Is it possible to walk up to an "international tickets" type of ticket window in a major train station such as any of the big ones in London and buy tickets ormore specificallyseat reservations (I will be traveling on a Eurail Pass) for trains in Italy or France? Or must those sorts of items be purchased either online or in person in the country of origin only? I'm leaving for England in 12 days, and I have not yet found some of the trains I want in Italy, Spain, or France, after the schedule changeover, in the official online systems where I can buy them in time to get tickets delivered to me in the US before I leave. I'm looking for options; other than RailEurope, of course. If I wait till the day of travel or the day before, esp for seat resv in France for Eurailpass holders, which I know they severely limit, I may get shut out. But once I leave the US, there's no practical way for tickets I buy online to be delivered to me. What to do? Thx. Tom
Posted by
Oxford, United Kingdom
5460 posts
You need a travel agent for this, eg Rail Europe at 193 Piccadilly, but you will pay booking fees for the service. Oh sorry you didn't want to deal with Rail Europe. There are others, such as Trainseurope which has an office in St Pancras in association with East Midlands Trains (www.trainseurope.co.uk).
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
Because of SNCF's limitations on seat reservatons for passholders you might want to buy those now from Rail Europe for travel in France. Trenitalia doesn't limit the number of seats for passholders so you should be fine buying them at stations in Italy. I don't know what would be best for Spain.
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
33861 posts
There aren't "international tickets" windows any more, and the 2 places mentioned by Marco are the only 2 I can think of. Note that Trainseurope at St Pancras (last window on the far right) also charges a booking fee. Why not get them now and print out at home?
Posted by
NYC
922 posts
Tom, if you DM me I think I have a solution that could work for you.
Posted by
OP
Easley, SC, USA
306 posts
Nigel, I can't get them now because at the moment they're for trains after the summer schedule change and they aren't loaded in the official computers yet. And if they don't get loaded before I leave, it wouldn't matter. As for printing them out, so far I have not been able to enter even fake dates into sites that would sell me just seat reservations and find that I'd be allowed to print at home. All RailEurope allows is a huge charge to mail it to me in the US, and as I said, that's impractical given my schedule. What I'd LIKE would be to buy them online and be able to retrieve them at a station in Europe once I get there, but so far I can't find online places that'd let me do that. Hence my OP... Thx. Tom