The best and worst countries for railway ticketing.

[stadler]

Which countries would you say are the best and the worst for their railway ticketing?

I am not talking about prices. So not whether it is good value or cheap. What i mean is how the fares are structured and the ease of buying a ticket. If they make it easy to buy tickets and have lots of options for purchasing tickets. Whether they have fixed prices for journeys like the UK or use entirely dynamic prices based on demand. Acceptance of tickets across multiple operators. The different types of tickets available. Whether the fares are easy to understand. So i am talking about the overall ticket system.

I am wondering what others think regarding which countries are the best and worst for how they run their ticketing?

 

[Struner]

do you mean 1) “easy +/- for residents” or 2) “easy +/- for outsiders” ?
if 2) then uk should be included in this thread

 

[RailWonderer]

Much of Europe is easier than the UK but Germany can be confusing, especially the Dusseldorf area, partly for geography because Essen, Dortmund and Cologne in the same area which all have neighbouring zonal areas. Norway, Denmark, Sweden are very simple, Switzerland assumes you always have a half fare card when showing pricing in the app and at machines, which can catch out those who have not purchased it. Then you have the different offers like upgrades which aren't clear what existing ticket you must have. I haven't travelled enough elsewhere to judge.

 

[nwales58]

Many best, and many worst countries…..

E.g. Germany is amongst the best, national journey planners have every operators trains, trams, buses. Thanks to regional tariff unions, DB for one can, sell a single, day ticket or relevant rover almost anwhere in the country even for local travel in areas it does not operate in. Except where it does not. Then it is amongst the worst for frustration.

Norway (Entur and the regional providers) is possibly even better, thanks to simpler fares than Germany. One system can sell anything with multiple tickets if necessary, or tell you where to go if not (e.g. Kystrut versus local fast ferries). Shows how compulsory reservations can be made to work with easy changes and cancellations. Sweden’s good too (in fact almost everywhere in western Europe handles compulsory reservation trains better than britain). But almost no ticket offices.

Spain

Good and bad in one country: Romania CFR pretty good (including being on a train without a through ticket and retrying to grab a fresh seat for a full section ahead), Interregional bad, find ticket office or conductor then join 100 people with tickets for a 48 seat replacement bus.

Bad: expecting helpful ticket offices (e.g. when a RENFE LD machine won’t sell what you want) is more and more futile.

 

[dutchflyer]

For domestic travel only:
daft easy: LUXemburg-as none are needed!
For those in the wise age from 65 on: HUngary-also none needed, just show ID: except for the IC-trains that also need REServations.
Very easy-just know your age: BElgium. Since their fare-reform in october it is not even needed anymore to check if the old fix-priced special offers would be better value. And for occasional visitors other discount offers also not needed. Machines everywhere or still many staffed stations (though these charge for their personal service extra!) or a fairly easy site.
IF one does not bother about always paying full fare: no tickets even needed in NL=Nederland-just check in/out with bank or credit card as ´OV-pay´ Only catch: one has to know for which company and even do it OUT-then IN when changing company is needed.
For all three it gets more complicated for trips over the border as INTernational. You should have mentioned that what is meant.
Currently now for winter again in THailand: and here its still old style and in principle done from staffed sales points at stations-or possible via a site. It is more that in times of heavy demand-and peak high season is coming up- for the sleeper/long distance trains demand is higher as what is the usual all the same any day offer.
Add to above for Scandinavia: for shorter/regional trips it often works with the local transport organisor-often the province. So combined with local bus/tram etc. This seems-judging from many questions here and even more from occasional visitors on sites like TA=TripAdvisor baffling for many unused to that.
Another general factor baffling for many seems to be IF REServation is needed-or not (like in the 3 above BeNeLux) and IF yes-how long advance that can be done.
Multiple and competing operators are quite rare in railwayland. The general idea´all trains are run by the state´ and that is not really a ´company´ lingers on and in fact still applies in many countries-like also here in THailand. Completely dynamic pricing seems apply only -AFAIK- to North America (for long distance then) and possibly Oceania- AUStralia and New Zealand. So another factor that influences this is-and the factors you mention also seem to underline this- how much of ´one has to think another way!´ is needed.

 

[Segedunum]

Spain can be frustrating, particularly for long distance trips. Its widely accepted on the forum that RENFE seem to release a lot of fares whenever they please and their website can be a glacial mess to boot. Ticket office staff from my experience also range from indifferent to actively awful.

The Czech Republic's "OneTicket" principle is one of the better ones. As private companies have come in and won contracts, it ensures that there's always a tariff that covers an unlimited number of operators.

