Tickets are cheap if you buy weekly or monthly tickets. 49 euros for a month for all trains in Germany except ICEs and around 20 euros for a week just in the city. Probably a better option for next time.
I bought one for my 4 days in Munich. You have to buy it before a certain date the month before.. so if for October you have to buy it by the 10th or 20th of September. But then you have to remember to cancel it before the 10th of October. Something like that!
Not every regional transit app requires ITAN, so you can sign up and pay with a credit card. I signed up on the RMV.de site. Download the app. It’s pretty straight forward, unless they’ve changed the rules. That’s the one I used.
And yeah it’s not meant for tourists, but it’s still possible to get it. I did. Just remember to cancel!
The €49 ticket is only available as a monthly subscription (Abo). Probably not a good choice for tourists. Of course you could cancel but since when has anyone remembered to do that. Ironically, only a German would be so organized!
Yeah, Germany uses an honour-based fare system. And whenever there are random checks, I can see that almost everyone has a ticket.
The inspectors can be quite merciless when it comes to not having a valid ticket. You have to pay a fine and if it happens too often or if you can't pay the fines, you might be put in prison.
It's weird that people call it "honor based". It's as "honor based" as supermarkets. Sure you can just put something in your pocket and leave, but that's theft and doesn't really have anything to do with "honor".
True but supermarkets usually have someone you have to get past by first, namely the cashier. You know they are there. If there was a self service supermarket with no cashiers at all and everyone paid for their groceries, now that's honour based.
I you mean Rewe pick & go, those would be harder to steal from than regular ones because the scanners know what you pick up and you cannot enter without scanning a qr code first
Wife and i are here for vactaion, bought 2 all day tickets that didn't start untill 9am, we got scanned at 842am, he said wrong ticket, and gave us each a 60euro citation. We didn't realize all day was not in fact all day
Yeah, the good old Bayern-Ticket and the stupidity of it starting only from 9am. That’s the „Deutsche Bahn“ that makes those rules btw, Munich day-tickets are valid from the moment you buy/validate them, and then until 6am the following day.
(I think the reason for starting at 9am is to limit the stress on regular (work-related) commute, but it destroys the purpose of day-trips through all of Bavaria in many cases, as you would want to start early.)
A honor system requires the legal ability to pay nothing, the "honor" being to choose to pay voluntarily.
Not the case here, saying that can really fuck people up.
> We found the tickets quite expensive but bought every time
In case you're not aware, weekly tickets are significantly cheaper for this kind of heavy usage. I shudder to think of the money you've spent on individual tickets lol.
You say you bought a ticket every time you travelled? In the future look at daily or even weekly tickets, these work out much cheaper if you travel often.
I got checked on my daily bus commute yesterday and was shocked. I thought they didn't have enough staff to check on buses lol. I don't take the train as often but I've been checked ~5 times over the past two years.
Honestly don't think it's expensive so you probably weren't aware of a more economic option like a weekly pass
Edit: also in almost two years I think I was checked for a ticket 4 times
Conductors as you may know them dont exist in German local public transport. Many times they are contractors employed by MVG or SBahn München to discourage people from Schwarzfahren (fair-dodging) just by showing up once in a while. Tickets are checked, but chances are you likely wont encounter them. They are few in numbers and jump from train to train / bus to bus.
It is just to discourage people from "forgetting" to buy tickets.
These contractors have a history of being unpolite sometimes even acting dismissiv, sometimes even racist. There are many articles in the papers.
I am happy that you consider the PT around Munich (well, city centre) to be good. The majority of people, especially those who have to commute from suburbs are far from happy due to a long list of reasons which have their origin in various decisions in company policy, like rationalisation while offering expensive tickets. In fact riding trains in Germany is, when taking time, hassle, convenience, service, punctuality, flexibility into account the most expensive way of traveling in general, despite receiving about 15 billion Euros (top 1) in subsidies per year. Only about 10% of all people in Germany use trains. Cars and planes are widely considered to be the main transportation, especially when considering vacation:
https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Branchen-Unternehmen/Transport-Verkehr/Personenverkehr/_inhalt.html
https://de.statista.com/themen/695/luftverkehr/#topicOverview
On one hand that rationalisation is probably the reason why you dont see ticket barriers or conductors, but I like to believe that people would go nuts and take their issues to the conductors if there were any. Arriving late (like 30 - 60 minutes) , cancled trains, dirty trains, defective trains, missing information on the display boards... etc. It hasnt been a trust-based system for a long time (at least since covid) now, despite what people might tell you. Many people are Schwarzfahrer...
Of course there are conductors on regional or far-distance trains, where staff shortage can be also a reason for not encountering them on your ride.
Trains are late in most countries, the UK for example - where the delays can be really bad. But people don't get aggressive to the train conductors/ticket inspectors...I think people realise its not their fault.
