Bicycle tickets on regional and local German trains

[UpWrong]

A quick question, does anyone know if seperate bike tickets are needed on the RE (Regional Express) and S-Bahn trains? They certainly are for the inter-city trains but I can't find anything on the web confirming they are also need for the local and regional trains.

[Elizabeth_S]

Basically it seems to depend on where your service is, some services are free, others you pay 5 euros, and there are local restrictions.
https://www.bahn.de/p/view/service/fahr ... kehr.shtml
https://www.bahn.de/p/view/service/fahr ... ahme.shtml
For example, the term S-bahn in Stuttgart (this means the u-bahn in other cities and vice versa, so the S-bahn are the underground trains and the u-bahn are trams). Certainly in Stuttgart bikes are free on the S-bahn so long as you don't take them at rush hour. You would have to look at the regulations for the state that you are visiting.

[foxyrider]

It certainly does vary from place to place, of course its easy to just ask if you are at a ticket office or buying from the conductor. The bike ticket for 5€ is for a whole day - useful to know if you are hopping trains.

[UpWrong]

Thanks. It looks like I need a bike ticket for North-Rhine Westphalia but possibly not in Rheinland Platz. Apparently tickets are a bit cheaper fron an automat than fron a ticket office but you have to know what you are after.

EDIT: If I stay within the VRS transport association then a bike ticket is covered by buying a second adult ticket in the 1b/2a price band, which is 2.80 Euro, whereas a regional bike ticket for North-Rhine Westphalia 4.70 Euro.

[ChrisF]

Slightly off topic but you need to know a strange quirk of the ticket machines in Germany (well, in the Rhine area at least). They don't take many types of credit card and they won't take notes bigger than just above the fare. (so, for example, if the fare is 7 euro you can't use anything bigger than a 10 euro note!). If you don't have the correct cash you're totally stuck if it's an unmanned station.

[UpWrong]

Thanks. Will try to accumulate 10 Euro notes.