I think you best contact the train companies directly and ask how to make seat reservations with Eurail for a wheelchair space.

This indeed differs per company and country, I have never seen a comprehensive list. Not only that, it also varies an awful lot per type of train and the general goal is to make all such boardings possible without help-same level floors etc. In quite a few cases that is already the case-also very handy for prams, bikes etc.

In general-logic also; IF you book assistence from A to B it will also be assumed that the whchair makes that trip. RES are seat-specific and it also has to be said that fairly often the wh.chair comes in a kind of special corner that may also be used on the next day for big luggage or whatever. Some take this as that and some get very angry about this when they find out 1st time.

However-in some cases it means a kind of tip-up chair (nmbrd and thus with RES) is meant for it and then the RES has to apply to that specific nr. Plus I assume you as companion will want to sit beside.

As a broad general rule various clubs/societies of chair-users are the best informed about that.

Thanks for the replies.

I understand that with regional trains, the need for booking a wheelchair space won’t be that important. It worries me that on the major legs (Eurostar) it’s probably more important, and it should be easier to book on these major routes. I am calling SNCB International +32 70 79 79 79 (€ 0.30/min) tonight as we have reserved tickets on the Eurostar and now need to see if we can get the seating changed to one wheelchair spot with a seat beside for a carer. Will update for future answer seekers.

Belgian railways have a dedicated number for travelling with reduced mobility:

https://www.b-europe.com/EN/Reduced-Mobility

It's a regular phone number, so it should be cheaper to call.

They also have a dedicated booking page, but that only seems to work for regular tickets.

As you say the site is great for booking regular tickets, same as is the Eurostar website. I’m not sure why they don’t give the option for using a Eurail pass. Frustrating indeed.

Okay update for anyone trying to book a wheelchair seat on the Eurostar…….YOU CAN’T!

Just in from Eurostar support:

Latest update.

Booked a seating reservation on the TGV from Brussels to Strasbourg. Foolishly thought I would be able to change seat allocations on the SNCF website, but no you can’t. Had our relative in France call and try to get our seat allocation moved to a wheelchair & carer seat. They managed to get our daughter moved to a wheelchair seat, but SNCF said that they couldn’t move one of us to a seat next to her.

So as it stands we are in a totally different carriage to our daughter, who has no control of any of her body. Hopefully the conductor will give her a drink and move her/ scratch her  when she asks. To anyone who is searching for answer to wheelchair seal allocations, the answer save yourself the stress and don’t do it.

It’s 2023 not 1923, intergration for disabilities should really be an easy thing for major organisations and doing things like booking a wheelchair seat on a train should be a simple task.  Thankfully, booking a paid seat on the Eurostar / SNCF is relatively straight forward. Once you add Eurail into the equation it becomes a nightmare.

For future wheelchair travellers, don’t do it, you have been warned. I am (foolishly) confident that using the passes for non reserved travel will be fine, but I am confident we probobaly won’t get our value out of the passes (already down and extra 80 euro for a wasted Eurostar seating allocation) and should have just paid for our rail trips, instead of using the Eurail pass.

The booking systems are indeed suboptimal, but very country dependent.

Yet, I'm suite sure that if you explain the situation to the TGV staff they will let you set next to your help-needing daughter. I travelled once with a friend, who sat in a wheelchair for a couple of weeks after an accident. We booked ordinary seats, weeks before it became clear my friend was tied to a wheelchair for that trip.  At the station my friend was still offered a place in the wheelchair zone on the trains, and one of us also got to sit there. And even arranging a priority taxi for us too, without having reserved for that all. 

If I'm not mistaken there are non-reservable folding seats in the immediate vicinity of the wheelchair spaces. 

France is quite a "negotiable" country. You're dealing with understanding staff, in 99% of the cases. Not robots.

But indeed, it should not be this way, that's true. 

I would suggest to look also on this similar question: 

And on the Eurail website you get the informations where you can book assistance for wheelchairs. Also on trains without reservations, you need in most cases to book assistance to get into the train. 

https://www.eurail.com/en/help/interested-in-eurailing/traveling-with-a-caregiver 

Also I would suggest to ask Eurail Customer Service directly, they should be able to help you (I hope so).

https://eurail.zendesk.com/hc/en-001

You are right Brendon. We have travelled the world with our daughter and find that phone service/ website bookings are totally different to the face to face contact at airports/ stations. When people see what we are dealing with, they are always understanding and will go out of their way to assist us. The problems occur though when they have no more wheelchair space on the train to give, or no other seats left in the carriage where our daughter has been seated etc. This is the frustrating part.

SNCF saying that they can move our daughter to a wheelchair seat, but cannot move one of us to be with her because the ticket is through another company, just doesn’t make sense? It is through the same company as my daughters ticket that you could move? But I also can see that it is not their fault. If I had just done a paid ticket with SNCF, there would be no problems.

In general we have the airlines issues sorted, knowing exactly what we need to do, and have had no probelms with train travel previously. In fact I have repeatedly held Eurostar up as the Gold Medal in disability booking. The problem is integrating the Eurail pass into this. This is something that really needs to be looked at, because at the moment it is a dumpster fire.

I hope this thread will be read by wheelchair travellers contemplating the Eurail pass for reserved wheelchair seating on trains. The reason you cannot find the answer to “How do I reserve a wheelchair seat?”  is that you can’t.

Thanks  for the links Angelo. 

There is some really useful information in them. I came across some of it when I was searching for the answer to my very simple question,

” How do I reserve a wheelchair seat using a Eurail pass”

I never found an answer to this question, because  there isn’t one!

You cannot book a wheelchair seating allocation using a Eurail pass. This is the answer to my simple question.

This really needs to be addressed.

Yes, best way you get directly in touch with the customer service of Eurail. Than this topic would be known to them (I’m with you, this should work better). 

https://eurail.zendesk.com/hc/en-001/requests/new