Longstanding issue relating to reservations on Germany-France crossborder trains

  • 10 June 2022
  • 6 replies
  • 182 views
sanktmoritz
Rank
Userlevel 1

Hi! Hope this isn’t too appallingly annoying a first post on the forum! I love Interrail but have a major ticketing/reservations query.

 

From posts on this website - a lot of them - and my own personal experience over the last many months, there seems to be something pathologically wrong with the availability of crossborder trains between Germany and France, like say the TGV 9552 or literally all of the others.

 

Without a phone call to a reservations office - which I know is part and parcel of Interrail life but still a fair hurdle against easy use on such an important route - it is impossible to book these except at a railway station.

 

It is completely impossible to book them online via DB or the Eurail.com system. This should not be the case because availability does exist. 

 

Is there any way to resolve this in discussion with DB/SNCF, or to ask SNCB to expand the list of permitted stations in their online booking applet for Interrail passes?

 

It seems like a minor technical fault which creates a lot of disruption if you’re not in person in Europe! And availability can genuinely run out by then!

 

Thank you so much for your help! :)

sanktmoritz 1 year ago

I would like to add that this situation has been resolved; the journeys are now bookable via the interrail.eu reservation system.

Thank you - that’s an excellent result!

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6 replies

seewulf
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +14

Hi! Hope this isn’t too appallingly annoying a first post on the forum! I love Interrail but have a major ticketing/reservations query.

 

From posts on this website - a lot of them - and my own personal experience over the last many months, there seems to be something pathologically wrong with the availability of crossborder trains between Germany and France, like say the TGV 9552 or literally all of the others.

 

Without a phone call to a reservations office - which I know is part and parcel of Interrail life but still a fair hurdle against easy use on such an important route - it is impossible to book these except at a railway station.

 

It is completely impossible to book them online via DB or the Eurail.com system. This should not be the case because availability does exist. 

 

Is there any way to resolve this in discussion with DB/SNCF, or to ask SNCB to expand the list of permitted stations in their online booking applet for Interrail passes?

 

It seems like a minor technical fault which creates a lot of disruption if you’re not in person in Europe! And availability can genuinely run out by then!

 

Thank you so much for your help! :)

The problem is each Railcompany in Europe have it´s own booking system and is independed which one they use and for who they open it and for who not. 10years back many used the booking system managed by German Rail (it was possible to get a ticket from Lisbon to Moscow and even further in the east of Russia :D )

But now with the digitalisation each company set up their own. Eurail tries to stay connected with the new ones but the question is if the railways let them connect and if yes for which price. Because of that Eurail sometimes can offer just paperreservations that have to be shipped by ordinary mail that other Companies can send via E-Mail as PDF.

I know the product team of Eurail is working on them as they are not happy with the actual status but it´s very difficult to keep all companies in the Eurail/Interrail system and provoke them for improvments.

Some Railcompanies doesn´t like Railpassuser and because of that make it extra difficult to get reservations from abroad :) Most famous example is Spanish Rail. As they wanna sell their own offer to get the money directly from the tourists and not via Eurail :D

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
sanktmoritz
Rank
Userlevel 1

Thank you for your swift reply, @seewulf! Your analysis of the endless little empire-building in European rail is sadly highly accurate! Nevertheless, as this is a structural issue on the DB website as well as the Eurail one, they may not just be holding back fares intentionally! It seems like a ticketing/fare bucket problem - potentially with a simple fix, but I am sure I may be wrong.

 

@Nanja, @Leo, I know you are extremely busy. Is it in any way possible to raise these issues around display/communication of Germany-France crossborder availability across railway systems with the relevant operators. They are some of the most heavily used crossborder routes in Europe. Is it possible to understand in discussion with DB/SNCF why this error is occuring, or to ask SNCB to expand the list of permitted stations in their online booking applet for Interrail passes?

 

Thank you again - it just seems like a lot of people have asked this question in the past - and I have experienced a lot of issues with it in the real world!

M
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +5

The office workers at EU/I-rail will not raise this-except perhaps to their bosses. It is a thing of the (formerly half yearly-I am in pension since a few yrs so now can only rely on hearsay & informed sources) international railways conference-when they also set up the timetables, which train run where or might be a viable etc. But perhaps that also has all gone down the drains.

Another thing that is playing is the set open the sluices to widespread fraud by letting all people on open sites just do only REServations-DB feels it can do that for domestic, Thats the main reason why TrenItalia has withdrawn it from its machines. In fact it is still possible (once you know how to) on SNCF on its machines for domestic and it works fine.

There is another factor and that is that these planners take all the thinking away from people on how to organise their trip in the best and less costly way-after all the app only shows this through train so that must be it!

seewulf
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +14

The office workers at EU/I-rail will not raise this-except perhaps to their bosses. It is a thing of the (formerly half yearly-I am in pension since a few yrs so now can only rely on hearsay & informed sources) international railways conference-when they also set up the timetables, which train run where or might be a viable etc. But perhaps that also has all gone down the drains.
Still exist and is once per year a big meeting. Operates now under the name “Forum Train Europe” office is in Bern :)

Another thing that is playing is the set open the sluices to widespread fraud by letting all people on open sites just do only REServations-DB feels it can do that for domestic, Thats the main reason why TrenItalia has withdrawn it from its machines. In fact it is still possible (once you know how to) on SNCF on its machines for domestic and it works fine.

There is another factor and that is that these planners take all the thinking away from people on how to organise their trip in the best and less costly way-after all the app only shows this through train so that must be it!

 

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
sanktmoritz
Rank
Userlevel 1

Thank you both, @seewulf and @mcadv, for your kind and informative responses! Well, thank you anyway - if nothing else I have learnt a great deal - and appreciate it!

 

Good luck; enjoy your travels!

sanktmoritz
Rank
Userlevel 1

I would like to add that this situation has been resolved; the journeys are now bookable via the interrail.eu reservation system.

Thank you - that’s an excellent result!

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