Train connections & reservations

Hi Interrailers,There’s a small but non-negligible chance i’ll miss my Zagreb-Split night train.If i understand rightly:if you list a journey on your mobile pass, then from 00:01 that day, that’s one travel day used up, whether or not you actually make it onto the train. Miss the train, lose a travel day, for nothing.So i got to thinking…What if i don’t add that journey AT ALL until the very last moment, when i’m sure of catching the train – or even when i’m actually ON it (internet connection allowing).I already have the couchettes booked; but what if i wait until the last second before actually adding the train to the travel diary? That way i shouldn’t lose a travel day unnecessarily.Or am i missing something important?Thanks in advance for your avuncular advice,Badger

Bonjour,J’ai un souci pour réserver mes sièges pour notre voyage Paris_Bruxelles_Berlin_Amsterdam_Paris.JE n’arrive pas à régler et le site interail m’indique qu’il  un souci avec les trains choisis.Et je n’arrive pas à comprendre pourquoi car il reste de la place !Merci pour votre aidePS: Dois je activer mon pass pour réserver les sièges ?Camille

So, I was looking to travel Genova to Ventimiglia and used the rail planner app. All trains shown required reservation. I followed link to https://www.eurail.com/en/book-reservations with intention of making a reservation for this route and several trains NOT requiring reservation also appeared e.g. RE 3360 Regional operated byFerrovie dello Stato SpADirectionVENTIMIGLIAWhy do these not appear in planner when "eurail" obviously does know about them. Do they "really" exist? 

Hello Interrailers!I currently have a 30-minute gap between trains at Zagreb Glavny before catching the red-eye express down to Split, which leaves at 22:30.Should be enough… but if it isn’t (if the train from Hungary is delayed) what are my chances of getting a free ride on the next Zagreb-Split train? 100%? 50-50? Zilch? Depends who i ask?My travel days are all planned up, and it would be proper annoying to have lost out on a travel day, even more than on the couchette booking.Subsidiary Qs for those-who-know:The “next” train is at 07:00. If i am offered a free ticket, does it HAVE to be the very NEXT train, or can i get a free ride on the afternoon train instead (to make it worth an impromptu overnight stay)?Many thanks in advance,Badger        

Hello,I will be travelling this summer with an Interrail pass. A friend will be joining me from Hirtshals to Hamburg, she won’t have a pass. So I need to buy a seat reservation for the ICE between Kolding and Hamburg plus a full ticket from Hirsthals to Hamburg.What is the easiest way to get 2 seats side by side ? I tried DB web site but I did not find how I could buy at the same time a ticket and an additional seat. We will be arriving in Hirtshals with the ferry at 8.00 am. I read that the train station is not really close to the ferry terminal. What do you think the transfer time should be ? We could board the 8.50 train to Aaalborg but I wonder if that’s feasible.Thank you for sharing your experience !

Hi. In short, we are trying to figure out if we will have enough time to Transfer Trains in Brussels. (Bruxelles Midi).We will be changing Trains in Brussels - on our way from Ghent to Luxembourg, ultimately to Trier.One of the possible routes shows ICE Trains coming into Brussels on Platform 7. We would then transfer to Platform 10, for the next leg to Luxembourg. There is less than 10 minutes between the two trains. We are hoping that Platform 7 is close to Platform 10. Without a Station Map, it is hard to determine the distance. We will both have a rolling suitcase. One of us has a slight back issue. We can walk, but we are not fast (or power) walkers. If anyone has been to Brussel Zuid (Bruxelles Midi) can you tells us how far apart the Platforms are? Is 7-8 minutes enough time to get from Platform 7 to Platform 10? We have heard that the Tickets will be good for the full day. So, worst case scenario, if we miss the Train (that is 7 minutes between), there should be another one aft

hi :)we are travelling from interlaken to brussels on 22 july (leaving 08:30). we want to take the 11:13 from basel to köln as part of this – currently we don’t seem to be able to book seat reservations anywhere for this but I saw another post saying not to worry about this and just check later… my question is just whether seat reservations are compulsory for this section, and if not, are they recommended (family of 5)? we already have reservations for köln to bruxelles midi (17:41 if i remember right), and I assume within switzerland it’s fine not to reserve seats?also the interrail journey planner is being weird with this – it says to take the 11:06 to basel bad (ICE 74 to berlin) then change to the 11:22 to köln (ICE 2258 to hamburg)… other places say the ICE 2258 goes from basel sbb so i’m assuming that’s finethank you, and sorry if this has already been discussed before!!ru xp.s. i know it’s faster to go via paris but we wanted to avoid there

