We have several train trips coming up next month (Paris/Cologne, Basel/Appenzell, Appenzell/Lyon, Lyon/Paris) & have purchased individual tickets (rather than pass) for all. Some are reserved seats & a few open. Do we need to validate our tickets at a machine at the station or just board & sit? I always get confused about this. Thanks for your assistance.
Posted by
Seattle, WA
16247 posts
You do not need to validate a ticket for a reserve red seat on a particular train. Open tickets for any train do need to be validated. That cancels the ticket so you cannot use it twice.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19092 posts
Bahn tickets do not have to be validated. The conductor does that on the train. Assuming Koeln to Basel is on the Bahn line up the Rhein (and not through France) you will not have to validate your tickets.
Posted by
London, United Kingdom
4684 posts
If you board a train in France you will need to validate tickets before you board: the rail staff are often not friendly to tourists who don't. Look for the yellow machines at the entrances to the platforms.
Posted by
OP
Piedmont, CA, US
18 posts
Thank you all for your helpful responses!
Posted by
Atlanta, GA, USA
142 posts
One thing about the YELLOW machines. GO to the SMALL yellow machines not the big kiosks. We were confused by that so don't make our same mistake.
Posted by
OP
Piedmont, CA, US
18 posts
Thank you for your continued helpful responses. The good news is that we'll use this info for our next trip to Europe. The bad news is that this trip was canceled at the last minute --3 days before leaving -- due to the extremely low water levels in the Rhine River (it was supposed to be a river cruise to see the Christmas markets). Maybe next year . . .
Posted by
San Francisco
123 posts
I was in France this summer and traveled by train with reserved seats. We were told at the station we did NOT need to validate these at the stations, so we did not - we just boarded and sat. On board the conductor came around and asked for tickets and never once said that we should have validated them. I believe that is only for open tickets.