Rail Reservations

Tom, You'll need to make reservations for whichever trains they're compulsory. You can determine which trains require reservations by checking the rail websites for each rail system you'll be using (ie: SBB in Switzerland, bahn.de in Germany). I never buy reservations prior to arriving in Europe, as it's so easy to get them there at local rail stations. I often arrange reservations or P-P tickets a few days in advance when I arrive in each town, since I'm at the station anyway. Prior to first use, you'll need to validate your Railpass by presenting it and your Passport at the first station you use. It will stamped by the ticket agent. You might find it helpful to click the "Railpasses" tab at the top of this page, as there's an excellent tutorial there on how to use Railpasses. Happy travels!

Many thanks. Used them before but it has been a few years. Cheers.

RailEurope sells reservations. I'm sure if you asked them, they'd say to buy them. In 10 years of traveling in Europe, the only time I have ever purchased reservations were for three trains (two tickets) for which I got discounted, Sparpreis, tickets from the Bahn. Reservations were €2,50 (½ price) with the SparPreis ticket so I said "why not". I didn't need them. One other time I rode an ICE on a holiday and had to stand for half an hour. All seats were occupied, but only about half were reserved. I could have made reservations when I bought my tickets, less than an hour before train time and had a seat.

Some countries such as Switzerland and the Netherlands don't do reservations. Exception in Switzerland are some of the private scenic trains have first class reservations. On the national trains in CH and NL even ICE and TGV do not require reservations for travel exclusively within that country. So Travel into France from CH would require one.