Joshrowan
Traveller
1 comments
Posted 13 years ago
I'm wondering if there's any flexibility regarding reservations. I.e. if I missed the planned train which I reserved would I be able to catch the next train without any extra cost? If not, what would happen since I would want to board the train shortly and It would be too late to reserve again? What's the latest you can reserve? Many thanks :D
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Hi!
If you miss a train for which you have a reservation it depends on why and how you have missed it. If it is your own fault - bad luck! If you missed because a connection was late, you usually should get a reservation for the next possible train free of charge, at least on domestic connections including only one railway company. On international connections this can be a little more tricky and depends on several things, so I cant make a clear statement for that.
Some examples from personal experience: ;)
- CNL overnight train Berlin - Paris was about 30min late upon arrival in Paris. We (5 persons) had reservations for a TGV to Calais to go to London by ferry. Departure of TGV was 30 min after scheduled arrival of the train so we decided to try our luck and run the few hundred metres from Gare de l'Est to Gar du Nord to try and catch the TGV. We didnt manage it but were able to catch a train via Amiens some minutes later so we finally arrived in London about two hours later.
The 5x3€ reservation were lost...if we had stayed at Gare de l'Est we could have exchanged the reservations for a later TGV but with the risk that we wouldnt get a ferry to London...
- ICE/X2 Hamburg - Kobenhavn - Stockholm: ICE was more than half an hour late in Kobenhavn due to construction work on the line. Two friends had reservations (7€each) for the X2 to Stockholm, the last connection of the day. It did not wait so they were stuck in Kobenhavn. They finally got offered a free hotel night in Kobenhavn plus a free reservation for a X2 the next morning or a free reservation for the sleeper train Malmö - Stockholm the same evening.
- CNL/TGV Praha - Strasbourg - Perpignan - Barcelona: I wanted to go Praha - Offenburg with CNL overnight train, then go to Strasbourg to catch the TGV to Montepellier and travel on to Barcelona to watch World Cup Final... The CNL was late due to construction works so I could not catch the TGV in Strasbourg. Instead I went to Basel where I wanted to catch the train to Mulhouse to catch the TGV there but missed it by some seconds. Then I went to Geneve where I missed a TGV very close and finally ended up in Lyon to catch a TGV to Perpignan. For this I had to pay 15€ on board the train and all my other reservations were useless... :(
The latest you can reserve is usually either some minutes before departure at the originating station or at the station of your departure, this is different from country to country. If you board a train without a reservation (a train where you need one) you usually have to pay a higher fare that for a reservation in advance.
Flo 8)
Joshrowan
Traveller
1 comments
Thank you very much for your help :)
nltrainer
Traveller
1404 comments
there is since a few years an EUROPEAN rule for delays in INTERNational train traffic for things like this. You MUST-when you note the delay, go immediately to some official and get a new trip worked out-if flow had done that in his example of CH-he would not have need to pay extra. It varies-remember, there are 30+ countries involved, how strict it is applied-but the example for Kobenhavn shows what should be possible.
There is 1 catch: with IR you do NOT qualify for a payment, that some countries also offer as compensation for very late running.
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
How do you think that should have worked getting a free reservation from SBB in Genève or from SNCF in Lyon because the CNL was late in Basel?