Hello. I see there are lots of people asking about seat reservations, although most are travelling in continental Europe. I recently completed an 8-day First Class UK-only Interrail trip and I’d like to share my experiences. Basically, in the UK, despite what the app. says you DO NOT need seat reservations for most trains, even long-distance expresses, apart for the exceptions I’ll list below. There seems to be some inconsistency within the app/website itself where the Rail Planner says reservations ARE ‘required’ for just about everything but local trains and yet the help section says they are merely ‘recommended’. I see that as a cash-grab by Interrail - trying to sell those reservations at 6 Euro a shot through their own portal. The exceptions are:Eurostar (obviously).The two overnight sleeper services to/from London (GWR to Penzance and Caledonian Sleeper to Scotland) where seat reservations are mandatory, even in the seated coaches.LNER. Here, seat reservations ARE required
I’m a first-time InterRailer, planning to only travel in the UK on this first trip (there’ll be a bigger trip later). I noticed that all the UK-only passes are MORE EXPENSIVE than a Global pass! Am I being stupid and missing something? For example, the pass I’m looking at - 4 days in a month, UK only (adult) is 291 Euro whereas a Global pass for the same period is only 246 Euro. Am I liable to encounter problems just using the Global pass in one country? I know it seems like a stupid question but the prices just don’t make sense.As a secondary question: I’m a British citizen living in Greece for many years. From REAL LIFE experience please, how keen are UK train conductions on checking residency? Are they likely to think I’m ‘cheating’ and don’t really live abroad - I’m clearly British from my strong Northern accent, hehe and I’ll travel a lot - visiting friends and relatives using a lot of local, suburban trains as well as long distance. I have a Greek Permanent Residency card
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