Reservations with rail pass

If you wish to purchase reservations only, you will either have to deal with RailEurope (higher per-reservation charges, but lower processing/delivery charges) or Euraide (lower per/reservation fees, but higher processing/delivery charge). Since you want just one journey, RailEurope may be your best bet.

Are you taking any night trains? If so, you should buy your reservation/sleeping accommodation supplement ASAP. Popular night trains can sell out weeks in advance.

If you're only traveling during the day, you can buy seat reservations at the station for trains that require them, either in advance or on the day of travel. Note: There is a little bit of risk in doing this at the last minute. Train companies limit the number of seats they set aside for passholders. If you need to take a particular train and the allotted number of passholder seats is gone, you would have to buy a standard fare ticket.

You should be able to make your reservations on the Swiss train website. Go to www.sbb.ch/en/index.htm and proceed to book a trip from S-Hertogenbosch to Gimmelwald. On the run you want, select Fare/Buy and go through the process. When you see Discount Switzerland, open the window and select Eurail Pass and then proceed. You wil have to register on the website to complete this process. If you have questions as you proceed through, write them down and email the Swiss website. They are very responsive.

Note that your Eurail pass will only get you a 25% discount from Interlaken to Gimmelwald and a zero discount on the bus that you will need to ride to get to the Stechelberg gondola station that takes you to Gimmelwald. Anywhere in the valley, your pass will only get you a 25% discount.

Next, on the several trains from NL, some are ICE premium trains. With your Eurail pass, you will pay an additional supplemental fee on these trains. As you look at the train runs on the Swiss site, look for the Z to the right in the comments section. This indicates a supplemental fee. Since I've never had a Eurail pass, I'm not sure if the reservation you are making on the Swiss site will cover all of the supplemental fees for the entire run. I'm sure it will for travel in Switzerland including the extra costs you need in the Lauterbrunnen Valley. I just am unsure about the premium trains in Germany. Again, you can ask the Swiss website.

Thank you so much! I just submitted a request for fare prices to them. I will be taking night trains on the way down but not on the way back. I'm not entirely set on Gimmelwald yet, but definitely want to end up in the general area.

Stacey, great move. I would be really interested in the SBB response when you get it.

German Rail will sell you, online, seat reservations only for the German portion of the trip, ie. Oberhausen to Basel.

I'm sure if you call them in Germany, at +49 1805 996633, they will sell you reservations the entire way.

This is the reply that I received from Swiss Rail:

Price enquiries and orders for journeys from abroad to Switzerland, for outbound journeys from the Swiss border, or for journeys outside of Switzerland are primarily to be addressed to the railway company of the country concerned.

For this reason we ask you, to get the information about prices and timetables on one of the following web sites:

Germany: www.bahn.de

France: www.voyages-sncf.com

Italy: www.trenitalia.com

Austria: www.oebb.at/vip8/oebb/en/index.jsp

Denmark: www.rejseplanen.dk/bin/query.exe/en?

Spain: www.renfe.com

Hungary: www.mav.hu

Czech Republic: www.cd.cz

Poland: www.pkp.pl

Belgium: www.b-rail.be

Netherlands: www.ns.nl

Croatia: www.hznet.hr

England: www.rail.co.uk

Portugal: www.cp.pt

Slovak Republic: www.zsr.sk

Eurostar: www.eurostar.com (for London - Paris or vice versa)

Your query has not been processed.

Thanking you in advance for your understanding.

Stacey, Very nice of you to come back with that response. I was concerned that Switzerland would not handle your reservation outside of their border. You can get this taken care of at the rail station in the NL when you get there or deal with RailEurope or Euraide for advance reservations for the whole trip. But, I'm betting that anything that they do in the Netherlands or on Raileurope will only cover you to Interlaken. The Swiss have this funny thing going that they want to be paid in Swiss Francs for any travel from Interlaken into the Lauterbrunnen Valley and up to the mountain tops. The Jungfraubahn and the Schilthornbahn are private railways. I've run into this from Italy. I had to wait until I arrived in Switzerland before I could purchase the remainder of my journey to Lauterbrunnen. Good luck on this. You'll be just fine. The conductors will be able to advise you on any issues as you go along.

