The best and worst countries for railway ticketing.

[Bletchleyite]

Definitely agree regarding dynamic pricing, although at present the fares are affordable at least, even for the last few reservations (I normally buy <10 minutes before departure). Technically VR does function as a walk-up railway though since reservations aren't required and tickets can legitimately be purchased on board as an advertised option (the price appears roughly equivalent to the "Advance" fare).

To be honest the main issue I have with dynamic pricing is that in the UK it's used to rinse people, e.g. LNER. I mind it less if the maximum is still reasonably affordable, e.g. if the LNER system was capped at the former Super Off Peak and not the Anytime, and that's without even considering the London-Manchester Anytime which is nearly twice per mile the already expensive London-Edinburgh one.

 

[stut]

There's also the Yukikagaoka Line, also in Chiba Prefecture, which was built by the corporation that built the town it serves. It doesn't accept IC cards, but does have a facial recognition system instead.

I've a feeling there's a People Mover somewhere in the Northern Suburbs that basically uses a ramen shop machine for tickets too, but I can't remember it.

 

[kaspertron]

VR seat reservations are now 25% of the available regular ticket price. IMO that's a supplement with included reservation. Still optional fortunately.
Sleepers are 50% of the the available regular ticket price.

As always, check Seat61.

It's pretty remarkable that in a country like Finland in 2025 one has to make a phone call in order to book a train ticket, but that's the case for anyone using Interrail in Finland. I had to do it for a night train this summer. It was as smooth as such a service can be, having to read out your credit card number and spell out your email address over the phone is never going to be much fun. The call handler helpfully offered to stay on the line until I could check that the email with the tickets had arrived before finishing the call.

I can't imagine there would be many hours of programming involved in making Interrail reservations bookable online. Even if the programmers are paid a lot more then the call handlers I'm sure they'd break even within the first few months of implementation. My phone call took a good 15 minutes or so.

Travelling on daytime trains in Finland I couldn't be bothered phoning to book reservations. You can travel without a reservation and sit in any free seat, the problem being that there's no obvious way to know if a seat is free or not. My solution was to start a phantom booking for the departure in VR's app, thereby getting up the seat map for available seats.

 

[doc7austin]

Unfortunately, many train operators do not allow to book Interrail/Eurail reservations/surcharges on their websites.
I assume that the train operators do not want to risk people booking a free seat/berth next to each other by claiming such a railpass discount.
On reservation-mandatory trains the train operator would simply loose revenue if passengers cheat that way.
Yes, the train operator may check the railpass number, but this could get complicated, as railpasses differ.

 

[43096]

My solution was to start a phantom booking for the departure in VR's app, thereby getting up the seat map for available seats.

That is excellent advice! Thank you.

 

[stadler]

Finland is pretty much ryan air for rails nowadays thanks to digital revolution. Dynamic pricing that is driven by an AI isn't the best system for passengers. The resulting fares are very inconsistent and not transparent (i.e. commercially sensitive and not released as open data). An almost empty train can be the most expensive of the day, so clearly there is a disconnection to factors like demand.

And now after covid you have to pay supplement to get in a compartment, or a single seat on an 1+2 arrangement. A single seat is 2.90 - 5.10 eur more for a Tampere-Helsinki journey depending on class. VR has stated this additional fee is due to single seats being popular among passengers. Serial tickets can be used to work around this, but VR reduced the validity of serial tickets from 6 months to 4 months recently.

The trend of closing ticket offices continues: the office in Tampere will be closed soon. Only office in Helsinki will remain, but with reduced staff. Ticket machines have a printing fee of 0.50 eur. This is pushing people towards mobile app. VR also aims to reduce staff responsible for handling disruptions stating passengers want to use digital channels.

Prices in Finland are still quite good compared to Nordic countries.

Good system is for example in Czech Republic, as they have distance based pricing you always know how much a train is going to cost, and they have 1st and 2nd classes on trains (with the exception of private operators). And they still have traditional ticket offices, although the staff don't always speak in english.

Finland is now similar to Sweden in that anyone who wants to pay cash (except at the two remaining Helsinki and Tampere ticket offices) has to walk to a convinience shop and buy a ticket. I have had similar experiences to Sweden in these in that the cashiers take ages to sell you one. Plus they charge EUR1.00 surcharge. Finland only has one chain of shops (R Kiosk) that sells tickets. Most towns have one but again you sometimes have to walk a distance from the station to get to one.

