Train Travel in Europe

"B Vaughan" wrote in message
...
That is not my experience. When I find a sign, it's accurate. They put
the sign up precisely because of the problem with changing direction.

Where I ran into this is the undergound station in Naples while waiting for
the EuroStar.
There were signs. I don't recall if they were hanging from the cieling or on
the floor but when the train came in everyone waiting had to grab their bags
and swap ends.

--
Donald R. Newcomb
DRNewcomb (at) attglobal (dot) net

On Mon, 20 Nov 2006 20:49:40 +0000,
(David Horne, _the_ chancellor of
the royal duchy of city south and deansgate) wrote:

Seat reservations cost a few bucks.

Not in the UK they don't. They've been free for a while now,

I'd like a seat, let alone a booked one! :-)
--
Mike Reid
Walk-eat-photos UK "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk" -- you can email us@ this site
Walk-eat-photos Spain "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk"
Beginners UK flight sims "http://www.lawn-mower-man.co.uk"

The Reid wrote:

On Mon, 20 Nov 2006 20:49:40 +0000,
(David Horne, _the_ chancellor of
the royal duchy of city south and deansgate) wrote:

Seat reservations cost a few bucks.

Not in the UK they don't. They've been free for a while now,

I'd like a seat, let alone a booked one! :-)

It's been a while since I didn't have one, but I don't travel during
rush hour if I can avoid it. On the local commuter services, you can't
book seats. However there are some routes which combine long distance
with local travel- Birmingham to Wolverhampton (and then on to
Manchester, Glasgow etc.) is one that comes to mind, and I've been
grateful of my reservations on those trains sometimes!

--
David Horne- http://www.davidhorne.net
usenet (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk
http://www.davidhorne.net/pictures.html http://soundjunction.org

On Mon, 20 Nov 2006, Hatunen wrote:

Be careful with your terminology. "Reservation" does not mean a
ticket like it does for an airline. In general, the ticket is
your fare, and the reservation, which is not always necessary,
reserves you a specific seat. And on some local trains there are
no seat reservations. Seat reservations cost a few bucks.

The OP was talking about Italy. Here there are trains where reservation
is not possible (local, regional, interregional), trains with compulsory
reservation (ES), trains with optional reservations (IC).

The exception is certain special trains, including the Eurostar
(channel tunnel), which combine the seat reservation and ticket

The "Eurostar" the OP was referring to was an italian ES. Since a few
years that sort of train is a global price, compulsory reservation
train, so you get only one ticket (and since it is linked to a train do
not have to stamp it). For other trains you can get separately the
ticket and the reservation. A relatively new thing are IC Plus, which
are also compulsory reservation. The reservation is 1 euro more than the
IC fare, and is included in the same ticket. If you are going to travel
from A to B with intermediate changes, you'd better specify to the clerk
which trains you intend to take, and you are likely to receive not a
single ticket, but a bunch of tickets with the different fares.

Italian train fares are an ever changing mess.

Probably a bit so also elsewhere. I am not so up-to-date on Germany,
once IC tickets used to be made of a standard fare ticket, and a
supplement (Zuschlag, unlike italian supplements which varied with
distance, this was a fixed amount), which included reservation (and also
free reservation on any connecting IC). Later they mantained the
supplement, but reservation was optional and paid extra. What is the
situation now ?

doorways. Also, there should be a diagram posted on a board
somewhere showing the composition of the train, a sort of map of
the train. Take a look at this and find your car. Unfortunately,
it is not always clear which way the train will be heading, so as

Usually the diagrams on the platforms show train mockups with the engine
drawn in the real direction it will be travelling.

Incidentally, trains like Eurostar have half the seats facing
forward and half backward.

Not true for italian ES, nor the typical ETR500 trainsets, nor the
ETR460 or ETR470 if you mean one half of the car has seats all facing
forward (but each seat facing the next seat back) and the other half
facing backward. I wish they were. Instead seats are arranged in groups
of 4, facing each other (like a mini compartment with no walls), and
with a fixed table in the middle ... which is a pain in the ... knees
:-)

Using the restaurant car on Eurostar can be a huge hassle. And
it's more like a snack car. It's only a three hour trip, and a

As I said already, snack cars may be available on some IC trains, and
perhaps on older ETR450 sets, but ETR460/70/500 will have a proper
restaurant car operated with fixed shifts. For me price not worth the
value.

