Deutsche Bahn operates the vast majority of German long distance trains and also sells tickets for regional and local trains operated by other companies. The DB website (which has localised versions for many places and is available at least partially in English and a half dozen other languages) is an excellent resource to find train connections throughout Europe, although some heritage railways and railway integrated bus services are not listed. The DB website sells tickets for most trips originating and/or terminating in Germany, but not for a trip only passing through Germany (for example, for a trip from Paris to Warsaw you'd have to buy a ticket from Paris to Berlin and one from Berlin to Warsaw) and won't display prices or sell tickets for some international as well as a few local train connections.

Timetables and standard fares (Flexpreis) are generally valid for one year. A new timetable comes into effect each December, usually published in mid-October. DB usually increases their prices mostly for long-distance trains with the schedule change. Verkehrsverbünde usually change their schedule around the same time but not always on the same day. There might be transition periods for the validity of local tickets.

On most routes tickets can be booked up to 180 days ahead, but tickets after the schedule change only go on sale once the new schedule has been published. If you want to get cheap tickets for long-distance trains, buy the special tickets (such as saver fares) as early as possible. The number of such tickets per train is limited, and the price goes up the closer the departure date is, and they can get sold out. However, most Germans don't book more than one week ahead, with the possible exception of international tickets.

Prices for standard fares for any train and special tickets for regional and local trains normally stay the same over the year (and they are unlimited), so they can be bought just before your trip.

In larger urban areas, local transportation companies often form an integrated public transport system, called Verkehrsverbund (VB) (or Verkehrsverbünde in its plural form). In each Verkehrsverbund all public transport (this may include subways, city buses, S-Bahn, light rail and even regional trains) can be used with a common ticket and fare system. A Verkehrsverbund also offers a common and coordinated schedule. Examples include VBB around Berlin and Brandenburg (the largest by area), RMV around Frankfurt, MVV around Munich, or Bodo for the area in Germany immediately next to Lake Constance.

These urban transport networks are often (but not always) integrated with the DB network and Verkehrsverbund tickets are valid on local trains. The trend has been towards bigger Verkehrsverbünde with better railway integration and local transport schedules are often made with the train schedules in mind. The S-Bahn is usually the "heart" of a Verkehrsverbund and S-Bahn expansion has in the past often coincided with Verkehrsverbund expansion.

Long-distance trains (which includes, e.g., Flixtrain and all "white" DB trains) are not part of a Verkehrsverbund, which means a passenger may not use such services to commute between two points in a metro area with only a Verkehrsverbund ticket.

The DB Navigator app allows you to purchase most Verkehrsverbund tickets using a VISA/Mastercard debit or credit card even if you do not have a long distance train journey on the days you wish to use local city transport.

Germany has over 40,000 km of railways (making it the sixth longest rail network and one of the densest worldwide) and thus is incredibly well-connected, making it possible to connect from most rural areas to large metropolises. No German town with more than 100 000 inhabitants lacks rail service and most towns with more than 20 000 inhabitants have regular rail service.

Deutsche Bahn — the main railway operator in the country — is in an unusual position. Since 1994, it has been organised as an Aktiengesellschaft (joint-stock company), which is normally expected to return a profit. However, the state owns all the shares. This means DB gets pulled in two directions at the same time: it is supposed to act like a private for-profit company and also act like a state institution. Consequently the CEO - and at least some members of the board - is a political appointment and usually a household name in Germany shortly after taking office. The CEO is often referred to in the media and informally as Bahnchef ('rail boss'). So the current CEO Richard Lutz is often just called Bahnchef Lutz.

While all operators (including DB) are in theory free to run long-distance trains on any given route at any price they see fit — provided they pay track access charges to state-owned DB Netz (itself a DB subsidiary) — the situation for local trains is more complicated. The federal government gives a certain amount of money to the states which they are supposed to spend on local railway service. Some states hand this money on to local Verkehrsverbünde while others have one big pot at the state level. The state or the Verkehrsverbund that has been given the authority to do so by the state then sets timetables and train requirements (for example one train every hour with a specific number of first and second class seats, Wi-Fi and level boarding) and asks for bids from all over Europe. Usually DB will be among those bidding, but often other operators will ask for a lower subsidy and thus get the contract. Bidding for a new contract usually starts before the old contract has run out. Contract terms tend to be quite long: on some routes DB still operates under contracts that weren't subject to open bidding or where DB was the only bidder. This is one of the main reasons why Wi-Fi is very rare on local trains: operators are not obligated to provide anything not stipulated in the original contract. The contracts are often rather specific and some observers joke that the only thing a railway operator actually gets to choose is the colour scheme and the wages of employees - naturally leading to claims of DB's private competition undercutting DB's union wages still influenced by former civil servant contracts.

