Rad+Regio plans journeys where the train covers the long, unrewarding kilometres and you ride the scenic ones. You say how far you want to cycle — the planner looks for combinations of regional trains and cycling that fit. This page explains how it goes about that, where its limits are, and what the labels on the results mean.
How the planning works
Your cycling budget is a resource, not a limit. Ordinary routers ask: “What is the fastest way from A to B?” The question here is a different one — you have a certain number of cycling kilometres available, so where do you spend them best? The planner tries to use them where the railway is weak: branch lines, big detours, poor connections. It leaves the efficient stretches to the train.
You get several options, not one “best” answer. Travel time and cycling kilometres contradict each other, and no software can tell you which compromise is right for you. So you usually see two or three variants, from “little cycling” to “lots of cycling”. The genuinely fastest one is marked with ⚡ — which is explicitly not always the one with the fewest cycling kilometres, because the train-heavy variant sometimes costs three transfers.
Your wishes are preferences, not filters. Cycling distance, elevation and time
wishes do not restrict the search outright. If the planner finds nothing that fits exactly, it
still shows the closest working connections and honestly labels how far off they are — for
example 🎯 +12 km or ⛰️ −300 m↑. The alternative would be an empty
result list, and that helps nobody.
Timetables: a typical weekday, not real time. The basis is published scheduled timetables for a typical weekday. Statements such as “about hourly” are frequencies estimated from them. That is enough to judge whether a trip works in principle — it is not a travel information service. Please check the actual connection for your day with the railway.
Cycling routes come from OpenStreetMap. Routing uses custom profiles for road bike, touring bike, mountain bike and e-bike. They differ in what they avoid (main roads, rough surfaces) and whether they dodge climbs. Way type and surface in the route profile also come from OpenStreetMap — so they are only as good as the local map data.
We count elevation gain deliberately conservatively. Raw elevation data is noisy; unfiltered, it produces fantasy numbers. We therefore smooth and filter strictly. The result: our figures are typically 25–35 % lower than what Garmin or Komoot show for the same route. That is a convention rather than an error — factor it in when you enter an elevation wish.
Frequently asked questions
Why is an option above or below my cycling budget?
Because nothing sensible existed inside your target range. Rather than reporting “no results”, the planner shows the closest working train-and-bike combination and labels the deviation on the option itself. The same goes for the elevation and time wishes: they are preferences, not filters. If that bothers you, widen the tolerance or move the target distance.
Why do I sometimes see only a single option?
Because the remaining candidates were too similar to each other, or their cycling route could not be computed. In sparsely served areas there is often only one sensible rail axis. “Thorough” under “More options” searches more widely and occasionally does turn up an alternative.
My elevation figures do not match Komoot or Garmin.
That is expected and not a bug: we count deliberately more conservatively, typically 25–35 % less. Raw elevation data is noisy and produces fantasy numbers unfiltered, so we smooth it strictly. A practical rule of thumb: if you know a 1000 m climb from your bike computer and want a trip like that, enter around 700 here.
Why can’t I find trips with a lot of climbing?
Usually it is not the planner but the geometry. In the forms with a cycling return leg (“🚆 out · 🚲 back” and the reverse), the range depends on exactly that return leg — it has to be rideable within your cycling budget, and that limits the radius around your starting point. If you live somewhere flat, the hills are simply outside that circle.
The way out is the third form: 🚆 out & back · 🚲 loop. There you take the train out and back and ride a loop at the turnaround — so the radius depends on train time rather than on the cycling route home, and the train may carry you far into the hills. From Berlin that reaches Saxon Switzerland, from Munich it reaches Garmisch.
Can I rely on the departure times?
No. This is the scheduled timetable for a typical weekday, without real-time data, engineering works or cancellations. Treat the times as “roughly how this trip works” and check the actual connection with the railway before you travel.
Am I allowed to take my bike along at all?
On regional services usually yes, often with a separate bike ticket and with blocked periods at peak times. On long-distance trains (ICE/IC) a reservation is mandatory, spaces are scarce and frequently sold out early. The planner only uses long-distance trains if you tick the box — and warns you when it does. Please check bike carriage per connection yourself; rules differ between operators.
What do Fast, Normal and Thorough mean?
How much effort the search puts in. The levels build on each other: Normal includes Fast, Thorough includes both. Each level checks more stations, corridors and cycling variants and then re-ranks every result — which is why suggestions can still improve or be replaced while the search runs. What you see in between is therefore a provisional state. Thorough may take one to two minutes.
What is the difference between the three modes?
Route A→B plans from here to there. Round trip from a place plans a day trip that ends back home — either train out and bike back, the other way round, or train there and back with a cycling loop at the turnaround (see above). Free planning is pure cycling: you click the points on the map yourself.
How do intermediate stops affect the cycling budget?
The cycling budget always applies to the whole route, not to each leg. The planner looks for separate variants per leg and assembles the fastest combination that fits the budget overall. What is not included is the time you spend at the stops themselves — only you know how long you want to stay.
What does “↺ Extra loop” mean?
The direct cycling route would have been shorter than the minimum you set, so a detour was added to fill the budget. Frankly, that is a makeshift solution — if you do not want it, lower the minimum.
What does “⚡ fastest” mean?
Among the options shown, this one is genuinely the quickest door to door. It is marked explicitly because people guess it wrong otherwise: the variant with the fewest cycling kilometres often is not, because it buys more transfers and waiting time.
What do “Short & steep” and “Flatter & longer” mean?
Sometimes there are two genuinely different ways to the same place: one saves kilometres and pays in climbing, the other does the opposite. When the planner finds such a pair, it shows both side by side instead of quietly picking one for you.
Why is there a note for destinations abroad?
Because the timetable feed in use is a German one. Cross-border trains are included, but the local service beyond the border often is not. So it can happen that the planner has you cycle the final stretch even though regional trains actually run there.
Why are cycling routes missing for some areas?
The map data for cycle routing is held region by region on the server, and at the edge of the covered area — mainly in the east and south-east — some of it is still missing. Affected cycling legs are then skipped: the suggestions fall back to the train there, or variants are missing. The planner tells you when that happened instead of passing the gap off as the optimum.
Can I modify a suggested route?
Yes, in three ways. Drag the green cycling line somewhere else to set an intermediate point. Move the start or destination marker directly on the map — that triggers a full replan. And in the expandable stop list of a train leg you can move the transfer to a different station (“🚲 ride from here”).
How do I get the route onto my bike?
Every option has a GPX download containing the cycling legs including elevation, ready to load into Komoot, Garmin or similar apps. You can copy and pass on the whole search as a link via “🔗 Share link”.
Why is the first search on a new route so slow?
Because the cycling routes really are computed then, and quite a few of them. Results are cached, so the second search in the same area is noticeably faster.
What happens to what I type in?
Places you enter are sent to external services for the calculation (address search, weather and elevation data) and are not stored permanently by us. The “Recent” list lives in your browser only. Note that shared links contain the places you entered.
Why does it say “Prototype”?
Because it is one — a private project, not a commercial travel information service, with no guarantee of availability or correctness. It is worth double-checking results before you set off. Feedback is expressly welcome.