The best and worst countries for railway ticketing.

[AdamWW]

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 -

Indeed.

I had fun in Bucharest this summer.

There was a sign on the surface local transport ticket vending machine at Gara Nord saying that it wouldn't sell me a ticket but giving a list of alternatives.

SMS payment? Not with a foreign phone, it seems.
Download the app? Again, not on the British app store (and yes, there may well be a way round it but not really what you want to deal with when you're just trying to buy a ticket to get on the next trolleybus).
Contactless card - if the bus has a reader, but that isn't guaranteed.

I forget what else but none of them worked.

Fortunately there was a manned ticket kiosk but I don't think there are many and I have no idea what I could have done without it other than faredodging, walking, or getting a taxi.

Going back a few years, finding a shop that would actually sell me a tram ticket in Milan was something of a challenge.

 

[Krokodil]

Fortunately there was a manned ticket kiosk but I don't think there are many and I have no idea what I could have done without it other than faredodging, walking, or getting a taxi.

I had fun trying to get a three day travelcard from the metro ticket office in Gara de Nord, the clerk didn't speak any English. A lot of miming later...

Brașov has kerbside TVMs, which wasn't too confusing (though we did ask a local for help the first time, I think). Sinaia expected you to download a specific app.

 

[AdamWW]

Brașov has kerbside TVMs, which wasn't too confusing (though we did ask a local for help the first time, I think). Sinaia expected you to download a specific app.

Sinaia has TVMs at some bus stops.

I paid with a contactless card on buses in and around Brașov. Or at least tried to. I'm not sure what I actually did but fortunately nobody checked.

But this thread is supposed to be about railway ticketing so perhaps we should stick to that.

 

[route101]

Where there is reasonably priced walk up fares and no advances for short trips.

 

[fandroid]

Just like to add that most of my experience is in Germany, where it's essential for a Brit to understand the split between Intercity and regional ticketing. This is very true in the Ruhr and Rhineland where big city fare zones overlap. It took us an age to fathom out the best value tickets for travel from Düsseldorf Airport to local stations/stops in Cologne. They turn out to be VRR level 5 tickets! An added confusion is caused by DB, who set the Intercity fares, also running a lot of the regional and local trains whose fares they do not set.

It's worth noting that DB don't automatically offer reservations on ICE trains. It's always an extra that attracts a charge. Having said that the seat selection plans on their app are excellent.

An extra perk that comes with paying full Flexpreis for ICE journeys is that you get Citytickets included allowing free connecting travel on all local transport at each end.

Also the DB Navigator app gets better and better in allowing purchase of "Handytickets" (mobile phone etickets) for more and more of the local transport areas.

 

[stut]

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!

It harks back to the old days of Eastern European travel where you had to get off on the border line (no platforms to speak of), wait for the immigration people to come and check your passports, then all rush to a single counter at a ticket shack that only takes local currency (that you can't get anywhere else) and hope you get your onward ticket before the train leaves as there's one two a day...

(Yes, 90s Lithuania, looking especially at you...)

 

[sheff1]

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!

Used to be the case that the Scotrail ticket office at Glasgow Cental would not sell tickets to English stations, don't know if that is still the same.

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.

This year I bought a paper three day ticket from a TVM at Riga airport, much better in my view than downloading yet another app.

 

[dutchflyer]

As for that latter:
this was for a long time an issue on the EU/INterRail ´ćommunity´ forum, as those passholders had to ; ASK conductor on platform IF there would be space for them-and then pay the supplmt for that on board. Also applies to other stops in FR for that service. Just a rather weird thing as result of having to allow others. The reason given was as seen in the eyes of what in fact is a FRench state-employee perfectly normal and reasonable.
Same region- in the largest town, Toulouse: it offers a network-pass for just the regional TER-trains for just 10€/day-MIN 2 or 3 days, and when I tried to buy that in Tls some 3-4 yrs ago now the existence of it was flatly denied by also a same-style FRench employee- could apparently only be bought online, which was (at least then) not explained at all in their site. But even that seemed too much to tell prospective customer.......