• Flexpreis: standard fare
• Sparpreis: saver fare
• Hauptbahnhof: main train station
• Reisezentrum: travel centre (with staffed ticket counters)
• Verkehrsverbund (plural: Verkehrsverbünde): integrated public transport system

Almost all long distance trains are run by Deutsche Bahn. All major cities are linked by DB's ICE (InterCity Express) and regular IC (InterCity) trains.

• InterCity Express (ICE) trains. High speed trains capable of speeds up to 320 km/h (200 mph). The condition of tracks and signals however allows top speeds of only 160 km/h (99 mph) on unmodified legacy tracks, 200 km/h (120 mph) on routes with special electronic equipment called "Ausbaustrecke" (the Berlin Hamburg railway is an Ausbaustrecke built for 230 km/h (140 mph)), or 250 km/h (160 mph) to 300 km/h (190 mph) on designated high-speed tracks called "Neubaustrecke". The top speed of 320 km/h (200 mph) is reached on the journey from Frankfurt to Paris, France. Although significantly faster than by road, they can also be expensive, with a 1-hour-trip (Frankfurt to Cologne, around 180 km) costing up to €67 one-way ("Flexpreis", i.e. walk up fare without any discount). However when you book the ticket in advance and are a bit flexible with hour and date of travel, you can get a considerable discount. All domestic ICEs are electric. There are several different types of ICE, but they are all fairly similar to one another and only distinguishable for non-enthusiasts by their top speed and age. One notable difference is the ICE 4 which was introduced into regular service in December 2017 and is the only ICE which carries bicycles. The order for the ICE 4 was one of the biggest in DB history and it will take into the mid 2020s before all ordered trains enter service.
• ICE Sprinter. The same trains as regular ICEs, but they run non-stop between major cities or have only one intermediate stop. Their travel times are all below four hours in order to equal or beat door to door travel times of the airlines. There is no surcharge for using ICE Sprinter services anymore, but cheap early bird tickets may be scarcer for them. For example, an ICE Sprinter trip between Berlin and Munich takes just about 4 hours.
• InterCity (IC) trains. Fairly comfortable, even if they lack the high-tech feeling of the ICE. ICE trains are only faster than IC trains on purpose-built tracks or existing track which has been upgraded. Older ICs are locomotive hauled single level stock dating back as far as the 1970s, but most were built or refurbished in the 1990s or later. Old ICs have top speeds up to 200 km/h. In 2016 DB introduced a slew of new bi-level Intercity stock, called "Intercity 2". They have a top speed of 160 km/h (99 mph) and are fairly modern and comfy with electric outlets, reclining seats and at-your-seat snack and drink service, but the space for luggage is rather limited, so avoid them if you have a lot of stuff to carry — however there's usually space under the seats if all else fails. On some routes IC trains are hauled by Diesel locomotives, but this is getting rarer as more routes are electrified and more routes are operated by multiple units that make switching out the motive power difficult.
• EuroCity (EC) trains. Connect larger European cities and are virtually identical to IC trains. Many EC trains are provided by neighboring railway operators (for example the Prague-Hamburg route operated by Czech railways). While this has no effect on booking and prices, the interior of the trains might be notably different from comparable German trains. Also, EC trains, especially those that travel very long distances, are more prone to delays than purely domestic services.
• EuroCity Express trains. Introduced in December 2017, they only serve the Frankfurt-Milan corridor and the Munich-Zurich corridor with stops in Switzerland. Unlike all other train categories, there is a mandatory (but free) reservation and tickets are bound to a specific train even for "Flexpreis" tickets (but Flexpreis tickets can be rebooked to another train free of charge subject to availability). The trains are Swiss tilting trains of the ETR 610 family with a top speed of 250 km/h (160 mph). Unlike EC, IC and ICE, the category "EuroCity Express" is not yet used by other railways - not even the Swiss and Italian ones, so these trains will show up on Swiss and Italian schedules as regular EC.