 

[alex397]

Belgium is my favourite. It always seems very easy to buy tickets there with a seemingly very simple fare system. It makes it so much easier not having to deal with peak fares such as in the UK - I still have to check what the best train times / fares for my most common route from Kent to London every time I use it as I can never remember it all.
In Belgium, I usually I buy from the machines, and I’ve found the ticket office staff always friendly.
I also found it very easy to buy on my phone when I suddenly decided to jump on a train.

Romania was hit and miss - some journeys I could easily just buy on my phone. I also bought tickets from ticket office staff - 3 times I did this, and they were all friendly and helpful.
International tickets were complicated and time consuming to buy - I bought one online, but still had to collect it from Oradea station the day before which took the ticket office staff member about 15 minutes to sort out (she was friendly, but seemed to have to follow an archaic process).

 

[The exile]

To me any country that does not have an “any time, any train” basic walk-up ticket for every route fails the test. I’ll “allow” supplements for premium services as long as they can be purchased on board without significant penalty. The “ease for outsiders” test is a awkward one - what trips up many foreign travellers are the assumptions they bring from knowledge of their “home” system, rather than the complexities of the system itself.

 

[Royston Vasey]

The multiple cardboard tickets needed, base fare and supplement system, confusing ticket machines, fare adjustment machines and lack of online booking of the Japanese bullet train system!

 

[Amalie]

I’m not as well traveled as some folks here but I recall how annoying it was to buy tickets in France with the machine for a regional stopper train. It was annoyingly tied to a specific time-train combo, which in itself isn’t unusual, but then I was required to give both my phone number and email! Those time consuming steps are definitely not what you want when your train is leaving in minutes.

 

[signed]

I’m not as well traveled as some folks here but I recall how annoying it was to buy tickets in France with the machine for a regional stopper train, , but then I was required to give both my phone number and email!

That means you have used a white and purple SNCF mainline ticket machine, those retail to SNCF Voyageurs rules (i.e. mandatory email and phone number).

They do sell some regions' TER tickets based on agreements, but a lot of regions will send you to the regional machine.

Tickets bought at regional ticket machines (the usually brightly colored ones) are anonymous.

It was annoyingly tied to a specific time-train combo, which in itself isn’t unusual

Bar most TERs in/out of Paris and some exceptions where reservations are mandatory, It isn't, you just choose the time but the ticket is valid all day.

The separation between TER, Intercités and TGV makes our system quite tricky, very far from the worse though IMHO, the apps (Trainline and SNCF Connect) makes a lot of it a lot simpler even if SNCF Connect is goofy.

 

[rvdborgt]

Belgium is my favourite. It always seems very easy to buy tickets there with a seemingly very simple fare system. It makes it so much easier not having to deal with peak fares such as in the UK

off-peak has just been introduced, together with a discount card:

https://www.belgiantrain.be/en/products/trainplus

 

[jack31439]

+1 for Belgium, robust and pretty simple system.

Spain with it's restrictive in country only booking policy for reservations (painful on interrail) ranks low for me.

Switzerland is great, integration with zonal tickets for cities which make more sense than how the Germans do it.

I'm not a huge fan of countries which still require ticket validators for certain types (looking at you Italy) as it can vary depending on the ticket you hold, I've been confused and incorrectly stamped or not stamped previously, usually been lucky with staff who are accommodating of slightly bewildered tourists.

 

[doc7austin]

Mongolia is painful in this regard.
The official online booking system is only accessible within Mongolia (and not only that, ESIMs within Mongolia won't work either). Tapa is useless.
Return international tickets (to Mongolia) CANNOT be bought at a staffed ticket counter at Ulaanbaatar railway station. And the international ticket counters are only opened durring restricted hours during the day.

 

[Watershed]

I would say Switzerland has amongst the best ticketing system of any country.

Through fares are available between any two points in the country - including journeys that involve trams, buses, metros or ferries. There's no compulsory reservations, operator-specific ticket nonsense or Open Access operators with separate regimes.

The fare structure is very simple with anytime single leg pricing being the basic point of comparison. Advance-type fares are available but generally only for longer journeys, which is as it should be in my view.

Each area belongs to a "PTE"-equivalent with zonal season and day tickets available. And of course season tickets, including those covering the whole country (Generalabonnement - GA), are quite affordable by British standards let alone Swiss ones.

You can pay for travel simply by swiping in on an app and then swiping out when you're finished with your journey.

Everyone can get the equivalent of a Railcard and prices are essentially set on the assumption that you have one. The cost simply varies depending on your personal circumstances (age etc.).

