One Site for Arranging Trains from One Country to Another

I would not buy tickets from them but did you try RailEurope.com ?
Or buy the book https://www.europeanrailtimetable.eu/

Deutsche Bahn is the most complete source for train schedules for all the national railways of Europe. Currently, some schedules are only published through early December, especially for regional trains or further east. However, it generally only sells tickets that touch Germany, or a shared station like Salzburg.

No one web site sells all tickets. Some of the national railways' own sites will sell a direct ticket that crosses the border (and some won't) and generally none can sell a leg that's entirely within another country, even as part of a connection. Direct Paris to Milan trains (or Chambery to Turin) are French TGV, not really a cooperative effort, so it's not surprising that the Italian site doesn't sell it.

US retailers like Rail Europe have agreements to sell tickets for multiple countries, so they provide a certain level of one-stop shopping that others cannot. At the same time, they can't guarantee to sell every possible option and are not my favorite starting point for timetables.

Yes, the European rail timetable is your friend. It has rail maps of all countries plus the international trains as well as all the schedules. I have used and loved this book for years (used to use it more heavily in the "olden days" when schedules weren't so readily available online).

Consult the source of basic train knowledge: www.seat61.com

Check out Trainline.

https://www.thetrainline.com/trains/europe

The seat61 website is a really good overall site to check trains to all countries in Europe. You can also buy tickets there for at least some trains, but maybe not all. When you can't, they direct you to the correct site to buy tickets.

thanks.

Many people have pointed out on other posts that RailEurope is a reseller. They are definitely lacking when it comes to completeness and being up to date.

By the way, they charge for TGV reservations. I think its $30. Is that about the same as in an SCNF station in France?

When you buy a ticket for the TGV (these are long distance fast trains owned by SNCF) every ticket comes automatically with an assigned seat whether you buy it at station or online. So, it is not really a reservation. When you have bought a Rail Pass you have to pay to reserve seat on the TGV compared to the regional trains that never sell out and where you can just hop on and sit anywhere when using a rail pass.

Seconding the suggestion for Trainline. Small handling fee, but lower prices than Rail Europe and it's easy to see alternative solutions for travel between countries.

YES, Trainline for your circumstance. Honestly, I don't find it that difficult to purchase directly from the country specific website, and I find depending on the country and type of ticket, I purchase tickets at different times. Before purchasing from Raileurope, I sure would check other sources, because their prices tend to be higher. A really good source for train information is Seat61.

As a first look and at the beginning of my travel research, I use Rome2Rio. It is not always reliable, but great as a general estimate for time and mode of transportation.

I'm also a big fan of Trainline. They sell tickets for many different rail networks in Europe, including SNCF, both major networks in Italy, RENFE and I believe Dbahn in Germany. That provides one stop shopping to some extent. Registration on the site is required, including payment details, but after that it's very user friendly. They also have a smartphone app. The have started adding a small surcharge for some trips, but I don't find that to be a problem.

The Man in Seat 61 has a specific page on where to buy tickets: https://www.seat61.com/Europe-train-tickets.htm

Thank you everyone. I will check the links again.

I saw a video of someone taking a series of trains from Zurich to Istanbul, which crossed numerous borders. It seems hard to set up something like that.

I would bet $100 that The Man in Seat 61 has advice for a trip like that, RailRider.

Right now, you can’t find trains between Milan and Paris because of the ongoing rail strikes — so nothing is showing up on the rail operators’ websites (or all trains are showing as fully booked — that is because they are not actually running, so they are not selling tickets).

I echo others’ suggestion to try to plot this out on Trainline — they can handle tickets in all the different countries.

Thank you everyone. This rail strike in France is causing mayhem. I will like have to create a new itinerary on the road. And these sites will be helpful