Global pass - book as you go

Hi, depends were you go. Some cpuntries are very good for last minute decides like Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Czechia, Belgium, Netherlands, Czechia or UK (except Eurostar). There almost all trains have no or only optional reservations.

Other countries have compulsory reservations with good chance to get a seat also last minute, but also good local trains: Italy, Sweden (Except Mid-Summer), Norway, Poland, Slowakia, Hungury.

And there are countries with most of trains with compulsory reservations and bad availability of seats like France, Spain and Highspeedtrains to this countries like Eurostar or TGV.

Yes thats possible with the limitation of few Reservation Compulsory trains that offer only few seats for Railpass user. eg. Eurostar between London - Amsterdam/Brussels/Paris 

Maximise time in the green countries, limit journeys in the red countries

ralderton wrote:

Maximise time in the green countries, limit journeys in the red countries

​@ralderton Why is czechia orange? Except SC all trains have optional reservations. And the card would need a distinction between Italy (light red) and Spain - France (black/red).

​@ralderton Shouldn't Norway be yellow if Sweden is yellow? AFIK there are reservations on many trains in Norway whereas in Sweden there are many regional reservation free trains. I think that it is easier to travel without a reservation in Sweden than in Norway. 

​@Angelo ​@AnnaB It's the Seat61 map.

I agree that Italy should be a lighter shade than France & Spain, but I guess you have to make some compromises with a traffic light system!

The orange countries are a bit of a mixed bag. Sometimes it's because you often need reservations, but they're cheap. Other times it's because regular tickets are cheap, so the pass has less value.

I think this map is a bit outdated. Slovenia used to have compulsory reservations on their ICS but AFAIK these trains don’t have seat reservations anymore at all while Norway used to have optional seat reservations in the past (when everything was NSB if I’m not mistaken).

IMO Portugal is also rather orange than red. Long distance trains need reservations but you have reservation free local trains and seat availability for IC and AP isn’t too bad.

It’s still possible to do last minute decisions with limitations in Italy and France. If you need a reservation on short notice, you can do them easily at the last minute service booths in Italy or at the InOui ticket machines in France (I successfully used these possibilities myself on my last trip).

The only countries/trains which should be avoided then are Spain, Eurostar, International high speed trains and night trains.

I agree somewhat. France has a major issue with TGVs sold out for days at popular times (i.e. holiday weekends*) and not enough regional train alternatives.

This doesn’t happen in Italy outside Ferragosto and some rare exceptions.

*example Paris-Marseille: Easter Friday from midday to Easter Saturday midday is all sold out (handful seats left in 1st). 3 weeks in advance.