If you wish to travel by train within Germany with your bicycles and/or tricycles and you have a choice of stations you can start from or need to change at, then either check out the station/s beforehand, if you can, and/or download the Bahnhof live app. In Bahnhof live fill out the name of the station/s and the relevant page/s should appear. Click on Austattung and you will be shown a list of facilities. Look for the green barrier free wheelchair logo (Stufenfreier Zugang) and Aufzüge (lifts/elevators) to be sure you don't have to carry your steed up or down flights of steps. There can be a lot of stairs, as this photograph of a station in Ludwigshafen shows. Just to explain the lift/elevator was temporarily out of order:
To further illustrate this approach: If you compare Augsburg and Munich (München)
HbF - main stations with the app. Augsburg does not have barrier free access, but
Munich does. It is much easier to change platforms in Munich. Things should improve in Augsburg in 2024!
It is recommended you should remove the bags before you load the bikes on the train. Don't do it until shortly before your train arrives. Some of the lifts/elevators are very narrow and your bikes with panniers are quite wide, so pop the bikes in these one forward one backward, so each pannier faces a front wheel.
It is recommended you should remove the bags before you load the bikes on the train. Don't do it until shortly before your train arrives. Some of the lifts/elevators are very narrow and your bikes with panniers are quite wide, so pop the bikes in these one forward one backward, so each pannier faces a front wheel.
Once on the platform check where the bike carriage (car) will stop. On bigger stations there will be diagrams showing the order of the carriages on a train. More often than not on local and regional trains the bike space is at one end of the train marked by bicycle logos on the side of the carriages. A WORD TO THE WISE (and the UNWISE) DON'T RIDE YOUR BIKE ON THE STATION, ON THE PLATFORM OR THE CONCOURSE. YOU CAN BE FINED 50€ ON THE SPOT.
Take the bags off the bikes/tandems/trikes shortly before the arrival of the train. Depending on how easy it is to move and fold your trike do it before you pop on the train. Unless the train is starting at your station, you may only have between two and four minutes to load the bikes/tandems/trikes. When the train arrives there may be a tsunami of people getting off the train. Let them off. If there is also another tsunami of travellers trying to get on the train, then politely but firmly make sure you can get on. Make sure you can get the other bikes in your party on the train and make sure you have got all your bags from the platform. Leaving the bar bag behind with your camera, passports and tickets could quite spoil your day.
Once you are all on the train: If you have booked a slot or slots look for yours and pop the bike in it. If you are on a local or regional train look for the conductor and check that it's OK for you to load your bikes/tandems/trikes. Obviously if you can do this before the train leaves it is better to do so, but if the train is coming from elsewhere you have two or four minutes to get your gear on the train, so after the motto it is easier to get forgiven than get permission, load your bikes. In any case do not block the entrances and exits. A bungee or a strap to keep bicycles from falling over is a good wheeze. It is usual for cyclists to help other cyclists, so muck in and don't let the side down. You may well be asked where you intend to depart the train so that bikes that will be first off are at the outside of the heap.
You should always try to travel outside the weekday rush hours, after nine am and before three in the afternoon. Unfortunately regional trains can also be busy on summer weekends. There are limits to the number of bikes that can be carried. It is the conductor's decision to let you stay on the train, so be polite. You have no rights, no say in the matter. Good Luck!
We must stress that conductor/guards have the final say. We once chatted to a German conductor/guard in Wissembourg just south of French-German border. He told us that at Wissembourg Station he once had over 50 bicycles in his Diesel two car set with a maximum capacity of 2 x 12 bicycles. It was a Wednesday, a popular day for pensioners from the Ludwigshafen-Mannheim conurbation to cross over into the wine growing areas of the Rhineland-Palatinate and Alsace to cycle or hike. (Why Wednesday? The word is that Dr.'s surgeries are closed in the afternoon and so there is little to do.😎😎) The passengers refused to take their bikes off the train. The service to Neustadt an der Weinstraße is an hourly service and they all wanted to get home for their tea in time. He instructed the driver to leave; rang the railway police in Germany; the train crossed the border; stopped at the first halt and waited until the railway police who are also border guards arrived to reduce the number of bicycles on the train to safe levels.
Once you are all on the train: If you have booked a slot or slots look for yours and pop the bike in it. If you are on a local or regional train look for the conductor and check that it's OK for you to load your bikes/tandems/trikes. Obviously if you can do this before the train leaves it is better to do so, but if the train is coming from elsewhere you have two or four minutes to get your gear on the train, so after the motto it is easier to get forgiven than get permission, load your bikes. In any case do not block the entrances and exits. A bungee or a strap to keep bicycles from falling over is a good wheeze. It is usual for cyclists to help other cyclists, so muck in and don't let the side down. You may well be asked where you intend to depart the train so that bikes that will be first off are at the outside of the heap.
We must stress that conductor/guards have the final say. We once chatted to a German conductor/guard in Wissembourg just south of French-German border. He told us that at Wissembourg Station he once had over 50 bicycles in his Diesel two car set with a maximum capacity of 2 x 12 bicycles. It was a Wednesday, a popular day for pensioners from the Ludwigshafen-Mannheim conurbation to cross over into the wine growing areas of the Rhineland-Palatinate and Alsace to cycle or hike. (Why Wednesday? The word is that Dr.'s surgeries are closed in the afternoon and so there is little to do.😎😎) The passengers refused to take their bikes off the train. The service to Neustadt an der Weinstraße is an hourly service and they all wanted to get home for their tea in time. He instructed the driver to leave; rang the railway police in Germany; the train crossed the border; stopped at the first halt and waited until the railway police who are also border guards arrived to reduce the number of bicycles on the train to safe levels.
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