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Buying ticket on train Šturovo - Vác

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CrazyTom

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I'm planning an trip on the overnight train from Prague to Budapest this summer. The only is I can't seem to find any cheap fares on the overnight train all the way through. The ideal situation would be to do the following:
Book Prague-Šturovo with the Czech Railways (~£20, e-ticket available)
Book Šturovo-Vác as a Local Border Traffic Ticket (€3.80)
Book Vác-Budapest with the Hungarian Railways (~£2.50, e-ticket available)

I'd be happy to leave the couchette at Šturovo as the train reaches there at about 7am. The only issue is that tickets for the middle portion aren't available online as far as I can tell, and I won't have the opportunity to visit a Slovak ticket desk to buy the ticket. Does anyone know if I would be able to buy the ticket on the train or are they likely to boot me off at Šturovo?
 
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30907

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Have you tried asking on
https://groups.io/g/cdgen
(you'd have to join but that's straightforward).
My guess is that you'd be charged the international tariff which is almost certsinly higher, but you could certainly get the ticket issued at Prague Hl.n.before you board to save hassle).
 

dutchflyer

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These low-priced special border-crossing tix are ONLY available by personal sale (remain calm-office open all times) at those local stations and not even on other stations down the line! In fact its Sturovo-SZOB (NOT Vac!) and only as return, no cheaper single.
Also note-MAV is often called MAVia, as its strictly NOT allowed to combine on same trip this special ticket with local domestic HU-fares. You will be fined and charged the official INTernat. fare+supplmt. if caught-and you will be, as conductors know all about it and how to earn some t-money. In SK this is no problem though (if coming back)-MAV conductors change over to ZSR in Sturovo generally.
There was a heavy accident a day or 2 ago blocking this line anyway and the ICs rerouted via Rajka and the long trip in HU via Györ. DK how long this to last.
There is also a roughly 2-hourly BUS, mo-fr only, from station in Sturovo to Esztergom (BUS, not trains station there!), approx. after planned arr. of the IC from Praha-B'lava. Pay with HUF (DK if also € accepted now).
 

dutchflyer

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Also it surprises me that there are no cheaper ADVance fares-I think there is even a allthetime special local fare (seat) Pr-Bp, check carefully the /en/ version of /INT/ of cd.cz. which cost roughly the same as your 3 tix.
 

LNW-GW Joint

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It seems that what to us is a simple case of cross-border split ticketing, is deeply frowned upon in eastern Europe.
Being a septuagenarian and entitled to cheap domestic fares in some countries, I've tried combining such tickets over the CZ/PL, HU/RO and RS/HU borders on cross-border trains, and they don't like it.
I was forced to donate €25 to a MAV conductor (who let me off the official fine of €50) on the RS/HU border, having tried to combine Belgrade-Kelebia and (discounted) Kelebia-Budapest tickets on the same train.
 

riceuten

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It does rather depend on how and when you are inspected. I was staying in Graz and travelling to Rijeka a bit later, and visited Maribor - on the route and ascertained that a Graz - Maribor OeBB ticket and a Maribor - Rijeka SZ/HZ ticket was considerably cheaper than a Graz - Rijeka OeBB ticket. So that's what we did. The SZ conductor didn't know or appear to care that we had split our tickets across the frontier.
 

30907

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It does rather depend on how and when you are inspected. I was staying in Graz and travelling to Rijeka a bit later, and visited Maribor - on the route and ascertained that a Graz - Maribor OeBB ticket and a Maribor - Rijeka SZ/HZ ticket was considerably cheaper than a Graz - Rijeka OeBB ticket. So that's what we did. The SZ conductor didn't know or appear to care that we had split our tickets across the frontier.
Strictly, you had split them at the first station in Slovenia. Hungary appears to be the major problem, and it is official policy (ISTR) that you can't split internationally on EC/RJ trains.
 

Cloud Strife

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It seems that what to us is a simple case of cross-border split ticketing, is deeply frowned upon in eastern Europe.
Being a septuagenarian and entitled to cheap domestic fares in some countries, I've tried combining such tickets over the CZ/PL, HU/RO and RS/HU borders on cross-border trains, and they don't like it.

I can't talk about Hungary, but between PL/CZ, there's no such restrictions. Buying tickets to the border station is a well established practice here, especially if there's a discount available on one side that isn't available on the other, or if it's simply cheaper to do so. The only catch is that when you get cross-border ticket validity (for instance, Silesian Railways monthly tickets are valid in some of Czech Silesia on CD), the validity usually stops at the last station before crossing another border, so you need to make sure that you have tickets covering the entire journey, especially if the train doesn't stop at the last station.
 

riceuten

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Interestingly enough, the CFL (Luxembourg railways) €2/4 (single/day ticket) fare are specifically NOT valid to border stations to presumably stop this kind of behaviour - also on buses calling at border stations like Wasserbillig as well. For that you need to buy a €5/9 ticket, which is valid all the way to Trier
 
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