• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

FIP travel on S Bahn in Germany

Status
Not open for further replies.

district

Member
Joined
4 Aug 2011
Messages
1,098
Location
SE16
Am I correct in thinking that FIP Coupons are valid for travel on S Bahn services in Germany? The advice on RST’s website doesn’t mention it (as far as I can see) although I’m sure I’ve heard it’s valid.

For a FIP holder without coupons, can they receive a FIP discount on the S Bahn fare also?
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

cactustwirly

Established Member
Joined
10 Apr 2013
Messages
7,447
Location
UK
Am I correct in thinking that FIP Coupons are valid for travel on S Bahn services in Germany? The advice on RST’s website doesn’t mention it (as far as I can see) although I’m sure I’ve heard it’s valid.

For a FIP holder without coupons, can they receive a FIP discount on the S Bahn fare also?

Which S-bahn is it?
I'm inclined to say yes, as they're mainline railways operated by DB Regio. However I think it's been said somewhere that they're not valid on the Berlin S bahn.
 

district

Member
Joined
4 Aug 2011
Messages
1,098
Location
SE16
Sorry that would help - I was thinking Munich mainly but also visiting Berlin so thanks for the gen about that.
 

Mag_seven

Forum Staff
Staff Member
Global Moderator
Joined
1 Sep 2014
Messages
9,994
Location
here to eternity
The situation re FIP facilities on S-Bahn services in Germany is complicated by the fact that if your journey is entirely within a "Verkehrsverbund" then FIP is not valid. A journey on an S-Bahn is therefore likely to fall into this category if it is in a "Verkehrsverbund". See the "Germany – DB AG (*GF) and BSB/VSU" section in the RSTL "Travel Tips For Europe" guide:

https://www.raildeliverygroup.com/files/Publications/services/rst/RST_Travel_Tips_For_Europe_v36.pdf

In particular see page 38:

In some areas of Germany a Verkehrsverbund (combined fares structure) is in operation. In many of these
Verkehrsverbund areas FIP coupons and FIP reduced rate tickets are not valid if your journey is entirely within
the area concerned.

It also goes without saying that if the S-Bahn service is not operated by DB then FIP is also not valid.
 
Last edited:

CC 72100

Established Member
Joined
23 Jan 2012
Messages
3,777
My understanding of the situation is the same as Mag_seven above - off to Germany myself this week and with these rules means that I'll still have to buy a local ticket for airport to city but can then do a 77 euro journey to my next city for free.

That's a little bizarre I appreciate but those seem to be the rules and as the old saying goes don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

Note that the RDG document says that this applies to 'many' of the areas but that a list of areas it applies to has not been forthcoming. I've asked the area I'm staying in whether it is valid (Frankfurt) as it stretches a fair way out indeed, but no response as yet.

You can only get a FIP discount on fares priced by DB on DB trains- as the S-bahn fare is likely to come under the Verkehrversbund fare then it would be a no. (And FIP coupons not valid as per above).
 

CC 72100

Established Member
Joined
23 Jan 2012
Messages
3,777
@atraindriver - thanks for that, very comprehensive. Having got a response from the RMV team, their response was that you can use the FIP pass for a journey inside the Verkehrsverbund if it is an IC/ICE. (They said operated by DB, which would include RE/RB/S but I think I know what they mean).

I think the litmus test therefore is to go onto the DB website, and see what fares are available for the journey. If a price is displayed, then you can use the FIP coupons/pass, if no price is displayed and 'VRS fare' appears instead - this train comes under the Verkehrsverbund and FIP is not valid.

My example with Frankfurt - Fulda (both inside RMV):

Frankfurt to Fulda comparison.png

And to quote from the email:

I’m sorry, but I cannot confirm that your FIP-Pass is valid to travel by any regional Train Service within the RMV-Area.


The FIP-Pass is only valid if you use the Service from Deutsche Bahn.


If you travel from Fulda to Frankfurt by ICE, you can use it, but if you take a Regionalexpress (RE) or Regionalbahn (RB) you must pay a Ticket.