The only criticism you can really level against it is that fares aren't cheap by international standards. But that mainly affects tourists - for whom Switzerland is an expensive country in general, and so train tickets are simply a reflection of this.

 

[rvdborgt]

Spain with it's restrictive in country only booking policy for reservations (painful on interrail) ranks low for me.

DB (and some other railways with access to the Hermes system) have always offered Renfe pass reservations, but only at their ticket offices and by phone. Additionally, Interrail, Happyrail and Rail Europe are now also offering online pass reservations. It stays a game of trial and error though, whether a certain website will work for a specific train.

 

[in_luzern]

Of the countries where I travel a lot, I also find Switzerland very good, but maybe I'm biased because I live there and am used to the system. A single ticketing system across all companies and means of transport (even some cable cars, though not all) is definitely customer-friendly. The EasyRide app is a good idea, although there is the risk of forgetting to swipe out (not sure what happens in this case); also it requires location tracking to be active, so if you're planning a full day's travel, a phone charger is a must as it draws heavily on the battery. One gripe in a country where salaries are high but pensions are not quite up to the same standard would be that there is no discount on point to point tickets for seniors, although there is a senior version of the Generalabonnement. You need to use public transport a lot to make it worthwhile though.

Belgium: also very straightforward, and here I definitely appreciate getting a senior discount without having to buy a special card like in France. One minor gripe is that there are separate versions of the SNCB app/website for domestic and international travel, the latter also including over-the-border hops like Luxembourg.

France: not so good. I assume that the need for separate TGV and TER tickets is a consequence of how SNCF is financed and structured, but it's not customer-friendly on a journey such as Basel - Mulhouse - Luxembourg - Brussels, which I do regularly and which requires multiple tickets for the French part. Also, if I miss my TGV connection in Mulhouse, I don't think I am allowed to use the ticket for the TER that follows, although I stand to be corrected. And the SNCF Connect website/app could definitely be improved.

 

[signed]

although I stand to be corrected.

SNCF calls it Billet Direct, if you buy a single itinerary in one purchase that has any connection between SNCF services (that won't apply if you have a connection onto TER operated by Transdev between Nice and Marseille) and you miss it you will be rerouted for free on the next available train. Now I don't know what's the rules regarding TGV-TER services (most likely won't be able to do it but goodwill exists here)

And you have the normal AJC and HOTNAT if you are using different operators.

https://www.sncf-voyageurs.com/en/contact-us/in-case-of-delay/billet-direct/

Depending on your journey, find out what assistance and compensation1 you can expect in the event of a broken connection.

​

ASSISTANCE section

• Continuation of journey: Free transfer to next available train
• Return to departure station: Re-routing free of charge to departure station + full refund of journey
• Trip interruption: Full refund (used and unused routes)
• Waiting for a rescheduled train: Meals or snacks and/or drinks + Accommodation (and transport to it) in the event of onward travel the following day.

COMPENSATION section1

• Calculation of delay time: Taking into account delay on arrival at final destination
• Delay = actual arrival time at final destination - arrival time at final destination indicated on ticket
• Calculation of compensation1: Compensation on all routes

 

[andersj]

As a visitor the Netherlands ist a bit annoying when you want discounts. It's easy enough to buy full price tickets, but you need their "residents only" subscription if you want discounts and to rent the cheap OV-Fiets bicycles.
Also the trains are completely separated from the rest of the public transport, so in Amsterdam you can't take the train with a GVB ticket and you can't take the metro/tram/bus with a NS ticket.
Some regions also have their own discounted products, but sometimes only available on one operator such as Arriva. So you need to figure out which trains and busses are operated by Arriva.

 

[kaspertron]

Which countries would you say are the best and the worst for their railway ticketing?

I am not talking about prices. So not whether it is good value or cheap. What i mean is how the fares are structured and the ease of buying a ticket. If they make it easy to buy tickets and have lots of options for purchasing tickets. Whether they have fixed prices for journeys like the UK or use entirely dynamic prices based on demand. Acceptance of tickets across multiple operators. The different types of tickets available. Whether the fares are easy to understand. So i am talking about the overall ticket system.

I am wondering what others think regarding which countries are the best and worst for how they run their ticketing?

One of the worst is Sweden. If you're in Göteborg and want to take a train to Stockholm. you've got two different train companies to choose from, SJ or VR. How an outsider would know this is anyone's guess. Neither company has a ticket office or even a ticket machine at the station. You might find some staff wondering around if you're lucky. The only way to buy tickets is online, each company has its own app and website and doesn't acknowledge the existence of the other.