 

[railfan99]

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.

Can you please leave a blank line between each sentence, or very small numbers of them? This aids legibility.

 

[Krokodil]

Used to be the case that the Scotrail ticket office at Glasgow Cental would not sell tickets to English stations, don't know if that is still the same.

Last time I was there (when LSL ran 37s to Mallaig to step on WCRC's toes) there were seperate booking offices for this. A bit like having an "international travel" office at some European stations.

This year I bought a paper three day ticket from a TVM at Riga airport, much better in my view than downloading yet another app.

I arrived by train from Tallinn so that wasn't an option.

 

[A S Leib]

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.

Flixtrain?

 

[route101]

Used to be the case that the Scotrail ticket office at Glasgow Cental would not sell tickets to English stations, don't know if that is still the same.

This year I bought a paper three day ticket from a TVM at Riga airport, much better in my view than downloading yet another app.

The low level ticket office would direct you upstairs for anything other than local tickets.

I tried buying an advance ticket to England from ticket office at Queen St and got told to buy it at Glasgow Central.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 4 Dec 2025 ==

I much prefer paper tickets over apps most of the time, quicker to buy and quicker to show.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 4 Dec 2025 ==

Indeed.

I had fun in Bucharest this summer.

There was a sign on the surface local transport ticket vending machine at Gara Nord saying that it wouldn't sell me a ticket but giving a list of alternatives.

SMS payment? Not with a foreign phone, it seems.
Download the app? Again, not on the British app store (and yes, there may well be a way round it but not really what you want to deal with when you're just trying to buy a ticket to get on the next trolleybus).
Contactless card - if the bus has a reader, but that isn't guaranteed.

I forget what else but none of them worked.

Fortunately there was a manned ticket kiosk but I don't think there are many and I have no idea what I could have done without it other than faredodging, walking, or getting a taxi.

Going back a few years, finding a shop that would actually sell me a tram ticket in Milan was something of a challenge.

I was in Bucharest recently and used a TVM just outside the station, I thought I bought a day ticket for all transport but when I went to use the ticket at the metro station it wasn't valid. I guess that ticket was for bus only.

 

[Struner]

so basically you didn’t know what you were buying?

 

[Krokodil]

I tried buying an advance ticket to England from ticket office at Queen St and got told to buy it at Glasgow Central.

Even if it had been to somewhere that Queen Street was more convenient for like Newcastle?

 

[AdamWW]

I was in Bucharest recently and used a TVM just outside the station, I thought I bought a day ticket for all transport but when I went to use the ticket at the metro station it wasn't valid. I guess that ticket was for bus only.

It would have been for "surface" transport only (bus, trolleybus, tram).
The Metro is a separate organisation with its own ticketing system, but there are also joint Metro and surface tickets.
But nothing so far as I know that also includes trains.

Previously on that trip I spent time in Vienna and Munich where life was a lot simpler, with day tickets including every mode of regular transport on offer, including rail.
(And...desparately trying to get this thread back on track....available from railway company ticket machines.)

 

[renegademaster]

Our ticketing system isn't actually that complicated really compared to everyone else.

The main benefit is you a ticket from basically any two pairs of stations just by typing the name into a TVM or Trainline. While the industry is fragmented for the ticketing purposes the interface is actually very unified.

When you wish you to get a cheaper ticket then discounts are harder to understand and could do with simplification.


As much as the advances are annoying they are pretty simple to understand, you got a ticket for that train and that train only. Most countries will have some form of yield managed ticket that works the same way

 

[AdamWW]

Our ticketing system isn't actually that complicated really compared to everyone else.

The main benefit is you a ticket from basically any two pairs of stations just by typing the name into a TVM or Trainline. While the industry is fragmented for the ticketing purposes the interface is actually very unified.

