Cost-effective commuting in Baden-Württemberg

I live in Holzgerlingen near Panzer Kaserne. I've been looking for a job since Feb without much luck. I've come across a great job opportunity in Heidelberg that's in my field and doing something I would enjoy. It's a huge paycut from what I earned in California, but I want to see if I can make it work. Any help or advice you can offer would be GREATLY appreciated.

I'm guessing a daily commute would be easier if I took the train (because of traffic). I'd be working on a US military base in Heidelberg, monday through Friday. I am willing to buy a small car to keep in Heidelberg at the train station so I could get to my place of work.

1) I'm trying my best to figure out the train options. There's the DB card 25 or 50. The DB site says how much they are, but doesn't really explain what it is. Is this just a card that will buy discounts on fares?
There are also monthly and weekly passes (http://www.bahn.de/international/view/en/prices/germany/pendler.shtml). There is nothing that indicates how much these cost (perhaps because it varies by the destination and point or origin). Does anyone know if these workout price wise for a commuter or tell me how I would figure out the price?

2) Are their any rideshare/carpool/vanpool matching services or websites? I'm willing to look into carpooling too if that's an option.

I'll keep trying to figure out the website, but thought one of you might be able to help me deciper what I am seeing on the DB website. THANKS!!

Find an English speaker and ask him to decipher the English DB website for you ... Frequent Travelers: BahnCards 25, 50 and 100

Thanks. I am a native English speaker and I am already on the English version of the website. My problem is that when you try to look at prices for tickets, it only allows you to do round trip, single journey between two destinations, not look at or price monthly or weekly passes. It talks about the seasonal monthly and weekly passes here: http://www.bahn.de/international/view/en/p...y/pendler.shtml but those are not options for the search parameters on th emain page.

I did find a help section which explains aspects of booking a monthly ticket: http://www.bahn.de/hilfe/view/pk/en/zeitka...ungsmoegl.shtml, but again, no way of actually booking these tickets online. I've wasted all morning trying to find such a page on the site and was just hoping someone might also be a commuter and could tell me if I'm looking in the right place.

I guess I can go to ACS on post and have a German translator call Deutsche Bahn for me and ask, but I'd really like to be able to buy these things online myself if there is a way.

Bahncard 25 and 50 do just that, they give 25% and 50% discounts respectively on standard fares.

The prices for monthly and weekly passes with DB depend on the individual connection.
Exact prices for a connection can be found here:

https://fahrkarten.bahn.de/privatkunde/star...st?scope=bahnzk

Weekly/Monthly/Yearly tickets can be bought through that site.

The regular fare for EC/IC is €24 one way, there are not many ICE direct to Heidelberg only via Mannheim, so that would be 240 a week, with a BC 50 that would be 120 a week so about 5,760 a year. The cheapest option might be the BC 100 which is $3,650 a year, and if you can get a MwST form that would be 2,956.

Cheapest option is a yearly ticket specifically for the route, which will cost you about 2500 €. See above link.

My DB 50 just dropped a fare from 140 to 52. My math skills are not great, but I assume I am missing something (or misread the original fare?). Do they have extra special deals for DB 50 as well?

And does DB 50 count for monthly / yearly tickets for commuters? I assume so.

The weekly, monthly, Yearly prices are: 82.80, 257.00, 2,442, this is only for EC/IC & including the strassenbahn to Rohrbach and only from Stuttgart hbf to Heidelberg, if you get the Bahn card 100 you can travel all over Germany.

That train is not always going to get you there on time either. I have heard the train is not always so punctual from Stuttgart to Heidelberg. Did you think about moving? Sometimes the jobs allow a moving allowance.

To book a zeitkarten go here I have Stuttgart HBF to Heidelberg Rohrbach in there but you can go back & change it to your particular region/ubahn station. Also bear in mind that the train from Stuttgart to Heidelberg & vice versa is always packed & especially so during rush hour, bloody horrid.

BC 25/50 discounts apply to all already discounted tickets as well, excluding the full discount tickets (the 29/39/49/59/69 Euro offers). For example, if you prebook a Sparpreis ticket, you may get a 25% discount on that; BC 50 drops the remainder by 50%, i.e. you can get the ticket discounted by -62.5% in that case.

Of course not.

Kato,

THANK you for that link. That was exactly what I needed and couldn't find. I was able to figure out the approximate monthly price.

I hadn't thought about the VAT forms for this, so if I can use those, that may make the cost even lower. I will investigate that option...it might make it even more feasible.

Keepingtime, I can't move. My husband is in the military and we already have a house in Holzerlingen. We can't move from where we are right now (breaking a lease, would be on our own dime, son in school etc).

The commute seems like a pain, but it's so hard to crack into the US federal employment system here. I have been so frustrated and I'm afraid of passing up the opportunity. This job wont pay that great, but it's in my current field of graduate education (I really enjoy it). There just aren't a lot of opportunties for me to work in higher education while we are stationed here in Germany unless I work with one of the schools here for military & their families. I am also returning to graduate school and would be getting the tuition discount and the income tax free. It doesn't make up for the difference in salary 100%, but it helps. I also figured the train time would be a good time to study.

If €3650 for a BC100 is too much of a hit to take all in the one go, then you can also pay monthly. It's €335 a month and the advantage to doing it this way is that after you've had the card for 1 year, you can cancel with 1 months notice. Apparently this is not possible if you've already paid for the whole year in advance.

Other advantages to the BC100 are

1. You can also use local public transport including buses, trams, etc in both Mannheim and Heidelberg (and indeed any city in Germany that has a train station) for no extra charge
2. You never have to go through the hassle of worrying about getting tickets - for any type of public transport in Germany
3. You can go on holidays in Germany (and indeed the rest of Europe) for a fraction of the cost - I have one and it cost me under €10 to go to Prague and under €20 to get to Amsterdam
4. You get to Bahn Comfort level straight away, which allows you to use their lounges at train stations, specially set aside seats in long-distance trains and you get a big hit of points straight away that you can trade for upgrades, accommodation, tickets for friends, etc.
5. Discounts and starting credit on the car-share programme
6. Partner and children get free BC25 (but you must have children for this to apply) EDIT: Which I see now that you do

Unless you're not sure if you'll still be doing this commute in a year (minimum time frame) then I would go with the BC100 all the way...

Thanks Leky. I need to think about that. It might be worth it for me to upgrade to first class or ICE trains.

I could drive, but it seems like the stau will kill me on a daily basis.

I'm going to ask about the possibility of a flexible schedule so perhaps I telecommute part time (to avoide peak traffic) or am only in the office 4 days and the other days from home or something like that. It may not happen, but I can always ask.

But if you pay monthly the BC 100 is 4,020? And as her husband is Military she can get a MwSt form and get the tax off, she wouldn't be able to do that paying monthly.