Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Posted 14 years ago
Hi!
Yes, this is correct - all InterRail passes [b]are not[/b] valid in your country of residence. In most countries you get a reduction (50% mostly) for a ticket from the place where you live until the border and back - but this reduction does not apply if you make a transfer journey through your country of residence during your trip. Sorry. :|
[u]https://rail.cc/en/how-to-interrail[/u]
If you still want to do this trip you could try to change the route to some other places or your friend could look for some cheap tickets bought in advance - but you are then fixed on a certain date and train.
Flo 8)
anonymous
Traveller
2469 comments
Hey.
I have a question about traveling in your home country. Do they really check this? And if you are caught traveling your own country with the Interrail Global Pass, what would happen? Will they just kick you out of the train or will you have to pay lots of fees? We want to travel from Austria back home to Northern Germany and that takes awfully long using Regional Trains (which would be included in the Schönes-Wochenede-Ticket) and using the ICE is not affordable for us. Probably the conductor CAN demand the full payment plus fees, but how likely is this? So far everyone seems to be really easy going on the ticket (not checking the Travel Report or Passport). How is this in Germany?
Thanks for your help,
zenabi
Peter
Traveller
9333 comments
Hi.
The country of residence is printed in front of your InterRail Pass. So every conductor checking your ticket will immediately see this.
If you are caught, you are treated like someone using a train without a ticket - okay, some conductors might be nice and give you a special price, but don't count on this!
Best option for you: the Europa Spezial tickets of Deutsche Bahn (book them via their website). As you already know your date when traveling back home (the ending date of your InterRail pass), buy these tickets as early as possible. Will be then EUR 29 for an ICE from Austria back home to the place you live in Northern Germany.
Other option would be going up via Benelux or Poland.
I know the rule of the country of residence is sad - I live as well in Germany. And makes InterRail travel expensive. The reason for this rule is to avoid the abuse of the ticket by commuters.
Details to the rule: [u]https://rail.cc/en/how-to-interrail[/u]
Peter :)
Castaway
Traveller
23 comments
Peter, but don't you always have to go to the ticket counter, even if you have an InterRail pass, in order to get on a train? At least that was what I was told.
Peter
Traveller
9333 comments
hi Luis.
who told you this ...?!?
it is definitely WRONG !!!!
you do NOT have to a go to a ticket counter before you want to use a train.
if it is a train without a supplement ( [u]https://rail.cc/en/interrail-train-reservation[/u] ) you just enter the train and sit down. :)
if it is a train with a supplement, you have to go to a ticket counter and buy the supplement.
Peter :)
Castaway
Traveller
23 comments
LMAO
I was told that here in Portugal by CP (which is the railway company operating here)...
Thanks a lot for the info!
Luis
Peter
Traveller
9333 comments
Never trust the information given at railway stations... ;)