Absolutely - the system that was set up for privatisation was in my view a good attempt to keep complexity behind the scenes (even if I recall correctly to the extent of preventing the dominant operator on a route from introducing an operator-only flexible ticket at just under the cost of an interavailable one - in standard class at any rate).

Our complex system of peak, a bit off peak, and completely off peak flexible fares is I think quite unusual but I'd rather have that than the obvious simplification of moving to anytime and advances only.

One way that I the UK system now often fails passengers is the existence of TOC only advances at just under the cost of a flexible ticket (getting round the above rule) which do have their uses for people not making a return journey but in general just fool people into buying a heavily restricted ticket when say £1 more would get them a fully refundable (at least for now!) flexible one.

As much as the advances are annoying they are pretty simple to understand, you got a ticket for that train and that train only. Most countries will have some form of yield managed ticket that works the same way

In the same way in principle yes, but probably not the ones that only slightly undercut flexible tickets and it's also quite common for them to be at least partly refundable even if only as vouchers.

 

[TravelDream]

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.

That's just Sweden in general. I am not one of those 'cash is king' people and generally always spend by card, but it can be ridiculously difficult to do things face to face or using cash there.

All stations of any size have convenience stores though where you can buy tickets. With a fairly substantial additional fee usually. Online/ by app is the only way to get the cheapest fare at most stations.

 

[route101]

Absolutely - the system that was set up for privatisation was in my view a good attempt to keep complexity behind the scenes (even if I recall correctly to the extent of preventing the dominant operator on a route from introducing an operator-only flexible ticket at just under the cost of an interavailable one - in standard class at any rate).

Our complex system of peak, a bit off peak, and completely off peak flexible fares is I think quite unusual but I'd rather have that than the obvious simplification of moving to anytime and advances only.

One way that I the UK system now often fails passengers is the existence of TOC only advances at just under the cost of a flexible ticket (getting round the above rule) which do have their uses for people not making a return journey but in general just fool people into buying a heavily restricted ticket when say £1 more would get them a fully refundable (at least for now!) flexible one.



In the same way in principle yes, but probably not the ones that only slightly undercut flexible tickets and it's also quite common for them to be at least partly refundable even if only as vouchers.

Often see advances higher than the off peak one way fare between Glasgow and London.

 

[185]

I note mention of Finland up thread.. I was chatting just a few weeks ago to some of the last remaining ticket office staff in the country at Helsinki, they're of a far more sensible mindset than VRs management recognising that the elderly, disabled, tourists, and those wanting things a TVM can't do need a booking office.

Indeed, upon checking, VR's TVM was showing incorrect fares for a journey... for reasons unknown it wasn't showing the full range of tickets, thus overcharging by almost double.

Quite sad that for a country so forward thinking, their railway has less facilities than SNCC, the DR Congo's railway.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Quite sad that for a country so forward thinking, their railway has less facilities than SNCC, the DR Congo's railway.

It's not hard to have a more heavily staffed railway in a country where wages are very low.

 

[superalbs]

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.

New operator GoVolta charges a killer €12.50 to select a seat!

 

[Bletchleyite]

New operator GoVolta charges a killer €12.50 to select a seat!

To be fair, having just had a quick look, that appears to be a Ryanair style model where the actual fare is very cheap but the add-ons make the price escalate somewhat.

 

[Taunton]

Different issues in different countries.

In USA, Amtrak looks straightforward but needs a great amount of bureaucracy at the ticket counter where ID has to be shown at every stage. On the NE corridor there are regular trains and faster Acela; they do not overtake, and are sufficiently frequent to be turn up and go, but return tickets on one require exchanging for the other, a process which once took so long at the counter that we missed the earlier train, thus completely invalidating the process and requiring starting again!

Excessive counter delays also hit in Italy, at Florence, where there were ticket machines for long distance expresses to Rome but not I could see for a local trip to Pisa, with a queue mixed in with international tourists with difficult questions such that we missed not just the next Pisa train but the one after that as well .

