DB railfares

[55003]

My daughter is planning to do some work experience in Germany soon. She has to travel every day from Bonn-Bad Godesberg to Bonn Hbf and then get a bus to the GPs surgery in a village where she is going to work. Do DB do a plus bus ticket and can you but a weekly or should she just buy daily return tickets?
In addition how much is this going to cost? Can we buy the tickets in the UK before she goes to Germany?
All answers gratefully received.

 

[duesselmartin]

Depending where the surgery is, she might be within the VRS Zone, meaning she can use one ticket for both bus and train.

http://www.vrsinfo.de/englisch/the-vrs/vrs-about-us.html

 

[55003]

Thank you for your reply. The surgery is in that zone. Where will she be able to buy a weekly ticket and do you know how much it will be please?

 

[gordonthemoron]

ticket prices are here, the explanation of how this works is here

 

[duesselmartin]

if its all too confusing, I know it can be, give me the destination town and I will work out what zone and therefore price is needed.
Tickets can be purchased from Deutsche Bahn or the local bus operator as well as many VRS agents in Bonn.

 

[30907]

On a skim-read, it looks as though daughter will need a Kundenkarte (user card, I'd guess a photocard) for weekly or longer tickets which means going to a VRS travel centre.

I'm sure the surgery staff will know exactly what to do.

(BTW - It's perhaps worth flagging up that DB's multifunctional ticket machines may well NOT accept credit cards for buying local travel tickets such as this, even though they will accept them for long-distance tickets.)

 

[gordonthemoron]

(BTW - It's perhaps worth flagging up that DB's multifunctional ticket machines may well NOT accept credit cards for buying local travel tickets such as this, even though they will accept them for long-distance tickets.)

That is usually the case, the only ones I've come across which do accept credit cards for local travel tickets are at Munich Airport.

They also do not accept UK issued debit cards, only German issued EC/Maestro (Giro) cards

 

[blackfive460]

The machines in Köln Hbf didn't accept my UK issued Visa credit card last year for either local or long distance tickets but so far this year they've been accepting it with no problem.

 

[55003]

I have told her to buy the weekly tickets at the DB office at Koln airport. I would hope that the manned office will, accept a UK credit card.

 

[dutchflyer]

Its NOT DB, its VRS. The local ''bus'' is the Bonn-tramways=Strassenbahnen.
The acceptance of foreign, or non-€- cred crds may also depend on who is the reciever- DB or the local verbund. Even in the same machine !
A verbund is an organisation similar to the old PTE's in UK, that organises all the local transport. 1 ticket covers all the way in the zones paid for on whatever means of transport-only long-distance trains are excepted, but they wont stop twice in those zones anyway. Weekly tickets are rare, monthly are more common. ON weekends they may allow 1 more person to travel with holder.
I think most seasons in VRS are now also loaded on a chipcard (with a chip like a bankcard). But it should still be possible to get the old style Kundenkarte, with foto, on which the zones are printed for validity. One then buys weekly or monthly coupons and attaches them somewhere. Probably best to have that done in the Bonner Stadtwerke office near Bonn HBF. The trip from airport is not covered by those zones anyway. There is still an expressbus from airport direct to Bonn, with surcharge for comfort.

 

[30907]

I have told her to buy the weekly tickets at the DB office at Koln airport. I would hope that the manned office will, accept a UK credit card.

I am sure that it will accept a UK credit card, but it still may not accept them for VRS tickets, as Dutchflyer has pointed out.

Wherever she buys, your daughter should only get the weekly or monthly ticket for her regular journey and a single ticket for airport-Bad Godesberg.

 

[duesselmartin]

That depends on which zone within the VRS. Tickets in Godesberg can be bought at a Stadtwerke Bonn Service centre or DB Agency. However, I need to know the destination to work out a price.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Talking of card. The amount of machines accepting German Maestro cards in the UK also seem to shrink year by year.
If in need, get cash with your visa and pay by cash. Germany is still very much a cash country

 

[Oscar]

Some German ticket machines only accept German debit cards, others (normally at major stations) also accept German credit cards. If they accept German credit cards, they will also accept British debit and credit cards. When you get to the payment screen the machine tells you the payment methods accepted. I seem to remember there is also a symbol on the machine itself or on the initial screen, though it's not at all obvious to a first-time user.

 

[30907]

In my recent experience, the most common machine which is now at many smaller stations is geared up to accept CCs for DB tickets (even for regional trains) but not Verkehrsverbund ones. The last I tried (last month) was at Bensheim which is an IC stop but hardly a metropolis.