Berlin Travel Forum

I am looking to travel from Trier to Berlin on the 24th June. Does anyone know the best transport options? I can't seem to find anything helpful!

Thanks very much.

Layla

Best option is train, booking sufficiently in advance so you can take advantage of the special reduced fares.
www.bahn.de
(At the moment there are still some tickets at 49,- available on that route)

The train takes ridiculously long from Berlin to Trier, at least seven hours. Other option: Fly Ryanair from Berlin Schönefeld to Frankfurt Hahn Airport and take the bus to Trier from there (approx. 60 km distance). Ticket from 12 Eur + credit card fees, airport-shuttle Hahn-Trier 12 Eur one way. Information on shuttle bus should be available on the Hahn Airport website. Overall travel time will be around 4-5 hours, depending on where you start in Berlin. However, not an option if you have big luggage to take with you, since Ryanair will charge you around 15 Euro for one checked bag.

I'd have to counter the other poster and say that the 7 hours by train would not be "ridiculously long" compared to flying. Flying would be about six hours. Remember Ryanair is quite strickt about check in times, that the Trier - Hahn bus aparently takes 1h20 minutes, and that the bus timetable may not be that convenient for your flight.

Agreed, but I rather wanted to emphasize the lack of highspeed connections by Deutsche Bahn to regional centres. How can it be that one only needs 4 hours from Berlin to Franfkurt (which is quite fast) but for the remaining short bit to Trier has to add another three hours. This is why Ryanair has a market, after all.

But you're absolutely right, if you'll have to wait an hour or so for the airport shuttle bus to Trier then you don't gain much time. However, from Berlin city centre to Hahn is not more than 3 hours overall travel time (did not understand the strict check-in argument, though) and its way cheaper than train.

The most frequently used lines have expensive fast speed service. It does not add up to offer this service everywhere.

If convenience is more important than price, then the train is definitely the way to go as you can do it with one change in Cologne which involves walking a short distance from one platform to another (walk it quickly however as changeover times can sometimes be very limited.) As far as flying is concerned I don't know where the airports for Ryan Air are located in either Trier or Berlin but usually they are not close by to the city, so that time element would need to be factored into the equation as well, not to mention cost of transportation to and from the airports. For all the hassle that comes with flying, I for one, would prefer to take an hour or so longer (if indeed it is much longer) and have the convenience of a relaxing train journey that lands me in the City Centre of Berlin. I would also hazard a guess and say that there is probably a lot more to see from the train as well. Germany is such a beautiful country, it is much better viewed from the ground than from the air. I have yet to travel this route but I'm sure there will be something of interest to see along the way.
Having said all this, I must confess to not being a big fan of RyanAir as I have suffered terribly at their hands as regards overweight baggage in the past, but that's just me, you may have a wonderfully trouble free journey with them. We all have different experiences, so at the end of the day, we need to make up our own minds on the pros and cons of one method of transport versus another. Enjoy your trip.

There is some sensible advice in Maryimelda's posting which I fully second. All posters here are correct in identifying these two options, I might add a third one to take the train from Trier to Cologne and get a budget flight from Cologne/Bonn to Berlin. Since this is the connection for the government officials travelling between the two Federal cities Bonn and Berlin, there are almost hourly flights (courtesy of www.tuifly.com) , and they usually go into Berlin Tegel which is much better for downtown Berlin than Berlin-Schoenefeld. Here from Bonn, nobody takes the train to Berlin unless they are afraid of flying. The problem with Trier is that there is no airport that's reasonably and comfortably close.

In order to get a discount for a train, you need to book well ahead and they are not available for all connections. Just like budget airline tickets. All train routes out of Trier towards Berlin are wonderfully scenic for the first 200 km but become somewhat boring and tedious thereafter. The information that no high-speed railway line is offered from Trier to Berlin is correct. Especially if you take the route through Cologne, Düsseldorf and Dortmund, the highspeed network only starts from Hannover.

Which option is the cheaper one needs to be checked on a realtime basis. Both train and plane have discount offers if you book in advance, both can be quite expensive if you wait till the day of departure making your reservation.

I would tend to think that plane still will yield you 1-2 hours of saved time, you would have to weigh that against the pros of convenient transfers, more space and scenery to look at in case you take a train. A clear winner is hard to define a priori.