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Hi everyone! Another problem today… me and my friends had previously booked in march the ICE 121 from Amsterdam Ceentral to Frankfurt Flughafen, then we had another 2 or 3 trains ( i don’t remember perfectly) to get to Strasbourg in France. Today we checked and without any notice, THE EURAIL TIMETABLE shows that our train stops at Kohl, and then we have 6 other trains to get on to eventually get to Strasbourg. This seemed crazy to us… so we checked other websites such as DSB and DB and in fact our ICE 121 stops at Frankfurt. after that we should take a train to Manheim, to eventually get to Strasburg with a TGV. THIS IS NOT SHOWED ON THE EURAIL TIMETABLE. WE ARE REALLY CONFUSED, we don’t even know what website we should trust, if we should book the train from Manheim to strasbourg or to get a flixbus from Frankfurt to Strasbourg. ANY HELP IS REALLY APPRECIATED THANK UUUUUU😭

Timetable changes are very frequent in Germany, especially when booking months ahead. This is mostly due to engineering works scheduled later. When are you travelling? Then we'll be able to help.

I guess you're impacted by the Rastatt closure starting this week and/or the Cologne - Frankfurt high-speed line closure.

Where did you book reservations? If booked through DB you should have received emails.

The Eurail timetable isn't 100% reliable I'm afraid. It works offline and it's updated infrequently. You should always double check with the railway company. DB Navigator works quite well across Europe.

You might also have added a filter like "no reservations required". Mannheim - Strasbourg TGV/ICEs require 18€ reservations.

For the best places to book reservations use https://www.seat61.com/interrail-and-eurail-reservations.htm ->  Interrail/Eurail charges 2€ extra per person per train and is also more expensive sometimes. Always book through the railway company directly whenever possible.


Hi! Thank you for your reply. We would like to go from Amsterdam Centraal to Strasbourg on the 28th of August. We had previously booked our seats for the train from Amsterdam to Frankfurt on DSB website, they didn't notify us in anyway. We don't understand why the eurail planner shows us that this train stops in Kohl, because on DSB and other websites we can see that it goes all the way to Frankfurt. For the TGV from Mannheim to Strasbourg is no problem for us to pay the 18€ reservation, we just want to be sure that our train exists and will run! 


Rail Planner does show ICE225 as running until Frankfurt. Maybe you have to update the app?

Anyway the app is not reliable enough. Use DB Navigator/the companies websites.

There's the Riedbahn closure between Frankfurt and Mannheim until mid-December. However you're mainly impacted by the Rheinbahn closure in Rastatt (10th-30th August approx.). That vital mainline sees hundreds of trains every day so it's a nightmare…

There are replacement buses but it will take a looong time. I'll post an itinerary below:

- ICE225 Amsterdam Centraal - Frankfurt Flughafen 08:08 - 11:39

- Bus Frankfurt Flughafen - Mannheim Hbf 12:15 - 13:15

- ICE Mannheim Hbf - Rastatt 13:34 - 14:14

Or to travel fully on trains you continue on ICE225 and connect there on ICE2081.

And then...

- Bus Rastatt - Baden-Baden

- RE Baden-Baden - Appenweier

- RB25 Appenweier - Offenburg

Otherwise there is a daily Mannheim - Strasbourg TGV avoiding the whole zone. It might not be faster but it would be more comfortable for sure! It would mean leaving Amsterdam earlier though:

- ICE Amsterdam Centraal - Frankfurt Flughafen 06:38 - 10:07

- special bus Frankfurt Flughafen - Mannheim Hbf (pass valid) 10:45 - 11:45, every 30 min

- little break

- TGV Mannheim Hbf - Strasbourg 13:14 - 16:07 18€

Feel free to ask anything.


Omg thank you! We think the best option for us is the TGV from Mannheim to Strasbourg. Looking on the Deutsch Bahn website the reservation is only 5.20€ sooo... Anyway looking on the DB website it showed a train from Frankfurt Hbf to Mannheim, RE 60(15315), is it possible? or is it not updated? Thank you so much for your help!

 


RE60 will run (it takes another route). It is likely going to be very busy though. However I don't know if the buses are as packed or not so feel free to improvise on the day...

Note that the 5.20€ reservation is not a valid fare for Interrail/Eurail passholders between Germany and France. You'll be fined by SNCF staff. You must get the special passholder fare costing 18€, available on Rail Europe (desktop) or Interrail with 2€ fee pp.


Oh alright then! That's not a problem for us. Thank you so much, you're a life saver! Thank you!


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