Questions about using Eurostar trains.

[Phil.]

It used to be done here. Friday afternoon (from circa 13.25) to Saturday morning (circa 13.00) the timetable annotation for Paddington to the south-west departures would read, "The number of passengers carried on these services is limited to the seating capacity of the train". I seem to remember that seat reservations for these services were free.
"Taunton" will remember.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Compulsory reservation exists on domestic services in Europe, for example in France, Spain and Italy. Compulsory reservation doesn't necessarily mean you can't travel flexibly. As long as there are seats, you can book just before departure. SNCF has long had clever machines which can exchange printed tickets and presumably with mobile phone bookings it is potentially even easier to change booking.

PKP has a curious variant on all IC, EIC and TLK trains. Tickets come with a reservation, which are not marked, but they will oversell (with a warning) and sell on board, so you do get standees, they just have to guess where to sit.

I have a feeling Italy may be similar, as I have been on a nominally "compulsory reservation" train that in fact had a heavy standing load.

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