European trains timetable release date

[Chrisbolton]

Hi

Ive got a couple of trips booked involving one way flights/trains, however the train tickets arent available yet:


16/12 Vienna - Prague

30th or 31st/12 Warsaw - Gdansk

Does anyone know when these are likely to be released?

 

[30907]

Timetables for Austria will be available around 12th, but Prague fares may not be.

Poland tends to be significantly later.

 

[popeter45]

any clue for DSB as they like to be rather late on such things

 

[Chrisbolton]

Cheers, Ill keep an eye out

Also, I dont use Trainline as a rule, but are they quite good for this kind of booking?

 

[Austriantrain]

Timetables for Austria will be available around 12th, but Prague fares may not be.

Poland tends to be significantly later.

Timetables for Austria domestically have been online for a while.

 

[30907]

Cheers, Ill keep an eye out

Also, I dont use Trainline as a rule, but are they quite good for this kind of booking?

For Vienna-Prague I would use OeBB or CD (unless you are planning to use Regiojet). PKP can't comment, but there's a current thread.

 

[jamesontheroad]

any clue for DSB as they like to be rather late on such things

Not usually before mid-October, and not usually later than the end of October.

 

[popeter45]

even if not released yet for booking do any release the timetable this early so you can at least plan?

 

[Fragezeichnen]

If services are not available to book it's primarily because it is not yet clear if they will run or not. In some cases the infrastructure operator will release draft timetables in advance, for instance for Czech Republic: https://www.spravazeleznic.cz/cestujici/jizdni-rad/navrh-jizdniho-radu-na-rok-2024, but these cannot be relied upon to reflect what will actually happen.

In the vast majority of cases you would be best advised to assume that everything will stay the same, with exceptions being well known events such as new lines opening, a new operator taking over, or already announced changes to long distance services,

 

[AlbertBeale]

What puzzles me is that in some cases after the timetable change, a train shows up on a system such that you can already buy a ticket for that specific train, but if you try to get a seat reservation, the train is shown as not available for booking.

 

[30907]

What puzzles me is that in some cases after the timetable change, a train shows up on a system such that you can already buy a ticket for that specific train, but if you try to get a seat reservation, the train is shown as not available for booking.

Maybe the train formation is not confirmed? Or the ticket is not train-specific? Remember that reservations are not included with any (daytime) trains in Germany, Austria, Switzerland....

 

[AlbertBeale]

Maybe the train formation is not confirmed? Or the ticket is not train-specific? Remember that reservations are not included with any (daytime) trains in Germany, Austria, Switzerland....

The ticket is train-specific. It's a two-leg journey, Italy-Austria-Switzerland, post timetable change, on specific timed trains. The booking came (from OBB) as separate tickets for each leg of the journey, and the requested seat reservations only gave a reservation for the first leg. I tried adding a seat for the second leg separately, from OBB, and their system said it was not available. (Nor, in fact, are reservations on other trains on that connection that day.) I find it hard to believe that every seat is reserved, 3 months ahead, given that the train itself hasn't been bookable for very long. It's a Railjet, and I assumed these were a standard formation. Hence my being puzzled.

 

[30907]

The ticket is train-specific. It's a two-leg journey, Italy-Austria-Switzerland, post timetable change, on specific timed trains. The booking came (from OBB) as separate tickets for each leg of the journey, and the requested seat reservations only gave a reservation for the first leg. I tried adding a seat for the second leg separately, from OBB, and their system said it was not available. (Nor, in fact, are reservations on other trains on that connection that day.) I find it hard to believe that every seat is reserved, 3 months ahead, given that the train itself hasn't been bookable for very long. It's a Railjet, and I assumed these were a standard formation. Hence my being puzzled.

Quick guess: the timetable isn't confirmed somewhere East of Innsbruck/Salzburg so reservations are blocked. OeBB and DB are very relaxed about selling tickets way in advance knowing that the timetable will probably change! And about relaxing the train-specific restriction at the drop of a hat.

Highly unlikely that the trains are fully reserved in a system where this is optional.

 

[Austriantrain]

Quick guess: the timetable isn't confirmed somewhere East of Innsbruck/Salzburg so reservations are blocked. OeBB and DB are very relaxed about selling tickets way in advance knowing that the timetable will probably change! And about relaxing the train-specific restriction at the drop of a hat.

Highly unlikely that the trains are fully reserved in a system where this is optional.

They certainly are not fully reserved yet. In Austria, trains sometimes „sell out“ on strong travel days, but never all of them. Even in the peak, 2 weeks before your travel date should enable to get you any seat you want.

