On some of our intended trains in Switzerland and Austria, RailEurope "recommends" a reservation. Since I understand they get a commission for every reservation they book (fair enough; they're in business), I'm a bit skeptical, and in some cases we'd like to be somewhat flexible. How important are reservations (where they're not required)?
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19109 posts
I've only once been on a train (in Germany) that had reservable seats and was SRO, and it had plenty of unreserved seats. I could have reserved seats at the station when I bought the tickets. That's what I would do. German Rail charges €4,50 for a reservation in 2nd class (€5,50 in first) if you buy it at a ticket counter or separately with a rail pass, or €2,50 (2nd class, €3,50 1st) online or from an automat with a ticket.
Posted by
Cary, NC
687 posts
Depends on the train and the day. I've been on trains that were SRO as in standing room only in Europe, although not in Switzerland or Austria. I would take a look at bahn.de to see if they were also showing "recommended", and take into account how long you'd be on the train. And I wouldn't buy the reservation from Rail Europe in any case - I'd either buy it from the national rail service or wait until I got there.
Posted by
Seattle, WA
16385 posts
You are right to be skeptical. We have spent about 8 weeks in Switzerland over the last few years, and have ridden a lot of trains. Other than the commuter train from Zurich airport to downtown, the only time we found a train crowded was going into Zurich on the day of the Street Parade, when a million or so people show up to party. The Swiss rail site has a code for expected occupancy of the trains, rating them low, medium, or high as it gets close to the date. You could check that a few days ahead of your travel date and reserve then if it looked to be crowded. Note that I am talking only about transport trains between towns and villages, not the tourist or special trains like the one up Schynige Platte or Mt. Pilatus. These are often booked by tour groups by the carloads, leaving few seats for independent travelers.
Posted by
Corona, CA, USA
22 posts
We are traveling now. I would recommend that when you arrive at your destination, you should get to the train station and make your reservations as soon as practical. We missed out on an early morning train because the information desk said we could do it in the morning. We just had to take a later train, but it threw us into plan B (or was it C by that time?)!