On major lines, ICE or IC trains run as often as hourly during the day, and even some smaller cities popular with tourists like Tübingen or Heringsdorf have daily or weekly services.

However, given the caveats above about top speeds of certain lines, you might want to check if the ICE is significantly faster than regional and local trains before you shell out for an ICE ticket. Still, early bird tickets are often priced very much in line with expected demand and faster trips tend to be more expensive than a trip with many changes or along slower lines between the same endpoints.

There are also long-distance trains operated by other companies than Deutsche Bahn (see below), usually running over secondary routes with cheaper track access charges. These are usually comfortable enough (although not as comfortable as ICE) and sometimes considerably cheaper, but their stopping pattern can be both vastly more frequent or vastly more infrequent than comparable DB trains. Before the liberalisation of the intercity bus market competition on long-distance train routes had been increasing. But since the buses were generally even cheaper than the train services competing with DB, several companies exited the market, shelved plans to enter it or greatly reduced their services. With Flixbus now controlling well north of ninety percent of the intercity bus market, they are also the main competition to DB in the field of long distance trains.

DB ended its sleeper train services in 2016, replacing them with a limited number of regular ICEs running at night as well as some buses.

The main operator of sleeper trains in Germany is ÖBB, the Austrian state railway. Tickets for what they call Nightjet^{[dead link]} trains start at €29 for the cheapest seats and early booking. Sleepers or last minute bookings are naturally more expensive. Every sleeper ticket includes breakfast and can be booked via the DB website. You can book anything from your own compartment with bed and shower to a single seat in a six-seat compartment. ÖBB is modernising their fleet (some of which they bought from DB when DB got out of the night train business) and has announced intentions to run additional routes, however difficulties in getting regulatory approval and the fact that ÖBB intends to repair and service all trains in Austria limit the scope of possible expansion.

BahnTouristikExpress — a company which specializes in renting out trains to tour operators and private groups — runs a train service (BTE AutoReiseZug) from Lörrach in the Southwest of Germany, close to Basel, Switzerland, and the French Alsace to Hamburg-Altona year round. ÖBB Nightjet also runs car trains (Autoreisezug) from Vienna and Innsbruck to Hamburg Altona and Düsseldorf. DB stopped running its own car trains (except for the Sylt train, which is only a 50-minute ride) in 2016.

To and from Sylt

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Regular car trains link the island of Sylt with the mainland, operated by DB (under the brand Sylt Shuttle) and the private company Autozug Sylt, a subsidiary of the American Railroad Development Company (RDC) (the only other link to the mainland is a ferry from Denmark.) Their prices are broadly similar, though -as the newer entrant to the market- Autozug Sylt tries to undercut DB. Unlike most non-regional trains in Germany, there is no discount for advance purchase of tickets, but there are discounts if you buy ten or twelve tickets at once and there is another discount for Sylt residents. The two companies use the same terminals in Sylt and 54.7806078.8411771 Niebüll.

Regional and local trains in Germany are conveniently referred to with the German word Nahverkehr. These trains come in several flavours:

• InterRegio-Express (IRE). The fastest type of regional train, calling only at a few stations. They usually cover longer distances than "normal" REs.
• Regional-Express (RE). Semi-express trains that skip some stations. On many routes, this is the highest available train category.
• Regional-Bahn (RB). Stops everywhere except that it may skip some S-Bahn stops.
• S-Bahn. Commuter network for a city or metropolitan area, which can nonetheless cover fairly long distances. Some S-Bahn trains are the only trains in Germany routinely not to offer a toilet, though this in part depends on the precise region and line and is getting rarer.

The majority of regional and local trains run once an hour or once every two hours from 05:00 or 06:00 to roughly 23:00 or even later. S-Bahn lines often have headways of 30 minutes or less which can come down to 15 minutes or even seven and a half minutes on trunk routes where several lines overlap. Between big cities in a major metropolitan area S-Bahn and regional trains may overlap in their route, giving more transportation options when you want to go from city centre to city centre.