 

[AdamWW]

Excessive counter delays also hit in Italy, at Florence, where there were ticket machines for long distance expresses to Rome but not I could see for a local trip to Pisa, with a queue mixed in with international tourists with difficult questions such that we missed not just the next Pisa train but the one after that as well .

Interesting. A few years ago there were several machines in Florence that would sell me a ticket to Pisa.

I had no luck in Spain this summer though getting a machine to sell me a ticket from Santander to Bilbao, and attempts to buy on-line kept failing when it wouldn't accept my credit cards. Fortunately there was a ticket window. (Though the person there refused to sell me a ticket on the grounds that the train might not run, and if it did I could buy on the train or at the other end. In the end it did and I did.)

 

[Krokodil]

I found myself in the massive queue at Florence because I needed a FIP rate ticket (not available at a TVM). Nearly missed the train to Siena and therefore a very infrequent bus to where we were staying. Rest of the family were on Interrail passes so didn't have an issue.

 

[blimmo]

Absolutely - the system that was set up for privatisation was in my view a good attempt to keep complexity behind the scenes (even if I recall correctly to the extent of preventing the dominant operator on a route from introducing an operator-only flexible ticket at just under the cost of an interavailable one - in standard class at any rate).

That certainly doesn't apply any more (did it exist in the past?). Check Coventry to Rugby for example.

 

[stadler]

Different issues in different countries.

In USA, Amtrak looks straightforward but needs a great amount of bureaucracy at the ticket counter where ID has to be shown at every stage. On the NE corridor there are regular trains and faster Acela; they do not overtake, and are sufficiently frequent to be turn up and go, but return tickets on one require exchanging for the other, a process which once took so long at the counter that we missed the earlier train, thus completely invalidating the process and requiring starting again!

Excessive counter delays also hit in Italy, at Florence, where there were ticket machines for long distance expresses to Rome but not I could see for a local trip to Pisa, with a queue mixed in with international tourists with difficult questions such that we missed not just the next Pisa train but the one after that as well .

Amtrack in USA and Via Rail in Canada both seem think that they are running airlines rather than a train company. They make everything ridiculously bureaucratic. It is entirely dynamic pricing and they do not even have set fares on their shorter more frequent routes. You can buy a ticket onboard if boarding at an unstaffed station but the some of the conductors seem to hate it and act like you are causing them a big inconvinience.

 

[AdamWW]

That certainly doesn't apply any more (did it exist in the past?). Check Coventry to Rugby for example.

I'd be interested to know more about this. I am only going by memory and maybe I'm mis-remembering or was misinformed but I thought it was a rule at least in the past.

I have a recollection that one of LNER's predecessors played this game with first class tickets and it was allowed but wouldn't have been for standard class.

 

[Bletchleyite]

That certainly doesn't apply any more (did it exist in the past?). Check Coventry to Rugby for example.

It isn't the dominant operator, rather it's the fare-setting operator. Coventry to Rugby is compliant, as West Midlands Trains set the inter available fare so cannot set a TOC specific walk up fare, Avanti have their own which they are allowed to do. The purpose is to stop them setting the inter available fare to something ridiculously high then bringing in a TOC specific one much lower which would be abuse of their position as it would adversely affect the other operator(s) and not be fair competition.

There are odd places where it isn't compliant - there's the classic exception of London to Gatwick, and another is Milton Keynes Central to Euston where there are dedicated fares for both TOCs, but I *believe* that happened because originally Virgin West Coast were fare-setter so there were dedicated Silverlink (now WMT) Only fares, but then the fare setter changed to Silverlink/London Midland (whenever it was) and so Virgin West Coast Only fares were added, but Silverlink/London Midland were able to keep theirs as they already existed but not add any new ones.

Advances, however, are always allowed. This would be one reason Northern like them - they mostly set the fares on their routes and so can't introduce TOC specific walk up fares.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 9 Dec 2025 ==

I have a recollection that one of LNER's predecessors played this game with first class tickets and it was allowed but wouldn't have been for standard class.

Yes, First Class is fully commercial so they can do what they like.