The hassle of booking an international train
Train station in Switzerland, source: SBB
COLUMN – The reputation of international train tickets is not as positive as it should be. International
train tickets are considered expensive and difficult to book. In reality, they can be amazingly cheap, but are a struggle to find.
Want to read more?
You have read all of your free premium articles for this month. Please become a subscriber to keep reading.
Subscribe now!
Take advantage of our exclusive offer to get full access to all premium content.
In addition to better access to truely international tickets, ordinary “inland” tickets at inland prices should be available for train that cross border, just until (or starting at) the border crossing.
For the examples given in the article, a “Dutch” ticket should be available not just to the last station Hengelo before the border, but to the actual border (or the fictive border crossing for ticketing purposes). Similar for a DB ticket from there to the first station in Germany or any other.
A further problem is that passengers sometimes have to book two different tickets to obtain reasonable prices, e.g. Amsterdam to Zurich or Milan and another one to Rome. If one train is delayed, the other ticket is not usable any more and you end up paying once again for the same route, at a much higher price level than originally. Not to speak of any “passenger right” compensation for the delay, which is not the issue here.
The overcharging for late booking of rail tickets is the main problem.