At least they do still have ticket machines (with a EUR0.50 surcharge) and you can buy onboard (with a EUR3.00 surcharge for under 76km and a EUR7.00 surcharge for over 76km) so it is a better than SJ in Sweden are. But both of those options are card only. VR stopped taking cash onboard trains from the 01/09/2019 and i do not think their ticket machines have taken cash for a long time.

 

[jamesontheroad]

VR Sweden and Norrtåg confirmed today in local media that on-train sales cease on 14th December. Passengers are directed to Pressbyrån and 7-Eleven stores, of which there are zero within 1km of any railway station in Norrland (apart from maybe Luleå?).

 

[stadler]

VR Sweden and Norrtåg confirmed today in local media that on-train sales cease on 14th December. Passengers are directed to Pressbyrån and 7-Eleven stores, of which there are zero within 1km of any railway station in Norrland (apart from maybe Luleå?).

So the Finnish state owned operator takes over from the Norwegian state owned operator and the very first thing they do is scrap onboard sales on trains. It is ridiculous. Even in somewhere as large as Haparanda or Kalix or Boden there are no such stores. How are people without internet access or without bank accounts meant to buy tickets when none of the towns have any of these stores. Will the onboard staff show discretion and let them travel for free. You would think that Norrtag would at least sell tickets in stores like Coop or ICA as these exist in every town all throughout the Norrland region. No point of selling at 711 or Pressbyran when the nearest one is miles away. It is bonkers. Sweden seems to hate people without internet access or bank accounts. No other country in the world makes life so difficult for such people.

 

[Bungle158]

India has arguably the most complex fare structures and booking procedures on the planet. There are several classes of accommodation, sometimes 4 or even 5 on one service, a range of tickets, including Wait Listed and Reservation Against Cancellation options. Taktal, essentially late issue fares and also a Foreigner Quota.

Add the often impenetrable official website and huge queues at ticket offices if you decide to do things 'old school.'

It can be lots of fun planning a journey in advance, but very stressful on the day. I recommend https://www.seat61.com/India.htm
as a useful guide for those beginning to cope with the system.

 

[EnriqueEspaña]

I must say Spain is pretty good for ticketing. With AVE journeys you usually get a code to get a free Cercanías ticket to get from High Speed/Main station to the suburbs.

Also, on multiple occasions I have bought tickets that were only 10 percent refundable if cancelled before travel. Most of the times I have walked to the ticket office in Valencia, they've just disregarded the sales terms and given me a full refund!

There was also one time I was travelling from Valencia to Sevilla back in 2018 where i misses my connection in Madrid because I was being an idiot and looking at the arrivals board for a platform and not the departures. I explained this in the ticket office and instead of making me pay for another ticket on the next train, they just laughed and printed me a new ticket with seat reservation for the next train.

If you make a basic attempt at Spanish, they really appreciate it and will go the extra mile.

 

[AdamWW]

I must say Spain is pretty good for ticketing. With AVE journeys you usually get a code to get a free Cercanías ticket to get from High Speed/Main station to the suburbs.

Personally I'm not keen on the way they've decided to emulate budget airlines with multiple add-on charges..

E.g. having to pay extra to choose a seat rather than having one assigned at random. I don't think I've come across any other railway company that does that.

Then there's the add-on to make a ticket fully refundable, only the add-on itself isn't refundable so it's not in fact fully refundable.

 

[stuu]

So the Finnish state owned operator takes over from the Norwegian state owned operator and the very first thing they do is scrap onboard sales on trains. It is ridiculous. Even in somewhere as large as Haparanda or Kalix or Boden there are no such stores. How are people without internet access or without bank accounts meant to buy tickets when none of the towns have any of these stores. Will the onboard staff show discretion and let them travel for free. You would think that Norrtag would at least sell tickets in stores like Coop or ICA as these exist in every town all throughout the Norrland region. No point of selling at 711 or Pressbyran when the nearest one is miles away. It is bonkers. Sweden seems to hate people without internet access or bank accounts. No other country in the world makes life so difficult for such people.

The number of people who can afford to travel to Sweden and don't have a bank account or a mobile phone must be miniscule though, so is that a real problem? The times I have been to Sweden I have never seen a cash transaction take place, I don't think I have ever even seen a Swedish bank note

 

[Bletchleyite]

Personally I'm not keen on the way they've decided to emulate budget airlines with multiple add-on charges..

E.g. having to pay extra to choose a seat rather than having one assigned at random. I don't think I've come across any other railway company that does that.