Hope that helps (or muddies the waters further!)

ps. that ticket looks really good value - my trip is more tourist than train so not for this time, but good to know.
 
Joined
11 Sep 2016
Messages
333
Location
...
I've never had any problems using a FIP coupon on any S-Bahn, saying that I've never encountered a control.. Actually, I did once in München, but bailed at Hackerbrücke before he got to me...

Anyway, if you did encounter a control while traveling on an FIP coupon and he asked your destination and you were only planning to traveling locally within the Verkehrsverbund, you simply tell him your going somewhere outside of it..!
 

district

Member
Joined
4 Aug 2011
Messages
1,098
Location
SE16
Only just seen this thread. I made a journey from München Flughafen to Berg am Laim and the DB member of staff hosting the TVMs at München Flughafen said my coupon was valid for this journey!
 

306024

Established Member
Joined
23 Jan 2013
Messages
3,942
Location
East Anglia
Try travelling from Utrecht to Cologne with a FIP free coupon for Holland and a FIP discount ticket for Germany. The only way the Dutch computer seems to be able to issue a ticket for the German portion of the journey is to print a ticket from Utrecht to Cologne with 100% discount to the border then 50% discount beyond. Totally baffled a German conductor until his colleague explained.

The date box being valid for two days is another that trips some ticket inspectors up but the letter that explains that in umpteen languages seems to have helped a lot.
 

district

Member
Joined
4 Aug 2011
Messages
1,098
Location
SE16
For FIP validity I would strongly recommend that you never, ever take what a member of ground-level staff says as being gospel for anything other than "I'll accept it on my own train.
Fair enough and thanks for the advice. As a result I bought a day ticket yesterday, although today I am going from an S Bahn Station in Munich to Berlin Hbf so my understanding is my coupon is valid because I am leaving the combined fares structure area.
 

CC 72100

Established Member
Joined
23 Jan 2012
Messages
3,777
For FIP validity I would strongly recommend that you never, ever take what a member of ground-level staff says as being gospel for anything other than "I'll accept it on my own train". Most staff don't actually know what FIP is, and tend to assume the validity is the same as for InterRail, which it most definitely isn't.
As examples from my own experiences in Germany, I've been told FIP coupons are valid on private operator trains (absolutely not), FIP coupons are valid in 1st class ticket despite being clearly marked 2nd class and (like almost all users of FIP in Germany) that the two day per box validity clearly printed on the ticket is flat wrong and it "must be" one day per box.

That last issue once got me a friendly chat with a DB Regio plain clothes RPI on board a train [heading from somewhere Dortmund way towards Hesse] about how useless DB Fernverkehr ticket training is, with the RPI being extremely blunt about how many problems he had to deal with because of incorrect information given to passengers by, and/or ticketing errors by, DB-F on-train staff.
I am certainly getting fed up with having to explain the whole concept of FIP to DB-F on-train staff, something I've not needed to do on DB-R trains which certainly suggests that DB-R training is better in that respect.


I'm surprised that RMV even know what FIP is, given that it's not something they would have any need to know about. But they may well have inherited someone from DB Regio, or they may well be rather more competent than is generally expected of German bureaucracy. ;)

RDG Rail Staff Travel here in the UK quite often don't seem to understand the difference between "DB" (the national 'holding company', for the want of a better term) and "DB Fernverkehr" (the long-distance business unit operating IC and ICE trains commercially). It's ironic that the organisation representing 25-odd different train operators sometimes seems to struggle with the idea of another country having more than one operator!

You won't be surprised to learn that the query had been sent on to the DB Regio customer service team and from there the response was received.

Been checked twice now on FIP coupon on DB-F... No strange looks or anything, must be on a lucky streak.

As you alluded to above but I've only just thought about it again; I can avoid paying for an S-bahn/local ticket from Frankfurt to the airport by going on an ICE from Frankfurt Hbf to Frankfurt flughafen fernbahnhof! :idea:;)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top