Franconian Beer Message Board

Back to the main page

The VGN for Beer Lovers!

Posted by barry on 2015-05-04 07:38:51

As usual in our recent stay in Franken, Fred’s ‘Browse Breweries’ guide has provided an unrivalled asset in finding and visiting breweries new to us.  However, there is one aspect of the site that has become a little outdated and that is the guide to public transport connections.  Now I’m not suggesting that Fred should waste his time on any major revision to this aspect of the site because it is simply unnecessary now with the expansion of the VGN and its excellent web page. For those who are not familiar with the VGN (Verkehrsverbund Grossraum Nürnberg), it is method of linking the public transport operators in a vast area that stretches from Tirschenreuth in the south to Lichtenfels in the north; and from Rothenburg in the west to Bayreuth in the east.  Essentially, it provides a common tariff for all the operators in the area, allowing cost-effective access to most of the breweries favoured by followers of this Forum.  The major breakthrough for us came with the accession of Bamberg Landkreis to the VGN in 2014, thus opening up another swathe of territory and clearing up a number of anomalies in the ticketing system. There are two main ways that we can benefit from the system; firstly, via its very cost effective pricing structure; secondly, the provision of a relatively easy guide to connections.  Starting with an example of the latter: if we look at Fred’s page on Brauerei Hönig in Tiefenellen, the guide states that ‘There are no convenient public transportation connections’.  Now I am sure that this was true when Fred compiled the guide but now it is possible to quite easily visit this lovely brewery and beer garden by bus.  If you open the appropriate VGN web page (http://www.vgn.de/komfortauskunft/auskunft/), you can enter the details for your proposed visit.  Say, for example, that you want to go around lunchtime next Wednesday, simply enter 12.00 on May 6.  You are shown a number of connections but the most convenient is the 970 at 13.18 from ZOB, arriving at 13.39 at Tiefenellen (you can also get off in Lohndorf at 1336 but beware, Holzlein doesn’t open until 15.00 and, even then, sometimes takes a bit of prompting!).  It is also very important to see that you can get back, unless you want a long walk!  So, by inputting a suitable return time, allowing for a few Seidlas of excellent Hönig beer, so let’s say 17.00, and you will see that the 970 returns at 17.37 (the stop is on the Bamberg side of the brewery at the exit to the village), arriving ZOB at 18.11.   One thing that can be a bit tricky is that a number of the services to rural villages run only on schooldays, which can be a bit tricky to work out if you are using the printed timetables.  However, as far as I can see, the ‘Verbindung’ section of VGN’s website is precise in only offering available services for the specific day/time requested.  If you want to obtain printed timetables, the best place is the DB enquiry office at Bamberg Bahnhof (rack situated just inside the door, to the left).  For some reason, the Bamberg Stadtwerke office in ZOB is a bit coy about giving timetables. The VGN site pretty easy to use but you have to use the German language version, as the English language version is very limited.  However, this is pretty straightforward.  In addition to connections, it gives the potential cost of the fare in incredible detail as follows (I’ll let you do your own translation!):  Fahrpreisinformationen Durchfahrene Tarifzonen: 1161, 1111, 1112, 1111, 1102, 1101 Preisstufe 3     bei Einzelkarten, Mehrfahrtenkarten und TagesTickets: Einzel­fahrschein:           3,30 € Einzel­fahrschein (Kind):           1,70 € 10er-Streifen­karte:        3 Felder     (= Preisstufe 3) Tages­Ticket Plus:        11,30 €     (Preisstufe 4) Tarifstufe 2+T     bei Zeitkarten: 7-Tage-Mobi­Card:           24,90 € 31-Tage-Mobi­Card:           85,00 € 9-Uhr-Mobi­Card:           68,00 € Solo 31:           76,60 € Abo 3:           72,60 € Abo 6:           68,60 € Jahres­Abo:           60,50 € Jahres­Abo Plus:           66,20 € Wochen­karte Ausbildung:    19,30 € Monats­karte Ausbildung:           57,60 € This brings us to the other handy aspect of the VGN: the incredibly low cost of travelling from A – B – and back.  Obviously, you can just buy a simple ticket (Einzel-Fahrschein) but, if there two or more travelling, the cheapest way for a one-off visit is to buy a Tages-Ticket Plus.  However, the real bargains lie in the range of Mobi-Cards.  These are real bargains if there are two or more people travelling but there are alternatives for single travellers in the ‘solo’ category.  We have found that the best offer is the 9-uhr Mobi-Card, which allows travel anywhere in the VGN area, depending on the category of ticket purchased, the cost of which depends on the number of Tariff zones purchased.  For example, we bought at 10-T ticket (which allows travel anywhere in the VGN area) after 09.00 for the period of 31 days for two people, two bicycles and a dog (!) for €92.50 – believe me, we got our money’s worth out of it!  There are a lot of variations on this theme, depending on how many tariff zones you want to buy but we found that, based just outside Bamberg, that the 10-T version was the best.  You just need to work out how far you are likely to travel and where you are going to be based to find the best bargain. I hope that you find this lengthy explanation useful and I’m glad to say that I think that I’ve now completed my course of studies in VGN ticketing!  Any questions, I’ll be happy to try to answer.

Followups:

The VGN for Beer Lovers! by JohnRatcliffe on  2015-05-04 09:34:18

The VGN for Beer Lovers! by barry on  2015-05-04 15:47:33