Reservations via railcc for Night Trains & some others

Peter
Traveller
9333 comments

Hi Richard.

I recommend to book CNL night trains directly via the Deutsche Bahn railcc tool (official booking tool of the German national railway in the railcc version - with the same functions and prices for you):
[ux]https://rail.shop/bahn[/ux]

It seems at the beginning a bit complicate, but it is easy if you do it step by step like described for example here bellow the map ([u]https://rail.cc/en/night-train/duesseldorf-vienna-en-421/43[/u]). Then you get it as e-ticket. (every ticket/reservation has it special ways to get them). :)

[b]Koblenz - Linz[/b]: booking like mentioned above via [ux]https://rail.shop/bahn[/ux] - [u]https://rail.cc/en/night-train/duesseldorf-vienna-en-421/43[/u]

[b]Wien - Frankfurt[/b]: booking like mentioned above via [ux]https://rail.shop/bahn[/ux] - [u]https://rail.cc/en/night-train/vienna-duesseldorf-en-420/44[/u]

[b]Berlin - Budapest[/b]: booking like mentioned above via [ux]https://rail.shop/bahn[/ux] - [u]https://rail.cc/en/night-train/berlin-budapest-en-477/53[/u]

In Eastern Europe it is a bit complicate. I recommend to buy these reservations on your arrival in Germany (if you arrive in Germany) at a railway station. Day trains are easy to get at the departure stations.

Budapest - Timisoara: Budapest station or Germany
Timisoara - Bucharest: station Germany or during your trip
Bucharest - Valea: station Germany or during your trip
Debrecen - Budapest: Debrecen station or Germany
Salzburg - Zagreb: station in Germany - or [ux]https://rail.shop/oebb[/ux] (not always possible, depends on date)
Zagreb - Munich: station in Germany - or [ux]https://rail.shop/bahn[/ux] (not always possible, depends on date)
Paris - Madrid: station in Germany - or online. Usually you can book via elipsos.com - as you book from Australia, you have to use rail-europe
Madrid - Lisbon: [ux]https://rail.shop/acprail/renfe[/ux]
Lisbon - Madrid: [ux]https://rail.shop/acprail/renfe[/ux]
Madrid - Paris: like above in the reverse way
Paris - Strasbourg: station Germany or [ux]https://rail.shop/sncf/reservation[/ux]
Paris/Strasbourg - Mannheim: station Germany
München - Budapest: like the CNL trains above via [ux]https://rail.shop/bahn[/ux]

For all others using with your Balkan pass: you can try to get them in Germany already at a station. But usually it shouldn't be a problem to make the reservations as well during your trip in Eastern Europe.

I'm sorry that I can't give you the perfect solution and that not all trains are available online.

If you have the option to make cheap calls to Germany (but it is a service number), you can also try to order by phone and pick them up at a ticket machine arriving in Germany: + 49 1805 - 996633
Or try a service partner which you can find at bahn.com

Peter :)

Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

Hej Richard,

I am currently in Istanbul so I cant comment on every detail and cant check my documents...

However, I will try to add some extra comments.

Budapest - Timisoara - Bucharest. Is there a special reason why you dont travel with one of the direct night trains from Budapest?
Domestic trains in Romania often have a very small amount of places available for the international reservation system...I would have to check that back home.

Beograd - Sofia. I just travelled with that train, there are not many passengers. It is no problem to get the reservation on the day. Otherwise I would buy it in Budapest while your first stop there.

To Istanbul there will be a bus replacement Kapikule - Istanbul which means bus travel from 3am to Istanbul (4 hours) and on the return trip until 2am...dont know if that is what you want. However, there is the slight chance of a Budapest - Istanbul train in summer...lets see.

Sofia - Beograd. Same as above. Or get the reservation while you are in Beograd for the first time at the Wasteels office from Mr Popovic who is a really nice gentleman and also knows a lot about train travel in that region. You can also get in touch with him via mail.

Beograd - Skopje - Beograd - Podgorica - Beograd. As above, get them at Wasteels.

Beograd - Ljubljana no reservation needed

I will be back next week to clear up further issues.


Flo 8)

ardeeay
Traveller
99 comments

Hi Peter, Hej Flo

Thanks for the most helpful comments. Peter and Flo, which will assist greatly in making most of the night train bookings before I leave Australia. :D :D

I look forward to any further thoughts you may have on your return from Istanbul, Flo. ;)

I will also send follow-up posts if I encounter any difficulties during booking procedures.

