european train seat reservations

after looking at a fairly extensive train timetable for europe, i have
noticed that a lot of trains in italy require reservations. I'm
planning to travel in january and am arranging to travel with a eurail
ticket.

what is the process in getting a reservation on a train, and is it
going to cost much extra to do this? should i be reserving well in
advance especially around early january which is a peak holiday/new
year period? or is it something that can be easily done on the day at
the station?

thanks!

On Sun, 14 Oct 2007, Kostodian wrote:

what is the process in getting a reservation on a train, and is it
going to cost much extra to do this? should i be reserving well in
advance especially around early january which is a peak holiday/new
year period? or is it something that can be easily done on the day at
the station?

I cannot answer in the specific case (travelling with a pass on a train
with compulsory reservation).

In general I'd say that the cost of travelling on a compulsory
reservation train is not "much extra" with respect to a non compulsory
reservation train ... you can figure it yourself using the Trenitalia
site to compute the fare for different classes of trains. You will see
that even if the difference can be a fair percentage of the standard
fare price, in terms of overall money it is not much (our trains are
cheap).

The point is that in the past the fare system was simpler (a ticket for
all trains and a surcharge for some trains, the cost of the actual
reservations usually included in surcharge when reservation compulsory),
nowadays it's generally a "global fare". In the past a pass holder was
entitled to travel on all trains, paying just the surcharge on some
trains.

Nowadays I presume it's sort of the same, i.e. you'll have to pay some
difference, but I ignore how easy or difficult this is with the present
bureaucracy.

Just bear in mind that trains come in the following categories, with
increasing prices. Check what are included by your pass.

local, R, IR, express are at the standard fare (no surcharge, no
reservation, but also slower)

IC is the next, have a surcharge but reservation should not be
compulsory

ICplus it the next, I guess the price is 1 eur more than IC and
includes compulsory reservation. EC are probably the same.

ES are next, then ES/AV (Milan-Turin and Rome-Naples only).
Tbiz are the most expensive.

Just tried on Milan-Bologna : IR 10.5 eur, exp 13.5 eur, IC 19 eur,
ICplus 20 eur, ES and AV 20 eur, Tbiz 26 eur.

In general there is no problem in finding a place on the next train, and
definitely not on a train in the same day. It occurred only once to me
to find a train fully booked (15 min before departure), and I found a
slower one in 30 min. On the other hand I once wanted to change a
reservation on the busiest Rome-Milan line (depart earlier). I had no
problem to find a place on the second train (in 90 min, allowing for
lunch at the station), the clerk offered me a place even on the first
train (in 30 min).


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On Sun, 14 Oct 2007 18:57:48 -0700, Kostodian
wrote:

after looking at a fairly extensive train timetable for europe, i have
noticed that a lot of trains in italy require reservations. I'm
planning to travel in january and am arranging to travel with a eurail
ticket.

First of all, unless you are planning a lot of travel outside Italy,
it is not at all cost effective to get a Eurail pass. Trains in Italy
are very cheap and it would be almost impossible to use the train
enough to justify the cost of the pass. Also, the Eurail pass does
not cover the full fare on IC PLus, ES or AV trains, which is
precisely those trains that need a reservation, and which are becoming
an ever larger percentage of the trains available. So you will find
yourself standing in line to buy supplements or else limiting your
travel to the slower and less well-furnished trains.

what is the process in getting a reservation on a train, and is it
going to cost much extra to do this? should i be reserving well in
advance especially around early january which is a peak holiday/new
year period? or is it something that can be easily done on the day at
the station?

The reservation costs, if I remember correctly, 3 euros. However, as I
said, you will also have to pay a supplement on all the trains that
require reservations. The cost of the supplement should be the
difference in the price of the train in question and an IC train (not
IC Plus) on the same route.

You can usually get reservations on the day of travel. Exceptions are
at rush hour on Friday evening or Monday morning, or just before
holidays. Even then, there are almost always multiple trains on the
route and you can usually get a different train on the same day. If
your can't get a reservation and really must travel, you can take your
chances on one of the trains that don't require reservations, mostly
the R, IR and IC trains.

You can buy tickets from automatic machines in the larger stations. I
would recommend just buying tickets as you go along. You can buy your
departing ticket on arrival at a station, for example. If you do this,
you should have no problems. I think you can also get supplements and
reservations from these machines, but I'm not 100% sure of this.



thanks!

--
Barbara Vaughan
My email address is my first initial followed by my surname at libero dot it
I answer travel questions only in the newsgroup