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Question

Train Timetables and Time Zones When Booking from Overseas


Basic Question About Time Zones When Making Seat Reservations

I have a basic question about making seat reservations from overseas, where there is a time difference.

I live in Japan and plan to make seat reservations for European trains using my smartphone.

When checking train timetables and making reservations through Interrail, are the departure and arrival times displayed in the local time of the stations, or are they automatically adjusted to Japan time based on my smartphone’s time zone settings?

In other words, does the time zone setting on my smartphone affect the times displayed?

Thank you in advance for your help.

3 replies

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  • Railmaster
  • October 18, 2026

All times displayed are the local times.

The best places to book reservations are listed on this page:

https://www.seat61.com/interrail-and-eurail-reservations.htm


ralderton
Railmaster
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  • Railmaster
  • October 18, 2026

All times displayed are the local times.

The best places to book reservations are listed on this page:

https://www.seat61.com/interrail-and-eurail-reservations.htm

I don’t think this is always true. There are so many devices, operating systems, and settings, that the results will vary.

On my iPhone in the UK, timezones are occasionally all over the place.


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  • Engin-ius
  • October 19, 2026

You can apply some general common sense when looking at results - if you see a load of trains from one city to another around 03:00 and none at 15:00 then you can safely assume that there’s some timezone shift.

To echo the above, times are almost always displayed in local time.  It wouldn’t make sense any other way.  The exception might be a poorly written application that hasn’t thought it through properly, but any of the main booking engines will be doing this in local time.