If you instead want to go to Malmö from Göteborg you again have two companies to choose from, this time it's SJ and Öresundståg. Neither has a ticket office but Öresundståg at least have a ticket machine which you might or might not find in the vast station. I think it's near platfrom 12. SJs app will sell you tickets for both their own trains and Öresundståg, but they'll charge you more for the Öresundståg than if you had bought it in the machine.

 

[stadler]

One of the worst is Sweden. If you're in Göteborg and want to take a train to Stockholm. you've got two different train companies to choose from, SJ or VR. How an outsider would know this is anyone's guess. Neither company has a ticket office or even a ticket machine at the station. You might find some staff wondering around if you're lucky. The only way to buy tickets is online, each company has its own app and website and doesn't acknowledge the existence of the other.

If you instead want to go to Malmö from Göteborg you again have two companies to choose from, this time it's SJ and Öresundståg. Neither has a ticket office but Öresundståg at least have a ticket machine which you might or might not find in the vast station. I think it's near platfrom 12. SJs app will sell you tickets for both their own trains and Öresundståg, but they'll charge you more for the Öresundståg than if you had bought it in the machine.

I completely agree. Sweden also gets my vote for the worst country for purchasing tickets. It is by far the most unfriendly railway for ticket purchases in the world. It is like they have purposely tried to make buying a ticket as hard as possible.

SJ have gotten rid of all ticket offices and all ticket machines and all onboard sales. To purchase a ticket you have to go to a supermarket or convinience shop. Sometimes you have to walk a good distance from the station to find a shop that sells tickets. Then the service in the shop varies and some staff take ages to work out how to sell one. I have sometimes spent twenty or thirty minutes in these shops while the cashier works out how to sell one. It is a nightmare. I do like travelling by train when i visit Sweden but the hassle of buying a train ticket always makes me wish i had drove.

SJ also seem to have no fixed walk up prices and the fares are entirely dynamic meaning you have no idea what your fare will cost and it can be different from one day to the next and from one train to the next. I can understand having dynamic priced advances but no fixed price walk up fares at all is crazy. Even their shorter distance SJ Regional local trains seem to be like this.

Some of the private local regional train operators still have fixed prices (normally based on zones) and still sell tickets from the guard onboard but in card only. If you want to pay in cash then again you have to go to some local shop. Only two train operators (Inlandsbanan and Snalltaget) still accept cash for ticket sales onboard. VY Norge still accept cash too on the Oslo to Gothenberg to Malmo route but only in NOK even for Swedish domestic journeys.

Norway in comparison is a much friendlier place to buy train tickets. You can still purchase with cash from the guard onboard VY Norge trains. They still have ticket offices too and even some cash accepting ticket machines.

 

[Amalie]

They do sell some regions' TER tickets based on agreements, but a lot of regions will send you to the regional machine.

It was for that strange Belgian-French TER-Intercity in Lille, which probably was the cause of it. I was only using it domestically, but I’m not sure if there were regional machines. I’m glad that it’s an exception to the rule but I do think it could be improved!

Bar most TERs in/out of Paris and some exceptions where reservations are mandatory, It isn't, you just choose the time but the ticket is valid all day.

I got the impression that it was tied to the specific train from the screen, but I’m glad to be wrong here.

 

[Bemined]

If you focus on the easy part the Netherlands should be pretty high as you don't even need to buy a ticket, you can tap in and out with your bank card. You do need to consider tapping in at the right validator if there are multiple operators at a station, and if you change operator you need to tap out and back in. Prices are fixed, and for long journeys there is a price cap. The cap is per journey though, so return journeys are simply two singles. This makes traveling by bank card generally not the cheapest option when travelling off-peak. Obtaining the best value tickets in the Netherlands can be a bit more tricky though, specially for visitors.

 

[rvdborgt]

I got the impression that it was tied to the specific train from the screen, but I’m glad to be wrong here.

In France, some regions have regional advance tickets tied to a specific train. So it depends on the fare you have.

 

[in_luzern]

SNCF calls it Billet Direct, if you buy a single itinerary in one purchase that has any connection between SNCF services (that won't apply if you have a connection onto TER operated by Transdev between Nice and Marseille) and you miss it you will be rerouted for free on the next available train. Now I don't know what's the rules regarding TGV-TER services (most likely won't be able to do it but goodwill exists here)

And you have the normal AJC and HOTNAT if you are using different operators.

https://www.sncf-voyageurs.com/en/contact-us/in-case-of-delay/billet-direct/

Thanks for the advice, I will definitely try the goodwill option if I miss the TGV. It hasn't happened so far, but the connection in Mulhouse is tight-ish (10 minutes), so it may well happen sooner or later. Getting an earlier train from Basel would mean waiting almost two hours at Mulhouse, which I don't really want to do (nothing against Mulhouse, it just makes a long journey even longer).