On regional trains Wi-Fi is still the exception rather than the rule. It is estimated that only around 10% of trains will have Wi-Fi by 2020. Wi-Fi was not a requirement in most current contracts for regional trains and there are not enough mobile phone masts along the lines.

On regional trains first class — if available at all — is usually pretty similar to second class, but as there is usually no reserved seating in either class, you're more likely to get a seat in first class on busy routes. Some operators however do try to justify the markup for first class by (for example) providing better seats or seat pitch or reserving the upper deck on bi-level stock for first class.

Many companies apart from Deutsche Bahn run regional trains. This is usually done through a contract with the Bundesland that pays them to run a certain number of trains at specified hours and usually those contracts also stipulate that DB-tickets (such as Ländertickets and the Quer durchs Land ticket) are accepted. In some regions such as Schleswig-Holstein there might be two, three or more different ticket vending machines in the station, one for each company. When in doubt ask people on the platform, or better yet DB personnel. With very rare exceptions you can buy tickets valid on non-DB trains with standard DB vending machines, but not the other way round.

Even though the German rail market has been liberalised for years, there are relatively few train operators other than DB, and they are all tiny. They can also be hard to use - they don't show up in the central train planner, and Eurail passes are not valid on them. They can be much cheaper than DB though, especially on short notice. DB seems to deliberately bunch its own IC/ICE trains around the departure times of competing services on some routes, so if the departure time of the competition agrees with you, you'll have more choice than usual.

Here are some examples:

• Alex. Routes from Munich, Nuremberg or Regensburg to Prague from €23 one-way or €43 return ticket (Prag Spezial), among others. Tickets can be bought on the train. On almost all of their trains you can buy snacks and drinks at very reasonable prices. Ultimately part of the Italian national railway (Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane) through a series of German subsidiaries.
• Flixbus / Flixtrain, the near monopolist in Intercity buses in Germany has taken over two independent operators on Hamburg-Cologne and Berlin-Stuttgart routes. They've subsequently added Berlin-Cologne-Aachen service. When booking make sure you actually book a train, as Flixbus also sells bus tickets along the same routes.

  

Apart from those, there are several steam or diesel heritage railways, often using narrow gauge tracks. They are usually not integrated into DB ticketing or Verkehrsverbund ticketing and can be significantly more expensive on a per km basis than mainline operators. They run the gamut from summer season and weekends only to daily operations that have significant transport value.

Local buses are usually integrated into the ticket system of any given Verkehrsverbund and the DB City Ticket, which is available at no extra cost for many long distance tickets with a BahnCard discount, includes a ride on buses, trams, light rail and subway as applicable to/from your final destination within the origin/departure city.

Flixbus, being primarily a bus company sells tickets for its two rail routes as well as through tickets which combine its buses with trains. They do not, however, sell combined tickets with local trains.

See also: Rail air alliances

Lufthansa has cooperated with DB in one form or another since the 1980s. For a time they even ran their own trains, complete with Lufthansa livery. Today, AIRail enables certain ICEs to be booked like a flight sector (you can even earn miles), with check-in at the train station. (You still have to drop your luggage off at the airport, though.) Practically all German airports are linked to the mainline rail network, the local tram or the subway network. A handful of airports even have trains stopping there but no scheduled flights. You can usually buy a through ticket all the way to the airport through DB. Many airlines that fly to/from German airports offer rail&fly tickets. They usually have to be booked together with the flight. Such tickets are usually cheaper than a comparable domestic flight or even entirely free, depending on the airline and ticket type. Rail&fly lets you take any train from any station in Germany (and even some in adjacent countries) to the airport (again, even some non-German airports are part of the program) with any number of changes up to one day prior to departure, and to take any train from the airport to any station on the return journey. Rail&Fly is a standard feature for package holidays departing Germany, but if you book a flight only, a few airlines that nominally offer rail&fly can make it a bit difficult to book. You can check in for your Rail&Fly train trip up to 72 hours before departure on this website.

There are several ways to buy tickets. If you are caught without a valid ticket, you have to pay at least a €60 penalty fare.

