On vy.no, a seat is automatically allocated, which could mean that reservation is mandatory. The best is to ask Vy (and also how to book such a seat).

Hey!

Since some time reservations on the daytime trains seem to be also mandatory. My brother was using a Vy train from Bergen to Myrdal this summer and was just lucky to get away without a fine as he also thought there is no reservation mandatory… conductor said if he’d travel further he’d have to pay.
Also I saw in a German railway forum some weeks ago timetable documents from Norway where these trains were marked as reservation mandatory.

On nighttrains seat reservations were already before mandatory, although not every conductor was very serious about it.

In general trains in Norway were almost always pretty full when I used them, so a reservation would be so or so no bad investment (even if reservations would not be compulsory).

Hi, I've checked it and Oslo - Bergen is indeed mandatory like it says in the second screenshot. Our website information (first screenshot) will be adjusted in the coming days. In the our reservation system, the reservations also show as mandatory and are bookable:
 

Further to this: I've checked the info on this site for most countries now re REServations and it seems to me that many more countries this info is false, missing or incomplete.

perhaps this is due to the covid pandemic, as since then many more countries/railsystems want people to reserve, to limit the nr of passengers, perhaps this is now definite, I dont know.

But f.e. in Turkey, Finland, and f.e. in Italy now even in major REgionale trains it is compulsory. Usually the site of db=bahn.de has the best overall info on this-but not all systems far away are presented in it.

If the operators don't include this information in their timetable data, then nobody abroad will know it.

As to Italy: is that new or maybe restricted to certain regions? I was in Italy in August and didn't notice anything about reservations in regional trains, although we used a few that were quite long distance, e.g. Rome - Florence (4 hours in the direct regional train, but no reservation needed).

Hello, 
I have a problem with my booking from Oslo-Bergen. I would like to leave in August and take a night train (supplement of 5,40€) but I cannot… After this, i cannot reserved. 

Do you have an idea ? 

Thanks you !! 

You’re too early. It looks like you can book this train approx. 3 months in advance.

Be warned though that via the Interrail website, the reservation is only available on paper and will therefore have extra costs (2 EUR standard extra fee and 9 EUR postage fee). The best way to book Norwegian trains is to contact Entur, check this page (page down to Norway).

Only just seen this topic, but it would be good to have a running case list of trains with problematically murky reservation statuses.

As you and others have pointed out, regional trains in Italy definitely fit this bracket at the moment. The very first time I began to communicate with Interrail it was to try and pin down what was going on with these, and I was told it was a Covid measure. But the balance of reservation obligatory versus not required, which can easily be determined on Trenitalia’s own search engine, often seems quite arbitrary, varying between different trains running on very similar routes and not necessarily corresponding to particular times of day; i.e. the rush hour.

For the purposes of Interrail travellers, the question is; after social distancing requirements are wound down, will all regional trains revert to reservation not required, and - if not all of them do - will Interrailers be able to ignore the rule and ride without a reservation, as they can on Intercity trains in Italy? And if that is the case, will the ticket inspectors on trains be properly informed, so as to avoid any wrongfully issued penalty fares? (I know all of these things are more Trenitalia’s fault for issuing vague information and not liaising adequately with Interrail, so I’m not having a go at Interrail in this instance!)

Another grey area is that of Railjets in Hungary - the Interrail overview page for them says they need to be reserved there, but this isn’t indicated on ÖBB’s Scotty timetable. If one were to buy a full ticket for a Railjet from MÁV-START it would include a free reservation, but the same, equally valid booking when made through ÖBB would not. And if Interrail travellers uniquely must have a reservation on Railjet trains in Hungary, shouldn’t the same also apply to Eurocity trains on the same route? Of course, €3 is only a trivial amount (and one well worth paying in 1st Class if it gets you into the Keleti lounge!), but what’s important here is giving travellers the peace of mind that comes with having clearly defined rules to follow.

Similarly, there is arguably misleading guidance on Interrail’s pages about the two main ÖBB routes into Italy; the Railjet to Venice and the EC to Bologna. They are described by Interrail as reservation obligatory because this is easier than explaining the more complex reality that they are not, but that there is an extra supplement levied on these trains. This then confuses newcomers when they go to pay what they think is the reservation fee, only to see another unticked box offering them seat reservation for a further €3...

Railjets in Hungary 

Need a reservation when traveling within Hungary (domestic, the reservation is kind of surcharge) traveling International no reservation needed. 

Ah, I see! Now it makes sense. It does beg the question though; how would they know? Presumably they could only enforce this rule (on westbound trains at least) by watching the train doors via CCTV and swiftly apprehending any passholders seen leaving before the train crosses an international border. Either that or by sending them a penalty notice in the post, having taken note of their details during the ticket inspection stage if they don’t have a reservation.

EC trains in Slovakia have a similar but not identical quirk in that reservations aren’t required, but a €1 surcharge is when making purely domestic journeys. I suppose this is the same as the Intercity Direct supplement in the Netherlands, which only has to be paid on journeys which don’t cross the border into Belgium.

EDIT: Having looked again at the Railjet overview page at interrail.eu, it still needs correcting if the rule is for domestic-only obligatory reservation - the wording used is:

“However, when travelling in or to Hungary, reservations are compulsory.”

It’s an easy enough fix, ‘in or to’ just needs to be substituted for ‘domestically within’.