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I'm travelling from Rutesheim to the Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden Airport, and I need to arrive ideally by 8am on a Sunday morning for a 10am flight.

Is there any way I can do this by travelling through the Saturday night? I can't leave earlier than midnight, 12am. (Possibly 11pm but that would be pushing it!)

In the UK there are buses where you can travel through the night, but I can't find anything similar here. I've tried DB, Flexibus etc and can't find anything...

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Night busses are very rare in Germany. Especially from small cities such as Rutesheim, there are very few options available.

So let's try what we can get.

The following is for random dates since I don't know when you will be travelling.

Apparently, the S-Bahn is still running late from Rutesheim. It can bring you to Stuttgart Hbf or Stuttgart Airport (e.g., starting 00:14 and arriving at the airport at 1:22 or at the train station at 00:42). From the airport, there is a Flixbus running to Karlruhe Central station (02:35 - 03:35). Alternatively, there may be a 02:41-03:47 connection with the ICE from Stuttgart Hbf. All of this does not seem to be a problem.

But when you look at how to get to the airport on a Sunday morning, you will see (with the bahn.de website) that there are simply no busses running so early. Looking at the website of the airport, you will see that there are two bus lines that serve the airport, and both of them do not arrive before 10am on Sundays.

https://www.baden-airpark.de/en/directions-and-parking/arrival-by-rail-and-bus/

So that seems to be the problem that you are having. So you will need to use the taxi for a part of the trip. According to Google Maps, the next train station seems to be "Baden Baden".

Now searching for a night train connection from Rutesheim to Baden Baden, you will see some options that get your there on time.

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    NOTE: due to a tunnel collapse between Karlsruhe and Rastatt, the major north-south railway "artery" is closed until at least October, 7th. The other parallel north-south artery was already closed for scheduled maintenance until Sept 9. Since this is a major European north-south shipping route, the smaller tracks in the region are also being closed for passenger service in order to prioritize cargo trains. As a result, some cargo and a lot of passenger traffic is shifted to the Autobahn A5, which, however, is also under heavy construction currently. So, make sure you get up-to-date – Jörg W Mittag Aug 28 '17 at 13:42
  • … information on schedules, and don't plan too tight! – Jörg W Mittag Aug 28 '17 at 13:43
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    bahn.de has all the rail replacement buses in the system. According to it, you can be at Baden-Baden station at 5:09 am or 8:40 am on a Sunday. A taxi to the airport should take around 20 minutes. The airport is seriously small, so arriving one hour before take-off would still be OK imo. – Sebastian Aug 28 '17 at 14:26
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As Jörg and Sebastian already pointed out, the railway line between Rastatt (2nd closest station to FKB airport) and Baden-Baden (closest station) is disrupted until further notice, at least until 7 Oct 2017. There's a rail replacement bus service if you need to get to Baden-Baden. The journey planner at www.bahn.de takes this into account.

If you go by train during the disruption, you might prefer taking a taxi from Rastatt rail station to the airport (about 40 EUR). This would save you some time and another interchange.

If you continue to Baden-Baden rail station, you're closer to the airport and the taxi fare will be lower (about 30 EUR, prices are estimates by www.taxi-rechner.de). You might want to pre-book a taxi with one of the companies mentioned on the airport website and agree on a fixed price.

Of course, considering the taxi fares, it could be worth looking for a different flight from Stuttgart ...

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A solution using public transport seems really a serious problem at this time of day and with the circumstances described by DCTLib.

That's why I'd recommend a one-way car rental. Using a bigger car rental company like Europcar you could rent a car the day before in Stuttgart (airport for example) and return it at FKB. This should be around 90-100 Euros. You could park it overnight in Rutesheim and then just continue easily in the morning. Should be hassle-free.

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  • I just checked, there are even stations in Leonberg and Weilimdorf which is really just next door to Rutesheim. – Sebastian Aug 28 '17 at 14:45

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