At a vending machine

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At a station, find a ticket machine with a touchscreen, choose your language, and then navigate through the menus. Like the online journey planner, it will automatically suggest the fastest routes. The machines sell all DB train tickets including some international tickets, special tickets (both for long-distance and regional and local trains) and tickets for local transport. Touchscreen machines accept credit cards, older ones do not.

Ticket machines for local Verkehrsverbund are yellow, white or grey. They can be used to buy tickets for local transport, including DB trains. On secondary routes, vending machines inside trains are becoming more common, usually leaving smaller stations without vending machines.

Many local machines and old DB machines require you to enter a four-digit code for your destination, found on a panel of densely packed print nearby. Press the flag button to switch to English, punch in the code for your destination station on the keypad, then hit the appropriate button in the left ("adult") row below to pick your ticket. The first button is always one-way single (Einzelfahrausweis). A price will be displayed: insert your money (quickly, since the timeout is quite fast), and the machine will spit out your tickets and change. Vending machines give max. €9.90 change in coins and will not accept larger notes. For new blue DB machines, select the local tariff union in the top menu, and the rest is easy.

If a station is not equipped with a vending machine or if all the machines are out of order, you have to buy your ticket from a staffed ticket counter. If this isn't available either or it is closed, you are allowed to buy your ticket on the train. If there is no vending machine on the train, you have to approach the staff right away and ask them what to do. You should then be able to buy a ticket without paying a surcharge. However, it is usually much less hassle to just buy a ticket via the app.

Standard tickets^{[dead link]} (Flexpreis; flexible fare) have the fewest restrictions, but can be quite expensive. The maximum price for a standard ticket (single rail journey within Germany) is €142 in 2nd class and €237 in first class. They are valid for 1 day (trips of up to 100 km) and for 2 days (trips more than 200 km) to travel between a specified departure and destination train station and are not tied to a specific train. Sometimes the word "via" followed by either some cryptic code or a city name will appear on your ticket. That means the ticket is only valid for the specific route booked and not for a different route to the same destination.

Unlike in other countries, standard tickets do not get sold out for a specific train. If you don't have a seat reservation, then you might have to stand or sit on the floor if the train is very busy. When booking long-distance tickets on the DB website, the search results for a train journey will indicate how full/busy the train is likely going to be.

BahnCard^{[dead link]} holders get discounts on all standard DB tickets. A BahnCard can be of great use if you plan to travel by train a lot or a long-term stay in Germany. BahnCards are typically valid for one year from the date of purchase and are renewed automatically unless cancelled in writing at least six weeks before the end of validity. They can be bought at train stations for immediate discounts. If you do that you'll get a temporary (paper) card and you will need to supply a European postal address to get the proper plastic card. Alternatively, one can purchase a 'digital' BahnCard on the DB Navigator app; upon completion, a barcode which contains important information about your subscription will be generated and you can retrieve it whenever you open the app. Ticket inspectors on trains will normally insist that you present not only your ticket, but also the BahnCard used to claim any discount and some form of official ID with a photo. You may present your 'digital' BahnCard in lieu of the physical one during inspection. Starting June 2024 all BahnCards will be digital only, physical plastic cards will remain valid until their expiration date or cancellation.

The BahnCard discount doesn't necessarily apply to all regional transport day tickets, but some do offer their own discounts for BahnCard holders. BahnCard holders can also get discounts on international trains, as long as the journey originates or terminates somewhere in Germany.

There are three variations of BahnCard. The normal BahnCards are offered for passengers ages 27 and above:

• BahnCard 25. Costs €59.90 (concessions €38.90) for 2nd class (€121/€77.90 for 1st class) and grants you a 25% discount on all standard tickets for a year. Spouses/partners and kids of BahnCard 25 holders can get additional cards for €5 each. The BahnCard 25 discount can be combined with any Sparpreis discounts. (In effect granting you a further 25% discount on an already discounted fare.)
• BahnCard 50. Costs €244 (concessions €122) for 2nd class (€492/€241 for 1st class) and grants you a 50% discount on all standard tickets as well as a 25% discount on Sparpreis tickets for a year.
• BahnCard 100. Costs €4339 for 2nd class (€7356 for 1st class). Unlimited travel for a year on all trains and in many cities even all public transportation. Night trains cost extra. You'll need to bring a photo to buy a BahnCard 100. Holders of 2nd class BahnCard 100 still have to pay for seat reservations; holders of first class ones do not, just like with normal tickets.

