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Anyone who has ever tried to book a long train trip through several countries independently online knows that this usually takes a lot of time, patience and nerves.
What problems are there when booking international train journeys? Unlike booking flights, you cannot usually enter the start and destination and buy the tickets on longer train journeys through several countries. Each railway – Deutsche Bahn, ÖBB, Trenitalia, SNCF and so on – has its own booking and fare system. “So you have no choice but to go from homepage to homepage and book the trip piecemeal,” says Bastian Bommer from the Pro Bahn passenger association in the SRF consumer magazine “Espresso”.
You never know when the time will come. It’s a lottery.
The fact that ticket bookings and seat reservations for certain dates and trains are sometimes only activated late does not make things any easier, says Bommer: “You never know when the time will come. It’s a lottery.” It is therefore worth sticking with it and checking again and again, then it will work. Bommer was traveling by train with his family in Italy during the autumn holidays. For the most part it was a pleasant trip, but it took him some time to get all the tickets together.
And another tip from rail travel expert Bommer to help you plan: The English website “The Man in Seat Sixty-One”.
When can improvements be expected? In the background, the European railway companies have meanwhile agreed on a common technical standard, but it will probably be a while before customers can benefit from this long-overdue digital networking. The improvements will be introduced gradually from the end of 2025, according to the SBB. Because of the technical hurdles, it has only been offering a reduced range of international tickets since the timetable change on December 10, 2023.
Which international train tickets are still available at SBB? SBB continues to offer tickets to all of Switzerland’s neighboring countries as well as to the Benelux countries, Denmark and the Czech Republic, plus the Eurostar connection to London and those with the TGV to Barcelona. According to SBB, you can buy these tickets both in the SBB travel centers on-line. If you try using the SBB app, you will still be redirected to the homepage. Next year it should also be possible to buy tickets directly in the app.
What alternatives to SBB are there? The Forchbahn travel center or the Swiss online platform “SimpleTrain”, for example, continue to offer train tickets to all possible European countries, including reservations, bicycle or dog tickets. So, for example, to Lisbon or Stockholm. Both providers are partly directly networked with individual European railway companies. According to its own information, the Forchbahn has already sold around 11,000 international tickets this year (2023), and “SimpleTrain” sold over 3,000 tickets in 2022.
You pay a fee for the booking service at “SimpleTrain”. At Forchbahn it is free until the end of January 2024. “From February 1st, we will also be charging a small fee to cover our expenses,” says sales manager Harry-Louis Beringer.
Of course, there are also other providers, such as travel agencies specializing in train travel, where you can also book an overnight stay.