European Rail Travel - How does a EU Rail Pass work?

I'm trying to figure out if I'll be able to take full advantage of the EU Rail pass whether it's global or regional. I'm not an EU resident nor am I over the age of 26.

I don't quite understand the wording. When it says 5 days within 2 months, does the clock start ticking the minute I start using it? Or it's any 5 days within a span of 2 months?

Thanks!

for a good start ... let's try in the european rail forum :)

regards,

chrissxb
co-moderator
europe forum

I'm trying to figure out if I'll be able to take full advantage of the EU Rail pass whether it's global or regional. I'm not an EU resident nor am I over the age of 26.

I don't quite understand the wording. When it says 5 days within 2 months, does the clock start ticking the minute I start using it? Or it's any 5 days within a span of 2 months?

Thanks!

For the flexipass, it's - in this case - any 5 days of your choice within the 2-month period. You will have to write the days you choose on the pass. You can do this as you go along - you don't have to decide them in advance, and they don't have to be together.

for a good start ... let's try in the european rail forum :)

regards,

chrissxb
co-moderator
europe forum

Oops, Sorry!

For the flexipass, it's - in this case - any 5 days of your choice within the 2-month period. You will have to write the days you choose on the pass. You can do this as you go along - you don't have to decide them in advance, and they don't have to be together.

Will any of the EU Rail passes work this way? If what you say is true, how does the EU rail company prevent people from committing fraud by erasing the previous dates and write in a new one?

There is a problem at the moment. I'm currently living in Leicester, UK, but I'm not a European resident/citizen. Can I order one while I'm in the UK?

Will any of the EU Rail passes work this way? If what you say is true, how does the EU rail company prevent people from committing fraud by erasing the previous dates and write in a new one?


all I am aware of work this way. train staff will validate it when they check for tickets and you cannot erase a ball pen, can you?

all I am aware of work this way. train staff will validate it when they check for tickets and you cannot erase a ball pen, can you?

No, but what if someone use a pencil?

No, but what if someone use a pencil?

It has to be done in INK (can you can use erasable ink pens and get away with it:confused:). I've used flexible passes in Switzerland, when the conductor did his ticket check, he used his official dating stamp and put the mark over the entire box (containing the date)--so it would be hard to erase and write over the stamp. In France they don't place the stamp when they check tickets. One date saver with flexpasses, if you are taking an overnight train that departs after 7 pm, you list the next day as your date.

There is a problem at the moment. I'm currently living in Leicester, UK, but I'm not a European resident/citizen. Can I order one while I'm in the UK?

For buying Eurail passes while you're in Europe, see here (http://www.eurail.com/support/order-pass/can-i-buy-eurail-in-europe).

You said that you are not over 26. If you are UNDER 26 you are eligible for a Youth Eurail pass (OK, only 2nd class allowed but still very comfortable) & this makes a great difference to the price. You need to work out how flexible you wish to be about your travelling. If you are definite about how long you wish to spend in each city you may be able to get advance booking that are cheaper than the pass. However, if you want to be able to vary your stays in certain places you'll need to get a pass as advance bookings are for specific day AND train. So you need to plan the train trips you wish to do and see how many travel days they add up to. Then you can determine if you need a Global (unlimited) pass, a Select (flexible) pass (typically 10 or 15 days in 2 months) or whether you can commit to fixed dates this far in advance.

I'd also strongly recommend you reference Mark Smith's excellent site Seat61.com. He has very detailed information on various passes & where to buy them, & equally detailed stuff on booking & buying point to point tickets. His site will also provide access to route planners which will allow you see see how your itinerary hangs together.

Good luck

Dave

It has to be done in INK (can you can use erasable ink pens and get away with it:confused:). I've used flexible passes in Switzerland, when the conductor did his ticket check, he used his official dating stamp and put the mark over the entire box (containing the date)--so it would be hard to erase and write over the stamp. In France they don't place the stamp when they check tickets. One date saver with flexpasses, if you are taking an overnight train that departs after 7 pm, you list the next day as your date.

You must also have your date written in BEFORE you board the train.. or at least when you're already in your seat. Trying to avoid getting checked or simply saying you 'forgot' means that you're trying to travel without a valid ticket / pass and you could be liable to a fine.

If you've entered a wrong date down, you cannot simply cross it out and put in a new date. It is voided, which means you LOST that day and you must put in a new date in a new box.

You must also have your date written in BEFORE you board the train.. or at least when you're already in your seat. Trying to avoid getting checked or simply saying you 'forgot' means that you're trying to travel without a valid ticket / pass and you could be liable to a fine.

