TRN Autres...

I haven't found TRN Autres, but in my experience, you can always buy tickets, at the counter in Europe, for less than on Rail Europe. And, if you can find a train on the national rail company's website in Europe, you can probably get discount below that for advance purchase. OK, I just found one (quick search). For Munich to Plattling, RailEurope lists a TRN Autres 4062, leaving Munich at 8:24, arriving Plattling at 9:54. RailEurope's price is $42 (plus I imagine shipping). That's €31,10 at today's exchange rate. German Rail lists the very same train, RE 4062, same times. Their price, online or at the counter, anytime, is €24,80. You can purchase the ticket online with a credit card and they will email it to you as a pdf file, no charge. So, RailEurope is charging 25% more. Further, for one person, a Bayern-Ticket for that train would be just €21. I guess "TRN Autres" is Raileuropese for gyp. Seriously, it looks like TRN Autres, "other train", means a regional connection instead of an express train. You should be able to buy the ticket the day of travel at the station. In Germany, as long as you are staying in one German state, or Land, you can usually buy a hop on/off, all day regional pass, called a Länder ticket (Bayern Ticket in Bavaria), for unlimited travel €21 Single or €29 for up to 5 people.

Thanks, Tim. I had never notice that because I always query a couple of months out. What fares they show depends on what they sell online, so I guess that means you can purchase regional tickets online, but only for the next week. However, for comparisons, it probably doesn't matter, 'cause you're only going to buy them at the counter, anyway.

Thanks Lee, I was just trying to get an idea of costs. We're traveling from town to town, Rome, Orvieto, Siena, Cinque terre, Florence and Venice. RS never used that term either, I was just wondering if I missed something.

In the past many of us have criticized RailEurope for only selling point-point tickets for the fastest, most expensive trains and ignoring less expensive (regional) options. This makes comparing point-point tickets to rail passes inaccurate, with a bias towards rail passes. Now, apparently, they are showing some of the less expensive trains, but still with their markup. The only way to get accurate p-p fares is to use the national rail companies' websites. They show the price at the counter over there. Unfortunately, you will be traveling in Italy, and Trenitalia has stopped showing the counter fare for regional trains. All you can be sure of is that the counter fares will be substantially less than the express fares shown on Trenitalia, and somewhat less than TRN Autres fares shown by Rail Europe. Trenitalia does show the times for a few of the regional trains, but a lot of them will be masked by the express trains, and there is no way to filter regional trains only on Trenitalia. If you want to find the schedule for regional trains in Italy, I suggest you use the German Rail website and select "local transport only". You wont know the fares, but at least you'll know what trains are available.

Trenitalia does show fares for regional trains, but only seven days out. You can get timetables farther ahead than that, but the fare will be shown as "N/A".