Hi @Angelo 

In the Rail Network Guide that's available on the App, the following is explained: 

“Only if travellers are using these trains within Italy (e.g. the route Bologna – Bolzano/Bozen for Eurocity OR e.g. the route Villach – Venice for RailJet), the supplement applies. If traveling within or between Austria and Germany, the reservation is optional and no supplement is required."

When one of the Brenner routes are searched, the banner "Conditions apply" should lead the traveller to the Rail Network Guide in order for them to check there if they need to pay the supplement or not. 

This information is also shown on our Website (see image attached)

@Camilo. Please put yourself in the place of a traveller.

The banner with "Conditions apply” only says there are some conditions if you have a one country pass. For a global pass it says nothing so people won't buy anything and will be very surprised (and rightfully so!) when they have to buy an extra supplement in the train. That means the text in the banner is not good enough. The text in the network guide may be better but after reading the banner, global pass holders won't look there.

So this case is not "Solved” IMO.

I travelled Bologna to Munich recently and thought reservation was needed so bought one through OBB (1st class) for 10 euro. Seat reservation appeared by e-mail and printed,and happily used. Inspector didn’t mention the supplement, although I was expecting it having read about it on the community.

I now assume the booking from OBB actually includes the supplement and a seat.

Yes @rvdborgt is right. I don’t know, if possible but a notice in the app like for trains with compulsory reservations should be also here as train has compulsory supplement for Interrail/Eurail users, please check the website or something like that. 

And also, the Railjet service Venice-Vienna has the notice that reservations are compulsory, even when this is not the case. 

Eurocity Trieste-Ljubljana-Vienna has no information about the supplement, even ÖBB says nothing on their Italian page obb-italia.com. But via their ticket shop tickets.oebb.at you have to pay 2,60€. I will ask ÖBB directly what’s the rule currently. 

10€ is the supplement for second class, 15€ for 1st class. The reservation cost 3€ via ÖBB online and via CD online the reservation is for free. 

At Ticket counters of DB and Trenitalia you get also the reservation for free. 

Where did you get the supplement? Via interrail.eu? Was it including a reservation?

I have just looked back and will correct my post -

I purchase 2 first class passes from Interrail reservations for EC Brenner 84 from Bologna to Munich. The fee was actually 15 euro each (plus 2 euro IR fee).

There was no extra supplement paid and there was a full inspection of both pass and printed reservation about halfway up the journey.

So on your supplement that you got via interrail.eu had included a reservation?

Because the supplement is 15€ and not the reservation. Because the train has only optional reservations. So we know if a reservation is included in the supplement if you get it via interrail.eu

Absolutely so - my first class seat was included. There is no mention of the supplement on the “ticket” I printed, just the coach and seat number.

It also seems that the issuing company was SNCB.

Also interesting is this extract from T&Cs.

Conditions of use:

• This ticket is subject to Regulation 1371/2007, the CIV, the general CIT/CIV/

PRR provisions, the general, special and price conditions and any additional or

deviating conditions set by the operator.

• This ticket is valid only when printed with a laserjet or inkjet printer on a white

A4 sheet of paper, blank on both sides, in portrait format (vertical) and in the

original, unchanged font size. Under no circumstances may it be presented on

other media (electronic, screen, etc.).

• Good print quality is essential. Poorly printed, damaged, illegible or only partly

visible tickets will be refused on board and considered invalid. In case of

technical errors or inferior print quality, the pdf document must be printed anew.

• For any questions or information about this booking, please consult the MyTrain

section on www.sncb-europe.co.uk or feel free to contact our Contact Center

by phone through 0900 552 0900 for UK residents (0,30 GBP per minute) or +32

(0)70 79 79 88 (0,30 EUR per minute) if you are calling from outside the UK.

• This ticket is personal and non-transferable. A valid ID card or passport with

photograph must be presented to the ticket inspector.

• This ticket is valid only for the train, date, class and journey indicated on the

ticket. If the journey indicated suggests an obligatory return trip, the passenger

must be able to show both tickets (there and back) to the ticket inspector on

board. If (s)he is unable to present both tickets, the ticket will be considered to

be invalid, in which case the passenger will have to purchase a new ticket.

