Train connections & reservations

Hi!I’m trying to plan my trip, but unfortunately the seat reservations system is a nightmare.I read the guides here, even the one from The man on seat 61, but it’s still not clear. I want to travel from Barcelona to Heidelberg on 2/9. There are several options, I would like to use the one that is 10:33 → 22:53. But I’m flexible, so I can change that to any of the other 3 options that arrive the same day.I’m trying to make a reservation at Interrail.eu .But all the options have an issue.The one I mentioned, doesn’t allow to book the train Paris Est - Mannheim. I read over here that this should be made by phone and they send it via post mail to your address? Will it arrive on time? Another option is 08:22 → 21:49. In this case, I can’t book Barcelona - Lyon, should I go to the train station and directly book there? But then in the same journey, I can’t book Paris - Karlsruhe. So what happens if I book Barcelona Lyon, only to find out that Paris - Karlsruhe is sold out? How do you go abou

I’m few weeks before travel . My first stop in Zurich airport and from there I take train to Zermatt . I have been  in Switzerland many times but first time with Eurail GP . When should I put train time ? If I put in advance I could be late . And how to create planner on paper ? Thank you Natalie 

I will be arriving in Spain September 21.  Eurail says in order to get a seat reservation for a Spanish train that isn't available on their website, I need to go to a train station when I arrive in Spain or call the Renfe office. My questions are:1.  I want to go from Granada to Ronda on the 29th and there is only one reasonable train per day (2 hrs. vs. 4½ hrs.).  Is it highly likely that I will be able to get a seat reservation on that train on the 29th by going to the train station in Madrid on the 21st? 2.  The Eurail website says: “Pre-reserving a seat is possible. You will receive a PNR code which you must use to pick up and pay for your reservation at a local station ticket office, making sure to show your Eurail Pass. After the booking, you must collect your reservation within 72 hours. The reservation can only be booked up to 24 hours before the train departure time. After this time the pre-reservation will expire." This makes no sense to me.  How can I collect my reservation

Seat reservation for Francciarossa train ( Bologna - Firenze) are transferable to a later train in the same day in case of a delay? Thank you! 

Thanks in advance for always being helpful.   I have booked seat only reservations through DB and OBB directly for trains from Berlin to Prague,  Munich to Salzburg and Salzburg to Zurich.     Now I’m confused as to how to find our seats on these trains.   I have receipts but they don’t list seats.  Should they?   I need to activate my Eurail pass and then add the train to our tickets I believe but then what?  Any help with walking me through the process step by step would help ease this travel anxiety prone traveler!

Dear Community, maybe someone knows… So we need to reserve seats for the EC from Bern to Milan, at least within Italy. When I enter Domodossola-Milano, it is 3 passengers x 12eur = total 36eur. Makes sense ;)When I enter Bern-Milan (since we don’t want to change seats in the middle of the trip) the price is 135eur!! Does that then include the ride itself - we don’t need a SBB ticket to Domodossola? We have half-fare-card and junior card for the child travelling, I believe the ride Bern-Domodossola isn’t worth 99eur. I tried booking just the reservation Bern-Milan via oebb and sbb, neither offers this... Thank you so much!!

I want to cancel my seat reservation because I changed plans. Is it possible ? (My reservation is tomorrow) 

The Intterail app explains that a supplement is required and that it is included in reservation. But when I go to make reservation there is no option to add supplement (unless I am missing something) and the reservation amount is not enough to include supplement. So is it really an option to pay the supplement through the app? And if not what is the best way to do this?

We only have an online seat reservation and it’s unlikely that we’ll be able to get a paper copy before we board our train (in Spain). What will be the consequences for us when we show the ticket collector our reservations on our phone instead of paper? Eurail tells us they must be on paper but doesn’t say what will happen when we try and use the online ones. 

Hi,I was going to book a seat from Zurich to Milan for the evening of September 8. Due to the closure of the tunnel on this route, I cannot make a reservation. How can I make a seat reservation to Zurich and Milan or which route should I take?Thanks.

Hello, I am wanting to book the Bernina Express on the 25th September 2023 from Lugano to St Moritz, however it says it is unavailable. I understand there is a section of the railway that is closed. Can someone please clarify what is available? Is there still a panoramic option?Many thanks! 

Hi,I’m planning a trip from the UK to Italy and I was thinking to do London → Paris → Milan → Bologna but I can’t find any train on the 16th of December for Paris → Milan, the last day in which I can find a train is on the 9th of December.Does anyone know when they publish the rest of the timetable? It makes quite hard to plan and wait as I may need to go by flight instead if I can’t book a train and flights are getting expensive.It’s strange that Paris → Milan is the only route that I can’t book but everything else is there.Thanks

I cannot book any reservations for trains from Budapest towards Istanbul. I am travelling in early Ocotober.Is this because I am trying to book them too far in advance

Hi everyone,I’m travelling with my elderly parents and noticed recently that trains from Zurich to Italy have changed route recently.Some of the trains now say reservation not required. I’m worried that we won’t be able to get a seat if you can’t reserve a seat on these trains. Is there a way to guarantee a seat on these trains? Please see below a screenshot for your reference. Also, the direct trains which say reservation required on the app then say on the reservation website that prices are unavailable- are these booked out?Thanks all!Waz

I’m having trouble booking seat reservations with my paper pass. The website takes me to a page where I have to choose which trip I'd like to book reservations for, so I made a trip, but I need to add travellers to the trip, and this is is where it goes wrong. I’m clicking ‘add a traveller’ which takes me to a page where I have to choose mobile or paper pass, so I choose the ‘paper pass’ option, and instead of taking me to a new page, it just takes me back to the page where I have to choose the trip. So basically it’s just a cycle.

