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Reservation on DB international trains

deltic

Established Member
Joined
8 Feb 2010
Messages
3,425
DB requires reservations on IC services into Austria, what penalty if any is incurred if one is travelling on an interrail ticket and you don't have a reservation?
 
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DanielB

Member
Joined
27 Feb 2020
Messages
1,123
Location
Amersfoort, NL
Though no one checked reservations when I left Austria by ICE last week travelling on an Interrail pass. Or at least I didn't notice the guard looking at the reservation display above my head.

Depending on which border crossing you take the cross border fernverkehr into and out of Austria can be busy however. My ICE from Vienna was almost completely reserved despite being a **** early train. And when standing in the aisle it's pretty easy for the guard to determine you've not reserved a seat ;)
 

biko

Member
Joined
8 Mar 2020
Messages
506
Location
Overijssel, the Netherlands
The DSB guard in the Copenhagen - Hamburg EC checked reservations of those travelling with flexible tickets last week, but everybody did have one, so no idea what the penalty would be in practice.
 

stuu

Established Member
Joined
2 Sep 2011
Messages
3,189
I travelled into and out of Germany four times earlier this month, no one checked our reservations. Reservations had disappeared off the displays by the time tickets were checked too. I would guess that as long as there are available seats it should be fine
 

rvdborgt

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Joined
24 Feb 2022
Messages
1,501
Location
Leuven
60 euros I think plus the embarrassment of being told off in front of everyone
€35 according to the t&c. I'm not aware of any cases this penalty was actually given. Staff isn't really interested, except sometimes on Hamburg-Copenhagen, where the mandatory reservations have been there every summer for a number of years now. Penalty there is to be thrown off the train.
When is this irritating compulsory reservation policy ending?
No mandatory reservations anymore from 2/9.
 

dutchflyer

Established Member
Joined
17 Oct 2013
Messages
1,330
As sept 1 is SUNday-and for most of DE also the last ´holi´day-no schools/start next day, one can expect it to be a major travelday, so this RES-obligation then still holds. Might also again be mis-translation of bis: up to or also including.
Some very recent own exper: came back to NL yesterday from Hannover on my DE-ticket- got that dreaded Eurobahn from Rheine to hengelo-left Rh just after a slightly delayed Berlin-Ams IC-train, at border point Bentheim many, many people with lots of luggage entered (as such unusual) and I overheard several complaints that they were invited to leave that IC-train as it was announced to need to have seat-REServations. MOre trouble further along: again works not finished as expected around Amersfoort.
 

popeter45

Established Member
Joined
7 Dec 2019
Messages
1,207
Location
london
As sept 1 is SUNday-and for most of DE also the last ´holi´day-no schools/start next day, one can expect it to be a major travelday, so this RES-obligation then still holds. Might also again be mis-translation of bis: up to or also including.
Some very recent own exper: came back to NL yesterday from Hannover on my DE-ticket- got that dreaded Eurobahn from Rheine to hengelo-left Rh just after a slightly delayed Berlin-Ams IC-train, at border point Bentheim many, many people with lots of luggage entered (as such unusual) and I overheard several complaints that they were invited to leave that IC-train as it was announced to need to have seat-REServations. MOre trouble further along: again works not finished as expected around Amersfoort.
Thanks for highlighting that, traveling Zurich to Hamburg on interrail that day so made sure to grab reservations and yea even then most trains at basel seem full already
 

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