Credit to one of my students at TU Braunschweig, Roland Sivonen, for discovering this one – Deutsche Bahn’s cheap Sparpreis train tickets now work correctly from Germany to Strasbourg, and some other new destinations in France as well. In this blog post I am going to explain how this change can help passengers on France-Germany cross border routes, and where and how you can use these tickets. But just like anything to do with rail connections France-Germany it is nowhere as simple as it should be!

First, the background. Deutsche Bahn sells Sparpreis tickets both within Germany and to Germany’s neighbouring countries. Book ahead, take an off-peak train, and take only the train(s) shown on your ticket, and you get a cheap trip. To get a Sparpreis ticket you need to have a long distance (IC/EC/TGV-ICE or equivalent) as part of your journey somewhere, even if other legs are on regional trains.

The problem was that this only worked if travelling from Germany to France if you crossed the border on a high speed TGV or ICE train**. Cross the border on a local train and suddenly your ticket could be three times the price – for a few extra kilometres! You could get around the problem by booking one ticket to the last station in Germany, and another ticket from there to your destination in France – but it was a pain.

There are plenty of worked examples below, but this list is the summary of the new places in France you can reach with a Sparpreis, as of September 2024, using regional trains across the border and within France:

Sparpreis from Germany works if you use the Winden-Wissembourg line, the Wörth(Rhein)-Lauterbourg line or the Kehl-Strasbourg line
Strasbourg

Sparpreis from Germany works if you use the Trier-Thionville line, the Saarbrücken-Forbach line, or route via Luxembourg
Metz Ville

Sparpreis from Germany works if you use the Trier-Thionville line, or route via Luxembourg
Thionville

Sparpreis from Germany works if you use the Trier-Thionville line
Apach(Moselle), Sierck-les-Bains, Malling(F), Koenigsmacker, Basse-Ham

Sparpreis from Germany works if you use the Saarbrücken-Forbach line
Forbach(F), Bening, St Avold, Faulquemont, Herny, Rémilly

Sparpreis from Germany works if you use the Winden-Wissembourg line
Soultz-sous-Forets, Haguenau, Bischwiller

Sparpreis from Germany works if you use the Wörth(Rhein)-Lauterbourg line
Lauterbourg, Mothern, Munchhausen, Seltz, Roppenheim, Roeschwoog, Rountzenheim, Sessenheim, Drusenheim, Herrlisheim(Bas-Rhin), Gambsheim, Kilstett, La Wantzenau, Hoenheim-Tram, Bischheim(F)

Sparpreis from Germany works if you use the Kehl-Strasbourg line
Krimmeri-Meinau

Sparpreis from Germany works if you use the Müllheim(Baden)-Mulhouse line
Bantzenheim, Mulhouse Ville

Sparpreis from Germany works if you route via Luxembourg
Longwy

And the complex cases…

Sparpreis from Germany works if you use the Saarbrücken-Sarreguemines line, and only use a train not a tram between Saarbrücken and Sarreguemines
Sarreguemines, Kalhausen, Oermingen, Diemeringen, Tieffenbach-Struth, Wingen-sur-Moder, Ingwiller, Obermodern, Mommenheim, Strasbourg

Sparpreis from Germany works if you route via Luxembourg (but does not work if you cross directly from Germany into France)
Hettange Grande, Uckange, Hagondange, Walygator Parc, Maizieres-les-Metz, Woippy, Metz Nord, Pagny-sur-Moselle, Pont-a-Mousson, Nancy

 

Right, so how did I work this out? With a load of test searches!

There are 7 cross-border railway lines where this ticket could work: Trier-Thionville (weekends only), Saarbrücken-Forbach-Metz, Saarbrücken-Sarreguemines-Strasbourg, Neustadt(Weinstraße)-Wissembourg, Wörth(Rhein)-Lauterbourg-Strasbourg, Offenburg-Kehl-Strasbourg and Müllheim(Baden)-Mulhouse*. I am going to take Saturday 12th October – so just over a month from now – as my example day (far enough in the future to get Sparpreis, but timetables for that day are already known).

 

Germany-Metz, using a regional train on the Trier-Thionville line – Sparpreis confirmed

Uses Köln as the departure point

This also works to all the other stations served by this cross border line from Trier – Apach(Moselle), Sierck-les-Bains, Malling(F), Koenigsmacker, Basse-Ham and Thionville. For Thionville there are also options via Luxembourg – see below. For Metz there are also options via Saarbrücken – see below.

