Hi Vincent,

it is to 99% not fully booked. I am not sure about the working hours of the ticket office in Dimitrovgrad but if it doesn’t work, you should also be able to buy the supplement/reservation direct from the conductor in the couchette… Just not sure what kind of cash they accept.

Hi Martin,

Thanks for your reply. I will arrive in the evening and I will see if the office is open. I think they will accept euros, because also the Turkish officials prefer euros from foreigners. 

Vincent

I think so. If you are already before traveling in Bulgaria, you could make the reservation at another station with international ticketing.
According to https://www.bdz.bg/en/a/office-for-international-rail-tickets Dimitrovgrad has no international ticket office… so I am not sure if they will be able to sell this in the normal ticket office.

I will take a look in Varna. Thanks.

Hiya when are you doing this journey?

I am having the exact same problem - trying to travel into Istanbul overnight on 10th/11th Aug and then get the overnight train out of Istanbul on 14th Aug. Can’t seem to book either and a little worried about getting caught out somewhere as some sites are saying there are trains and others are saying there are not - one site says I will need to get a bus from Dimitrovgrad to Halkali at 3am as no trains.

Will be curious to hear how you get on. 

Hello all, Finally I managed to arrange a reservation for Halkali - Plovdiv on August 25th. This thanks to a friendly counter at Ruse station in Bulgaria. Afterwards there was enough space. Reservation for Dimitrovgrad - Halkali on August 22nd was not possible, because the train was full. I traveled that route by bus. Kind regards, Vincent