Germany and InterRail

[oldtrvller]

Further to a previous thread on the Travel Report on Interrail tickets, in 12 days the conductors never asked to see it. Having said that there were quite a few trains including 2 IC trains were the ticket was never checked. On 2 occasions using RE (semi-fast) trains I travelled for over 2 hours terminus to terminus and the ticket was never checked.
I did find that train punctuality was very poor - even early in the morning trains were shown as being 5 to 15 minutes late and this continued throughout the day. The result was that if I planned connections of trains in the afternoon I always left at least a 30 minute margin.
Having said that I enjoyed the time spent.

 

[317666]

I did an InterRail in Austria last week and only had the travel report checked twice in four days. On no occasion did I have my passport checked.

 

[duesselmartin]

punctuality, or the lack of it, is an increasing problem in Germany.
Ticket checks on regional services are sporadic.

 

[fowler9]

Just spent 2 days between Hamburg and Berlin. Had my ticket checked once after goodness knows how many journeys and that was on the Regio service to Schonefeld Airport. I take it the penalties if you get court bunking on must be pretty severe if they can get away with no barriers or inspections on the trains? Punctuality was pretty poor apart from on the U and S Bahns which are wonderfully frequent.

 

[airinter]

On local services there is a penalty, depending on the area, usually 40 Euros. On Intercity and ICE services you are entitled to buy a ticket on board, albeit with at 7,50 Euro surcharge, used to be 5 Euros untill recently.
There will only be legal action if you do not pay at all or get caught frequently on the local services, including trams and busses.