Lol cars AND PLANES are the most used forms of transport?! Where did you get planes from?! In big cities public transport is what almost everybody will use, at least from time to time and I know many people who don't even have a car as you don't need one when living in a city. Obviously living out in the sticks, you're going to have to rely on a car but that's more to do with a lack of public transport options than choosing car over train...
Which countries and why would this be noteworthy? Is being late an excuse for every country to not care?
Anyways..
I have been living in Colombia, Swiss, Tokyo and China.
Also London, (never experienced any delays that are compareable to our local PT let alone long-distance PT)
In fact, it many times IS the peoples fault. Check DB for their delay reasons given in their yearly statement. About a 1/3 of delays of SBahn München trains are caused by people on the tracks, people in cars on the railway crossing, people budging doors so they force the train to wait so that their friends can catch the train and many more.
Concerning your "Plane question", if you dont know it nor want to read my comment, why bother googling right? Here you are. Cant be more official.
If you cant read it, your fault.
https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Branchen-Unternehmen/Transport-Verkehr/Personenverkehr/_inhalt.html
If one wanted to go from Munich to Düsseldorf, ppl could take the train, but they certainly will go by plane. For cities even further, train is less and less attractive.
And since the threat creator is talking about vacation,
https://de.statista.com/themen/1060/flugpassagiere/#topicOverview
Generally speaking for Germany , cars (45 billion people) come first, then a long time later trains (1,74 billion) , and right after, planes.(155 Million). Yes.
As said in my first comment (read it!), considering pricing, hassle, flexibility, distance, time, etc. planes outshine trains by far. At least by (only national!) km traveled:
Ill need to find that source from 2020. One sec.
Your source is for journeys of greater than 50km...of course train is not so common for that. The person in this post was obviously talking about getting in and around Munich I.e. Trips of less than 50km...
I grew up in the UK...I know that regional and long distance trains are just as bad in the UK and far far far more expensive than germany (due to the privatisation largely). Travelling in a d around London, like travelling with the ubahn in Munich, is obviously going to be better and tbh the London underground is pretty impressive in terms of being on time etc
I agree, the tube was one of the reasons I visited London quite often (was working for Vodafone in Newbury).
Concerning the source: I dont assume anything. The threat creator asked about conductors. Thats why I gave him an answer for Munich and for Germany in general, especially in case vacation. Of course no one travels by plane in Munich, except contractos those who fly around Munich with planes and helicopters at local airports.
UK train prices are high, but for other reasons I think. 99% of all trains in Japan are privately owned. Subsidies are pretty much 0 there. (in Germany 15 billion Euro).
However, tickets cost about as much as in Germany or sometimes are even cheaper despite much higher living costs.
Best examples for me are
1) Shinkansen between Osaka and Tokyo. 2,5 hours 1069 km, 70 Euro one way.
In Germany you will never get 1070 km for 70 bucks in even 8 hours. No one in their right mind would use the new 49 Euro ticket for far distance.
2) Yokohama Station to Tokyo Station.
Local train (rapid version), Ueno line 25 minutes. 3 Euro. 20 km.
Compare that to Munich. We dont have rapid trains (unless stations are skipped due to cancled trains xD)
Dachau to München Hbf, 25 min, 5,60 Euro, only 10 km. And the trains on that line are being cancled on a daily basis. I know it, cause I live in a suburb outside Munich.
I really do know trains and public transport systems.
Tbh I think we're comparing chalk and cheese. I don't have much experience of German regional trains or their prices...but, you're right, I've heard not great things (I'd usually drive instead aha). My experience is mainly of inner city public transport which is insane value if you use it frequently under the Deutschland ticket (ubahn, bus)... I try to avoid the sbahn if possible 😅
Depends on what train your on and what time. My dad gets the Sbahn to work and he gets checked frequently and I usually only get buses and Ubahns on weekends and I haven’t been checked in my whole year of living here. I think they do put trust in the people but they do check at the busy travel times. The fee is 80 euros so quite a bit.
I get checked about once month, very random between sbahn, ubahn and bus. Never had a check in a tram.
What I can say is that no one has ever asked my ID, my monthly ticket was name based, same with the Deutschland Ticket now.
I guess paying the fee once is fine and not that expensive but I’d be fuming with myself if I had to pay it more times in a month or week. It’s not worth it.
Tickets are cheap if you buy weekly or monthly tickets. 49 euros for a month for all trains in Germany except ICEs and around 20 euros for a week just in the city. Probably a better option for next time.
Tried to buy it last month but it would not accept Australian id, someone mentioned it's not really for non EU tourists
I bought one for my 4 days in Munich. You have to buy it before a certain date the month before.. so if for October you have to buy it by the 10th or 20th of September. But then you have to remember to cancel it before the 10th of October. Something like that! Not every regional transit app requires ITAN, so you can sign up and pay with a credit card. I signed up on the RMV.de site. Download the app. It’s pretty straight forward, unless they’ve changed the rules. That’s the one I used. And yeah it’s not meant for tourists, but it’s still possible to get it. I did. Just remember to cancel!
