I've traveled on trains several times in Italy, France, and Germany. The last time we were in Germany (March) we didn't have reserved seats for any trips and several of the trains were so full that we were sitting on the floor, crammed in a corner, by the door and surrounded by luggage for an hour and a half or more. That's fine for the shorter rides but for longer trips especially weekends (Sunday late afternoon) I'm thinking a reserved seat might be worth the money. Ok, so now my question. Switzerland and Italy...late Sept/early Oct. Would you expect the train travel to be standing room only then also? Can you reserve seats in First Class only? Or 2nd Class also? Can reserved seats be purchased from home or does that have to happen over there? Can you get reserved seats with the "mini" fares or Swiss pass? Is it an additional cost?
Posted by
Birmingham, Alabama, USA
290 posts
I can speak to trains reserved through TrenItalia, in which case you can specify first class or second class, and many trains offer the ability to choose your seats. On the routes that I have traveled I have seen full-ish trains but never any so packed that it was standing room only. If you post specific routes (not clear if you are looking for trains within Italy and within Switzerland, or between the two countries), we might be able to help you figure out more specific details.
Posted by
Seattle, WA
16401 posts
If you buy tickets on Trenitalia for the IC and ES trains (that is, not Regional trains) the ticket price includes a seat reservation. That is true for the mini fares as well. For Switzerland, you can get reserved seats with a Swiss pass if you pay extra. Just go to the station a day or so ahead and reserve your seats. It's around 5 CHF if you do it online; maybe more if you do it at the station. However, we have traveled around Switzerland quite a lot, and only once did we encounter a "standing room only" train. That was heading toward Zurich on a mainline train on the day of the Street Parade, which brings somewhere between half a million and a million people to Zurich. Especialy in the tourist areas (the alps), the trains should not be crowded in late September, which is well past high season for visits to the mountains. Two exceptions: (1) If you are traveling near the cities (i.e., between say Lausanne and Geneva) on what might be deemed a "commuter" run, at commute hours (early morning, late afternoon), them maybe you would encounter a crowded train. (2) Sometimes a large tour group will book a whole car on one of the scenic trains or tourist trains like the Jungfraujoch. We did encounter this on the train up to Schynige Platte, but we did not have luggage and pepple just moved over and made room for us. (This was an old cogsweehl train with wooden benches, not individual seats.) The SBB website actually shows how crowded a train is expected to be right on the website--look for the little "people" in the Occupancy column.