It makes a lot of sense if you're operating true compulsory reservation as RENFE are, because if everyone picks then you end up with inefficient use of the seats and so can't take as many bookings. For instance if you have a simplified coach with two seats 1 and 2 and a route A-B-C. One person books A-B and selects seat 1, another person books B-C and selects seat 2. A third person comes along and wants to book A-C but can't because there's no single seat available for the whole journey. Whereas if the second passenger was incentivised not to choose, all three tickets could have been sold.

At least they offer selection, SNCF don't, or didn't last time I booked with them.

 

[jamesontheroad]

The number of people who can afford to travel to Sweden and don't have a bank account or a mobile phone must be miniscule though, so is that a real problem? The times I have been to Sweden I have never seen a cash transaction take place, I don't think I have ever even seen a Swedish bank note

It’s quite discriminatory towards the elderly. At least one of the senior associations have complained about the lack of inclusion for the elderly in Sweden’s digitalisation.

 

[rf_ioliver]

Finland is pretty much ryan air for rails nowadays thanks to digital revolution.

The pricing system can be a pain I will agree to that, but VR's services onboard are generally excellent - they are a long way from the level of service that the real RyanAir of Finland provide (Finnair...who hold a virtual monopoly but are reducing services in order to be "competitive" ... Helsinki-Oulu since the loss of Norwegian has become very expensive)

 

[AdamWW]

It makes a lot of sense if you're operating true compulsory reservation as RENFE are, because if everyone picks then you end up with inefficient use of the seats and so can't take as many bookings. For instance if you have a simplified coach with two seats 1 and 2 and a route A-B-C. One person books A-B and selects seat 1, another person books B-C and selects seat 2. A third person comes along and wants to book A-C but can't because there's no single seat available for the whole journey. Whereas if the second passenger was incentivised not to choose, all three tickets could have been sold.

I take your point but of course there is a middle ground where the passenger gets to choose type of seat (window or aisle, and ideally a window seat that actually has a window).

The fact that they don't even offer that free suggests to me that this has nothing to do with efficiency and everything to do with revenue generation.

 

[signed]

At least they offer selection, SNCF don't, or didn't last time I booked with them.

SNCF offers full seat maps in 1st only, in 2nd you give preferences (window, aisle, table...) which more than not get met.

 

[sh24]

Having negotiated domestic French trains for the first time in a few years, it's mildly bamboozling. The fragmentation of the Uk railway with the monolithic nature of SNCF. Thankfully a TGV is still a great train and the LGV are great infrastructure but stuff like ticketing and the app structure is incoherent and messy.

 

[signed]

The fragmentation of the Uk railway with the monolithic nature of SNCF

It's really not monolithic anymore due to regions, EU regs and politics.

For TGV it's straight forward, but as soon as you get into other services that becomes a lot tricky

 

[Oxfordblues]

I went to the booking office at Montpellier to buy a ticket for the next morning's direct train to Zaragoza only to be told, apologetically, that it's a Spanish train and this is a French booking office so we can't issue one. Imagine being at Manchester Piccadilly and told they can't issue tickets to Cardiff because it's a Welsh train and this is England!

 

[rvdborgt]

E.g. having to pay extra to choose a seat rather than having one assigned at random. I don't think I've come across any other railway company that does that.

Trenitalia also do that (€2 extra fee).
Renfe ticketing may seem straight forward, but booking the journey you want may be impossible due to their awful online booking system.
They don't have a planner or booking system that includes all their trains.
They only offer connections that they explicitly allow in their booking system. If you use e.g. the DB planner, you'll often find additional journey possibilities, with connections that Renfe don't want to offer for some reason, but that do satisfy the minimum connection times that they specified themselves in the MERITS data.

 

[Bletchleyite]

SNCF offers full seat maps in 1st only, in 2nd you give preferences (window, aisle, table...) which more than not get met.

If I recall rightly "window" just means "not aisle" and gives you no actual guarantee of being able to see out, though. I'd agree better than nothing though. Personally I think having that for free and a charge to select a specific seat is a reasonable compromise where strict compulsory reservation applies, aside from services like Eurostar where partial/overlapping journeys aren't a thing. Where compulsory reservation doesn't apply you just avoid the issue by having enough unreserved seats for people to just sort it out on the day.

 

[Austriantrain]

They only offer connections that they explicitly allow in their booking system. If you use e.g. the DB planner, you'll often find additional journey possibilities, with connections that Renfe don't want to offer for some reason, but that do satisfy the minimum connection times that they specified themselves in the MERITS data.