There are also variations of the BahnCard 25 and BahnCard 50:

• Probe BahnCard 25 / Probe BahnCard 50. ("Probe" is the German word for test/trial/sample.) More suitable if you're not ready to commit, don't need a card for a whole year, or will be in Germany only for a short time (but will spend a lot of time commuting by train), these cards are valid for three months and entitle holders to the same discounts as the regular BahnCards listed above. A Probe BahnCard 25 costs €17.90 (2nd class) or €35.90 (1st class), and a Probe BahnCard 50 costs €71.90 (2nd class) or €143 (1st class). Probe BahnCards become regular ones unless cancelled at least six weeks before the end of their validity.
• My BahnCard 25 / My BahnCard 50. These cards can be bought by anyone under the age of 27 and entitle the holder to the same discounts listed above. My BahnCard 25 costs €36.90 (2nd class) or €77.90 (1st class), and My BahnCard 50 costs €69.90 (2nd class) or €241 (1st class). As with other cards these get renewed automatically unless cancelled at least six weeks before the end of their validity.
• Jugend BahnCard 25. Open to anyone aged 6 to 18, costs €7.90 for a year and entitles the holder to a 25% discount, so it often pays off on the first trip. It's valid in 1st and 2nd class. Remember that under 14s travel for free with their parents or grandparents. It is without a picture - if you are at least 16 years old, you must carry ID with you. It is not necessary to cancel the Jugend BahnCard; it runs for one year and expires automatically.

Standard fares are relatively expensive, but special promotions and prices exist. Your best course of action is to check the DB offers page, to ask at a train station, or call them for current details. If you search for a connection with the journey planner, it automatically offers you the most favourable discount for the journey in addition to the standard fare.

See also: Deutschland-Ticket section.

On many shorter connections, local trains are not much slower than long-distance trains (IC, EC, ICE). Most of the special tickets for regional and local trains are automatically offered in addition to the standard fare if you use the DB journey planner and select the Only local transport option.

Almost all special offers for regional travel are available at all times and can be bought in advance or minutes before departure.

There are discounted tickets for trips with specific maximum lengths within a certain region (e.g. 150 km or less within Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia) either one way or round trip. There are also fixed prices for certain connections, e.g. Berlin-Hamburg in an InterRegio-Express.

Deutschlandticket (or D-Ticket) allows unlimited travel on all regional and local public transport. This includes regional and local trains, trams, metros and regional and local buses. It is also valid on a limited selection of routes in countries adjacent to Germany:

• To Tondern in the RB66 from Niebüll
• To Groningen in the RS6 from Leer (replacement buses Leer - Weener until ca. mid-2025)
• To Hengelo in the RB61 from Bielefeld, Osnabrück, Rheine and Bad Bentheim
• To Enschede in the RB51 and RB64 from Dortmund and Münster
• To Arnhem in the RE19 which departs e.g. from Düsseldorf
• To Nijmegen in the SB58 express bus which departs e.g. from Kleve and Emmerich
• To Venlo in the RE13 which departs e.g. from Düsseldorf
• To Luxembourg in the RE11 from Koblenz, public transport in Luxembourg (country and city) is free
• To Sarreguemines (Saargemünd) in the Saarbahn from Saarbrücken
• To Wissembourg in the RB54 from Neustadt a. d. Weinstrasse and Landau in der Pfalz
• To Lauterbourg in the RB52 from Wörth
• To Strasbourg only with a supplement ticket of €4.20
• To Basel in the S6 and regional trains
• To Salzburg in the local and regional trains
• To Kufstein in the RB54 which departs e.g. from Munich
• To Hrádek nad Nisou and Varnsdorf in the Trilex L7 from Zittau
• To Świnoujście in the RB23 e.g. from Usedom

and on many local crossborder bus routes that often connect to train stations.

It does not allow travelling on first class, all long-distance trains (ICE, IC, EC, EST, Flixtrain), on Flixbus, or on transport mainly used as a tourist attraction.

There are no restrictions on who can purchase and use the ticket. It costs €49 per month and is valid for a calendar month (not rolling 30 days!). While it is a subscription that will automatically renew every month, it is still possible to buy it for only one calendar month.