 

[stut]

Japan almost makes it, but not quite.

The IC system is amazing. As well as the regional JRs, there are countless private railways, tramways, metros (and bus services) and almost all of them accept IC cards, whoever issued them. You can load them on to your phone if it has FeLiCa, and it doesn't even need to be switched on to let you on or off. Fantastic stuff. Except...

...supplements. This is where it gets inconsistent. Let's take Kyoto-Osaka as an example. I have 5 different options for this route (OK, one involves a change, but it's worthwhile for the example). They are:

1. Shinkansen Kyoto - Shin-Osaka. Super fast. As it's the Tokaido Shinkansen, you can book on the Eki Net app or a 3rd party (though this varies for each line) meaning you can get the ticket (base fare plus supplement) as a QR code, or pay the supplement on Eki Net and link it to your IC card so it activates when you tap in on the special Shinkansen barriers.
2. JR Kyoto - Umeda. You can take the Special Rapid (28 min) without a supplement, or the Ltd Express (32 min, confusingly) with a supplement. You have to buy the supplement from the JR website within working hours, or from the station.
3. Hankyu Kawaramachi - Umeda. Very classy trains. You can take any train, including the Ltd Express, there's no supplement. Though you can buy a seat on the Privace car from a little machine on the platform (or online in advance), which is an absolute bargain.
4. Keihan Gion-Shijo - Yodoyabashi. Cheap and chilled, but a bit slower, though centre-to-centre. Like Hankyu, you can take the Ltd Express with no supplement, and you can also buy a Premium Car seat.
5. Kintetsu Kyoto - Namba via Yamato-Saidaiji (or occasionally Nara). All sorts of weird and wonderful special trains and premium cars. You do need a Ltd Express supplement here, which you can also buy online (though all you get is a vague email in response, which they seem happy with). It's particularly confusing if your journey is a mix of Keihan and Kintetsu (e.g from Higashiyama to Nara) as you don't need a supplement on one but, but you do on the other, even for the same train class.
6. JR Haruka Ltd Exp Kyoto - Kansai Airport. A very convenient service, and possibly Japan's least punctual, mostly because it squeezes round the Osaka Loop Line between local trains. Needs a Ltd express supplement, but you can buy a discount ticket package online, though generally not directly from West JR. You end up with a code you redeem on an obscure West JR sub-website ("West QR" - some gentle humour there) and get a QR code back once activated. You then have to make sure you use the correct ticket gate at the correct station for the QR code, as very few of them actually take it.

Now I love me a good train journey and speak a little Japanese, and I can just about figure this out. I can only imagine how irregular travellers, particularly those who are new to the country, would fare (no pun intended).

But the IC system itself is great.

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

I was reading on the French Railway Society 'November News' that at 29 SNCF major stations you now have to make an 'appointment' with the ticket office before they will deign to sell you a ticket. Has anyone experienced this yet? Apparently it is 'experimental' - before it becomes permanent no doubt.

 

[signed]

I was reading on the French Railway Society 'November News' that at 29 SNCF major stations you now have to make an 'appointment' with the ticket office before they will deign to sell you a ticket.

Yup, happens at Rennes currently (near to my home station), if you pay by cash you can access the machines to do so at any opening time, but you need to make an appointment to see someone.

 

[U-Bahnfreund]

Good and bad in one country: Romania CFR pretty good (including being on a train without a through ticket and retrying to grab a fresh seat for a full section ahead), Interregional bad, find ticket office or conductor then join 100 people with tickets for a 48 seat replacement bus.

Romania was hit and miss - some journeys I could easily just buy on my phone. I also bought tickets from ticket office staff - 3 times I did this, and they were all friendly and helpful.
International tickets were complicated and time consuming to buy - I bought one online, but still had to collect it from Oradea station the day before which took the ticket office staff member about 15 minutes to sort out (she was friendly, but seemed to have to follow an archaic process).

Have you tried https://bilete.infofer.ro ? I didn't previously know this website, but I'm told it sells you any interoperator journey or links to the operator's online booking system. It even has this nice live map, with live GPS position at least for some trains (like from Transferoviar Calatori): https://bilete.infofer.ro/ro-RO/Trains

 

[The exile]

if you pay by cash you can access the machines to do so at any opening time, but you need to make an appointment to see someone.

So what happens if you need to see someone urgently because of a failure of the railway’s equipment? (Ticket machines down etc)