'& connections' type journeys in Austria and Germany

[181]

Does anyone know whether DB and/or OBB train-specific advance purchase tickets can be used on any reasonable local connecting service, as is the case in Britain if the local service is non-reservable, or are they 100% train-specific? Or is it at the discretion of train staff? The link with the reservation seems to be less rigid than here in that reservations aren't (with some exceptions) compulsory even for the inter-city part of the journey, so not having a reservation doesn't necessarily mean that you are free to choose any train.

Specifically, I have a ticket from Graz to Aachen using a RailJet train (reservation optional) from Graz to Wien Meidling and the night train (reservation compulsory) from Wien Hutteldorf to Cologne. It's a print-at-home ticket bought from the OBB website. Can I use any S-bahn train from Meidling to Hutteldorf, or only the one specified on the ticket? And at Cologne do I have to wait an hour for the Regional Express train to Aachen (this may be a result of my choosing the maximum connection time to ensure a secure connection in Vienna) or can I get an earlier train if there is one?

If anyone does know the answer, is it publicly documented anywhere, in English and/or German?

 

[reb0118]

It is my belief that you can use any reasonable local connecting train i.e S, RB, RE & maybe IRE too but don't quote me on the last one.

I have a London Spezial ticket in front of me from London to Lindau. We have confirmed bookings via Brüssel, Frankfurt, u. Ulm, however, the last part of the reservation section states "-/Ulm*NV" where NV = NAHVERKEHRSZÜGE. DBUK confirmed to me that we can take a later train from Ulm to Lindau and we can break our journey too.

 

[maxiboy]

Regarding Germany:

Your Advance (Sparpreis, or Europa-Spezial) ticket must have been booked to cover the entire route (say, Frankfurt-Aachen via Cologne; Frankfurt-Cologne by ICE and Cologne-Aachen by RE1). So if you booked Frankfurt-Cologne only it will generally not be valid on the Cologne-Aachen service (unlike in Spain where there is a CombinadoCercanías system).

The Advance ticket will mention a route restriction (in the aforementioned case: "VIA: F-Hbf 5:51 ICE616/K-Hbf*NV"). Meaning that it is only valid on the specific, ICE 616 service, from F-Hbf (Frankfurt(Main)Hbf) to K-Hbf (Köln Hbf), and the connection (Nachlauf) is NV (Nahverkehrszug = Local/Regional service), where it is permitted to use any local train, even a later one, on any reasonable route (the ticket's *NV part is valid until 1000 the following day).

But if you hit upon an ICE service to Aachen this ticket is not valid on the ICE service. This also works the other way around: if you have booked an Advance ticket where both parts of the journey are intercity, it is valid on the booked train only and you cannot downgrade on the latter part.

(This is a peculiarity of the German system, with a differentiation of intercity and local services, with the latter not being quota controlled.)

As a matter of fact, reservations are not available on local and regional services (S, RB, RE, IRE, and equivalent local products of other TOCs = ME, OE, MRB, ERB, HEX, ag, ALX, HLB, VIA, etc.) except for select commuter services.

Also keep in mind station grouping (tarifliche Gleichstellung) may apply in some cases, but of course Cologne and Aachen are too far away to be in one station group.

 

[181]

Thankyou for the replies. Unlike the DB tickets from my previous Continental trip, this one (bought from OBB) doesn't say 'NV' anywhere -- it just says that it's from Graz Hbf to Aachen (with date, time and class), followed by

'UBER --> <1181>BADEN...[various places en route]...KOELN**',

and then lower down (but still in the top part which looks like a proper ticket, not the bit lower down that could just be for information)

'01 SparSchiene Deutschland

Zug -> RJ 658,S 60,EN 420,RE 10908'

This, together with the word 'Zugbindung' at the top, suggests that at least in theory it really is only valid on those trains -- perhaps this is a difference between DB and OBB. I wonder whether this is enforced, especially in Germany where their own advance purchase tickets aren't restricted in this way on local trains. If in doubt I'll play safe and get the specified train from Aachen (I'll be wanting some breakfast when I get to Cologne anyway), but does anyone know whether there's likely to be an obvious guard who could be approached for permission to board an earlier RE train? (It's not something I've needed to think about before, and I want to avoid a 'man on the platform' situation!).

Further investigation shows that S 60 is a Vienna S-Bahn line rather than an individual train, so I do have some choice, but that at that time on a Sunday it's only hourly anyway so it's only a choice of two trains.

 

[maxiboy]

Deutsche Bahn Regional services are not always staffed – but the RE1 line that you will be travelling on between Köln and Aachen is regularly staffed by uniformed personnel that can be seen on the platform as well. You would have to ask them for permission (which they usually grant).

 

[30907]

I wonder whether this is enforced, especially in Germany where their own advance purchase tickets aren't restricted in this way on local trains. If in doubt I'll play safe and get the specified train from Aachen (I'll be wanting some breakfast when I get to Cologne anyway), but does anyone know whether there's likely to be an obvious guard who could be approached for permission to board an earlier RE train? (It's not something I've needed to think about before, and I want to avoid a 'man on the platform' situation!).

I too would be very surprised if DB bothered about Zugbindung on an RE -they're roughly every half-hour on that section BTW

 

[181]

Thankyou again for the replies. In case anyone is wondering what happened when I made the journey (a couple of weeks ago now), in the end I didn't test the flexibility of DB staff -- by the time I'd strolled down to look at the river in Cologne it was nearly time for the earlier train, and I decided that I might just as well buy stamps for my postcards in Cologne as in Aachen, so I did that and got the later train as specified on the ticket.