 

[AlbertBeale]

Quick guess: the timetable isn't confirmed somewhere East of Innsbruck/Salzburg so reservations are blocked. OeBB and DB are very relaxed about selling tickets way in advance knowing that the timetable will probably change! And about relaxing the train-specific restriction at the drop of a hat.

Highly unlikely that the trains are fully reserved in a system where this is optional.

They certainly are not fully reserved yet. In Austria, trains sometimes „sell out“ on strong travel days, but never all of them. Even in the peak, 2 weeks before your travel date should enable to get you any seat you want.

Thanks both! I'm (fairly) reassured.

So maybe an equivalent train, at the very least (even if in slightly different timings), will run - so my ticket's safe, and I just need to keep checking for seat reservations. (And once I have those, I can presumably be sure that the time has been pinned down at that stage.)

 

[jamesontheroad]

SJ in Sweden has today released for sale train tickets through to 8 April 2024.

 

[JonasB]

SJ in Sweden has today released for sale train tickets through to 8 April 2024.

And it has led to their website being very popular, so when trying to book tickets you're met with the message that you've been placed in a queue and an estimated waiting time.

 

[Gloster]

And it has led to their website being very popular, so when trying to book tickets you're met with the message that you've been placed in a queue and an estimated waiting time. View attachment 145034

This suggests that the Swedes are doing it better than we are in Britain. 885 people ahead of you and less than 5 minutes wait: over here it is usually tvärtom (the opposite).

 

[popeter45]

so while paris-vienna is live you still cant book paris/brussels to berlin, makes me think they are stuck waiting on okay to release old stock from vienna-hamburg to stock these routes?
also anybody know the length of each portion?, could be 4 car as like on vienna-brussels or 7 like vienna-paris?

 

[rvdborgt]

so while paris-vienna is live you still cant book paris/brussels to berlin, makes me think they are stuck waiting on okay to release old stock from vienna-hamburg to stock these routes?
also anybody know the length of each portion?, could be 4 car as like on vienna-brussels or 7 like vienna-paris?

Brussels/Paris-Vienna was released earlier today for the new timetable. I expect Brussels/Paris to Berlin to be released any moment now. Just keep trying.
Not sure about the length of the portions. Just wait until vagonweb.cz or fernbahn.de has the data.

Addition 19/10/2023 18:48 CET:
Night trains Brussels/Paris to Berlin can now be booked.

 

[popeter45]

Addition 19/10/2023 18:48 CET:
Night trains Brussels/Paris to Berlin can now be booked.

sadly only as far as jan when i need if for feb, hopefully soon

 

[rvdborgt]

also anybody know the length of each portion?, could be 4 car as like on vienna-brussels or 7 like vienna-paris?

Both portions to/from Brussels will consist of 5 carriages: 1 with seats, 2 with couchettes, 2 sleepers.

 

[AlbertBeale]

Quick guess: the timetable isn't confirmed somewhere East of Innsbruck/Salzburg so reservations are blocked. OeBB and DB are very relaxed about selling tickets way in advance knowing that the timetable will probably change! And about relaxing the train-specific restriction at the drop of a hat.

Highly unlikely that the trains are fully reserved in a system where this is optional.

They certainly are not fully reserved yet. In Austria, trains sometimes „sell out“ on strong travel days, but never all of them. Even in the peak, 2 weeks before your travel date should enable to get you any seat you want.

Thanks both! I'm (fairly) reassured.

So maybe an equivalent train, at the very least (even if in slightly different timings), will run - so my ticket's safe, and I just need to keep checking for seat reservations. (And once I have those, I can presumably be sure that the time has been pinned down at that stage.)

For anyone reading this subsequently who has a similar concern (about tickets for reservable trains going on sale without reservations going on sale at the same time)...

I did keep checking various ticket sites, including the countries the train went to/through/from, to see whether reservations had become available. I got very different answers, including that it was only reservable for a bit of the journey, and the slightly alarming "all seats sold" in one case. (I thought/hoped this was probably because that was the default response from the site, in the case of a theoretically reservable train existing but with reservations not being available - for any reason.)

Nevertheless I did worry that a major service in the Xmas/NY holiday period might get booked up quickly, so sent a query to Austrian Railways (from whom the tickets - with the unfulfilled request for seats - had been bought) asking if/when I'd be able to get the missing reservations. After 10 days, no reply...

However, I checked again yesterday and found that reservations had at last become available, so I'm now sorted out.