JonahTaylor
Traveller
1 comments
Posted 6 years ago
Hello,
Me and my friend are Inter-railing in July and would like to book 4 trains. The Interrail website said that reservations were mandatory but could not be made through them. Therefore I was wondering if you can help.
The trains we would like to book are:
Leaving Sofia on 19/07/2018 at 21:15 and arriving at Halkali (Istanbul) on 20/07/2018 at 07:40
Leaving Halkali (Istanbul) on 22/07/2018 at 21:40 and arriving at Dimitrovgrad on 23/07/2018 at 04:30
Leaving Videle on 23/07/2018 at 22:11 and arriving at Buceresti Nord on 23/07/2018 at 23:02
Leaving Buceresti Nord on 25/07/2018 at 21:20 and arriving at Timisoara Nord on 26/07/2018 at 06:52
Please note that we have already bought interrail tickets, so we do not want to buy a ticket, we just want to make a reservation. Please let me know if you are able to do this for us and what the reservation fee would be.
Many Thanks,
Jonah Taylor
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Hi Jonah, welcome to railcc!
We do not offer any particular reservation service - but we can guide you and give advice on your route.
Sofia - Istanbul/Halkali: only available locally at a train station (not necessarily in Sofia/Bulgaria, can also be done abroad as long as you encounter a capable agent at the ticket window); however you can contact RILA travel agency and ask if they can make a booking for you (let us know if that worked): [ux]http://www.bdz.bg/en/railway-ticket-agency-rila/railway-ticket-agency-rila.html[/ux]
Istanbul/Halkali - Dimitovgrad: as above; anyway, where do you want to travel here? I assume you plan on travelling from Istanbul to Bucharest? Then simply book a reservation in the couchette coach that is running through all the way from Istanbul to Bucharest - that also solves the "problem" with the Videle - Bucharest reservation...
Videle - Bucharest: see above
Bucharest - Timisoara: only available locally at stations; you can also try at international ticket windows in other countries
In the future you can support our work by booking your Interrail ticket through one of our affiliate links: [ux]https://rail.shop/interrail/[/ux] - thank you! :)
Flo
JonahTaylor
Traveller
1 comments
Hi Flo,
Thankyou very much, you are a lot more helpful than interrail\'s actual website :)
Please could you also explain to me what the couchette coach? When i try booking the journey from Istanbul to Bucharest through interrail it breaks it up to include the changes, each of which can be booked separately, so i did not realise you could book a chouchette coach the whole way?
Thanks again,
Jonah
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Thank you ;)
It might get complicated now but bear with me...
There are two night trains from Istanbul: one to Sofia, one to Bucharest. Both depart from Istanbul at the same time and run combined until Dimitrovgrad. From Dimitrovgrad, one part of the train continues via Plovdiv to Sofia, while the other part runs via Ruse to Bucharest.
From the view of the train operating company, there is only one train, running from Istanbul to Sofia. This train carries the "through coaches" to Bucharest. These through coaches (from Istanbul to Bucharest) are not an actual "train" but are conveyed with a number of other trains along their way:
- from Istanbul to Dimitrovgrad with the night train Istanbul - Sofia
- from Dimitrovgrad to Gorna Orjahovitsa with a regular domestic express train
- from Gorna Orjahovitsa to Bucharest with the Sofia - Bucharest express train
This means: you can book a reservation in a couchette from Istanbul to Bucharest and can stay the whole journey in your bed/compartment in your coach. The coach simply gets attached from one train to another several times during the journy. No need for you to change trains.
The online schedule planners need to be fed with this particular information but nobody seems to care/feel responsible to do that in that part of the world. ;)
This apparently also affects the interrail.eu booking mechanism.
You can find the exact schedule of the connection, including the different trains used here: [ux]http://p.bdz.bg/s/o/sofia-istanbul-sofia-01062018-01102018-9238.pdf[/ux]
Coach 479 is the through coach (couchette) from Istanbul to Bucharest.
Also read the blog about my journey a few years ago: [ux]https://rail.cc/blog/bucharest-sofia-istanbul-train/[/ux]
Flo