 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||
SUPPLEMENTS AND RESERVATIONS |
|||||
Although you are a railpass holder there are some services that require a supplement to be paid: reservations, night trains and high speed trains. On many trains, including local or regional ones, you can't make a reservation even if you wanted to. You just hop on, find an empty seat and show your railpass when asked by the ticket inspector. On most long distance trains, the seat reservation is optional. That means you can just hop on and show your railpass to the ticket inspector when he asks, but if the train is full you may end up standing. This could be a common situation during summer in journeys linking two popular cities. To make sure you get a seat, it is generally recommended to reserve for long-distance journeys, certain trains like ICE, IC and EC, and ferry crossings during summer holidays. As Friday and Sunday afternoons and evenings are peak travel periods for Europeans, you may wish to consider a seat reservation. The fee is about 3-6 euros. In some trains you must pay a supplement before you board the train, which normally includes the seat reservation fee. Seat reservations are required for most high-speed trains such as TGV, Pendolino, Thalys, Eurostar, X2000. All long distance trains in Spain , Romania and most in Norway and Sweden require seat reservations. To know more about the European special trains visit the special trains section. The cost of the supplement varies by country, the length of journey and the type of train. There is a summary of the cost of supplements in each country at the bottom of this page. Eurail and EuroDomino railpasses include the supplement for some but not all types of train, so check the terms and conditions of your railpass. InterRail passes don't include any supplements. Railpasses are not valid on some minor rail lines which are not operated by the national rail operator, so check if you are not sure. Some of these private operators give a discount to InterRail holders. We have listed many of them at the "regional trains" chapter in special trains. |
|||||
| Making reservations | |||||
You cannot make reservations to go with your railpass online. You can make reservations and pay any supplements or special fares at any station ticket office either in advance or on the day of departure, normally up to half an hour or less before the train leaves. Just show your railpass at the ticket window and ask for the reservation. You can also make reservations when you buy your pass. Just ask the agency that sells you your railpass to make the reservations for you. It's a good idea to make one or two initial reservations when you buy the railpass to get you started, specially if long initial journeys. |
|||||
| Avoiding the supplements? | |||||
Sometimes you can avoid the supplement if you don't mind a slower or less comfortable journey. It is habitual that different types of train may serve one route, and a supplement may be charged only for the faster or more comfortable ones. The choice between speed and comfort or saving the supplement is yours. In other cases, the only way you can avoid the supplement is to take a succession of local trains, involving several changes of train. Final decision is yours but it may be better to pay the supplement. To find out if there is a reasonable non-supplement alternative, use the Europe-wide online timetable at http://bahn.hafas.de, but change the 'means of transport' box at the bottom of the page from 'standard search' to 'without ICE/IC/EC'. |
|||||
| Additional information | |||||
To know detailed information about supplements for each country and train, go to Or you may get some more information about each pass' supplements at Europeanrailguide: You may visit our forums to get some advice or make any question. |
|||||