The ticket can in most cases only be obtained online, not from vending machines or drivers. Most however require a European bank account and do not accept credit cards.

For travellers it's recommended to buy the ticket online at Mopla: The first advantage at Mopla is that you can pay with credit card or debit card (in addition to EU SEPA withdrawal). The second advantage at Mopla is that you can cancel the subscription until the second last day of the month.

For the ticket inspections you need to have a government-issued photo ID such as an ID card or passport.

Each Verkehrsverbund has a single integrated tariff system. Any travel within a single Verkehrsverbund is "local" and usually quite cheap. However any travel between different Verkehrsverbünde requires either a special fare (within North Rhine-Westphalia) or the full DB fare and will usually be considerably more expensive. For trips entirely within one Verkehrsverbund, the DB website will typically tell you the name of the applicable fare (for example, "MVV Fare" in Munich, or "VBB Fare" in Berlin) instead of showing the price for that trip. The DB website may allow you to purchase a day ticket for such a trip, while the DB Navigator mobile app will often offer a wider range of tickets, including for single trips valid instantly. Ticket machines at train stations are usually equipped to sell tickets within a Verkehrsverbund and general DB tickets. Failing that, there are usually machines specifically for Verkehrsverbund tickets. Verkehrsverbund tickets cost the same no matter when you book.

Ticket validity varies from one Verkehrsverbund to another: usually, there is either a zone system (the further you travel, the more you pay), a time system (the longer you travel, the more you pay), or most commonly a combination of these two. Unlimited transfers between trains, buses, etc. are usually allowed as long as your ticket remains valid. Discounts may be given for return trips or groups, and one-day tickets (Tageskarte) are usually cheaper and much less hassle than single tickets, although zone limits apply to them as well. At local ticket offices ('Reisezentrum') you can often pick up brochures explaining all the details, usually with helpful maps, and occasionally even in English.

You will usually have to validate a Verkehrsverbund ticket by time stamping it at machines on platforms. If there is a stamping machine on the platform, chances are tickets need to be stamped prior to boarding. Unstamped tickets are not valid tickets. If you are caught without a valid ticket you will be fined €60 (even if you are a foreigner or first time offender). Fare inspectors won't take "I didn't have any time to buy a ticket" as an excuse.

DB trains often cross between VBs with at best a cryptic "three letter acronym (that being the Verkehrsverbund) only till X" (in German) on the display at the platform and sometimes no warning at all, and your "local" ticket stops being valid the instant you cross the invisible line. On some trains there is an announcement upon leaving a Verkehrsverbund, but don't count on it.

All Sparpreis and Flexpreis tickets for long-distance trains covering a distance of more than 100km include a City-Ticket^{[dead link]}. That means your train ticket doubles as a ticket for local transport. It can however only be used to get to the station from which your train departs and from the station at your destination. (Travel is within the city zone only.) City-tickets are valid in 126 cities in Germany. If your ticket mentions +City, this option is included.

If your ticket is not eligible for the automatic free City-Ticket add-on you can add a similar option called City mobil at an extra charge. This only includes public transport at your destination in one of the about 100 participating cities. Price varies by city, and single or day tickets are available. This usually doesn't present a monetary saving, but you are spared the hassle of finding a ticket vending machine or small coins for the bus driver.

See also: European rail passes

A German Rail Pass allows unlimited travel throughout Germany in all trains on 3–10 days within a month. There is an interesting "twin" discount for two people travelling together. The pass is available only for residents outside Europe, Turkey and Russia; you can purchase it on the DB website or from travel agencies outside Germany.

Eurail offers a pass for 3–10 days of travel (which do not have to be consecutive) throughout Germany.

Children younger than 6 travel for free and don't need a ticket (but you might want to reserve seats in a Familienabteil; family compartment), children aged 6 to 14 (inclusive) can travel for free when travelling with their own parent or grandparent if that person pays a Flexpreis or Special price ticket. The number of children has to be specified when purchasing the ticket. There is also a discount for people aged below fifteen travelling in the company of someone who is not their parent or grandparent, but it is usually only 50%. Some special offers are explicitly limited to students or "young people" with a cutoff point usually in the mid twenties.