Trains and Buses
Important notes:
🎫 For using all public transport in Germany, you need to buy ticket. You will be checked randomly during the ride and in case you do not have ticket, you have to pay 60 Euros fine
⚠️ If you buy ticket from a ticket machine, you need to validate it using special devices in the station or in the tram
⏹️ sometimes the trams do not stop in all stations unless you press the stop buttons
Main types of trains in Germany
There are mainly 4 different types of trains in Thuringia:
🚆 RB: regional, stop in all villages
🚆 RE: regional, stop in big cities
🚆 IC: not regional, stop in many cities
🚆 ICE: not regional, stop only in very big cities
💳 By having a valid student Thoska, you can travel free inside Thuringia only with RE and RB trains. For the other trains you need to buy a ticket.
➡️ Exception: You can use Thoska for IC trains between Gera and Erfurt. But make sure about it before taking the train.
Types of tickets
Besides the normal tickets you can buy from the machine, there are some useful tickets for Thuringia
🎫 Hopper-ticket: It is the cheapest way for traveling to destinations which are 50 km from Jena (Weimar, Erfurt, Gera, ...). Just on weekends and few hours during the week
🎫 Thüringen-ticket: This ticket gives you the possibility to use any regional train for the period of one day in states Thuringia, Saxony, and Saxony-Anhalt. it cost 25 Euro for one person and each additional person adds 7 Euros (up to 5 people)
🎫 Quer-Durchs-Land Ticket: You pay 44 Euro and you can take any regional train through the whole Germany for one whole complete day
What is a Bahncard
By having a BahnCard, you can get discount of 25%, 50%, or 100% for all regular tickets for traveling inside Germany.
If you buy a ticket for going to a neighbor country, only the part which is in Germany gets the discount, so the final discount would be less.
❌ There is no discount for tickets which have fixed price like Hopper-ticket and Thüringen-ticket