I have carried out a number of trial runs on the DB Deutsche Bahn railcc tool going right up to the point of checking availability and prices for travel dates that are already available (without making the actual booking) and have become quite familiar with the process including adding my age/refresh and selecting pay extra charge only to obtain the Eurail reservation only fare. All has worked well! :D

Flo, you ask whether there is there a special reason why I don't travel with one of the direct night trains from Budapest.
By accepting one change Budapest - Timisoara; Timisoara - Bucharest (night train), and sacrificing two daylight hours in Budapest (where I will return in a few days) I can gain five extra daylight hours in Bucharest.
Similarly on the return trip I will travel on the trains from Bucharest - Valea (night train), Valea - Debrecen and Debrecen - Budapest to balance and maximise the daylight hours available to me in Bucharest and Budapest. I quite enjoy looking at the various alternatives and (sometimes) saving a bit of money, though that is not of major importance- the trip is the main thing!! 8)

Thanks also for the excellent advice Flo, about Mr Popovic at Wasteels in Budapest.

I am also very pleased to note that the DB tool can also be used to book the non-CNL trains running through/to/from Germany, Peter. That will be of great assistance, and reduces the number of trips that will have to be booked by other means.

I know there will not be a perfect solution but half the fun for me is in the planning and sorting out the best available solution. :D 8)

Great reply thanks,

Best Wishes

Richard

Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

Hej Richard,

I think you are going to have a great trip! Just from reading your post here I can imagine a bit the effort you make for organizing it - I bet it is a lot of fun and hard work at the same time! ;)
I also enjoy the planning of my journeys a lot but the actual travel always is the best bit as I could again experience during the last days.

So...hopefully I can add now some things:

Firstly, you can use the different lounges which can be found at many major stations throughout Europe with your 1st class Eurail pass. They usually offer coffee, tea, water, snacks, newspapers etc for free in a more or less distinguished atmosphere and you might be happy to use these when waiting for a night train or after arriving for an extra free cup of coffee/tea.

EN 421/420 offer deluxe compartments with ensuite WC+shower which are not cheap but offer much more space (and comfort obviously) compared to the regular compartments on these night trains.

On the return leg Wien - Frankfurt you might consider going further all the way to Köln, then returning to Frankfurt with an ICE train along the high speed line. This would take you along the scenic Rhine Valley line plus you'd have more time on the sleeper...but I dont know your exact plans on these two days until Berlin so I dont know if this makes sense for you.

The sleeping car on the Berlin - Budapest usually also offers three compartments with ensuite shower+WC, however these are sold as normal compartments...so if you get a reservation for either bed #32/34/36, #42/44/46 or #52/54/56 you can consider yourself lucky as these are the compartments with ensuite. However, it can happen that another sleeping car is used on that route with no ensuite facilites.

As for the domestic Romanian night trains...the sleeping and couchette coaches can be reserved from abroad, as can a few compartments of regular seats. So it shouldnt be a problem (if you happen to get a competent salesperson) to make the reservations from Germany.

At this point one word about the Balkan Flexi Pass: For which part of your trip do you want to use it? As there is a rule which says that the country in which you buy your pass counts as your residence country (similar as with an InterRail pass) and you are therefore allowed to make only a return trip to/from the border in that country! So take care where you buy the Balkan Flexi Pass and where you want to use it!

I am not 100% sure if you can get a couchette/sleeper for the night train to Zagreb from Salzburg...have to check that.

Zagreb - Munich: There is a Hungarian restaurant car attached to the train until Ljubljana, perfect place for a late dinner (the restaurant car already is in Zagreb from around 2000, coming from Budapest and you can enter it while staying at Zagreb station as well).

Paris - Madrid - Paris: Not much to say, enjoy the trip on the Talgo including the excellent restaurant (dinner and breakfast included if you have a reservation for the 1st class sleeper). :)

Madrid - Lisboa - Madrid: As above.

Oh, now I see where how you want to use the Balkan Flexi Pass. :D So, buy it in Bucharest then. ;)

Beograd - Sofia - Beograd and Beograd - Skopje - Beograd: Currently no sleeper, just couchettes...might change until the summer, might not...

Sofia - Istanbul - Sofia: Latest news suggest the suspension of the train from Halkali (on the outskirts of Istanbul) to Sirkeci from 1st March with no dedicated bus replacement on that part of the route. As far as I know there is no real connection to the centre by buses from Halkali, so the best option might just be a taxi. Anyways, there can still change something until the summer or we get at least some more info on how to get to the centre from Halkali properly.
For the remainder of the journey within Turkey, latest news suggest that the bus replacement will only be between Halkali and Cerkezköy, which is about 100km from Istanbul, but not all the way to the border. This would mean that you have to leave the train Sofia - Istanbul at around 6am, and can enter the train Istanbul - Sofia at around midnight...not too bad (but of course have to get up at the border at Kapikule at around 2am and 4am respectively.
On the Sofia - Istanbul train it seems that there is a Bulgarian sleeper operating since last week which would give you the possibility of having your own compartment...when I used the train about two weeks ago there still was a Turkish couchette.

