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Is it possible to be reimbursed for a penalty fare after forgetting to activate or validate Eurail pass?

  • August 25, 2025
  • 4 replies
  • 151 views
F

To the Eurail Community,

I recently returned from a trip to Europe using a Eurail pass but was unfortunately charged a penalty fare of 50 euros when travelling over the French/German border on a train from Strasbourg to Offenburg. I’m still not 100% what the issue was but I had either not activated the day ticket before boarding the train or had activated the day ticket but had not validated the journey that I wanted to make by using the little toggle button in the app. 

Has anyone had a similar experience of this with an Interrail/Eurail pass and did anyone get reimbursed?

I wonder also whether people think the ticket inspector who charged me was a bit unfair? It seems she could have allowed me to get off at the next stop so I could select and activate another later journey going to the same destination. We had the conversation in French (not my first language) and I felt she was very tough and inflexible with the situation. Not a nice experience and poor customer service from my point of view, despite the fact she may have been correct according to the train company regulations. 

Best answer by rvdborgt

SNCF ticket inspectors will usually fine you €50 in the cases you mentioned, especially activating after departure. The pass should be activated before you board. If not, then you're travelling without a valid ticket. SNCF inspectors are quite strict about this; I've seen numerous stories about it.

You can file a complaint with SNCF, explain your case and hope for leniency. I recently saw a case where a family of 5 were fined 5x€50 for activating late and they received a voucher for almost the amount of the fine.

4 replies

R
Railmaster
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  • rvdborgt
  • Railmaster
  • Answer
  • August 25, 2025

SNCF ticket inspectors will usually fine you €50 in the cases you mentioned, especially activating after departure. The pass should be activated before you board. If not, then you're travelling without a valid ticket. SNCF inspectors are quite strict about this; I've seen numerous stories about it.

You can file a complaint with SNCF, explain your case and hope for leniency. I recently saw a case where a family of 5 were fined 5x€50 for activating late and they received a voucher for almost the amount of the fine.

Please ask questions in the community and not via a private message. That's the quickest way to get a response. I don't work for Eurail/Interrail.
ralderton
Railmaster
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  • ralderton
  • Railmaster
  • August 25, 2025

What would be the grounds for appealing? You didn’t have a valid ticket.

It sucks, but the inspector was correct to fine you. If people were allowed to get away with ‘activate / pay when challenged’ then a lot more people would try their chances at fare dodging.

In a sense, you’re lucky it happened in France. If you made the same mistake in Switzerland or the UK, it would be a lot more expensive.

As ​@rvdborgt says, there’s no harm in contacting SNCF and asking them if they’d overturn it. If you do, I’d think twice before you mention rudeness, as it might not help your case.

A
Railly clever
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  • AnnaB
  • Railly clever
  • August 25, 2025

In  Sweden your get  a fine of 1900 SEK (170 EUR) on a high speed train, and 1200 SEK (110 EUR) on an IC-train, if you can't show a valid QRcode, so you can be lucky that the fine was only 50 EUR.

Please note that I don't work for Interrail/Eurail and that I don't reply to personal messages.
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  • figwatkins85
  • Author
  • Rail rookie
  • August 26, 2025

I'd hardly call it lucky to be charged €50 when I already had a perfectly good four day Eurail pass 😂. The woman should have had some familiarity with Interrail/Eurail passes and allowed me to get off at the next stop which was minutes away. As I mentioned before I could then have selected and validated another journey and not made the same mistake again. The woman was just unnecessarily harsh with the rules. A nicer, more lenient person would have seen I'd genuinely forgot to toggle the journey. 

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