Euro 2024 By Train: Leipzig

With the exception of Berlin, all of the other Euro 2024 host cities are a long-distance from Leipzig.
So travelling to and from Leipzig by car involves long drives on autobahns across Germany, which combined with the lack of parking at the Red Bull Arena, makes taking a comfortable long-distance express train the way to go.
Leipzig has direct trains which travel from and to all but two of the other host cities - Dortmund and Gelsenkirchen are the exceptions, but travelling to and from both of those cities requires only one connection

The Leipzig Stadium has, in theory, exceptionally easy access by public transport, which is undoubtedly a factor as why no car parking is available.

The mode of travel between the city centre and the stadium is by tram and on match days the city's tram route network is adjusted to make heading to and from the games as easy as possible.

The two key modifications are the provision of two match-day only routes:

• Tram line / route 54 serves the stop named Leipzig, Sportforum Ost and one of its city centre stops is at the Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz station - which is served by the local S-Bahn trains.
• Tram line / route 56 links the Leipzig-Messe station, which is to the north of the city centre and is served by local S-Bahn trains, with the tram stop which is a 10 min walk to the stadium and is named, Sportforum Süd.

Tram lines / routes 3, 7 and 15 link the city's main railway station, Leipzig Hbf, with Sportforum Süd - it's a four stop journey which takes less than 10 minutes.
The 7 and 15 also go from and to a stop named, Augustusplatz – Leipzig, which is to the east of the city centre.

Tickets and passes

The trams are managed by the Leipziger Verkehrsbetriebe (LVB) and tickets can be purchased from its online shop and from ticket machines at the stops and on the trams.

Though match ticket holders are entitled to a 36 Hour Travel Pass across the entire MDV (Mitteldeutscher Verkehrsverbund) network at no additional cost - and the LVV is just one part of the MDV.
The pass is valid from 06:00 on matchday until 18:00 the following day.

Those with match tickets are able to access a special type of ticket, the DB Ticket Euro 2024 for travel by ICE and IC train to the host city of the corresponding game - the train conductor will ask to see the rail ticket and the match ticket.
Though the tickets have limited availability per departure, so for the widest possible choice of trains, it will be best to book as far in advance as possible.
The key plus of these tickets is that they have a flat rate price for a one-way trip of €29.90 in 2nd class and €39.90 in 1st class; so when the cheapest prices of both types of Sparpreis tickets have sold out, these Euro 2024 tickets obviously become the cheapest option.

If when looking up a journey on DB there are tickets available at a cheaper price than €29.90 in 2nd class and €39.90 in 1st class, they will be offered as an alternative.
Though during the tournament the prices for the longer journeys from and to Leipzig will otherwise likely be more than €100 - so these DB Ticket Euro 2024's will likely be significant money savers.

The info on our general Euro2024 guide has step-by-step instructions on how to book these tickets.

seat reservations

The 1st class tickets include a seat reservation, which otherwise costs €5.90, but seat reservations are not included when booking the 2nd class DB Ticket Euro 2024 tickets - and a 2nd class seat reservation has an additional charge of €4;90.
If you don't reserve it will be possible to board a train with a 2nd class DB Ticket Euro 2024 ticket to find that no seats are available.
Note that once you factor in the reservation, the additional cost of a 1st class DB Ticket Euro 2024 ticket is only €5-6 - for longer journeys this extra cost will be worth every cent!

core terms and conditions

These Euro 2024 tickets cannot be exchanged or refunded - so book your accommodation before you arrange the rail travel.
U[p to four children aged 6 to 14 can travel with for free of charge with someone aged 15 and over who has purchased a Euro 2024 ticket.

book to travel on to the stadiums

To make the journeys to the stations / public transport stops by the stadiums easier to book, a dedicated journey look up service has been created.
It shows the names of the stations / stops closest to the stadiums in each of the Euro 2024 cities.
That's because the the DB Ticket Euro 2024 ticket can include the transfer on to the stops by the stadiums.
Though something to look out for, is that to book the DB Ticket Euro 2024 ticket, you need to:

• copy the name of the stop
• scroll up the page and click on the red 'Jetzt Ticket buchen' button
• paste the name of the stadium stop into the 'to' box
• follow the booking path - info on how to do this is available here.
  However, if you click on the name of the stadium stop on this look-up page, it will then be automatically included as the destination on DB's standard booking path - but if you proceed to book, you seemingly won't then see the DB Ticket Euro 2024 offer.

