ratexla
Traveller
7 comments
Posted 12 years ago
I noticed a few of them on my IR trip last year so they do exist... :) If I remember correctly:
Hamburg to Frankfurt
Zürich to Vienna
Zagreb to Split
Vienna to Warzaw
Münich to Basel (Mondays only, or something like that)?
And then there was Budapest to Bucarest - you had to make a reservation, but it was only about 3 euros, not 25-ish like many night trains.
I've scoured the Internet for a complete list of night trains that are free/cheap for IR pass holders... and I found nothing, so how about we make a list of this thread? :D Or I guess I could try to find that famous book of timetables - does it show reservation requirements?
(Sorry if there's already a post like this somewhere! Or if I remembered anything wrong...)
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Hej,
that's a good idea. However, I have to correct you:
Zürich - Wien: 5€ for a seat
München - Basel: No direct trains
In general you can find night trains without the need for reservation mainly in Eastern Europe. Anyway, couchette and sleeper accomodation needs a reservation on every night train - only regular 2nd class seats (1st class seated accomodation rarely exists on night trains) sometimes dont require a reservation.
I'll try to list some I can think of:
Italy: No reservation needed on domestic services, but recommended for 3€
Norway: No reservation needed, you can ask the conductor for free seats
Finland: No reservation required but recommended for 4,70€
UK: A free reservation is needed
Austria: No reservation required if you only travel within Austria. If you want to use Wien - Zürich night train you could for instance stay on the train until Buchs SG (Swiss border) and change there to use other domestic Swiss services to go to Zürich.
Eastern Europe: No reservation required for seats (exception Hungary - Romania and domestic services in Romania)
Germany: Several CNL trains have dedicated carriages which can be used without reservations - however, these usually cannot be used between ~1am and ~4am. Thus you cannot use them to travel the whole journey overnight which makes the whole arrangement a little impractical.
However, there are still some overnight IC/ICE, as the IC Hamburg - Frankfurt, Duisburg - Basel, plus several connections which only run on certain dates (Monday only, Weekend only,...)
Flo 8)
ratexla
Traveller
7 comments
Thanks for the list, I'm bringing it! :)
It's weird about the Zürich-Wien train though - I rode it several nights Zürich-Innsbruck at least, and they never charged me for the seat. :o As I recall I found that confusing though.
Well, in any case 5 E is still cheap, of course.
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Humm...that's weird, since the official regulations for night trains Austria <> Switzerland talk about a 5€ reservation for rail pass holders. Anyway, if you can use them without a reservation, we should not complain, right? :D
Flo 8)
nltrainer
Traveller
1405 comments
have also seen that happen on FR TGV-trains: the girl only has IR and no REServation, smiles belovingly, cannot speak a word of francais, and the conductor has no want for trouble. or maybe is-like the French like so much, on partial strike?
BUT I have also seen IR-users fined for not having the REServation slip and have to pay the fee+fine on top. You never know what will happen.
There are also (moreorless) overnight sitting trains (comfy) with free seating in Denmark: to/fro Kobenhavn, over Storebaelt-to Aarhus and Esbjerg (short nite though)