Carry passport while travelling in Schengen area
score:9
Short answer: I would recommend taking it. It's mandatory for you to carry it in the Netherlands, mostly mandatory in Germany and Switzerland. Depending on your tickets, train guards in Germany may also want to see some ID (technically, it might be required with an online ticket all over Europe but I never saw anyone care outside of Germany).
Police checks are not unheard of and I wouldn't expect much flexibility from the police, especially in those three countries. If there is a check, I would expect the most likely outcome to be a lecture or a fine but I would not rule out being forced to get off the train and back to your point of origin in the next one or some detention while they figure out what to do with you. Of course, it's also entirely possible that you won't have to show your passport to anyone at all but is it worth the risk of a ruined holiday?
Your US driving license legally doesn't prove anything. It doesn't establish your citizenship, it doesn't prove you have a visa and therefore your status in the Schengen area, and it does not meet the standard requirements for police checks (Germany and the Netherlands in particular have laws that specify exactly what documentation is expected). It might still be useful as it does provide some evidence of who you are and also that you are genuinely a tourist coming from a rich country (for only US residents get US driving licenses) so a police officer might decide that further proceedings are pointless.
Upvote:2
I believe there are three completely distinct issues here.
Various European railways (certainly Deutsche Bahn) offer online-purchased tickets which can be printed out or shown on a smartphone. Obviously, if you can print it once, you can print it twice, and so these will be personalized tickets. The conductor might ask for proof that you are the person the ticket has been personalized for.
Not an issue if you got a physical ticket at the station.Various Schengen nations require foreigners to carry identity documents and proof of their immigration status at most/all times. Details may vary, but Germany requires foreigners to be able to present their passports to various authorities upon demand. Not having the original in your pocket is OK, not having it in the same country is pushing it.
Within Schengen, this is not routinely checked, but one might always run into a random check. The likelihood might depend on how "European" one looks (racial profiling).The benefit of a digital copy or photocopy is that one has all the details available. I certainly don't have my passport and ID card numbers memorized, and I might get the issuing authority wrong. This helps when one has to apply for a replacement document after a loss. It doesn't prove anything regarding identity or immigration status. A visa in the original passport might have been cancelled after the copy was made, or someone might have photoshopped the picture. Physical passports have safety features built in to complicate manipulation.
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