Rail
German Rail - General
By Jon Darch
Sep 18, 2004, 12:46

Long distance fans
Those 12 World Cup venues are spread far and wide across Germany.  From Munich to Hamburg it's over 750km (over 465 miles), from Stuttgart to Berlin over 630km (over 390 miles).  So, if the game ends at 9.15, you have a post-match drink - or rather your non-driving mates do - and you have any sort of distance to go after that, it will be the wee small hours before hours before you get to your bed, or the local bar.

Let the train take the strain
What better way to travel then, than by Germany's highly reliable and teutonically efficient railway system!  If a train's a couple of minutes of late that still counts as a disgraceful performance today, so you can pretty much rely on them running to schedule.

German Rail connections between the World Cup host cities

Great deals from Deutsche Bahn
Deutsche Bahn offer a plethora of different deals - so many, in fact, it can be difficult to get a clear overview of what works out to be the best deal.  However, you'll find nearly all of the information you need on the UK pages of the German Rail website.

Full fare
To give you an idea of basic fares, let's say you wanted to go from Munich to Hamburg (about the longest journey you could possibly make) at the last minute, so you had to pay full fare (2nd class).  At March 2006, this would cost you 115 euros one-way.  Other sample journeys between World Cup venues:

	Frankfurt to Cologne:	55 euros one-way
	Berlin to Hamburg:	58 euros one-way
	Stuttgart to Leipzig:	87 euros one-way

Children aged 6-14 travelling with a parent or grandparent travel free (but still need to get a ticket - a free one).

How to book
You can book online via the UK pages of the German Rail website, on the phone via their London booking office (tel.: 08702 43 53 63) and, of course, over the counter or from ticket machines in Germany.

The deals
Some of the deals worth looking at, explained in full on the linked pages, include:

World Cup specials: Weltmeister tickets and the Weltmeister Pass.

25%, 50% or 100% off fares with the BahnCard 25, 50 or 100.

Travel around Germany to any 8 games for under €30 a game with the German Rail Pass (non-EU residents only).

Travel around Germany to any 7 games for under £28.60 a game with the EuroDomino Pass (EU residents only).

Combine your World Cup trip with limitless travel around Europe with an InterRail or Eurail pass.

All prices mentioned on this page are as advertised at 24th March 2006.