Alternatives to Trainline outside UK & Ireland

[Joseph T]

What in your experience are the best alternatives to my current options for buying train tickets in Continental Europe? Trainline charges somewhat extortionate booking fees, Trainpal is rather buggy and Omio tends to return little to no results.

 

[superalbs]

What in your experience are the best alternatives to my current options for buying train tickets in Continental Europe? Trainline charges somewhat extortionate booking fees, Trainpal is rather buggy and Omio tends to return little to no results.

Just book with whatever operator you're travelling with usually.

 

[jamesr]

I always use a Rail Europe app since the days when it was branded Loco2. I don’t really know who owns it - for all I know it could be Trainline (who I don’t use in the UK) but it’s hassle free, makes searching easy, and does the job nicely.

 

[blackfive460]

Deutsche Bahn (https://int.bahn.de/en) is usually a good starting point for European travel.

 

[43096]

I tend to use ÖBB (https://www.oebb.at/) for booking reservations - as I'm normally travelling on a rover - and they'll book/reserve on many services across Europe, I think. I've certainly made reservations for Copenhagen-Hamburg and Hannover-Amsterdam that way, for instance. They're €3 for reservations - whatever you do, don't use the Interrail app; it's a complete rip-off!

Only times I need to buy a separate ticket are on the open access services such as Flix and RegioJet, where I use the operator's app or website.

 

[Joseph T]

Just book with whatever operator you're travelling with usually.

Hello again Superalbs! BTW what ticketing app do you use for Renfe trains? In mine and other people's experiences the Renfe website is rather finicky.

 

[superalbs]

Hello again Superalbs! BTW what ticketing app do you use for Renfe trains? In mine and other people's experiences the Renfe website is rather finicky.

Hello there. The Renfe website is indeed terrible, but it's the one I use for booking their trains.

My preference is to use Iryo though, as they're a better operator in my opinion.

 

[HST43257]

Wherever I go, operator I’m travelling with. Most likely to get the correct information and disruption assistance etc. Not a fan of third party sellers at all.

 

[Segedunum]

The only third party app I've really used abroad is KOLEO for Poland - as the actual PKP site is disastrously bad.

They'll also flog you all sorts of local operator tickets, day passes etc. Similarly Jakdojade is the best for trams/buses and inner city stuff.

The Česke Drahy "Můj Vlak" app is good for some international routes too - I managed to get an Interrail reservation on the Ljubljana to Budapest IC with them. They'll also sell tickets for Slovakia (at a bit of a markup) which might be worth it to some - as ZSSK's "Ideme Vlakome" app is quite clunky and isn't in English.

 

[signed]

I always use a Rail Europe app since the days when it was branded Loco2. I don’t really know who owns it - for all I know it could be Trainline (who I don’t use in the UK) but it’s hassle free, makes searching easy, and does the job nicely.

RailEurope now charges fees of Currency 8 per basket on non-Interrail bookings