 

Frankfurt(Main)-Metz, using a regional train or trains on the Saarbrücken-Forbach line – Sparpreis confirmed

Uses Frankfurt(Main) as the departure point

Amazingly this also works if you change in Forbach, or if you take one of the few direct trains from Saarbrücken to Metz. So here you can reliably get Sparpreis to Forbach(F), Bening, St Avold, Faulquemont, Herny, Rémilly, and Metz Ville this way.

 

Germany-Strasbourg, using a regional train on the Saarbrücken-Strasbourg line – Sparpreis partially confirmed

Uses Frankfurt(Main) as the departure point

It’s pretty hard to route onto this one with a Sparpreis, but were you to want to, you can – Sparpreis then gets you to Sarreguemines, Kalhausen, Oermingen, Diemeringen, Tieffenbach-Struth, Wingen-sur-Moder, Ingwiller, Obermodern, Mommenheim and Strasbourg this way. However this only works if you take a train between Saarbrücken and Sarreguemines – if you take a tram (Saarbahn) instead for this section it does not work!

 

Germany-Strasbourg, using a regional train on the Winden(Pfalz)-Wissembourg line – Sparpreis confirmed

Uses Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe as the departure point, so as to get a Sparpreis thanks to that leg

There are no trains further into Germany through Wissembourg, but nevertheless Sparpreis works on the whole route – to stations Soultz-sous-Forets, Haguenau, Bischwiller and Strasbourg when arriving through Wissembourg (from the north).

 

Germany-Strasbourg, using a regional train on the Wörth(Rhein)-Wissembourg line – Sparpreis confirmed

Uses Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe as the departure point, so as to get a Sparpreis thanks to that leg

This works whether you change in Lauterbourg or not. So this means that Lauterbourg, Mothern, Munchhausen, Seltz, Roppenheim, Roeschwoog, Rountzenheim, Sessenheim, Drusenheim, Herrlisheim(Bas-Rhin), Gambsheim, Kilstett, La Wantzenau, Hoenheim-Tram, Bischheim(F) and Strasbourg are all accessible with a Sparpreis when arriving from the north.

 

Germany-Strasbourg, using a regional train on the Kehl-Strasbourg line – Sparpreis confirmed

Uses Berlin as the departure point

This is the most important one – as it is the most logical route to Strasbourg. And now it works as it should. Means Sparpreis applies to Krimmeri-Meinau and Strasbourg this way.

 

Germany-Mulhouse, using a regional train* on the Müllheim(Baden)-Mulhouse line – Sparpreis confirmed

Uses Berlin as the departure point

This one works as well – so Sparpreis to Bantzenheim and Mulhouse Ville at this border are confirmed. However routing to Mulhouse via Basel SBB in Switzerland does not work with Sparpreis.

 

Combining routes – from southern Germany to northern Alsace, via Kehl-Strasbourg

Routes from e.g. Freiburg (Breisgau) to stations north of Strasbourg do not work with Sparpreis – so crossing into France using the Offenburg-Kehl train, and then going further into Alsace does not work. This problem applies to the lines Strasbourg-Lauterbourg, Strasbourg-Wissembourg and Strasbourg-Saarbrücken if arriving from Southern Germany.

 

Tricks via Luxembourg – Sparpreis partially confirmed

More by luck than judgment I discovered Germany-France trips via Luxembourg also work. So Köln-Nancy like this works:

This also covers stations between Thionville and Nancy which are NOT covered by Sparpreis if you cross the border at Perl and change on the French side of the border.

Routes to Longwy also work:

Given there is no way to Longwy other than via Luxembourg, that works in all cases. Sparpreis to Uckange, Hagondange, Pagny-sur-Moselle, Pont-a-Mousson and Nancy only work if you route Luxembourg***.

 

 

* – has a rail replacement bus currently – but makes no difference for the sake of this example.
** – only destinations directly reachable on high speed services run by the SNCF-DB cooperation (called Alleo) are eligible for Sparpreis. De facto this means Forbach, Paris Est, Strasbourg, Mulhouse Ville, Belfort – MontbéliardTGV, Besançon Franche-Comté-TGV, Chalon sur Saône, Lyon Part Dieu, Avignon TGV, Aix-en-Provence TGV, and Marseille-St-Charles.
*** – there was an error in how this routing via Luxembourg was explained in the original blog post – now corrected. Thanks Suzanne Veerman for pointing this out! Suzanne has also found a few more stations around Metz to which Sparpreis tickets are possible – blog post updated accordingly.