How to purchase rail tickets?

I haven't found any website that allows me to purchase a ticket from the US
for a European train journey. I'm going from Rome to Pisa. Here are my
results:

You submit your itinerary to rail.ch and they are supposed to provide a
price within 48 hours. Here's what they wrote back:

Thank you for your order/request.
For an information about the prices and timetables outside of Switzerland
and for an order, we direct you to the following website:
Italy: www.trenitalia.com
Your order/request has not been processed or debited.
We ask for your understanding.

So I got to trenitalia.com. Here's what their website says:

Note: this option is not available to buy on-line

I tried contacting them via the Contacts link at the bottom. After
submitting that form, I get an error that the server resource is not
available.

Any one have an idea how I go about purchase train tickets online or at all?

Thanks,
Brett

"Brett" wrote in :

I haven't found any website that allows me to purchase a ticket from
the US for a European train journey. I'm going from Rome to Pisa.
Here are my results:

You submit your itinerary to rail.ch and they are supposed to provide
a price within 48 hours. Here's what they wrote back:

Thank you for your order/request.
For an information about the prices and timetables outside of
Switzerland and for an order, we direct you to the following website:
Italy: www.trenitalia.com
Your order/request has not been processed or debited.
We ask for your understanding.

So I got to trenitalia.com. Here's what their website says:

Note: this option is not available to buy on-line

I tried contacting them via the Contacts link at the bottom. After
submitting that form, I get an error that the server resource is not
available.

Any one have an idea how I go about purchase train tickets online or
at all?

Thanks,
Brett

If you live in N America or Australia you are technically at the mercy
of RailEurope. Some rail sites will allow you to order tickets for
pickup in the country of travel (Eurostar and SNCF both allow this) If
you are not really anal about travel one good option is to purchase your
rail once you arrive in the country of travel.

Brett wrote:

I haven't found any website that allows me to purchase a ticket from the US
for a European train journey. I'm going from Rome to Pisa.

snip

Any one have an idea how I go about purchase train tickets online or at all?

Simply buy the ticket when you get there.

--
Phil Richards
London, UK
Home Page: http://www.philrichards1.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk

Have a look and explore this site, it is a mine of information
concerning rail travel.

http://www.seat61.com/

You can e-mail him from his site if you wish - and I guess if he
doesn't know the answer to your questions no one will!

This may be exactly what you are looking for.

http://www.raileurope.com/us/index.htm

"Phil Richards" wrote in message
...
Brett wrote:

I haven't found any website that allows me to purchase a ticket from the
US
for a European train journey. I'm going from Rome to Pisa.

snip

Any one have an idea how I go about purchase train tickets online or at
all?

Simply buy the ticket when you get there.

--
Phil Richards
London, UK
Home Page: http://www.philrichards1.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk

I can buy the ticket when I'm there. However, how can I be sure the train
isn't full? Also, one route is Pisa to Zurich, which is overnight. I'd like
a bunk on that one but doesn't that require a reservation? If all the bunks
are reserved, it will be to late to purchase at the station.

Brett

In article , Brett wrote:

I haven't found any website that allows me to purchase a ticket from the US
for a European train journey. I'm going from Rome to Pisa. Here are my
results:

You submit your itinerary to rail.ch and they are supposed to provide a
price within 48 hours. Here's what they wrote back:

Swiss rail will not sell you a ticket that does NOT originate in CH. as
an international customer.

jay
Sun Mar 06, 2005




Thank you for your order/request.
For an information about the prices and timetables outside of Switzerland
and for an order, we direct you to the following website:
Italy: www.trenitalia.com
Your order/request has not been processed or debited.
We ask for your understanding.

So I got to trenitalia.com. Here's what their website says:

Note: this option is not available to buy on-line

I tried contacting them via the Contacts link at the bottom. After
submitting that form, I get an error that the server resource is not
available.

Any one have an idea how I go about purchase train tickets online or at all?

Thanks,
Brett

On Sun, 06 Mar 2005 10:24:10 -0600, jcoulter
wrote:

"Brett" wrote in :

I haven't found any website that allows me to purchase a ticket from
the US for a European train journey. I'm going from Rome to Pisa.
Here are my results:

You submit your itinerary to rail.ch and they are supposed to provide
a price within 48 hours. Here's what they wrote back:

Thank you for your order/request.
For an information about the prices and timetables outside of
Switzerland and for an order, we direct you to the following website:
Italy: www.trenitalia.com
Your order/request has not been processed or debited.
We ask for your understanding.

So I got to trenitalia.com. Here's what their website says:

Note: this option is not available to buy on-line

I tried contacting them via the Contacts link at the bottom. After
submitting that form, I get an error that the server resource is not
available.

Any one have an idea how I go about purchase train tickets online or
at all?

Thanks,
Brett

If you live in N America or Australia you are technically at the mercy
of RailEurope. Some rail sites will allow you to order tickets for
pickup in the country of travel (Eurostar and SNCF both allow this) If
you are not really anal about travel one good option is to purchase your
rail once you arrive in the country of travel.
Eurostar will send tickets to the USA, we ordered direct
from them two years ago.

I haven't found any website that allows me to purchase a ticket from
the US for a European train journey. I'm going from Rome to Pisa.

I booked several tickets for ES trains at the Trenitalia site last year. I
had real trouble getting the thing to work (and even reliably get
information) when I used the English language version, but had very good
success using the Italian language section of the site--it is not that
difficult to navigate--even if you don't know Italian the options get pretty
obvious, for the most part, and you can always go over to the English
version to translate (or quick pop over to Altavista translations
http://world.altavista.com/ ) if you really get nervous about clicking on
something unfamilar.

But it also could be that if you're not comfortable waiting till you get
there, that you'd be better off booking the Rome-Florence portion as one
separate ticket--that should work pretty well, but maybe combining it with
the open seating Florence-Pisa portion on trains that run frequently anyways
is gumming it up for you--you can easily pick that portion up there, or even
pay the conductor on the Florence-Pisa train.

"archierob" wrote in message
...
This may be exactly what you are looking for.

http://www.raileurope.com/us/index.htm


This seems like the way to go.
Rome Pisa
1 Adult 2nd class ticket: $37.00
Reservations requested: 1 Seat $11.00
$48.00 total

Pisa Florance (no train from Pisa to Zurich so I have to go an indirect
route)
1 Adult 2nd class ticket: $17.00
Reservations requested: 1 Seat $11.00
$28.00 total

Florance Zurich
1 Adult 2nd class ticket: $96.00
Reservations requested: 1 Couchette $32.00
$128.00 total

The Florance Zurich has a sleeper option. What exactly is that? There
isn't any pricing information on it.

$204 for all of the above. I don't think buying at the station will be much
cheaper. Seems like this is the way to go and the schedules work together.
Any comments on something better are welcome.


Thanks,
Brett