Tips for Users

The following tips are intended to help you find your way around the system quickly and enable you to make the best possible use of our service.

1. Easy Search & Booking - the Travel Service Versions

The Travel Service offers two different versions:
To use the Travel Service as an "express version" with streamlined information dialogue and all necessary functionalities required for subsequent ticket booking, click the navigation button "Reiseauskunft-Tickets" Travelservice on the menu bar at www.bahn.de. To go straight to that function, enter www.fahrkarten.bahn.de.

The "Enhanced Version" of the Travel Service with additional functionalities to help you make up your itinerary is available via the navigation button "Timetables" in the Internet portal menu. To go straight to that version, enter www.reiseauskunft.bahn.de.

Travel Service (Express Version)

If you only wish to search connections from one station or public transport stop to another and buy a ticket for that connection, opt for the "express version" of the Travel Service, as described above. The steps you have to take to find a connection and book a ticket are streamlined in this version of the Travel Service, so that you can obtain your ticket simply and quickly, without any "detours".

Travel Service (Enhanced Version)

The enhanced version of the Travel Service is ideal for all users who wish to search the entire itinerary, including the route from the individual starting address to the first station and from the last station to the destination address. This version includes many useful functionalities, such as cookies-based storage of the preferred coach class and many other data under "My Profile", as well as useful service information about the destination.
Quickfinder "Tickets Travel Service"

If you are already on the home page www.bahn.de, you will see a reduced input mask called "Travel Service Tickets" in a prominent position on the left-hand side.

This also allows you to choose between the express version and the enhanced version of the Travel Service.
After you have entered the relevant details of your journey, you can select which version of the Travel Service you wish by pressing the appropriate button.
Click the button "Search" to obtain the corresponding connections and take you to the page "Your Connections" in the enhanced version of the Travel Service.

Click the button "Book" and your input will be submitted to the start page of the streamlined, express version of the Travel Service, where you can also add further input about fare and booking details if necessary. Then click the button "Search connections", which will take you to the page "Your Connections" with the connections found for your journey, but without any additional services or information. This version is intended primarily for customers who simply want to purchase tickets on the Internet for station-to-station connections quickly and without any "detours".

The start page of the enhanced version Travel Service can also be accessed through the link "Advanced query" and the English version of the Travel Service (enhanced version) via the link "Travel Service (Timetable)".

2. Printing your Tickets with your own PC

You not only order your tickets conveniently from your own PC, but can also print out these tickets immediately yourself.

However, to use this new and convenient option, you have to satisfy three conditions:

- You have to register for the Online Ticketing Procedure at www.bahn.de (once only)
- you have to be a BahnCard (railcard) holder, and
- you have to have a credit card.

For detailed information and to register for the Online Ticketing Procedure please click here

The Travel Service also gives you the option of entering stations/stops or postal addresses. You can also input a combination of these and enter a station as starting point and an address as destination, or vice versa. Simply choose between station/stop and address (place name, street and house no.) and then enter starting point and destination in the appropriate boxes "from" and "to". The default setting is always "station/stop".
If you have decided to enter an address, please enter the starting point or destination address in accordance with the eight examples shown below.

1. Frankfurt am Main, Stephensonstraße 1
2. Frankfurt am Main, Stephensonstr. 1
3. Gallusviertel, Stephensonstraße 1
4. Frankfurt am Main
5. Frankfurt
6. 60326, Stephensonstraße 1
7. 60326
8. Frankfurt am Main, Stephensonstr./Idsteiner Str.

4. Optimum Address Input

To make sure that the address you enter is unambiguous for the system, please note that the place name should be separated from the street name by a comma.
You do not have to enter the house number. In that case, however, you will be offered a choice of street intersections or "centre".
If you enter only a place name, district or postcode, the system will supply a selection of possible streets (list box) in alphabetical order, from which you can choose the appropriate street.
You can, of course, also enter an intersection as shown in Example 8.

If you enter only "Frankfurt" instead of the full name "Frankfurt am Main" (Example 5), the system will also display addresses in Frankfurt (Oder). If you enter an abbreviated form of the place or street name, the system will check maximum conformity with the names in the database and supply various alternatives for you to choose from.
NB: The system does not recognise the abbreviations used for car licence plates in conjunction with postal addresses. These abbreviations can only be used when searching a station/stop.

