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Urgent help required - Eurail pass Night Train options

Posted by (Dunedin, New Zealand) on

Hello all,
I have spent hours on hours trying to research the following.

In a couple of weeks, my partner and I, with 1st Class Eurail Saver passes, need to travel from Florence to Lyon.

This appears to be approx 10:30 hours travel, so obviously as we are on limited time, we would like to do this overnight.

But I have found 101 different answers when it comes to how much it will cost us (on top of our Eurail pass) for this journey on the CNL.

We want to do it for as cheap as possible - so are prepared to just sleep on reclining chairs (I have travelled in Germany 3 years ago with plenty of night travel, so understand security issues etc).

However, I want to be sure:

a) That the trains will actually have the standard reclining chairs - do all CNL trains have them, or do some only have Sleepers & Couchettes?

b) approximately how much it will cost

Any help is greatly appreciated - this planning is getting a bit stressful! Especially as the cost of this trip is skyrocketing by the day! (Awful exchange rate).

Many thanks.

Posted by
8700 posts

According to the timetables at www.bahn.de, your best route is Florence-Dijon on a night train and Dijon-Lyon on a regional train. The night train is EN 226. (This is a EuroNight train, not a CNL train.)

According to this page on the EurAide site, that train does not have reclining seats. The page lists the in-Europe price of sleeping accommodations for railpass holders which is what you would pay if you wait until you get to Europe to buy them. However, since popular night trains can sell out weeks in advance, you may not want to wait. You can buy the supplements now through Rail Europe or by phoning the German Rail call centre. Dial your country's international access code + 49 1805 - 996633. You'll pay more using Rail Europe. If you phone German Rail, you'll get the in-Europe price.

Posted by
19099 posts

I don't know about this EuroNight train specifically, but many of the night trains are now using the old side aisle coaches that have been abandoned in favor of aircraft style seating on day trains. These seats do fold down so that, if there is no one opposite you, you can fold down both seats and lie flat.

But, this experience should be a lesson to everyone planning a trip. Before you commit to a railpass, find out what it entails, e.g., how do you get night train reservations and for how much. Sometimes, night train reservations are almost impossible to get until you arrive in Europe and might be sold out by then.

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