I am trying to purchase tickets on Italian trains through RailEurope. However, their timetables are different than what are listed on Trenitalia's website. I know that RailEurope doesn't sell all the same trains, but that's not what is happening here - RailEurope actually lists trains and times that Trenitalia does not! I tried to call RailEurope and they were both rude and not helpful. For example, RailEurope lists trains with connecting times that are wrong according to Trenitalia's website. So for instance RailEurope has a train getting into a connection at 4, then leaving at 420 again for the final destination. But the actual Trenitalia website says the train gets into the connecting city at 430 - meaning I would actually MISS the connection to the final destination that RailEurope lists, and be totally SOL. The rude RailEurope operator also made it sound like the ticket was unrefundable - so in other words, they sell me a ticket to a train/time that DOES NOT EXIST, and then they don't refund the ticket, but instead apparently leave you SOL at the station. Has anyone had trouble with RailEurope time tables being wrong, and if so, how did you handle the situation?
Posted by
Danville, VT
12040 posts
"RailEurope Italy Tickets have wrong Times!" I am shocked, shocked, as Claude Rains would say...
Posted by
Knoxville, TN, USA
7209 posts
But what you think you purchase from RailEurope may not be what you actually get. You may get tickets close to the time shown but not exactly. I would stay away from RE if at all possible.
Posted by
Longmont, CO, USA
18 posts
After reading this post and the comments along with another thread on this website, I'm a little concerned.
We're going to Europe for the first time and have rail passes from RailEurope along with reservations on two overnight trains. Should I be worried about having used RailEurope? For all of our other rail travel, we were just planning on making any reservations (if necessary) a few days beforehand at the train station. Is that a good way to do it?
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
Kari,
You should be fine, but for your peace of mind I suggest that you use the timetables on the German Rail site to check the departure times of your night trains.
All national rail companies limit the number of seats they allocate to passholders on trains requiring reservations. This seems to be especially true of SNCF, French National Rail. People have reported not being able to get seat reservations on the TGV of their choice even though the train was not sold out and they could have bought standard fare tickets on the spot. For that reason I suggest that you buy your seat reservations right away after you arrive in each country where you will be taking trains that require them.
Posted by
Longmont, CO, USA
18 posts
Thanks Tim! You've given me peace of mind. I'll check out the times on that website and make sure everything is okay with our reservations. The two overnight trains will be Amsterdam - Munich and Vienna - Venice...so hopefully we won't have the issues you mentioned about the railways in France. ;)
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19274 posts
Limited passholder reservations is also common on Thalys. Some years ago we heard stories of people "stuck" in Brussels because they had rail passes, and the passholder reservations were sold out for days in advance, and long lines to get the next ones. Of course there are always "non-premium" trains, but they are slower.
And remember, except for rail passes, anything sold by RailEurope (seat and night train reservations) are marked up over the in-Europe price.
Most RailEurope tickets I see today, although higher priced than counter tickets over there, are listed as "Restricted", which, if you check the "Fare details", means that they are non-exchangeable. Tickets purchased at the counter in Europe are usually exchangeable if you want another train.