RollingRolling
Traveller
2 comments
Posted 1 year ago
Hi,
is there anybody who can advice what the best option is to travel with a train from the north of Germany (Bremen, Hamburg, Hannover or nearby) to San Sebastian, Spain ?
Cheers
Jens
Arend7
Traveller
645 comments
Depends if you want the fastest route or the most convenient (less changes). The fastest you can see at www.bahn.de/en. But I would also consider to go from Hannover to Paris, from there a direct train to Barcelona. Spent the night there and go the next day to San Sebastian.
nltrainer
Traveller
1404 comments
As so often in his replies he forgets/overlooks something-in this case a bit essential. Bahn will NOT give this info, as the last part, from FR/ES border to Donostia is not on state-railways, but the local Euskotren-a narrow gauge half hourly tram-like service. Happy: no need to worry monthes before for booking: just like in any DE city-buy ticket just before from machine. The border estacion is Hendaye/Hendaya. Till there several TGV.day by SNCF from Paris. For summer; you are now waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to early to check times.
MisterSteve
Traveller
1090 comments
bahn.de has a massive omission that makes it impossible to get the best answer. They do not include the schedules of the Basque regional operator Euskotren https://www.euskotren.eus/en who run direct local trains between SNCF at Hendaye and Donastia( San Sebastian). see https://www.euskotren.eus/sites/default/files/horarios/E2_HendaiaLasarte_Invierno_2022_1.pdf Check bahn.de for the journey as ar as Hendaye and then add the connection seperately, can be TWENTY hours faster than believing the route offered via Barcelona
Journey times of around 14 hours are possible from Hannover.
Arend7
Traveller
645 comments
Indeed, they are right. But I wonder if that omission is caused by Bahn, or by Euskotren itself by failing to send their information to HAFAS (the company that produces the international timetable).
MisterSteve
Traveller
1090 comments
The software is Hafas, the company was called HaCon (now part of Siemens) and they supply DB and variants of the same software to others. But what DB put in their database is up to them and no operator outside of Germany is under any requirement to supply DB so cannot "fail" to deliver. Even RENFE are unreliable, and have been since the system began. Trenitalia are usually late by German standards. Network Rail (for Britain) usually make the season plan available on time but their process involves almost daily updates which DB do not take so the DB website cannot be relied upon for anything more than rough planning for travel in Britain. DB should give warnings about limitation.
RollingRolling
Traveller
2 comments
Hi everybody, thx a lot for your replies and hints which i will consider during planning this adventure train :-)
Cheers
Jens