Hi all! We wanted to book the night train from Utrecht to Zurich but the reservation option requires us to change in Basel which apparently isn’t allowed for an outbound overnight train. So instead we will go for the non reservation option but I’m worried that it will be too full?? Any suggestions and tips on how to navigate this would be appreciated!
Answer
Night train from Utrecht to Zurich - non reservation option
Best answer by MartinM
August 3 is a Wednesday, so I don’t think it will be overcrowded (means a lot of standing passengers).
If the train would be completely overcrowded, it could be that they throw people without a reservation from the train (but that would mean that there is like really no way through the carriages etc. and that the safety can’t be guaranteed). This is to 99% not going to happen on a Wednesday.
For example today is also a Wednesday and the Deutsche Bahn website says that a medium occupation is expected for tonights train:
So wouldn’t worry too much about this ;-). Fridays and Sundays are the most busy days.
Some of the carriages are removed in Basel… best to go for the seating option without reservation. If you enter in Utrecht should be still OK (if not everything is reserved). Later on in Germany it might get full.
Thanks both for your responses!
August 3 is a Wednesday, so I don’t think it will be overcrowded (means a lot of standing passengers).
If the train would be completely overcrowded, it could be that they throw people without a reservation from the train (but that would mean that there is like really no way through the carriages etc. and that the safety can’t be guaranteed). This is to 99% not going to happen on a Wednesday.
For example today is also a Wednesday and the Deutsche Bahn website says that a medium occupation is expected for tonights train:
So wouldn’t worry too much about this ;-). Fridays and Sundays are the most busy days.
Thanks! I’ve been reading that apparently you can book seat reservations on the DB website for 4 euros? But how do I do this because when I go on the website I can only book the full ticket not just a seat reservation. Any guidance on this would be amazing, thanks!!
It may be worth checking the OBB site - they have 2 options for interrail reservations on their booking site, one is to search for a seat only and the other is to add a discount to each passenger - Interrail/Eurail is near the bottom after you click “show more”.
The site is oebb.com.
They cover many european journeys.
+11Yes via DB for a seat reservation you pay 4,50€, via ÖBB for the seat you pay 3€. Both with the seat only option.
Normally it is 14€ for nightjets, but on this train, the seat cars run as IC.
If you look under the section for reservations and read the reservation guide, there is information about how to make reservations at ÖBB.
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.
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