I'm leaving Munich to start a new job in Düsseldorf in November but am pretty sure I want to live in Cologne... does anyone know if there is some kind of monthly train ticket you can get that makes this commute less than 10€ each way by train? Had a look on DB but couldnt make much sense of it.

Or can anyone recommend any alternative solutions?

Cheers, any advice much appreciated!

i know a few people that do this, I'll ask them for you and find out. I know they have monthly tickets. Check back at the weekend, should have an answer by then.

Thanks medicine man - thats exactly the kind of advice I need!

Someone from the region can probably answer this more easily, but going by the website of the local transport federation in Köln (the VRS - Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Sieg - www.vrsinfo.de) you can calculate the monthly cost of a ticket between two points within the area covered by VRS fares. Doing so between Cologne and Düsseldorf returns a monthly ticket price of €189,30. Going by an average of 22 work days per month, that comes out to just about €4.30 per day per direction on average. And then you can continue using the ticket on all trams and U-Bahn lines in both cities. So that would save you quite a bit over €10 each way.

However, looking at the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr website (www.vrr.de) it seems that a monthly ticket for just Düsseldorf would be just shy of €50. Thus, living in Düsseldorf rather than Köln would save you nearly 75% of your commuting costs. Something to consider...

Why live in Cologne? Apart from the commuting costs, Düsseldorf is a pretty good place to live and go out out - I would definitely take it over Cologne and the commute any day...

VRR is the relevant federation for the Ruhgebiet including Düsseldorf. There is a monthly ticket (ticket 1000 or Ticket 2000, depending if you want a transferable one or not; the difference in price is minimal) but it only goes as far as Langenfeld in Cologne's direction. You would then need another monthly ticket for VRS, which covers the Cologne area. I would also ask why Cologne, Düsseldorf has a great standard of living. 6th in the world apparently.

I have friends and boyfrind living in Cologne so from that point of view its better for me...

Well, then it's €189,30 a month it looks like. Still a big savings over the normal tickets.

argh thats crazy - im only earning 1,550€ a month :s

Well depending on where you work in Düsseldorf the prices for the transferable Ticket2000 costs for zone A about €50, zone B €75 (which you would need to get from the city centre to Langenfeld which is the outer limit towards Cologne), and zone C €100 a month. I'm not sure about the VRS prices but they do have an English page

thanks righter - that sounds more like what I need. My new office is on Karlstr. 5 mins from the Hbf... I tried to get onto that site but for some reason it wont load on this computer! grr

Pigsinblankets got it spot on. Here are the results from Düsseldorf to Köln

Edit: Sorry the link only helps if you give in the Start and destination now. I just checked though and it looks like 189€ is correct.

cheers for your help - i still can't get onto that website... mmm looks like it might have to be Duesseldorf then!

http://www.kvb-koeln.de/german/tarife/tick...natsticket.html

Click on Preistabelle 2007 for all offers. Düsseldorf is Regioticket 5ü.

The other options are:
To check if your company offers a job ticket (or firma ticket) which will make it incrediby affordable for you.
If you can start your travel to work after the morning rush, there is a monthly ticket for travel after 9 which is much cheaper, or you can even look at combine a Cologne region normal monthly ticket with an after 9 ticket for the regions beyond Cologne if you can arrive a little after 9, but have to do the initial part of your journey before 9. Check your timetables very carefully for this ticket combo, they'd love to catch you out if they could.

How about just one day between Cologne and Düsseldorf? Is the Länder ticket the best option (for a group of 5) or is there any other option? I thought Munich's tariff system was bad, but this seems even worse to figure out .

Thanks!

Yes.

The system is really complicated because Cologne and Düsseldorf are in different tariff regions. For a group of 5, though, the choice is pretty clear with the SchönerTagTicket NRW 5 Personen.
For 33€, you get unlimited travel on basically all public transit in all of NRW. A single one-way Region 5 ticket from Köln-Düsseldorf would cost 9.30€.

Thank you so much for the quick response!

no dude i believe my work colleagues only pay 50 euros a month!! and some dont pay and just wait for the conductor... then play the dumbass forigner and it will only cost 10 euros..
i live in colonge and its a cool place to live but heard ddorf is also just as cool... u can deffo get a wg cheaper in cologne!
let us know when ur here, will meet up!

Here we're talking about a daytrip for five people. Can you show me something cheaper than 33€ for five people for a roundtrip? I'd love to know about it.
As for fare evasion, that's a bad idea on an RE train ride between Cologne and Düsseldorf as conductors check tickets quite regularly (probably close to half of the time in my experience).