With the problem that you cannot book a through ticket then and if you book separate ones, you will have a problem with a missed connection. Same for passholders really, because trains are often fully reserved so you likely won't be able to get on the next train when you miss the "non-approved" connection, unless you find a nice Spanish railway official.

 

[AdamWW]

They don't have a planner or booking system that includes all their trains.
They only offer connections that they explicitly allow in their booking system. If you use e.g. the DB planner, you'll often find additional journey possibilities, with connections that Renfe don't want to offer for some reason, but that do satisfy the minimum connection times that they specified themselves in the MERITS data.

That's true for the main RENFE web site (and is an utter pain), but curiously there is now the "Dōcō by Renfe" planner: https://www.docomobility.com/es
This seems to generate journeys with arbitrary changes, including between suburban trains and medium/long distance ones.
My recollection is that it sells tickets with connections but it wants an account now so I can't have a quick look.

I've read that for RENFE to cover you for a missed connection if not booked as a through ticket you need to leave an hour between trains. I don't know what happens if sold by a third party site as a connecting journey.

Also, in terms of whether RENFE is up there with the best or worst countries for ticketing, its probably worth mentioning their apparently arbitrary approach to how far in advance they put trains on the system.

 

[U-Bahnfreund]

So the Finnish state owned operator takes over from the Norwegian state owned operator and the very first thing they do is scrap onboard sales on trains. It is ridiculous.

How do you know it's VR that's deciding this? At least in Germany, the rail authority prescribes how and where to sell tickets, so I could imagine that it's Norrtåg that decided this and not VR

 

[rvdborgt]

That's true for the main RENFE web site (and is an utter pain), but curiously there is now the "Dōcō by Renfe" planner: https://www.docomobility.com/es

I'll have to look into that again. I did that 2 years ago, with their Doco app, but that was not very useful at the time.

I've read that for RENFE to cover you for a missed connection if not booked as a through ticket you need to leave an hour between trains. I don't know what happens if sold by a third party site as a connecting journey.

That would probably make an interesting case, because the journeys in Spain any railway planner (such as DB's) will propose are all based on Renfe data, and will therefore only propose what Renfe deem is possible.

 

[stut]

India has arguably the most complex fare structures and booking procedures on the planet. There are several classes of accommodation, sometimes 4 or even 5 on one service, a range of tickets, including Wait Listed and Reservation Against Cancellation options. Taktal, essentially late issue fares and also a Foreigner Quota.

Add the often impenetrable official website and huge queues at ticket offices if you decide to do things 'old school.'

It can be lots of fun planning a journey in advance, but very stressful on the day. I recommend https://www.seat61.com/India.htm
as a useful guide for those beginning to cope with the system.

The stress of being waitlisted, waiting for that waitlist to clear, looking at the various sites which will tell you the likelihood of that waitlist clearing (which are rarely that accurate), then discovering you haven't cleared, but you need to travel, so you buy a general ticket and try and ascertain where the TTE is so you can nab him for an upgrade from his quota the second the train arrives...

 

[Bletchleyite]

The stress of being waitlisted, waiting for that waitlist to clear, looking at the various sites which will tell you the likelihood of that waitlist clearing (which are rarely that accurate), then discovering you haven't cleared, but you need to travel, so you buy a general ticket and try and ascertain where the TTE is so you can nab him for an upgrade from his quota the second the train arrives...

It's wonderfully bureaucratic in a way only India can manage, but the real symptom is a lack of funding which means the system offers significant under capacity that makes XC look spacious. I guess the challenge is getting enough funding to get frequencies up to European standards - most routes are just one or two (fairly long) trains a day.

 

[Krokodil]

The biggest pain I have found has been local transport. Buses, trams and metros. Having to purchase tickets from kiosks, from kerbside TVMs, or worse having to download a specific app just to pay a bus fare in a small town in Romania - or in the case of Riga having to scan a code with that app on every single vehicle boarded, despite using a three day ticket. Contactless on local transport really isn't difficult to implement, every bus I have taken in the UK since 2021 (Pulhams Coaches from Charlbury to Diddly Squat Farm was cash-only and the only ATM in Charlbury charges for withdrawals) has had it.

 

[FormerBritInMe]

Imagine being at Manchester Piccadilly and told they can't issue tickets to Cardiff because it's a Welsh train and this is England!

Something like that has happened to me. I had a problem with an Avanti West Coast ticket to Wales and went to the only ticket office open and was told "sorry that's Avanti West Coast, we are LNER". Of course there were no AWC personnel anywhere in sight.