One day you sink into the red fabric armchairs of the Thalys while French villages pass by the window. Next, the legs stick to the gray artificial leather of the Spanish Renfe seats, but Barcelona is almost in sight. Some call this way of traveling a “European myth”. With an Interrail pass you can travel across Europe, within a short time you can experience numerous cities and countries with just one ticket.
The ticket itself is relatively cheap. Especially now, when flight prices are high again, many travelers are very willing to switch. After all, traveling by train is also more climate-friendly. But if you want to make fast progress on your Interrail trip and use high-speed trains like the Eurostar, you have to make reservations in many countries – and the costs for this quickly add up to the ticket price. Flying will then become more attractive again and climate protection will be of secondary importance. Customers and passenger representatives find this inappropriate.
A case study: A family of five wants to travel from Berlin to Barcelona via Paris during the autumn holidays, the tickets cost 1,300 euros. For the reservations in the TGV from Paris to Barcelona alone, however, another 885 euros are due, 177 euros per seat and per person. For comparison, the pure TGV ticket with the French state railway SCNF would cost 199 euros. In addition to tickets and reservations, there are costs for an overnight stay in a hotel because the route cannot be covered in one day. All in all, the journey alone would cost almost twice as much as flight tickets.
Interrail has been selling train tickets to European travelers for over 50 years. You can purchase a so-called “pass” for a certain number of travel days within a month or several months and use all regional and long-distance trains of participating transport companies. More than 35 companies in 33 European countries are now involved: in France, for example, Thalys and the TGV operator SCNF, in Switzerland SBB and in Italy Trenitalia. The ticket price depends on the length of the travel period and whether it is first or second class. For teenagers and young adults, the “Global Pass” for all of Europe costs at least 206 euros, for adults at least 267 euros.
Seat reservations are generally not included in the ticket price. You can choose the seat category, first or second class, but when booking the ticket, there is no check mark in the seat reservation. However, reservations are mandatory on most high-speed and night trains. Interrail points out corresponding “additional fees” on its website and reminds you during the booking process: “Don’t forget to reserve your seats.”. However, Interrail has no influence on the amount of the reservation costs, as these are determined by the individual railway companies.
“Some railway companies seem to regard passport holders as cash cows,” Rian van der Borgt, a member of the board of the European Passengers Federation (EPF), told the business magazine “Capital”. The French state railway SNCF is one of them. “She’s mostly involved with international high-speed trains, like those across the French border.” In fact, the reservation fees here are the highest: a seat from Paris to Barcelona costs 34 euros and to Milan 31 euros. With the Eurostar from London to Paris, a reservation costs 30 euros.
When asked, the family from the case study recommended that Interrail travel to Perpignan with the Interrail ticket, where the reservation costs exactly this 30 euros. After that, she was supposed to continue to Barcelona on a separate, cheaper ticket. “Completely absurd,” says the family man. Another customer from Germany describes the prices on a consumer portal as “exorbitantly expensive”, another complains that because of the high occupancy rate of the train, his reservation would have cost almost as much as the ticket.
According to van den Borgt from the EPF, a reservation across the Austrian-Italian border is also expensive. “The Deutsche Bahn and the Austrian Federal Railways also seem very interested in getting 10 to 15 euros from each Interrail pass holder,” he says. Otherwise, a reservation with Deutsche Bahn is usually optional, as is with Swiss companies.
If necessary, reservations on the Polish, Romanian and Czech railways are inexpensive: A reservation in the Eurocity from Berlin to Prague or in the RailJet from Prague to Vienna costs only 3.60 euros, for example. However, according to the EPF, reservations are also required for regional trains in some Eastern European countries. “A normal reservation fee is often five euros or even less,” explains van den Borgt. “Personally, I think any fee over 10 euros is excessive, especially if it’s 20 euros or more.”
The German passenger association Pro Bahn reacts cautiously to such cases. After all, the conditions are clear, even if the reservation system in some countries is different than in Germany. “If you use many trains in a row that require reservations, the bottom line can be more expensive than the ticket,” says Detlef Neuss, federal chairman of Pro Bahn. “But the additional fees are only a trap if you haven’t checked the ticket conditions beforehand.” His association has not yet received a complaint, and the Pro-Rail Alliance is also not aware of any cases.
How much the reservation fees add to your own ticket price depends heavily on which trains and routes the travelers use and how often. If there are several people, the sum can be correspondingly large and the train journey is no longer worthwhile compared to flying.
Apart from the price, customers from Germany primarily criticize that it is difficult to get a reservation at all, even well in advance. “It then has nothing to do with spontaneous, flexible travel at all,” writes someone on a rating portal, for example. In its answers, the company refers to its own website. “Please note that the requirements and fees are displayed publicly on our website. This gives you the opportunity to calculate the expected costs before purchasing the pass.”
In response to a “Capital” request, Interrail only recommends reserving seats as early as possible, as popular routes such as London-Paris are quickly booked out. The company does not answer the question to what extent their offer still corresponds to the actual idea due to the mandatory reservations and additional costs.
In any case, the family of five is now considering canceling their Interrail tickets and booking flights from Berlin to Barcelona – it would be cheaper.
This article first appeared here in the business magazine “Capital”, which, like the star, belongs to RTL Germany.