Thanks Larry! I'm mostly just worried about not being able to reserve the night train. I tried on the NL website but it wants me to pay outright and doesn't give a railpass option :-/ Guess I'll have to wait til I get there and then pray there are still couchettes available.

Jeanna, in general, that 1st class/2nd class thing is just a RE ploy to get you to buy more expensive, and more profitable for them, rail passes. Check on the Euraide site for the actual pass requirements for the accommodation reservations. From what I have seen, on most night trains, the only accommodations that require a first class pass are either single or deluxe compartments. Also, sometimes the same accommodations will have a higher supplement with a 2nd class pass than with a 1st class pass.

I would not count on couchettes being available when you arrive in Europe. Night trains are still very popular and sell out long before train time on popular routes.

The night train segment of your trip is going to be from Utrecht (21:01) to Basel SBB (6:54) on CityNightLine train 40419. CityNightLine is a subsidiary of German Rail. You should be able to book that by calling German Rail at +49 1805 99 66 33. They will probably have someone to help you in English.

Tell them you have a railpass and only want the Aufpreis (supplement).

Another reservation question -- on the raileurope site, I'm assuming that the reservation must match the type of pass? If I am using a Youth Pass, must I purchase a second-class reservation? Some of the first-class are actually cheaper or have couchettes available. I don't want to show up with mismatched reservation/pass and realize I need to re-purchase one or the other!

One more -- the raileurope site lists the rail service at left. If the train is not designated as TGV, but is only "Train 4653," does that mean that it does not require reservations as a TGV or other high speed train would? The only fishy thing about this is that the two (Train 4653 vs. TGV) appear to take the same amount of time for the same leg.

Thanks!

Hi
This is a related question. Can someone please tell me whether it is possible to make reservations for another country's trains from e.g Munich's main rail station. My family of 4 have a rail pass and will be travelling for 6 weeks in Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, France and Belgium. I am not worried about getting seats on the German trains but as we will be in Italy and France in July I would like to reserve some of our longer trips eg Berchtesgaden to Venice, Rome to Lausanne, Lausanne to Colmar and Colmar to Brussels. We will be travelling on day trains only. I know which trains (times etc ) that we want to take.
Thank you
Rosemary

I ended up calling Rail Europe and booking my night train and the train back. They were IC or ICE trains (don't remember which). I hate RE, but I didn't really have a choice. They did tell me that it wouldn't be necessary to book any of the other parts of the trip though.

My tickets were sent 2-day air mail from Rail Europe. You might want to call them today.

Short response to the person wanting the ICE from Frankfurt to Paris...

Although ICE trains are almost all no-reservation-required in Germany, I believe when that crosses the French border, a reservation is required. I rode the TGV version of that train about a month ago going the other direction, and you needed a reservation in France, but as soon as it entered Germany, the requirement was lifted.

Additionally, SNCF may be limiting the number of railpass reservations available on the Paris-Frankfurt trains, half of which are French TGV and the other half are German ICE, with mixed crews. Not sure if the limitation is popping up in Deutsche Bahn's computers as they tend not to limit these things.

Best advice, skip RailEurope and make an international phone call to Deutsche Bahn (this is a good opportunity to learn how to use Skype or GoogleVoice). Ask for an english speaker, and tell them you have a railpass and want to make ONLY a seat reservation for that train. Ask them if the number of railpass reservations is capped for that train. If it is, ask how to make a reservation and what the options are for ticket delivery (emailed pdf?).

Good luck.

Similar problem;
We are a party of 3 with the 6-day/2-month Pass; arriving in Frankfurt in six days; overnight rest stop and then ICE to Paris on June 1. Will it be sufficient to make reservations upon arrival on 5/31 for the 6/1 departure?

Next leg is June 8 Paris to Chalon sur Saone (part TGV). Will June 1 be timely enough for this reservation?

I am willing to pay a surcharge for an on-line reservation, but I doubt that mail delivery will work at this late date.

Any advice is appreciated.

Bill Butler

Best advice, skip RailEurope and make an international phone call to Deutsche Bahn <<

Tried several times; they were so busy I couldn't even get in to the waiting queue. The recording just said they were too busy and disconnected.

Resorted to RailEurope; got the reservations (and sevral others I need later in the month.) Pricy, but it is worth something to eliminate the uncertainty.

Thanks for all the assistance. Next time I'll provide myself with more lead time.