If you've entered a wrong date down, you cannot simply cross it out and put in a new date. It is voided, which means you LOST that day and you must put in a new date in a new box.
I'd be "rich" today if I had $1 for everyone who did NOT place the date on a flex. EP:)--in every instance (that I've witnessed), the conductor admonished them for their laxity and wrote in the date. [The official rules are somewhat Draconian = fines.]
(1) A long time ago, I was using a full 21 day EP, and the station agent who wrote in the start and end dates, short changed me out of a day (inclusive counts are tricky with non monthly type passes) so he just corrected his error by correcting the end date by writing over it. I expected to run into trouble (due to the correction) and for 21 days of travel NOT once did a conductor say anything.
(2) In Switzerland, I was validating a Swiss Pass shortly before the end of the year, the agent wrote the current year as part of the end date--it should have been the next year, again (after I pointed out his error) he corrected the error by writing the correct year over the incorrect one--again I experienced NO problems.
Conductors and other rail people, realize that pax (and others) do make errors and are fairly forgiving, especially when tourists are involved.

You must write in the date of your ticket prior to ticket inspection by the conductors. Only once have I seen a conductor make a big deal about forgetting to do so. usually they will write it in for you if you forget. Please be aware that there are a limited amount of seats on any train that are sold to eurail pass holders. There are usually seats available for full fare tickets. Some train lines, such as the night trains from Paris to cities in Italy or from Rome to Paris, may be sold out for pass holders 2 to 3 months in advance. On a recent trip through France and Italy I had to pay full fare on two occasions because the tickets alotted for pass holders were sold out. I had a 6 day pass but was able to use it only 4 times. While the savings with the pass are good you cannot always count on getting the train you want. This is not good if you are on a tight or fixed schedule.

You must write in the date of your ticket prior to ticket inspection by the conductors. Only once have I seen a conductor make a big deal about forgetting to do so. usually they will write it in for you if you forget. Please be aware that there are a limited amount of seats on any train that are sold to eurail pass holders. There are usually seats available for full fare tickets. Some train lines, such as the night trains from Paris to cities in Italy or from Rome to Paris, may be sold out for pass holders 2 to 3 months in advance. On a recent trip through France and Italy I had to pay full fare on two occasions because the tickets alotted for pass holders were sold out. I had a 6 day pass but was able to use it only 4 times. While the savings with the pass are good you cannot always count on getting the train you want. This is not good if you are on a tight or fixed schedule.

In the 60's (when I first used a EP) things were so "simple", you bought a 1 month, 2 month or 3 month pass (there were no youth passes then either), all reservations were included and except for TEE's no reservations were required^. Now with over 50 types of passes and reservation only trains, as you noted, you can't easily go from point A to point B (if you are a pass holder).
But, if one is flexible and you have lots of time, there are ways around the restrictions, use local trains. Unfortunately, there are exceptions, Paris to Brussels seems to require the Thalys--I'm sure they are busily creating routes to prevent my method.:td:
[PS: There were lots of first class couches on the night trains, and hoards of pax would make use of this feature--go from point A, overnight, to B and save on hotels.

Beware of 3 changing trends in regard of rail pass use:

- the number of trains requiring reservation (thus, fees for pass holders) is increasing. All but regional very slow, stop-everywhere services in Italy and Spain require reservation, for instance.

- Trenitalia and SNCF are aggressively introducing pass holder quotas. This mean that if you train to reserve a seat in a train with a pass, they will tell you there are not places, while one would be able to buy a ticket (without a pass) on the same train. Think of something akin to airlines limiting the availability of miles redemption passengers in each flight and all but blacklisting the most busy days of the year....

- joint-venture and niche companies like Thalys, Elypsos, Eurostar are racking up reservation fees, to the point it is usually cheaper to buy stand-alone advanced tickets Parix-Amsterdam or London-Bruxelles (for instance) with discount instead of paying hefty reservation fees. These companies all have pass holder quotas, particularly Thalys.

The fact is that with internet and the ready information about anything concerning tourist services like lodging, restaurant reservations etc., it is odd and even a bit outdated to want "complete flexibility" (that no longer exists) for rail transport. Complete flexibility is now the dominion of car drivers on vacation who can always decide what to do after breakfast.

it is odd and even a bit outdated to want "complete flexibility" (that no longer exists) for rail transport.

It does still exist in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria and Belgium, to name just a few. It's not outdated at all. Please stop pushing this myth that rail must be like air, or at the very least justify it, taking into account that most European railways run as a public service and not purely for profit.

