MisterSteve
Traveller
1058 comments
Posted 3 months ago
I've just received info via the british staff travel desk of compulsory reservations on DB cross border trains on routes which were normally not complsory. The dates given are 1st June-1st September and it is stated that this is ALL cross border "Fernverkehr" except Luxembourg or Switzerland via Lindau. The excuse given is the Football Championship - which doesn't fill those dates so it looks like they are covering up for their long term overcrowding problems. The scary bit is that they say there is a 30€ on board charge for people without reservations, which would include Interrail/Eurail.
I've Googled a few german news items and they confirm that something is happening but don't agree exactly, for instance Bild says that Swiss travel is ONLY affected via Lindau and not via Basel or Schaffhausen and in that case runs to October. The only thing I can find on the DB website is this, which only confirms the football excuse not the excess fee or Swiss routes https://www.bahn.de/faq/reservierungspflicht-grund . The compulsory part of the new rule is normally only the cross border section (the previous summer rule for the whole Netherlands section still applies). bahn.com enquiries should be pointing out "Reservierungspflicht" in the small print of answers but how many Interrailers would read them?
argon
Traveller
423 comments
Btw. it looks like there is another exeption on some other Trains like EC 458/9 .
nltrainer
Traveller
1386 comments
Is an-enlarged-repeat of last year same-same ditto and is mostly due to high demand-too high for them to cope with, also becse of too many failures of ageing complicated (more as 1 system) ICE-sets. has been posted on german abd other continental forums etc at least 3-4 monthes ago by now.
Smarter pass users -and if they do not place too much value on superfast timings- start too find out what other regional/slower trains there are over the borders.
MisterSteve
Traveller
1058 comments
Do these other forums have more definate info or are they just as confused?
argon
Traveller
423 comments
A detailed disscusion in German : https://www.ice-treff.de/index.php?mode=thread&id=692054
MisterSteve
Traveller
1058 comments
I saw that but it doesn't say what the source of the list is and raises the very odd question of the Austrian sections, especially that of travelling to Salzburg from Austria, which is apparently included when travelling Salzburg to Germnay is not......