Help with trains Slovenia to Germany

Posted by Katarina (KY) on 05/03/26 06:13 PM

I will be traveling from Lake Bled, Slovenia, to Fussen, Germany, and am trying to book train tickets for this route on the DB website. This is my first time booking trains to Germany, and I'm confused.
I wanted to book a route with an EC train that goes from Lake Bled all the way to Munich (with two more trains to Fussen). I tried to reserve a seat for this route, but the EC train said "all seats fully booked". Does this mean that no seats are available, or only that I can't reserve a seat?

Other routes leaving from Lake Bled have a transfer in Villach, but only 6 minutes transfer time. Is that enough time to transfer trains? It doesn't seem like enough time, but I don't have experience with trains.

I very much appreciate any advice!

Posted by l-b_m

05/03/26 06:33 PM

178 posts

What dates are you looking at? Iirc trains far in the future do display fully booked when there is simply no booking available yet.

Posted by WengenK

Wengen

05/03/26 06:33 PM

3866 posts

What date are you travelling?

My guess is that your trip is a non trivial amount of days in the future. It is quite common that you cannot reserve seats for trains that are far in the future because the seat inventory has not been loaded in the system. In this part of Europe seat inventory and tickets live in completely unrelated universes.

Trains as a rule do not book out months in advance. They would be useless if they did. You would be able to buy a ticket for this trip even on the morning of your departure at the train station. Booking in advance does give you a discount though.

My suggestion:
- Buy a ticket now. Reserve seats separately closer to your departure. (You could do that even in Blef).
- Do not worry about the 6 minute connection. That is just the railways trying not to wate your time. (If they made it longer it would be a discrace...). And if you were to miss the connection due to a delay you just take the next train. From Villach to Salzburg and on the Munich the trains run every hour.

Remember that trains are mass transit. You are doing a very trivial thing, akin to taking a subway in a major metropolis. Just with nicer scenery and better trains.

Posted by Sam

Green Bay

05/03/26 07:33 PM

23411 posts

This train does not go into service until June 14. I looked at OEBB, and the block to reserve seats is blurred out, meaning they are not taking seat reservations yet.

June 14 is the general timetable revision date for European trains. It is obviously planned, as DB and OEBB are able to access the schedule and sell tickets, but since the train originates in Croatia, that could be the hold up. Although the train is scheduled, they may not have the train carriage makeup finalized, thus unable to sell seat reservations.