• This ticket must be kept in possession until the passenger has reached the exit

of the station of his/her destination.

• Failure to comply with the above-mentioned rules renders the ticket invalid.

These look like the standard t&c NMBS/SNCB print on all their PDF tickets.

I don’t deny they are std T&Cs, but since these are the last resort of disputes I simply wanted readers to be aware that no printout “can” be deemed as invalidating your journey by a train inspector.

As such all the regular advisers that a phone pdf or QR code will be OK will be of no value when you have to either pay a fine and/or pay a full ticket or leave the train at the next station, for the sake of a piece of paper. Unfortunately they are the one in uniform. 

In the UK we have a term for these authoritarian officials, a Jobswoth. i.e. one who says “It is more than my job is worth not to follow the rules”.

@Camilo. 

To emphasise @Angelo's point:

I'm catching up with the posts from this summer, and I came across this one, which confirms exactly what I was describing in my first comment above:

In the Swedish FB-group for train travellers where I'm a member there are almost every week travellers that are surprised and annoyed because of the Italian supplement that they didn't know of.

Conclusion: @Camilo.'s comment is certainly not the best answer.

@Angelo Someone apparently moved your topic to another part of the Community. I saw that you enterred it in the 1st class lounge. 

Have posted this before, so this is repeat: used the EC from INnsbruck to Verona some 3 weeks ago (later I noted I entered Italy the last trip before on exactly same train and time) and paid 10€ for the supplmt at Innsbr station-it was a normal OeBB ticket and said it was valid for 3 days (If I remember well, so not tied to a specific day/train) and had NO RES-but this was just 40 mins before it left.

Train was well filled and after Brennero the Italian conductor came on and he told the many pax with passes this was the supplmt for the IT part (and not for a RES), I think I was even the only one in this whole car of around 20 people on passes who had paid before. Then there was no extra supplmt for on-board yet, pay cash or card. He was quite direct and entertaining and there were no protests. In Bolzano the car emptied out about half.

I had the impression that since DB/OeBB took over the line (and on licence of FNM-now TreNord for the IT part) that TrenItalia (former FS) wanted to have nothing to do with it and the main stops for these trains inside IT have separate booking offices for it-also widely promoting they can sell all DB/OeBB tickets.

Do you know how much is this extra for onboard payment and since when it is charged (maybe 1/10 recently?)

Thanks, Angelo, for flagging the issue. I have forwarded it to the reservation team just now. Will keep you posted. 

I am planning to take this train from Venice/Verona to Innsbruck and am trying to make seat reservations.

We have first class passes and would like to choose 2 seats together in the open coach. The DB and OBB sites dont seem to give you seat map choice, is there anywhere else to do this - CD perhaps?

CD don't have a map either but you should be able to enter carriage and seat numbers, and then you need a seat map first. If you know your train number, then you can look the train up on www.vagonweb.cz and check out the first class carriages. There are often seat maps available.

Thanks. I have found seat maps and looks like this should work.

BUT.. on the CD booking system, it does not show reservations for any of these EC trains. It shows full ticket price, but when you select “reservation only” it says to contact a ticket office. Am I doing something wrong?!

When will you take this train? If it is not possible, that maybe they have not opened the reservation yet.

Two weeks time - definitely open!  Checked some other routes and res are showing fine, but on Verona to Innsbruck they dont show at all. 

@justin1123

I look for some EC at 13 May and I can reserve seats via DB and ÖBB. In this case it is not possible to choose a specific seat (via ÖBB never been possible and via DB the seat map is missing). 

Keep in mind that on DB-ÖBB Eurocity you have to pay for the italian part a 10 EUR fee (15 EUR 1st class). Booking via CD (normal fare ticket with discount Interrail/Eurail) or Interrail.eu/Eurail.com online and at ticket offices of DB, Trenitalia and others you get a reservation for free on top of the fee. Via ÖBB (online oone way ticket option + Interrail/Eurail as discount] or ticket offices) you get the reservation for free only for 1st class pass users. Second class users have to pay 3 EUR on top of the fee.