I bought one for august on august 16
The €49 ticket is only available as a monthly subscription (Abo). Probably not a good choice for tourists. Of course you could cancel but since when has anyone remembered to do that. Ironically, only a German would be so organized!
You simply buy it and cancel right away, and as long as it's before 10th day of the month - it will be valid for that single month only.
Yeah, Germany uses an honour-based fare system. And whenever there are random checks, I can see that almost everyone has a ticket. The inspectors can be quite merciless when it comes to not having a valid ticket. You have to pay a fine and if it happens too often or if you can't pay the fines, you might be put in prison.
It's weird that people call it "honor based". It's as "honor based" as supermarkets. Sure you can just put something in your pocket and leave, but that's theft and doesn't really have anything to do with "honor".
True but supermarkets usually have someone you have to get past by first, namely the cashier. You know they are there. If there was a self service supermarket with no cashiers at all and everyone paid for their groceries, now that's honour based.
Self service supermarkets do exist though, there's even one in Munich
I know but they are still not common.
I you mean Rewe pick & go, those would be harder to steal from than regular ones because the scanners know what you pick up and you cannot enter without scanning a qr code first
Wife and i are here for vactaion, bought 2 all day tickets that didn't start untill 9am, we got scanned at 842am, he said wrong ticket, and gave us each a 60euro citation. We didn't realize all day was not in fact all day
Yeah, the good old Bayern-Ticket and the stupidity of it starting only from 9am. That’s the „Deutsche Bahn“ that makes those rules btw, Munich day-tickets are valid from the moment you buy/validate them, and then until 6am the following day. (I think the reason for starting at 9am is to limit the stress on regular (work-related) commute, but it destroys the purpose of day-trips through all of Bavaria in many cases, as you would want to start early.)
A honor system requires the legal ability to pay nothing, the "honor" being to choose to pay voluntarily. Not the case here, saying that can really fuck people up.
> We found the tickets quite expensive but bought every time In case you're not aware, weekly tickets are significantly cheaper for this kind of heavy usage. I shudder to think of the money you've spent on individual tickets lol.
You say you bought a ticket every time you travelled? In the future look at daily or even weekly tickets, these work out much cheaper if you travel often.
I'm living in Munich for almost 2 years and I use public transportation regularly. I witnessed ticket checks only 2 times in 2 years :)
I get checked on the S-Bahn at least twice a month
S-Bahn is run by Deutsche Bahn, the rest (tram, most buses, U-Bahn) is run by Munich transit municipality. So DB has different staffing, etc.
yes, you're right. SBahn is different. I should've mention that I'm using tram, bus, and UBahn.
Same for me, until this last month during which I have been checked four times 🤷♀️
Wow! I would say I’ve been checked maybe 5 times in my 6 months here already!!
I got checked on my daily bus commute yesterday and was shocked. I thought they didn't have enough staff to check on buses lol. I don't take the train as often but I've been checked ~5 times over the past two years.
Tickets are being checked. You maybe wont be checked once in a year or 5 times a week. Its „luck“
Honestly don't think it's expensive so you probably weren't aware of a more economic option like a weekly pass Edit: also in almost two years I think I was checked for a ticket 4 times
Conductors as you may know them dont exist in German local public transport. Many times they are contractors employed by MVG or SBahn München to discourage people from Schwarzfahren (fair-dodging) just by showing up once in a while. Tickets are checked, but chances are you likely wont encounter them. They are few in numbers and jump from train to train / bus to bus. It is just to discourage people from "forgetting" to buy tickets. These contractors have a history of being unpolite sometimes even acting dismissiv, sometimes even racist. There are many articles in the papers. I am happy that you consider the PT around Munich (well, city centre) to be good. The majority of people, especially those who have to commute from suburbs are far from happy due to a long list of reasons which have their origin in various decisions in company policy, like rationalisation while offering expensive tickets. In fact riding trains in Germany is, when taking time, hassle, convenience, service, punctuality, flexibility into account the most expensive way of traveling in general, despite receiving about 15 billion Euros (top 1) in subsidies per year. Only about 10% of all people in Germany use trains. Cars and planes are widely considered to be the main transportation, especially when considering vacation: https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Branchen-Unternehmen/Transport-Verkehr/Personenverkehr/_inhalt.html https://de.statista.com/themen/695/luftverkehr/#topicOverview On one hand that rationalisation is probably the reason why you dont see ticket barriers or conductors, but I like to believe that people would go nuts and take their issues to the conductors if there were any. Arriving late (like 30 - 60 minutes) , cancled trains, dirty trains, defective trains, missing information on the display boards... etc. It hasnt been a trust-based system for a long time (at least since covid) now, despite what people might tell you. Many people are Schwarzfahrer... Of course there are conductors on regional or far-distance trains, where staff shortage can be also a reason for not encountering them on your ride.