Ich möchte an einem bestimmten Tag von München nach Paris fahren mit dem TGV.  

I want to go from Barcelona to Narbonne and it appears that in the city of Cerbere there ir a transfer by foot (15min), what does it mean?? I haven’t found any related post (all are deleted)Thanks!!

The recent derailment in the St Gotthard tunnel is likely to impact the EuroCity service between Zurich and Milan. I’ve got a reservation on the Zurich → Milan EC for the evening of 1st Sept. TrenItalia is being unclear, suggesting that normal service may be restored by then. Public media suggests otherwise.My problem is a connection to the ongoing sleeper from Milan → Bari.Does anyone have better information on the service impact? CheersAhado

Hi folks -First time here, so apologies if I’m in the wrong place, or asking the wrong kind of question!I have a reservation for next Monday, 21st Aug, (made last week through interrail.eu) for x2 passengers from Basel to Bologna (changing in Milan). But I have just received an SMS from Trenitalia to say the first leg of this (EuroCity 153, Basel-Milan, Dep 15:03) is cancelled.😒 The message was not entirely clear on the cause, but googling around indicates that it is presumably due to the recent freight train derailment in the Gotthard tunnel (but that’s a week ago, so unclear why they are only cancelling NOW).Anyway, I’m now trying to find an alternative routing, but don’t think I can trust the interrail planner (which seems to still show the original service). So any help or advice would be appreciated.NB: my journey actually starts in Paris. I have a separate reservation from Paris to Strasbourg arriving at 12:41. I was planning to make an (unreserved) connection to Basel (arriving

Good morning,I’ve been trying to make a reservation on the night train from Krakow to Budapest for August 27th-28th nights. However, I keep getting problems. When trying through cd.cz I got an error and contacted them, their answer was to get in touch with pkp, but pkp isn’t answering my emails. Moreover, I’m not able to buy through their website since it seems to be compulsory to buy this tickets with their “super offer”. This doesn’t enable me to untick a box and the following message is shown: “Pilot sales are underway. Currently, only Super Promo International tickets may be purchased for this e-IC route, provided that promotional tickets are available. Their availability depends on the purchase date and the amount of promotional tickets used.” Thus, I cannot select Interrail pass. Only other possible options I’ve come up with are booking it through Hungarian Railways (mav), but it charges 67€ for just a seat (no option for couchettes), making no interrail discount even when adding

Hola, necesito ir desde Tallin a Riga con el global pass. El problema es que no me deja planear la ruta. Qué puedo hacer? Muchas gracias 

basically my question is if I can get into a train that, let’s say, leaves at 17.00h even though I made a seat reservation for that same train but a few minutes later, for instance, 17.35h. my friends and I are booking seats and we are trying to leave time gaps between the different trains we are catching in prevision of something going wrong. but we wondered: if nothing went wrong and we were able to catch and earlier train than the one we booked, if it would be legal to get it. thaaanks

Next month, I’m planning to travel on trains from Frankfurt to Amsterdam, and then from Amsterdam to Brussels. Both the services I wish to travel on seem to require an additional supplement to be paid - but it’s not really clear why. Can anyone help/explain? Also, I have already made a seat reservation on the Frankfurt-Amsterdam train - would that cover the supplement in this case, or do I still need to pay the supplement separately?

I'm coming to Sofia 3 days before I want to take the night train to Istanbul. As I understand it I have to get a seat reservation at the Sofia train station. Does anyone know if my partner and I can count on getting two beds in a coach just three days before, or if I should look at some other option?

Hi all!I am 49 days out from my trip to Vienna where I and a group of friends will be taking the Eurail from Vienna to Munich, then returning from that trip to then go from Vienna to Budapest. We purchased the four-day rail pass which as I understand doesn’t preclude us from purchasing seat reservations. When browsing the train station timetables to purchase these seat reservations however, we are constantly encountering situations where the first half of the connection is unavailable but the second half is for purchasing and/or we are being required to purchase a separate ticket altogether for that section of the train. From my understanding, the Eurail pass was supposed to act as our ticket/pass that we then purchase seat reservations in addition to.Here are the train pathways we are required to have seat reservations for:(Returning) Oct 3 - 20:09 - 21:52 - NJ295 Munich to Salzburg HBF(Departing) Oct 6 - 6:40 - 9:19 - RE4637 Wien to Budapest-Kelenfoeld(Returning) Oct 6 - 20:35 - 20:4