Jintro Pauly

@jon I ran into another #CrossBorderRail ticketing anomaly yesterday when trying to book train tickets for my 60+ father. DB Navigator gives a €76,99 offer for a ticket Maastricht-Berlin. Book the same connection from Herzogenrath – dropping the 41 minute cross-border Drielandentrein but with the same 5:28 hour ICE –and the price is less than half: €37,99.

The Maastricht-Herzogenrath train costs €10,80 with Dutch OV-Chipkaart, meaning DB essentially overcharges €28,20 here...

#CrossBorderFail

Sep 14, 2025 at 8:53amWeb
Show threadJon WorthSep 14, 2025
@JintroPauly This is a common one. There are different Sparpreis ticket categories for national and international. You can also now just use a contactless credit or debit card there, no OV needed. So yes, you're right, but hell knows how to fix this one!
Show threadJintro PaulySep 14, 2025
@jon Shame to hear it's so difficult to fix! Yes, paying for the Maastricht-Herzogenrath stretch by OV-Kaart or debit card instead is not the issue, but it's a bit annoying that in that way you don't have passenger rights (or do you?) if you miss the connection in Herzogenrath. Given the Drielandentrein's poor reliability, it would be good to have those...
Show threadJon WorthSep 14, 2025
@JintroPauly Under Agreement on Journey Continuation, yes, you would be able to take the next train from Aachen. But if you needed a night in a hotel somewhere, no you wouldn't. But the trick would be to buy from Herzogenrath on the Drielandentrein, changing in Aachen, then you'd have passenger rights (and only do Maastricht-Herzogenrath with the OV Chipkaart)
Show threadJintro PaulySep 14, 2025
@jon Is Arriva Nederland part of AJC? I thought it was only NS in the Netherlands.
Show threadJon WorthSep 14, 2025
@JintroPauly Hell knows. Some others are in it meanwhile. But in this case DB would take you no problem. Were it SNCF I'd not trust they would.
Show threadJintro PaulySep 14, 2025
@jon Very helpful, thanks!
Show threadJon WorthSep 14, 2025
@JintroPauly basically the only time I’d worry if AJC would work (or not) is if I were changing onto a compulsory reservation train, so mostly France and Spain.
Show threadOliver BlanthornSep 14, 2025

@jon I think this is a good example of where "legalise split tickets" (with passenger rights) would help. DB can keep their complex ticketing structure and ticket sellers can sell the best combination of tickets.

Not sure if I mentioned it, but in theory Trip.com (Skyscanner sister company) have started offering split tickets in Italy. So there's hope that it could become more widespread.

@JintroPauly