Neil

It does still exist in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria and Belgium, to name just a few. It's not outdated at all. Please stop pushing this myth that rail must be like air, or at the very least justify it, taking into account that most European railways run as a public service and not purely for profit.

Neil

Even more so for Switz. than the others: (1)no high speed network, (2)except for a few "tourist" routes, trains have no supplements (3) they do offer (periodically) special discounted fares, but other than these, all ticket prices are the same (or 1/2 fare--if you purchased that card).

In Germany, no reservation needed (except during busier periods, if not they will even say you to not waste money on a reservation), except rare exceptions (once I just waited a slower RE train). Even the Amsterdam-Frankfurt ICE did not need a reservation, however paying €4 for one is not a bad idea.
In France, no problems if reserved at least 3 weeks in advance on TGV (for September in my case).
In Austria I could have used an InterRail pass (became a resident), but with the €20 youth discount card, I paid half the regular fare for RailJet tickets bought just before departure. Also got a discount for an Innsbruck-Zürich trip, maybe 40%.

The only problem is that I booked my hostels, so I knew in advance the dates I would travel. However, in Germany I decided to make a day trip with my pass at the last minute.

I'd agree with the advantage of rail passes within Germany/Switzerland/Austria. I've been on a couple rather ambitious trips in the last 3 years and used the passes w/o any additional supplements (except for riding on private trains in Switzerland - Jungfroch).

Generally advantage purchase of point to point tickets or certain discount cards can be cheaper if you are not doing much traveling (e.g. Bayern Ticket). You really need to figure out your itinerary and check prices online.

In my case we were changing cities every 2-3 days and when I did a price comparison the rail pass was competitive. Throw in the flexibility and it was an easy decision for me.

Has anyone heard of people being fined for not having their Europass dated when the conductor checks it? My son is traveling with 6 other people right now in Italy, all passes except his were marked with dates, he was holding the group's food and could not reach his pass, so when the conductor approached he tried to explain, but was fined 50 Euro. Do you think he was taken or is this part of the system?

Has anyone heard of people being fined for not having their Europass dated when the conductor checks it? My son is traveling with 6 other people right now in Italy, all passes except his were marked with dates, he was holding the group's food and could not reach his pass, so when the conductor approached he tried to explain, but was fined 50 Euro. Do you think he was taken or is this part of the system?

The rules specifically state that the passholder can be fined if the correct date isn't filled in.

There really is no excuse, frankly - the pass should be dated before boarding the first train of the day, and not when the ticket inspector is approaching.

North Americans and Japanese who travel with European flex passes should remember that Europeans write dates with the day first and the month second, so that 6/7 is not June 7 but July 6.

It's time consuming but you must take into account every single route you are likely to take and cost them separately if you know when you are travelling in order to work out whether you will save money or not.

My experience is limited to France, Switzerland and Italy and I would be merely echoing seat61.com's excellent advice that if you are going to take a couple of trains or more in Switzerland, you should get a Swiss Pass, 1/2 half fare card, or incorporate it as one of your countries into your Eurail pass. Point to point tickets are very expensive (compared to France or Italy) and even taking a 2 hour train trip (like Geneva to Visp) every day will give you value.

The Eurail pass also gives great value if you are able to take advantage of the benefits (like discounted cruises etc). The catch with this is that the offer is only valid on a travel day. Eg - I decided to do a day trip from Zurich to Luzern - took a cruise and it was free - since the day was one of my Eurail pass travel days. So effectively, the 99CHF boat fare (1st class) was included in the cost, as was the Zurich to Luzern and return train fare - that was good value.

If you take tourist trains in Switzerland like Glacier Express or similar, you get discounts on that as well.

I would grab the Eurail pass brochure or look online and find out what benefits passholders get (e.g. discounts on cruises, cable cars etc) and cost it all up.

The pass also makes sense if you are daytripping and not sure what time you want to leave to go back to your city of accommodation.

In short, each itinerary will differ. I costed our entire train travel itinerary requirements using the Eurail pass (and reservation fees included for TGV, Cisalpino, passholder fares on Eurostar etc) and priced a 60 day advance booking (which are usually cheapest). In France, it was break even or a slight loss, but Switzerland was a big win holding a Eurail pass because of the added benefits I was able to take advantage of. For some (like my itinerary), Eurail was best, for others, buying point to point tickets in advance will be better.

It's important to do the homework. In short, though, passes in Italy are not worth it - the trains are cheap and the daily Eurail pass rate is greater than most trains in Italy.