5. Advanced Search for Points of Interest

You can also have the Travel Service search points of interest even if you do not know the address. Simply mark "Postcode/city, point of interest (to the categories, e.g. museum, stadium)" The Travel Service includes well over 50,000 points of interest, most of which are in large cities and conurbation areas.

It is usually sufficient if you enter e.g. "Frankfurt, theatre" as starting point or destination in the start mask, click the search category "Postcode/city, point of interest" and then activate the button "Search connections". It is, however, possible that you will be shown several options with similar names, such as Gallus-Theater as well as "Das Gasthaus am Theaterplatz".
You can avoid this by searching specific categories.

The Travel Service features the following eight categories:

- Culture, Film & Stage (museums, theatres, cinemas etc.)
- Wining & Dining (restaurants, bars, cafes, etc.)
- Accommodation (hotels, guest-houses etc.)
- Sightseeing & Leisure (theme parks, garden parks, historic sites, tourist information etc.)
- Sports (sports centres, stadiums, ice rinks, ski resorts etc.)
- Education & Public Institutions (schools, libraries, town halls, hospitals etc.)
- Ferry terminals, yacht harbours, private airfields

To start a search by categories, first click the item in brackets (to the categories, e.g. museum, stadium) after "Postcode/city, point of interest". This takes you to a search filter window where you can select one or more categories. Then confirm your input by clicking the button "Submit". You will then be returned to the start mask of the Travel Service. Please check whether "Postcode/city, point of interest" has also been selected in that mask, as the system will otherwise not be able to find the point of interest you have selected. Then search for an appropriate connection.

NB: As long as you have activated the search filter, the system obviously cannot show any results from an unmarked category. If, for example, you wish to find a restaurant instead of a theatre, you first have to change the marks in the search filter or click the button "New query", which automatically cancels the search filter.

6. Mobility Check to find out the Time and Cost Benefits

The Travel Service offers an optional comparison between public transport using rail & bus and private transport by car, taxi, bicycle or on foot only. This allows you to check the time and cost benefits.

If you want to carry out the Mobility Check in detail and find out what parameters you can enter, please click here to read about the Mobility Check.

7. Environmental Mobility Check for Environment-Friendly Travel

The Environmental Mobility Check enables you to reach your own personal mobility decisions on the basis of ecological criteria. The Environmental Mobility Check provides a comparison of the environmental impact caused by public transport with rail & bus and that caused by private car on the route selected by you from any given starting point to any given destination.

8. Input Assistance with "My Profile"

You can use "My Profile" to save your own personal preferences, such as coach class, BahnCard and Save last starting point / destination input & advanced settings, which are then used as preselection.

The advantage of this is that you do not need to enter complicated addresses as starting point and/or destination every time you wish to make a new query, and the system automatically takes BahnCard and coach class into account when calculating the fares for your selection You can also state your own minimum and maximum distances for parts of the journey to be made on foot, by bicycle, tax or car to and from the station. The Travel Service automatically takes these parameters into account when searching connections.

NB: Please remember that these advanced settings will affect the results of every future search. You can alter the settings again by clicking "My Profile / Advanced" or reverse them if you no longer want to have them taken into account in future searches.

9. Using the Travel Service as Map of the City

To use this feature, you first have to search a connection in which at least one of the points (starting point or destination) is input as an address, i.e. "Postcode/city, house no." It does not matter how you intend to use the route description and map. This means you always have a "city map" in your computer, which you can print out at any time to use for trips by car or a stroll around the city.
After the Travel Service has searched your connections, you will see icons for on foot or taxi. Click "on foot" or "taxi" to access the relevant description and map of the route. You need Acrobat Reader software to obtain the map.

10. Using the Travel Service as Route Planner

As the Mobility Check offered by the Travel Service takes all reasonable transport modes into account, you can also use the Travel Service as a universal route planner for trips by car or bicycle.

To do so, search the relevant connection in the Travel Service and then click the 'Mobility Check' box. This feature includes a perfect route planner. You can, of course, print out the detailed description and map of the route.

11. Useful Service: Information and Booking Options at your Destination

After you have searched your connection, the Travel Service shows the box 'Information and booking options at your destination'

Simply click the icon for Hotel, Car Rental or Event to find, for example, the nearest car rental station and reserve a rented car online. You can also see what's on at your destination and book tickets for an event of your choice. You can also find and book a hotel room of your choice at your destination.