Hi, Have purchased a flexi Eurail Pass. Our travel plan is Budapest-Vienna-Innsbruck-Salzburg-Prague. Am having a problem with getting a seat reservation on the Salzburg Prague leg. The 10.22 am Exp Express has a change in Linz. Salzburg to Linz reservation is available but for Linz - Prague sector it says ‘ ticket only for one section’ .  How do I reserve seats for the Linz - Prague sector.

I have a Eurail Pass and booked a Reservation and it has myself and my partner sitting nowhere near each other. I have seen questions here about changing seats and no one has a good answer. You can’t tell me that we are expected to travel around Europe on a Pass we bought for travelling together not sitting with each other??? That is not acceptable and no one should think it is.  

Hello Interrail Community,On May 11th, we plan to start our journey back home from Barcelona to Munich. We intended to purchase our seat reservations at the Renfe counter in Barcelona, but we were informed that from May 9th to May 13th, there are no trains running from Barcelona to Paris (or anywhere like Avignon). Now we are searching for an alternative route to return to Munich (or somehow to Paris), but we can't seem to find any route.(We also would leave one day earlier) Have we overlooked something? Does anyone know of an alternative? Any help would be greatly appreciated.Greetings.  

Hi,I am planning a trip on 15.4.2024 from Madrid to Vigo train AVIA 4115. Since weeks most fast trains are only available unti 30.3.2024. On various community entries I found renfe usually makes them available for reservation about 60 days in advance. This would have been 15.2.2024. Unfortunately their phone support is terrible english and  I did not find any mail adress to ask.Does anybody know what’s ongoing here or where I can buy seat reservations?  

I'm from Australia and planning a trip to Europe in July with 2 of my friends. We are planning to get a train from Barcelona to Valencia, and I was looking at the highspeed Euromed (RENFE) train as it is quick and supposedly scenic.However, I have found out that you cannot make reservations online, so I was wondering how I'm suppose to reserve a seat on this train? Obviously going into the office is not an option as I'm on the other side of the world, and doing it when I get to Europe would be too risky as these trains supposedly sell out fast.I have read that I could potentially call a Swiss ticket office, or that I could call RENFE? However I only speak English, would the phone operator even be an English speaker?I have seen that I can book online/on the RENFE app roughly 60 days in advance, but this is without Eurail discount. Is it worth just doing it like that, or is the discount substantial?Any help would be appreciated as a lot of this is foreign to me and has been a nightmare t

I’m wanting to book two trips in Italy: Rome to Sulmona, and Rome to Trevi in July. When I put the information into the Eurail planner I get a message, “Sorry, we can’t find any trains that match your search.” Yet when I go on the Trenitalia website and search for those journeys there are many of them to choose from. Why are they available, but not on the Eurail app? Are they not covered by the pass, or are they not yet available for pass holders?

Hello, we just purchased a 4 day rail pass. We are trying to book our seats now from London to Paris for May 2/24. Are there no seats available? Can you just show up at the station and get a seat? Is there an easy alternate route? Thank you! We are all new to this. 

We want to travel from Amsterdam ending that day in Brugge, Belgium. We want to stop in Antwerp and Bruxelles for a few hours each.  I don’t know how to book this on the Eurail pass app.  They just have trains from Amsterdam to Bruxelle.  So do we book that even though we would get off in Antwerp?  Hoping it stops there?  4 hours later get a train to Bruxelle.  Stop there for 4 hours then get a train to Brugge?  I don’t know how to book this.  I miss having a reservationist to call and help.  Thanks in advance.  Diane

Hi, after several years of interrailing here comes the time to ask for help 😵 I’m trying to book a night train (apparently NJ295) from Munich to Genova departing on June 19th, 8:10pm. Does anyone have confirmed information about railworks or any other reason why this train wouldn’t go? It’s not visible anywhere except OBB (not even in Eurail booking system), however there it’s with a very disturbing notification “Please note-timetable subject to change”. Now, I’m not sure whether to risk and book it, or is it very unlikely it will actually go? Any insights, please?

