When I go to book Bergen to Voss (R40, 8:29-9:43am) via Vy app it says free seating and if I try to book on the website it says without seat reservation, we cannot guarantee a seat. We are a family of four. Also available is F4 (8:14-9:20am) which costs 70 NOK more but has seat reservations. How important is having a seat? We are traveling June 21, 2023. Will we be able to get on R40 and possibly have to stand?
70 NOK is only $6.00. I would get seat reservations because the trains are usually very crowded.
R40 is a regional train which doesn’t offer seat reservations. F4 is a long distance train with final destination Oslo and offers seat reservations.
I’ve taken both regional and long distance trains - the long distance train was slightly more comfortable and also had food service onboard. Otherwise about the same.
If you get to the station early you should be able to get a seat on R40, it is open seating. Of course instead of arriving early for R40 you could book F4 and get to Voss earlier. Is the extra bit of time in Voss useful for you or would you rather have it in Bergen, and do you have a tight connection to Gudvangen?
Thanks for the info. No extra time needed in Bergen and just planning to continue on to Gudvangen via the bus.
As mentioned, R40 is a regional train with no seat reservations possible. But I would not be worried about that, at 8.29 from Bergen you are catching the tail end of the rush hour, but you are travelling against the morning traffic so the train will probably not be full. And it originates in Bergen so if you don't arrive at the last minute you should be able to find seats.