I'm attempting to book travel on https://www.trainline.eu from Spiez, Switzerland, to Paris.
Everything looks good until I select a trip and choose "add to cart" and get the message
"Important! See below that a segment of your trip could not be booked. Please try to boo the entire trip again, or you can book the missing segment separately."
What a hassle! Is this typical? Any recommendations on what to do next? Book individual segments? Use a different site?
Thanks,
Paul
Are you having this problem with just one booking? Which specific segment is the problem, and what is the date of travel?
Because Trainline does not sell tickets for trains in Switzerland. It only covers some countries. If you look at the bottom of their webpage it says "These carriers trust us. We sell their tickets." and shows a number of logos. SBB is not in that list.
You can use Trainline to look up the trains. Then buy a ticket from Basel (the border station where you will get on the TGV) to Paris on Trainline.
You can buy the ticket from Spiez to Basel on the SBB (Swiss Railways) website: https://www.sbb.ch/en They may sell you a Supersaver ticket which will only be valid on one train. If none of these tickets are available, then there is no discount for advance purchase, you can buy at the same price at Spiez station.
I use trainline but my first instinct would be to use sbb.
Thanks so much for your responses. I guess it's just going to be a little more work to book than I had thought! The advice to use trainline to look up trains and specific rail company sites to book travel is very helpful. Thanks again.
paul,
As Chris mentioned, Trainline does not yet sell tickets for SBB (although they might eventually).
The easiest solution (IMO) would be to simply buy tickets locally in Switzerland from Spiez to Basel SBB, and then use Trainline for the TGV from there to Paris. Note that you'll probably arrive at Paris Gare de Lyon.
One of the best websites for checking trains all over Europe is - https://www.bahn.com/en/view/index.shtml .
Thank you Ken,
So the feeling I'm getting is that I don't need to book tickets in advance for Spiez to Basel - just Basal to Paris?
Paul
paul,
Reservations are usually optional on the Swiss trains, so you shouldn't have any trouble getting tickets from Spiez to Basel SBB. I often go to the station and buy tickets the day prior to travel, so I don't have to deal with that when I'm hauling luggage. You could also buy a ticket online on the SBB website for that segment, but if I were making that trip I'd just buy at the station.
The TGV from Basel to Paris will definitely require reservations, so that's why an advance ticket is prudent. I haven't checked but you may be able to get a discounted ticket on the TGV.
Thank you again, Ken.
We're staying in Wengen, and so I presume I could get tickets at Wengen station all the way to Basel?
Paul
Yes, you can buy tickets to Basel from Wengen station.
Yes Paul, you can buy tickets from any Swiss station to any other Swiss station, even if (as in this case) multiple railway companies are involved. You can buy at the manned counter or (faster) from the ticket machine. By default you get tickets for "today", but you can also get tickets in advance for a future date.
Wengen to Basel SBB costs CHF 75.40 (2nd class, no discounts)
Stupid question, If you are actually staying in Wengen, why were you trying to buy tickets from Spiez?
This appears to be a common issue, people ask "what trains do I need to get from A to B" as if each train is independent of all the rest. That is the answer you get from the rail website, not a requisite to find train time info. They have read somewhere you need to go via X, so look up A to X and X to B, and end up with not the best route.
Though, as in this case, you sometimes need to split ticket purchase at railway company boundaries.
Thanks, Chris. You asked 'If you are actually staying in Wengen, why were you trying to buy tickets from Spiez?" - I don't really know what I'm doing, but someone did a bit of research for me and found that on trainline.eu I could book tickets from Rome to Spiez, and then I could just buy tickets locally from there to Wengen...
Anyway, I am now booking Wengen to Basel SSB on ssb.ch, and Basel SSB to Paris on trainline.eu!
I was just on Trainline buying tickets for our upcoming trip in Italy. Read your question, went back on Trainline and was able to put in Spiez to Paris. Picked a date in July and got several options.
@Sue, Yes, that the same as Paul said. Trainline will list trains in Switzerland, but they don't sell tickets for trains that are within Switzerland. Spiez to Paris is two trains:
1) Spiez to Basel
2) Basel to Paris
Trainline will only sell tickets for the second train (Basel to Paris). You can buy Spiez to Basel at the station on the day.
Thanks Chris. Good to know. I didn't go all the way to putting the tickets in the shopping cart.
Learn something all the time on this forum!!
