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Eurail network map - can I use other networks than on the map?

  • 16 July 2022
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Jerome Goldstein
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Hi,

There is this map https://www.eurail.com/en/plan-your-trip/railway-map that shows a train network for the Eurail and there is also a post in the forum with a long list of train networks that you can travel on 

.

My question is - if I’m in Amsterdam and want to go to Copenhagen - I looked at the Eurail map and I would have to go Amsterdam → Berlin → Hamburg → Copenhagen which seems like you go backwards a bit from Berlin → Hamburg.

Is there a better option (can I go Amsterdam → Hamburg → Copenhagen)? I have the two month unlimited pass - can I use any of the networks that were posted in above reservation post? 

Thanks.

 

 

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Best answer by seewulf 16 July 2022, 22:02

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A
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You can use any of the train companies included in the Eurail offer.

I see that you already have found the excellent guide to how to make reservations. 

The experienced travellers in the group have made a list with some advice that hopefully will be useful. 

Here is some useful information from the experienced travellers in the Community regarding both planning, reservations and activation of pass and travel days. 

 Planning

The rail planner is normally not up to date, as it only is updated once a month, so to be sure of the time table you better check the timetable and availability on the websites of the national railways. The bigger national railways, like DB (Germany) SBB (Switzerland) and ÖBB (Austria) cover several countries. 

 Reservations 

The advice from the experienced travellers in the community is to use other ways to make reservations than the Interrail/Eurail website.  You can look at the guide in the link:

https://community.eurail.com/train-connections-reservations-47/how-to-get-reservations-105

If you, after having looked at the guide, have questions about how to make specific reservation, please give your travel details (departure date, time and route) preferably in a new topic, and you will get advice.

Please note that Interrail/Eurail charges an extra fee of 2 EUR per person and train in addition to the fee for the seat reservation.

 Activation of pass

During the activation process, when you choose the start day of the validity of the pass, the first day of the validity period is automatically made a travel day, even if you don't enter a journey, the advice is therefore not to activate the pass before the first travel day as you only can deactivate the pass before 00.00 on the day the validity starts. If your travel plans change in the last moment you will loose travel days if you have activated the pass in advance.

It can be wise to make a test and activate the pass with a start date well in the future and then deactivate the pass immediately, just to see that everything works.

 Activation of travel day

The advice from the experienced travellers in the community is also never to activate a travel day, that is connect a journey to your pass, until just before boarding the train, otherwise you might loose a travel day if your travel plans change in a late stage  You can't delete a travel day in the past. A travel day can only be deleted until 23.59 CET the day before the travel day.

Please note that I don't work for Interrail/Eurail and that I don't reply to personal messages.
seewulf
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Hi,

There is this map https://www.eurail.com/en/plan-your-trip/railway-map that shows a train network for the Eurail and there is also a post in the forum with a long list of train networks that you can travel on 

.

My question is - if I’m in Amsterdam and want to go to Copenhagen - I looked at the Eurail map and I would have to go Amsterdam → Berlin → Hamburg → Copenhagen which seems like you go backwards a bit from Berlin → Hamburg.

Is there a better option (can I go Amsterdam → Hamburg → Copenhagen)? I have the two month unlimited pass - can I use any of the networks that were posted in above reservation post? 

Thanks.

 

 

The map is just to get an idea :)

You can ofcourse take a more direct Route like Amsterdam - Osnabrück/Münster - Hamburg :) Or Amsterdam - Hannover - Hamburg and then onwards to Copenhagen

I recommend to use Railplanner Apps :) (Bestwise the local app but atleast a major app like DB Navigator (bahn.de), Scotty(oebb.at), SBB Mobile(sbb.ch ), Muj Vlak (CD.cz) and just use the Railplanner of Eurail as traveldiary and to inform about reservations needed or not.

I´ am not working for Eurail or Interrail i just share my knowledge here. Please ask in the Community and not via private message as this is the fastest way to get an answer. I prefer English/German/ Czech for my answers. In case of Reservationquestions please share some details like Route, Date, Trainnumber as otherwise we can just provide general advices or answers
Jerome Goldstein
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Thanks @seewulf. 

So what is the best way to find out this kind of information - for example, I would not have known about going from Amsterdam → Osnabruck → Hamburg. 

And also to do this trip - how do I know which rail company I can use with my Eurail pass and which rail company I should use?

Thanks

 

Angelo
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Railways in Europe, only the main companies

If you check German railways bahn.com you get often in the planner the train company that is running the train and also if you need a reservation (reservation compulsory or global price train)

Do you have any questions? Feel free to ask in the community! Known languages: Deutsch, Italiano, English.
L

DO NOT GIVE THIS COMPANY YOUR MONEY.

Y
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I find it useful to use a few tools to develop my travel routings and this may help:

All rail planners (Interrail, DB. OEBB, Trainline etc) use algorithms for complex journeys including time from A to B, Number of changes, Transfer times etc and usually only show the routings and trains that get the highest scores, discarding many combinations and routings at similar times.

I look at rail maps for obvious alternative towns and cities on my way from A to B and then check for example A to C, then C to B, maybe for a stopover or even a night there.

For all the suggestions for A to B I also expand to see all the stops, not least of which to see the route it follows. In Germany for example there tends to be regular ICE trains A to B but they take different routes, offering both choices and the ability to avoid the slower routes.

This sort of approach reveals some great options.

On a recent journey this approach showed that Siracusa (Sicily) had a direct train to Rome that took 10 hours and arrived well into the evening (about 2030) and we wanted to go to Bologna the next morning. Checking stations along the route we identified Salerno as arriving early evening. Then checking Salerno to Bologna we found that Salerno was the first station in the high speed line across Italy and had direct links to Bologna. Rome wasn’t high on our list on this journey, merely the stopover recommended by the planner.

Later on the same trip we arrived at Munich to transfer to Nuremberg. Our train had a fault and we were advised there was another ICE leaving about 10 mins later to Nuremberg. This had not shown on any planner but we hopped on, only to realise this had a totally different routing that took nearly 2 hours v the first train routing scheduled for 1 hour 5 mins. (OOI our original train actually arrived at the same time as the one we took so obviously took nearly an hour to solve the fault).

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