About coffee, these cars should have a bar section with a real espresso
machine, so coffee will be at normal italian bar standards. The coffee
of the snack trolleys going along the train instead will be at normal
airline standard (bleah).

--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
is a newsreading account used by more persons to
avoid unwanted spam. Any mail returning to this address will be rejected.
Users can disclose their e-mail address in the article if they wish so.

"Donald Newcomb" wrote in message
news:45623f3b@kcnews01...
"B Vaughan" wrote in message
...
That is not my experience. When I find a sign, it's accurate. They put
the sign up precisely because of the problem with changing direction.

Where I ran into this is the undergound station in Naples while waiting
for
the EuroStar.
There were signs. I don't recall if they were hanging from the cieling or
on
the floor but when the train came in everyone waiting had to grab their
bags
and swap ends.

Trains can run in reverse formation for a number of reasons. (e.g.
Diversions sometimes cause trains to arrive at Birmingham New Street,
busiest station in the UK outside London, from the "wrong" end, and that set
may then spend some time with its first class carriages at the further end
from London, until it is diverted again, or can be conveniently reversed.)

On holiday in Italy a few months ago, I noticed that the announvements at
the local station (Desenzano on the Milan-Venice line), catered for this,
with a recorded female voice giving most of the train imfo, and then a male
(real) voice announcing where the first class cars would be.

Alan Harrison

On Tue, 21 Nov 2006 10:41:09 +0000,
(David Horne, _the_ chancellor of
the royal duchy of city south and deansgate) wrote:

I'd like a seat, let alone a booked one! :-)

It's been a while since I didn't have one, but I don't travel during
rush hour if I can avoid it.

nice life if you can get it

On the local commuter services, you can't
book seats.

this is true!

However there are some routes which combine long distance
with local travel- Birmingham to Wolverhampton (and then on to
Manchester, Glasgow etc.) is one that comes to mind, and I've been
grateful of my reservations on those trains sometimes!

so you get on the local train and tell the commuters to "get out of my
seat, Jhimmy"?
--
Mike Reid
Walk-eat-photos UK "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk" -- you can email us@ this site
Walk-eat-photos Spain "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk"
Beginners UK flight sims "http://www.lawn-mower-man.co.uk"

The Reid wrote:

On Tue, 21 Nov 2006 10:41:09 +0000,
(David Horne, _the_ chancellor of
the royal duchy of city south and deansgate) wrote:
[]
However there are some routes which combine long distance
with local travel- Birmingham to Wolverhampton (and then on to
Manchester, Glasgow etc.) is one that comes to mind, and I've been
grateful of my reservations on those trains sometimes!

so you get on the local train and tell the commuters to "get out of my
seat, Jhimmy"?

Yes, but it's obvious it is reserved- never had a problem actually.

--
David Horne- http://www.davidhorne.net
usenet (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk
http://www.davidhorne.net/pictures.html http://soundjunction.org

"ALAN HARRISON" kirjoitti
...


On holiday in Italy a few months ago, I noticed that the announvements at
the local station (Desenzano on the Milan-Venice line), catered for this,
with a recorded female voice giving most of the train imfo, and then a
male (real) voice announcing where the first class cars would be.

Boarding a train in Italy seems to be very complex a process.

Markku Grönroos wrote:

"ALAN HARRISON" kirjoitti
...


On holiday in Italy a few months ago, I noticed that the announvements at
the local station (Desenzano on the Milan-Venice line), catered for this,
with a recorded female voice giving most of the train imfo, and then a
male (real) voice announcing where the first class cars would be.

Boarding a train in Italy seems to be very complex a process.

Depends how much voddy you've gone through on the platform.

--
David Horne- http://www.davidhorne.net
usenet (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk
http://www.davidhorne.net/pictures.html http://soundjunction.org

Donald Newcomb wrote:

Actually you need to board coach #2. This could be the second car from the
front or the second from the end.

It could also be somewhere else. On some trains, especially night
trains, coaches can be out of order. It could also be missing, but
that's a lot less likely, and if it does happen find the guard and ask
what to do as it varies by whether the train has compulsory reservation
or not.

No that would be impossible.

But you can usually walk through if you need to. That said, some high
speed trains that run in pairs (e.g. double Virgin Voyagers in the
UK,double ICE3s in Germany) are made of two units that you can't.

Neil