Have two passes starting Sep. 10. First train is from Geneva at 9:15AM but when I tried to get seat reservations it only showed from Noon. Should I get those or is it for a different train or am I trying to get them too early or what is going on? Thanks in advance
Answer
Seat reservations required but train time shown is different
Best answer by Angelo
Where are you going. From Geneva there are a lot of trains.
At 9:15 there is a IC to Zurich. For travelling in Switzerland normally nobody reserves seats, because trains run frequently, only tourists that do not know this and groups do this. You can reserve a seat via Swiss Railways for 5 CHF or via Austrian Railways for 3 EUR.
Geneva to where?
For internal Swiss trains reservations are not required, often not possible and generally not necessary.
+11Where are you going. From Geneva there are a lot of trains.
At 9:15 there is a IC to Zurich. For travelling in Switzerland normally nobody reserves seats, because trains run frequently, only tourists that do not know this and groups do this. You can reserve a seat via Swiss Railways for 5 CHF or via Austrian Railways for 3 EUR.
Geneva to Venice. The trains in Switzerland do not require seat reservations (yay) but going from Switzerland to Italy does. My problem is it shows a 12:30 departure from Geneva not the 9:15 I got the pass for
+11The EC to Venice does not run at 9:15 am
+11The EC to Venice starts from Geneve at 7:39, but in September there are works on the line in Italy between Domodossola an Milan.
There is a bus service instead from Domodossola to Milan.
The problem is you can’t reserve a seat for the bus, but I don’t know how it should work with Interrail/Eurail Passes, you could try to run via Gotthard to Italy, or from Domodossola with an scenic train to Locarno and from there to Milan and beyond.
For the moment there are no further information. In the next weeks there should be some news. Normal Ticket booking is also not open yet for this period on this line due to the works.
+5On the 09.15 change at Olten and Milan. You need reservations between Olten and Milan and Milan to Venice. See details on the reservation section about how to reserve. Both trains have supplements
+11I see now, that via Trenitalia the booking is opened and you pay 10€ for the bus. There are no other prices. The reservation costs 11€, so I would suggest to you with todays information, to search for trains Geneva-Domodossola to book from there a BUS (note, that the regional trains on the line are not changed yet, and it says that they run, but it is not so) or to wait for a replacement of the regional train (for free with Eurail), and book a reservation for the first available train to Venice from Milan (Plan a lot of time to change, because busses run on bussy streats and they will have delay). You can book via Austria Railways reservations for Italy (it works better and it cost less - here how it work: How to get Reservations :) | Community)
Or you change route and use only trains via other routes like via Domodossola-Locarno-Chiasso-Milano or via Arth Goldau-Lugano-Chiasso-Milano and the Gotthard Base Tunnel.
Thanks for the advice. The other issue I have is no matter what train trip I put in I can’t change the departure time. From Geneva to Venice at the top where you search it automatically puts in Noon. From Venice to Florence a couple days later, same thing. There must be a way to choose a different departure time but I cannot figure it out. Help!
You don't need to enter the journey yet. If you wait the Rail Planner will hopefully be updated. Please read more below about planning your trip and other important information.
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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