Bicycles, Tandems and Recumbent Trikes on Trains in Germany and Neighbouring Countries Part 3: Long Distance Daytime Services

Accompanied Bicycle, Tandem and Trike Transport on Long Distance Daytime German Trains
 

Rail services in Germany are divided into two groups: Long distance (Fernverkehr) - non subsidized and regional trains (Nahverkehr) - local services provided by an operator and subsidized by a regional transport authority but ultimately by the provincial government. The long distance services are there to make a profit. Both types of service cooperate. Your journey might involve travelling on both long distance and regional services.  Both types of service have in some cases the capacity to carry bicycles and even tandems and trikes.

Deutsche Bahn (DB) Long Distance Services  Deutsche Bahn operates by far the majority of long distance passenger trains in Germany (https://www.bahn.com/en/view/index.shtml). It is a state-owned operator that makes a profit on its long distance routes. Only a small proportion of these services offer bicycle transport. It appears to us that the ideal passenger is seen as someone who carries one credit card (rather than two) and MacBook Air. DB long distance services use two types of train: the high speed Inter City Express (ICE) and the slightly slower and cheaper InterCity/EuroCity  trains (IC/EC). One of the five ICE classes will take a limited number of "normal" bicycles (in a cubby hole) as do many of the IC/EC trains. In the German conditions of carriage we discovered a surprising sentence (translated into English): 

"Special types of bicycles (e.g. tandem, recumbent) are not permitted on all long-distance trains that carry bicycles for reasons of capacity. You can obtain further information from all DB sales outlets." 

Next time we are in Mannheim and the ticket hall on the Hauptbahnhof (Central Station) is not over full, we will chat to the staff to see what this sentence actually means. We will report back here when we have more information. I have checked with the ADFC, the German cycling club, the partner of DB in matters cycle transport, but I have yet to have a reply and I am not holding my breath. 

Basically tandems and special designs (trikes, quads, trailers) are not normally transported by DB, but there is at least one deceitful exception. In the days when I used to commute by train to Frankfurt, I met a family who had a Hase Pino, a tandem which is a cross between a recumbent and an upright. I asked the mother about putting the tandem on an Inter City train and was assured that the wheelbase was short enough to fit the bike in a single bike slot. Railway employees had never noticed it was a tandem. The latest models are demountable and can be divided before transport. A number of other tandem models are sold with couplings allowing dismounting. Whether the divided bike then counts as luggage in the same way as a folding bike? We don't know.

Flix Train (https://www.flixtrain.de/) offers a limited number of daytime connections in both directions between:
Köln (Cologne) - Düsseldorf - Duisburg - Essen - Dortmund - Bielefeld* - Hannover - Berlin Spandau - Berlin Hbf - Berlin Südkreuz
*At present trains only stop in Bielefeld when travelling towards Berlin. 
Köln (Cologne) - Düsseldorf - Duisburg - Essen - Gelsenkirchen - Münster – Osnabrück - Hamburg

These trains are cheaper than the DB trains, but are slower than the high speed ICEs. With their tandem or trike the happy trike or tandem rider is not welcome on these trains. "Normal" bicycles are carried, but to quote the company's conditions of carriage: 

 

"Bicycles must be of a standard size, without additional attachments, and may not exceed 20 kg (45 lbs). We recommend that you book your bicycle slot early due to limited capacity."