Fotoeins Fotografie

Deutschland Ticket, for Canadian visitors (May 2024)

By HL fotoeins on 4 May 2024

how-to buy guide

89 days within Europe includes by necessity substantial travel by train within Germany. I’ve already booked in advance a number of intercity express segments, but what about local transport and regional trains?

The “Deutschland Ticket” (D-Ticket) is a rail ticket for one person and costs 49€ per month on a rolling subscription. The ticket is generally valid for local transport (bus, tram, U-Bahn, S-Bahn, intracity ferry) and regional rail (RB, most RE, IRE), but not for long-distance IC and ICE routes. Intended primarily for commuters, visitors to Germany can also purchase these tickets.

I’m about to buy the D-Ticket for 49€ for the entire month of May. The ticket’s “rolling subscription” means if I do nothing else before 10 May, I’ll also automatically purchase a D-Ticket for the month of June for 49€. I’ll need the D-Ticket for May, June, July, and August; but I can only buy one month at a time.

I choose Munich’s MVV-App, based on successes reported by other travellers. I’m only using the Munich app for ticket purchase, and I’m not planning to use public transport within Munich. To buy a D-Ticket, customers are neither limited by their choice of app/method, nor by the base/location where the app is based. My question is whether a Canadian-based credit card is an acceptable form of payment by the processing company in Germany for a German-based app.

One method, from start to finish

1. Carried out on an iPhone, running iOS 17.4.1.

2. Download MVV-App for free from the App Store. The MVV-App can be used either in German or English; English is the default if the system language of the mobile device is anything other than German.

3. Open MVV-App, tap the three horizontal- bar circle for “Profile and access data”, and register in the “Ticketshop” for a free user-account with a valid email address. Ensure that the name entered for the account matches the name appearing in your passport: better safe than sorry, because the D-Ticket is not transferable to another person.

4. Fast forward a few days, I open the MVV-App again to begin the buy-in. Tap “Ticketshop” in the bottom menu/tab-bar of the MVV-App to bring up an array of choices, including the “Deutschland Ticket 49-Euro-Abo” (Abo, abbreviation for subscription).

5. Tapping on “Deutschland Ticket”, I simply follow the steps, including details of a Canadian-bank credit card for payment method. Payment method for the first D-Ticket will remain as the same payment method for subsequent purchases. After entering your choice of payment method, you may have to go back a step in the App to then tap on your “payment method” in order to proceed with the purchase.

6. Success! With the D-Ticket, email from MVV arrives with a web-link; save this message as this web-link is the only way to cancel the rolling subscription. I cannot cancel the D-Ticket from inside MVV-App; this functionality might be available in apps by other German transport authorities. Other means of early cancellation may be possible elsewhere with Deutsche Bahn.

7. “My Tickets” in the bottom menu of the MVV-App shows I’ve purchased from MVV a D-Ticket for the month of May. Tap on the ticket to show the D-Ticket: 1st of 3 panels, “Deutschlandweit gültig in Nahverkehr” (valid for Germany local transport). The 2nd panel contains the all-important QR-code required by fare inspectors for scanning and validation. The D-Ticket is delivered to the mobile device entirely in the German language.

8. After account registration, the entire buy-in process from start to finish is about 10 to 15 minutes. The transaction shows up on my list of credit-card purchases soon after.

9. The ticket is now stored locally on my device within MVV-App. I don’t need mobile- or WiFi-access to bring up the electronic ticket on the app for display. Make sure your passport is available if the rail inspectors want to check your identification.

10. Breathe easy, with plenty of time to spare.

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Other transport apps

Some travellers have also reported success securing D-Tickets with North American credit cards on mobile apps from these transport authorities; your mileage may vary.

1. VBN Bremen, FahrPlaner-App : email with web-link to cancel
2. RMV Frankfurt, RMVgo
3. MVV München, MVV-App : as described above
4. HVV Hamburg, hvv switch : possible to cancel within app

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My usage

Most can stop reading at this point. However, the interested reader can read on for details about coverage as I travel within Germany.

I’ll buy D-Tickets for each of the following months: May, June, July, and August. The D-Ticket will cover usage at all of the following locations throughout the country with a mix of valid transport modes.

• Frankfurt FRA airport to city: S-Bahn
• Frankfurt am Main: city bus, tram, U-Bahn, S-Bahn, RB/RE
• Regional train between Frankfurt & Darmstadt
• Darmstadt: city bus & tram
• Regional train from Frankfurt to Heidelberg
• Heidelberg: city bus, tram, S-Bahn
• Regional train from Heidelberg to Saarbrücken
• Saarbrücken: city bus
• Regional train between Saarbrücken and Blieskastel, between Saarbrücken and Völklingen
• Regional train from Saarbrücken to Trier
• Trier: city bus
• Regional train between Trier and Perl, between Trier and Mettlach
• Regional train from Trier to Koblenz
• Hamburg: city bus, U-Bahn, S-Bahn, ferry
• Regional train from Hamburg to Schleswig
• Schleswig: city bus
• Regional train from Schleswig to Hamburg
• Stralsund: city bus
• Regional train from Stralsund to Rügen
• Rügen: island bus service
• Regional train from Rügen to Greifswald
• Greifswald: city bus
• Regional train from Greifswald to Berlin
• Regional train from Nürnberg to Bamberg
• Bamberg: city bus
• Regional train between Bamberg and Bayreuth; Bayreuth: city bus
• Regional train from Bamberg to Nürnberg
• Regional train from München to Garmisch-Partenkirchen (GAP)
• GAP city bus
• Regional train between GAP and Lermoos-Ehrwald, between GAP and Klais/Mittenwald
• Regional train from GAP to München
• Stuttgart: city bus, tram, S-Bahn, U-Bahn
• Regional train from Stuttgart to Karlsruhe
• Karlsruhe: city bus, tram, S-Bahn, RB/RE
• Regional train between Karlsruhe and Bretten/Mühlacker, between Karlsruhe and Baden-Baden
• Bonn: bus, tram, U-Bahn, S-Bahn, RB/RE to and from Brühl
• Köln: bus, tram, U-Bahn, S-Bahn, RB/RE to and from Lennep
• Frankfurt: city bus, tram, U-Bahn, S-Bahn, RB/RE to and from Hanau & Gießen
• Frankfurt city to FRA airport: S-Bahn

I will cancel the rolling subscription before 10 August to avoid paying for the month of September.

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I made three screenshots above with an iPhone15 on 2 May 2024; the remaining and featured image of Frankfurt central station is by Thomas Wolf on Wikimedia. This post is neither sponsored nor solicited by any organization. This post with Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-sqR.