Beograd - Podgorica: B 1343 is operated with Salon coaches which belonged to the Personal train of Tito back in the days...Mr Popovic at Wasteels might be able to get a reservation for your in one of these coaches. Anyway, try to get a reservation for the trains to/from Montenegro as soon as possible since they can be full in summer.


Flo 8)

ardeeay
Traveller
99 comments

Hej Flo

Thanks for your very helpful (and complete) reply. There is so much information to digest I think it will take me a couple of days to work my way through it all. ;)

In two days time I will start booking my CNL and EN trains through railcc shop, then one each day for about 10 days when the booking starts to get a bit more difficult once I leave the area including and around Germany (that is once i have to leave the DB Bahn booking facility for Budapest and beyond).

I have gathered a bit of information already about the First Class Lounges in various places. I used the Stockholm one upstairs two years ago, and it was very good, but the ones in Copenhagen and Goteborg were closed for the summer holidays. This time I am going a bit earlier!

After the return leg Wien - Frankfurt EN 420 I intend to catch the ICE 18 to Bruxelles for a day before going to Berlin via Köln and Mannheim on ICE 19, ICE 617 and CNL125 so I think that I cannot stay on the EN 420 to Köln, but it was a good suggestion. :D

I am really looking forward to the Paris - Madrid - Paris trips on the Talgo/Trenhotel, including particularly the included dinner and breakfast with my reservation for the 1st class sleeper - a little touch of luxury. :)

You are of course right - the actual travel always is the best bit. I have planned to take a total of 43 days, visiting 28 capitals (six twice), two or three other cities (Munich and Avila and maybe Malmo) plus two days on the “pseudo-Orient Express route”. I will be doing the major travelling distances by night and spending full days (or nearly full days) in each city. I hope to get back to Australia totally exhausted. I have at this stage booked my airflights to/from Melbourne into Helsinki and out of Ljubljana, six ferry trips and only two train journeys (Stockholm-Malmo and London-Paris on Eurostar) but the rest will soon be booked! So there is still a bit of preparatory work to complete.

Richard :D

ardeeay
Traveller
99 comments

Hi railccs

I have been successfully making bookings on the railcc/DB Bahn website for all the CNL services, and have reached day 6 (Berlin) OK. However when I attempt to book for 30.05.13 EN 477 Berlin Hbf dep 18:10 to Budapest-Keleti pu arr 08:35 (next day), I can follow the usual process until the very last step when, after I selct Buy Now, the following on-screen message is displayed and I cannot finalise the booking:
Dear Customer,
An error occurred during the booking process for the night train. Please try again later.
The error has been recorded. We apologise for any inconvenience.

I have tried now for nearly an hour (about ten times) and still get the same message right at the end. [I hope that I do not have ten tickets sitting in the system somewhere!]

Can you suggest anything I can do to avoid this and complete the booking?
Best Wishes
Richard

Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

Hej Richard,

I am sorry, I dont have a clue what could be the issue here. What confuses me in the first place is that it is already possible to make bookings for this train today, this should be only possible 91 days in advance (tomorrow?)...
I dont think that you unwantedly booked 10 beds...then the sleeper would be full already. :D And I tried a booking (for three persons in three single compartments and it showed availability still...
Maybe there is a software issue of some sort, they might be updating something (it is 0124 here at the moment).

I currently cannot offer anything else than to try later or tomorrow again. :|


Flo 8)

ardeeay
Traveller
99 comments

Hej Flo

Thanks for your thoughts. I have just tried again with no better result. I will do as you suggest and try again later and/or tomorrow.
I was not surprised that it seemed to allow me to seek a booking because on the DB Travel site when searching for dates and services available, it did tell me that this train could be booked today 28 February. But then perhaps their system had not been told this! ;)

Thanks
Richard 8)

ardeeay
Traveller
99 comments

Hej Flo (and Peter)

I have still not been able to make the Berlin-Budapest night train booking. :(

However I think the following post from rail_martin on 1 March may indicate why.

[quote]BUDAPEST - BERLIN - night train
by rail_martin » 01.03.2013 - 21:46

Hi,
there seem to be upcoming reconstruction works on that railway (Budapest-Berlin) between 12.5.13 an 2.6.13. MAV told me that there will be changes to busses necessary. At least connections on the two weekends inbetween these dates were not possible to book with Deutsche Bahn.
BigUp!
Mart[/quote]

So I will rework my itinerary to go to Paris earlier and Budapest later :D

Cheers

Richard