 km/h! 

You could choose this train for a long journey travelling because it is very comfortable (especially 1. class) and the train only stops in the main train station. With a great service, no wonder if you have to pay more for ICE tickets compared with other train types. However, you could get a discount up to 50% if you buy the ticket at least 3 days before your departure. Of course, bigger discount could be available if you buy the ticket weeks or months earlier. 

•  IC (Inter-City)

Another fast train though its top speed is only up to 180 km/h.

IC could be your alternative choice for long journey travelling if you have a limited budget. There is not much difference between IC and ICE beside the length of duration that might differs between 1 - 2 hours because it has to make stop in some big train station beside main train station. And, just like ICE - you could get a discount for train ticket if you buy the ticket earlier!

Just a tips if you buy ICE or IC tickets, consider to reserve place especially if you travel during a big public holiday (like Easter, Christmast) because during these days, most of the seat are reserved and if you do not reserve, you could not find a place for you to seat. However, if you travel in normal days, the reservation is not necessary because there are still a lot of free places available.

• RE (Regional Express)

The best train in your region!

When the white colored train symbolized the inter-city train, the red colored train symbolized the regional train. Regional train only moves around the city in the same region, like Dusseldorf to Dortmund or Koln to Munster - since all of these cities are still within one region, NordRhein Westfalen. Therefore, if you want to travel from Dusseldorf to Frankfurt, you cannot use Regional train but use ICE or IC instead because Dusseldorf and Frankfurt locate in different region. 

Regional Express usually a two-stories train that connects cities within the region. However, it will not stop in small train station in small cities / villages but will go straight to the bigger train station in bigger cities. For the train ticket, you could buy it directly from the ticket machine because the price of ticket of regional train is always the same. 

• RB (Regional Bahn)

Your everyday's train.

The normal train that people use everyday to go to work or places nearby. RB also could connects cities within a region, but RB will stop in small train stations that are passed by RE train. And just like RE, the ticket could be bought directly in the ticket machine. 

• U-Bahn (Untergrundbahn)

Another everyday's train but it is underground.

The main transportation in a city - U-bahn or in English it is an underground train. This train connects each stations in a city that usually built nearby the city center and tourist destination. Therefore, U-bahn is the best choice for the travelers who want to explore the city, like Munchen, Berlin, Hamburg, etc. For the ticket, I suggested to you to buy the 24 hour / day ticket - because this ticket covers all public transportation in a city and you could travels around the city for a day in a certain zone - no matter how many times you hop on and hop off the train in a day. 

Usually U-bahn is the red colored train just like RB, but I found the yellow colored train U-bahn in Berlin! ;)

This train connects the main station to Brandenburger Tor station.

• S-Bahn (Strassenbahn or Schnellbahn ?)

It travels around the city, not underground but on the streets.

Well, for this I am not sure whether S stands for strasse (street) or schnell (fast), but in English it is called Tram. Its route are similar to the bus route, but maybe a little bit ... faster? I rarely used S-bahn because there is no S-bahn in the city where I lived, but I used S-bahn when I travels around the big cities, like Berlin, Karlsruhe, Cologne and Dusseldorf. For the ticket price, I never bought the single journey ticket for S-bahn because usually I has bought the 24 hour / day ticket beforehand.

Those are the normal trains that will help you explore the cities and places in Germany. However, there are also another special train that you could find in certain places in Germany, like ---

• Schwebebahn Wuppertal

The hanging train - only in Wuppertal!

Schwebebahn - or hanging train is actually the normal train that travels around the city - so it is just like the U-Bahn and RB. The only thing that differs it with U-bahn and RB is the location of the railway - it is on the upper side of the train, instead on the lower side like in normal train. Since the rail is on the upper side, this train hangs - just like in the picture! However, since it hangs, the train could not take a lot of passengers and the train also has different seats arrangement.

Inside the Schwebebahn, Wuppertal.

Because the train moves above the road, the journey becomes wayyyy more interesting because we could see the buildings, cars, roads, rivers, birds below the train. This is the reason why there are many tourists visit Wuppertal to experience this hanging train - because Schwebebahn is only built in Wuppertal. You could not find it in another cities in Germany! 

• Bergbahnen Heidelberg

The train on the mountain!

Bergbahnen, literally translated as mountain's train (?) in English. In Germany, I found it in Heidelberg, but I think there are another mountain's train in other cities in Germany (or not?). 

In Heidelberg, you need to take Bergbahn if you want to see the castle located feets above the old town - which is the main destination in Heidelberg.  For the ticket price, it normally costs around 5 Euros, incl. two ways train ticket and entrance ticket to the castle. 

The Bergbahnen ticket (left) and the Heidelberger bergbahnen (right)

Those are the train that you could find in Germany - or could be in another countries and for the last thing, this is the official website of train in Germany - Deutsche Bahn. In the website, you could find train's schedule, routes, ticket price, promotions and also buy ticket via online.