If you won't have match tickets for games in the cities that you will be travelling to, the key things worth knowing about the usual tickets to travel on trains in Germany are:

• Tickets for the ICE and IC trains can be booked online and are already available for travel during the tournament.
• Tickets for the Regio and S-Bahn trains can be purchased at the station on the day of travel, but if you don't specify that you want to travel by ICE or IC train, you won't be able to travel by those other train services - so you can't just hop on the next train to depart.
• Because tickets booked last minute at the station for travel by the IC and ICE trains will be more expensive than those which can be used on the Regio and S-Bahn trains.
• Discounted tickets, branded 'Sparpreis' and the cheaper 'Super Sparpreis', are made available for travel on the ICE and IC trains - the further in advance of the travel date that they are booked, the cheaper they will be.
• Up to four children aged 6 to 14 can travel with for free of charge with someone aged 15 and over who has purchased either type of Sparpreis ticket
• Those aged 15 and older pay the adult rate and there is no charge for those aged 5 and under.
• Those aged 65 and over can travel at a discounted rate.

The city's main railway station, Leipzig Hbf, is the largest in Germany, which makes it an uncrowded location in which to take a train.

The teams playing in Leipzig will also be playing matches in the cities listed below:

typical journey time = 1hr 15mins
usual daytime frequency = 1 x direct train per hour

Attending the Euro 2024 matches at the Olympiastadion in Berlin can easily be done as a day trip from Leipzig.

There are ICE trains to and from Berlin Hbf, which depart at least hourly in both directions, and the journey time is less than 1hr 15mins.
And local S-Bahn trains on lines S3 and S9 link Berlin Hbf with the stadium every 10 minutes and the journey time is under 20 mins.
During Euro 2024 there will be and additional late night train from Berlin Hbf to Leipzig which will depart at 00:20.

The final train of the day tp Berlin will usually depart from Leipzig Hbf at 23:42.

typical journey time = 6hr 10mins
usual daytime frequency = 1 x direct train every other hour

There are two options for travelling by train from Leipzig to Cologne / Köln:

1. Direct trains depart from Leipzig Hbf for Köln Hbf every two hours during the day (in even hours), with a final departure at 16:38.
   The first departure of the day is by an ICE train, but InterCity trains are used for the other departures - the journey time is around 6hr 10mins.

2. It can be more than an hour faster to take a combination of two ICE trains, a good option can be taking one of the hourly trains from Leipzig to Frankfurt (Main) - as they typically have easily timed connections of around 30mins into ICE trains on to Cologne / Köln.

The DB Ticket Euro 2024 will be available for travel on this route - the general Euro 2024 guide explains how to book them.

typical journey time = 4hr 55 mins
usual daytime frequency = 1 x direct train every other hour

Trains depart from Leipzig Hbf for Dortmund every two hours during the day (in even hours), with a final departure at 16:38.
The first departure of the day is by an ICE train, but InterCity trains are used for the other departures - the journey time is around 4hr 55mins.

The DB Ticket Euro 2024 will be available for travel on this route - the general Euro 2024 guide explains how to book them.

A mix of ICE and IC trains depart every other hour from Dortmund Hbf for Leipzig with a usual final departure at 16:28; though during the tournament, there will be an additional train during the tournament which will depart Dortmund Hbf at 01:42.

There is one daily InterCity train from Leipzig to Düsseldorf Hbf, it departs at 14:37 and arrives at 20:24.
If the timings of this train doesn't suit the easiest alternative is to take a train to Dortmund and connect there for a Regio train or an ICE train on to Düsseldorf.
Both services will be scheduled to depart from Dortmund within twenty minutes of the arrival of the train from Leipzig.

The DB Ticket Euro 2024 will be available for travel on this route - the general Euro 2024 guide explains how to book them.

When travelling from Dusseldorf, during the tournament there will be an additional daily direct train which will be departing Dusseldorf post-game at 00:55 and arriving in Leipzig shortly before 07:30 - though it will be an InterCity train, not a sleeper train.
There is also a daily InterCity train which departs Düsseldorf Hbf at 09:34 and arrives in Leipzig around 15:15

typical journey time = 3hr 10 mins
usual daytime frequency = 1 x direct train every other hour

There is typically 1 x ICE train every other hour on the Leipzig Hbf ↔ Hamburg route and the journey time is around 3hr 10mins.
There will be later final trains of the day, during the tournament to Hamburg, which will depart Leipzig Hbf at 22:16 and 23:42.

The DB Ticket Euro 2024 will be available for travel on this route - the general Euro 2024 guide explains how to book them.

The trains will call at the city's main station, Hamburg Hbf, before going on to the station named Hamburg-Altona.
If you will be heading direct to the games at the Volksparkstadion, Hamburg-Altona station is nearer, but the local S-Bahn trains on to the station at Stellingen, where bus shuttles are available to and from the stadium, will be crowded by the time they call at Altona.
So it can be easier to make the transfer into a train on line S3 at Hamburg Hbf.

When travelling from the stadium to Leipzig, the easier option will be to join the trains at Hamburg-Altona.
There will be a later final train of the day during the tournament, which will depart Hamburg-Altona at 21:34 and Hamburg Hbf at 21:51.