Purchase of ticket with seat reservation required, but no seat possible to reserve. What to do?

Hi People!I think I’ve established that TERs within France (e.g. Paris » Burgundy / Colmar) doesn’t require reservations. Some questions here!Does my global Eurail pass cover TER train rides cost? (i.e. Can I simply show up with my Eurail’s QR code/any form of scanning and take the TER train based on their train schedule and hop on freely?) Or does TER requires purchase from SNCF websites beforehand?Thank you for your help!Eugene

we want to travel from barcelona to paris on may 10th. There is no other option because the hotel has been booked in Paris and we have to leave Barelona. It now appears that there is work on a section of the route for Lyon (in France) on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I have tried everything now but cannot find a way to get to Paris on that day. Anyone who has experience with this and knows a solution? my gratitude is great

Hello, While checking timetables, I noticed there are practically no trains on the axis between Perpignan/Toulouse to Nîmes on the 9th, 10th and 11th of May. Unfortunately this is a quite vital link in my travel plans. I searched online for more info on why there are no trains on these dates, maybe construction works? But I can't find any information. This makes it quite difficult to plan. Will trains be available later or should I adjust my travel plans? Is there anyone here who can help?

Hello everyone,I’m trying to reserve 2 seats for direct train EC362 Prague-Munich on August 26th, but Eurail site says that “Prices are not available”. I also tried with OBB, DB and CD and had the same problem.Do you have any suggestions?Thank you in advance.

Hi, I’ve been trying to buy the seat reservations for an ICE from Amsterdam to Basel that leaves on 14.06 at 7.46am. However, whenever I try to purchase it via the Deustche Bahn website (to avoid extra fees) it tells me that “reservaton cannot be made”. It is unlikely that the train is already sold out (I know it’s the first day of the Euros, so the train will be most likely full in the end), as I have been trying to get the tickets for nearly two months now. First, it was not even possible to select the train, and today this thing popped up.Can somebody tell me what’s the reason for that? Is it safer if I just buy it through the interrail webiste? I’m afraid that if I do so, the reservation might not be valid once I get on the train (I’ve had some bad experience with buying tickets/reservations for trains via 3rd party sites previously). Thanks in advance 

We are travelling from Basel to Cologne on August 8. The original plan was EC6 direct from Interlaken, but due to trackwork in Switzerland that train has been cancelled for some period of time.  We therefore booked and reserved First class seats to travel from Basel via Frankfurt (will get to Basel on whatever service we can). In the last few days DB have cancelled the Basel-Frankfurt train, and replaced it with a direct Basel-Colgone service. The good news it is an hour faster. But I am now trying to reserve seats for the replacement train, but bahn.de comes up with “No seat reservation possible”. It seems unlikely that the train is fully booked. The whole reason for travelling this route was the journey alongside the Rhine with seats on the right-hand river side of the train (which we had obtained on the connection from Frankfurt)Does anybody know whether this train, newly added to the schedule, is likely to open for seat reservations, or will it simply be pot luck?

I have spent a lot of time on the Deutsche Bahn* website looking for such a schedule. I came up with the following one: Valence Ville 08:36 Lyon Part Dieu 09:48 dep. Lyon 11:18Paris Bercy 16:25dep. P. Nord .18:28Lille Flandres 20:51 But on checking it now on DB, I can no longer find the 11:18 from Lyon PD for May 22 or 23, when I want to travel. On an arbitrary date such as April 27, however, it is shown. Can someone please explain this?*There is a subtext here,  Neiher SNCF-Connect nor the computers in French stations offer such a journey without using TGVs. I will post this problem separately as a Conversation.

On the 23/7-2024 I will travel from Denmark, through Germany to Pau in southern France. An part of this journey will go from SW Germany to Paris. This could be ICE 9575 from Stuttgart (14:52) via Strasbourg to Paris Est (18:16). But I could also cross the border with a regional train (no reservation) and catch ICE 9575 in Strasbourg (at 16:31). This is often cheaper to cross the border with at regional train. But not on this one…If I book reservations through Raileurope.com, the train from Stuttgart to Paris costs €18. But the same train from Strasbourg to Paris costs €20. It is only €2, but it makes me wonder: Why is a longer journey cheaper than a shorter journey on the exact same train? Palle Dam