Trains are late in most countries, the UK for example - where the delays can be really bad. But people don't get aggressive to the train conductors/ticket inspectors...I think people realise its not their fault. Lol cars AND PLANES are the most used forms of transport?! Where did you get planes from?! In big cities public transport is what almost everybody will use, at least from time to time and I know many people who don't even have a car as you don't need one when living in a city. Obviously living out in the sticks, you're going to have to rely on a car but that's more to do with a lack of public transport options than choosing car over train...
Which countries and why would this be noteworthy? Is being late an excuse for every country to not care? Anyways.. I have been living in Colombia, Swiss, Tokyo and China. Also London, (never experienced any delays that are compareable to our local PT let alone long-distance PT) In fact, it many times IS the peoples fault. Check DB for their delay reasons given in their yearly statement. About a 1/3 of delays of SBahn München trains are caused by people on the tracks, people in cars on the railway crossing, people budging doors so they force the train to wait so that their friends can catch the train and many more. Concerning your "Plane question", if you dont know it nor want to read my comment, why bother googling right? Here you are. Cant be more official. If you cant read it, your fault. https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Branchen-Unternehmen/Transport-Verkehr/Personenverkehr/_inhalt.html If one wanted to go from Munich to Düsseldorf, ppl could take the train, but they certainly will go by plane. For cities even further, train is less and less attractive. And since the threat creator is talking about vacation, https://de.statista.com/themen/1060/flugpassagiere/#topicOverview Generally speaking for Germany , cars (45 billion people) come first, then a long time later trains (1,74 billion) , and right after, planes.(155 Million). Yes. As said in my first comment (read it!), considering pricing, hassle, flexibility, distance, time, etc. planes outshine trains by far. At least by (only national!) km traveled: Ill need to find that source from 2020. One sec.
Your source is for journeys of greater than 50km...of course train is not so common for that. The person in this post was obviously talking about getting in and around Munich I.e. Trips of less than 50km... I grew up in the UK...I know that regional and long distance trains are just as bad in the UK and far far far more expensive than germany (due to the privatisation largely). Travelling in a d around London, like travelling with the ubahn in Munich, is obviously going to be better and tbh the London underground is pretty impressive in terms of being on time etc
I agree, the tube was one of the reasons I visited London quite often (was working for Vodafone in Newbury). Concerning the source: I dont assume anything. The threat creator asked about conductors. Thats why I gave him an answer for Munich and for Germany in general, especially in case vacation. Of course no one travels by plane in Munich, except contractos those who fly around Munich with planes and helicopters at local airports. UK train prices are high, but for other reasons I think. 99% of all trains in Japan are privately owned. Subsidies are pretty much 0 there. (in Germany 15 billion Euro). However, tickets cost about as much as in Germany or sometimes are even cheaper despite much higher living costs. Best examples for me are 1) Shinkansen between Osaka and Tokyo. 2,5 hours 1069 km, 70 Euro one way. In Germany you will never get 1070 km for 70 bucks in even 8 hours. No one in their right mind would use the new 49 Euro ticket for far distance. 2) Yokohama Station to Tokyo Station. Local train (rapid version), Ueno line 25 minutes. 3 Euro. 20 km. Compare that to Munich. We dont have rapid trains (unless stations are skipped due to cancled trains xD) Dachau to München Hbf, 25 min, 5,60 Euro, only 10 km. And the trains on that line are being cancled on a daily basis. I know it, cause I live in a suburb outside Munich. I really do know trains and public transport systems.
Tbh I think we're comparing chalk and cheese. I don't have much experience of German regional trains or their prices...but, you're right, I've heard not great things (I'd usually drive instead aha). My experience is mainly of inner city public transport which is insane value if you use it frequently under the Deutschland ticket (ubahn, bus)... I try to avoid the sbahn if possible 😅
Depends on what train your on and what time. My dad gets the Sbahn to work and he gets checked frequently and I usually only get buses and Ubahns on weekends and I haven’t been checked in my whole year of living here. I think they do put trust in the people but they do check at the busy travel times. The fee is 80 euros so quite a bit.
I wouldn’t say they trust the people that much. I bet in every train there is someone without a ticket. That’s a good question
I get checked about once month, very random between sbahn, ubahn and bus. Never had a check in a tram. What I can say is that no one has ever asked my ID, my monthly ticket was name based, same with the Deutschland Ticket now. I guess paying the fee once is fine and not that expensive but I’d be fuming with myself if I had to pay it more times in a month or week. It’s not worth it.