Darmstadt Transportation

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Darmstadt’s main train station has recently been renovated and several shops came into business on the western side (the one opposite of the city entrance).

The main facilities are located in the eastern, city entrance side and include:
Bahn ticket shop, Bahn information point, small supermarket (hefty prices and... very unusual bottle sizes for water and other drinks! Which makes it almost impossible to drop them elsewhere!), shops for coffee-to-go, Brezeln, a bookstore, several snack points (to sit down and for take-away).

The shops on the western side include:
Pharmacy, bookstore (mostly magazines and newspapers), hairdresser, several snack restaurants.
The multi-storey car park is also located on that side. BUT: in case you have to buy your long distance ticket, calculate minimum 15 minutes to walk from the car park to the ticket booth.

Ticket machines for the near distance locations (up to Frankfurt and Heidelberg) are located at the train tracks.

Trains leaving from Darmstadt are:
Regional ones (train code: RB, IR, RE; departure/arrival from various tracks),
S-Bahn to Frankfurt (train code: S; departure/arrival always from track 3),
ICE, IC and EC (the high speed intercity and European destination trains; departure/arrival from various tracks).

Track numbers: 3 – 13 (track 3 is located at the eastern, city entrance, side; track 13 is located at the western side).

Bicycle station: outside of the train station (eastern, city side).

Location of Darmstadt Train Station, city entrance (eastern one) on Google Maps.

© Ingrid D., tip date: March 2011.

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Darmstadt offers a very quick and efficient transportation to and from Frankfurt International Airport - Airliner (bus).
The bus departs at Darmstadt Main Train Station nearly every half hour, and drops off the passengers at Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 at Frankfurt International Airport and takes approx. 30 min.

(Please note that the earliest bus leaves at 4:20 resp. 4:44 and the latest at 22:35 resp. 22:59 from Darmstadt resp. Airport).

Costs are 7,40 € (as of 2011) one way.

It is not allowed to take bicycles on board (which I recently have heard of).

For orientation, I have added photos of where the bus leaves from.

Update, September 2009:
I have added the link to the 2009 flyer.
Important note (and thanks to J and Kathy for reminding me): the flyer lists several categories for prices, but does not mention when they apply. I have always paid the lowest price for the distance between Darmstadt train station to Frankfurt airport (7,20 €). But I will check with the provider what the other categories mean.

Location of HEAG Airliner bus departure/arrival on Google Maps.

© Ingrid D., tip date: June 2006 (update March 2011: location on Google Maps added, website update including prices 2011).

If you travel in and around Darmstadt, Darmstadt Card is what you should get to buy. From one of my "Warnings & Danger" tips, you might already have gotten the idea that the city traffic planners are not necessarily the most intelligent ones, and cause much traffic jams and constant stops at any traffic light in any direction.

So you better take tram and busses, which are covering the city really very good.
Darmstadt Card is offered at a price of 9 € p.p. for two days, and covers all trams and busses within the city and some of its outskirts.
In addition, it includes either free entry of reduced entry to most of Darmstadt's museums, exhibitions and other points of interest, such as Hessen State Museum, Museum on Mathildenhöhe, Residential Castle Museum, Jagdschloss Kranichstein (hunting castle Kranichstein), Railway Museum, Wedding Tower, and even Cinemaxx (the cinema complex) and the ice stadium.

In the past, it was also available as a 1 day card only for 5 €. However, I don’t find this mentioned anymore. Maybe they are just too self confident and believe that everyone craves to do 2 days of sightseeing ???

As a comparison: one single tram ticket is 1,50 Euro (that price seems to be valid still as of March 2011).

Here is a route plan, in German, but well, the route numbers are important :-)
Darmstadt Tram Routes

Update January 2009:
new weblink (in English) added.

© Ingrid D., tip date: February 2006 (update March 2011: price for single ticket checked).

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In addition to its overblown infrastructure for motor vehicles, Darmstadt has also managed to find room for an extensive network of bicycle lanes.

Local cyclists are quick to point out gaps and flaws in the network, and they are of course perfectly right to campaign for improvements. On the whole, though, the bicycle lanes are quite serviceable, and I certainly wouldn't want to discourage anyone from cycling in Darmstadt.

I don't have any figures, but my impression is that bicycle use in Darmstadt is increasing from year to year.

Of course Darmstadt has an active chapter of the General German Bicycle Club (ADFC).

Second, third and fourth photos: Cyclists in the Schlosspark, near the castle.

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Unlike its large backward neighbor Frankfurt am Main, Darmstadt is one of the many German cities that has a Bicycle Station directly adjoining the main railway station.

For 1 Euro per day, 10 Euros per month or 40 Euros per year you can park your bicycle here, in a dry and safe place, while going off somewhere on the train.

For 7.50 Euros per day you can also rent a bicycle here, and there is a repair shop on the premises.

The Bicycle Station is open from 5:30 in the morning until 23:00 at night.

Second photo: Entrance to the bicycle station.

Third photo: Bicycles for rent.

On the left side of the station,
next to the restaurant "Fürstenbahnhof".
49°52'19.04" North; 8°37'50.48" East

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During the day there are up to six trains an hour from Frankfurt to Darmstadt. Two of these are the local S-Bahn trains that stop at every station, and the rest are regional or InterCity trains.

Darmstadt no longer has a direct train connection to Paris, since the new high-speed ICEs take a somewhat shorter route directly from Frankfurt to Mannheim.

Second photo: Tracks at the Darmstadt main station.

49°52'20.81" North; 8°37'46.74" East

For a city that is so close to Frankfurt Airport the locals are currently fighting over a proposed extension, it is surprisingly badly connected to its nearby noise polluter. You can drive there in about 15 minutes, but there are no direct trains, only a bus service from the station that runs every half hour throughout the day. This compares quite poorly to the connections in Mainz and Wiesbaden. Still, Frankfurt Airport is second only to Heathrow in terms of European airports, so Darmstadt still has excellent air connections to cities all over the globe.

Darmstadt is right next to the huge train and transport hub of Frankfurt (about 40 minutes), so it is extremely easy to get to. In addition to that it is a major hub in its own right, and has direct train connections to cities all over the country and abroad. From Darmstadt Hbf you can get trains to cities including Hamburg, Rostock, Munich, Salzburg and Paris.