i want to add that this was a long-haul night train (münchen to hamburg), so no dining car, few stops, and a travel time of about 9 hours. in that circumstance, selling more tickets than there exists seating seems negligent. the bathrooms were all closed, there were no sleeping cars, there was a police inspection at four in the morning, people were propped up against every wall in the train trying to sleep in peace… it is without exception the worst experience i’ve ever had on a train, and i was once stuck in jörn for four hours in a train car without electricity in -30 weather.
i don’t understand how the separate reservation system is better in any way.
this is what i meant about the rules thing: it is expected that you know how it works, nobody will tell you, and if you do it wrong you will be yelled at and/or fined. i would much rather that the site told me “hey, you need a first-class ticket for a seat reservation in first class”.
You know there is a Long Haul Night train between Munich and Hamburg with real Beds, Showers and complimentary breakfast. Or sleeping Pods if you’re on a budget.
we were trying to keep costs down, the total trip had something like 15 changeovers, three in germany, and cost us €800.
i am european, i mostly travel by train, and we have mandatory seat reservation at no charge for intercity trains. if you don’t select a seat, one is assigned to you. when there are no more seats, no more tickets are sold.
it would never in a million years occur to me that people would be left without a place to sit for a nine hour trip. that’s just inhumane.
also, it would never in a million years occur to me that you could be fined for buying a ticket and a seat through the official system.
what you’re describing is how regional trains work. not long haul express trains.
Can you honestly justify seats in the first class being left empty, while people in the second class have nowhere to sit? There’s so many ways to improve the situation here without anyone actually being hurt. Can’t we all take a step back and see how crazy this actually this?
Well you can always avoid sitting on the floor by paying the 5€ for seat reservations for the entire journey during the time of booking. And if it tells you there that no more seats are available you can make an informed decision on how badly you want to be on this service and if you want to pay the first class fare.
Long-distance train journeys are unfortunately not subsidized by our moronic government so the state operator needs to earn back the money to operate the train or there will be no long distance train anymore in the future.
And our traffic minister just hiked track charges for them by 30%
So you just see absolutely no issue with those seats being kept empty while people don’t have anywhere to sleep. Cool, not a sign of a broken system at all.
i want to add that this was a long-haul night train (münchen to hamburg), so no dining car, few stops, and a travel time of about 9 hours. in that circumstance, selling more tickets than there exists seating seems negligent. the bathrooms were all closed, there were no sleeping cars, there was a police inspection at four in the morning, people were propped up against every wall in the train trying to sleep in peace… it is without exception the worst experience i’ve ever had on a train, and i was once stuck in jörn for four hours in a train car without electricity in -30 weather. i don’t understand how the separate reservation system is better in any way.
this is what i meant about the rules thing: it is expected that you know how it works, nobody will tell you, and if you do it wrong you will be yelled at and/or fined. i would much rather that the site told me “hey, you need a first-class ticket for a seat reservation in first class”.
You know there is a Long Haul Night train between Munich and Hamburg with real Beds, Showers and complimentary breakfast. Or sleeping Pods if you’re on a budget.
Check it out the next time. Nightjet.com
It’s operated by the Austrian state railways
Otherwise the separate reservation system makes international train ticketing easier and allows for greater flexibility.
That’s just common knowledge in most of European Countries. I can understand that this might confuse visitors who are used to air travel
we were trying to keep costs down, the total trip had something like 15 changeovers, three in germany, and cost us €800.
i am european, i mostly travel by train, and we have mandatory seat reservation at no charge for intercity trains. if you don’t select a seat, one is assigned to you. when there are no more seats, no more tickets are sold.
it would never in a million years occur to me that people would be left without a place to sit for a nine hour trip. that’s just inhumane.
also, it would never in a million years occur to me that you could be fined for buying a ticket and a seat through the official system.
what you’re describing is how regional trains work. not long haul express trains.
Can you honestly justify seats in the first class being left empty, while people in the second class have nowhere to sit? There’s so many ways to improve the situation here without anyone actually being hurt. Can’t we all take a step back and see how crazy this actually this?
Well you can always avoid sitting on the floor by paying the 5€ for seat reservations for the entire journey during the time of booking. And if it tells you there that no more seats are available you can make an informed decision on how badly you want to be on this service and if you want to pay the first class fare.
Long-distance train journeys are unfortunately not subsidized by our moronic government so the state operator needs to earn back the money to operate the train or there will be no long distance train anymore in the future.
And our traffic minister just hiked track charges for them by 30%
So you just see absolutely no issue with those seats being kept empty while people don’t have anywhere to sleep. Cool, not a sign of a broken system at all.