Engineering work

[158801]

I travel extensively in Europe by train. On many journies reservations are compulsory. When going online to buy a ticket and reserve a seat I am sometimes met with a message saying tickets not available for purchase or there is no train shown.

This could mean one of three things :
The train is fully booked
It’s not yet open for reservations
There’s engineering work and the train will either be retired or simply not run.

A typical example is travelling between Milan and Switzerland on Saturday 29th April. After much digging around it would appear that engineering works are taking place on the route from Milan to Brig (via Dmodossola) and Milan to Bern/Zurich via Lugano and the Gotthard Route and no trains will run on either route on this day.

I can’t find anywhere that lists engineering work.

Is anyone aware of a website that shows engineering work, where it will take place, the implicationsand the dates it will take place. Ideally for each European country.

It seems to be an area where continental railways fall down in lack of informations

 

[DanielB]

For Switzerland it should be this page, filter on "Baustellen": https://www.sbb.ch/de/fahrplan/bahnverkehrsinformation/betriebslage.html

And for the Netherlands: https://www.ns.nl/reisinformatie/werk-aan-het-spoor

For other countries I cannot look for links at the moment, but suppose someone else will be able.

 

[MarcVD]

https://www.belgiantrain.be/fr/travel-info/current/ongoing-disturbances-and-works for Belgium

 

[30907]

https://www.belgiantrain.be/fr/travel-info/current/ongoing-disturbances-and-works for Belgium

There are similar pages on the Italian, German, Austrian, Czech and Slovak rail sites to my knowledge. They do not necessarily give information long in advance.

Not all countries bar bookings until the timetable is finalised, either - DB will happily revise your booked train at quite short notice, as will OeBB.

Incidentally, for your Milan example it may simply be that bookings are not open 3 months ahead; I must say I am intrigued that the two completely different routes you mention are totally closed, though I could believe that major work is affecting Milano Centrale station.

 

[AdamWW]

Not all countries bar bookings until the timetable is finalised, either - DB will happily revise your booked train at quite short notice, as will OeBB.

What I've seen in both countries is that you can reserve seats and buy fixed-train tickets based on the regular timetable, but there is a warning that there will be engineering and that times will change or even part/all of the service be replaced by buses.

Some years ago I reserved on a service from Prague into Austria. The train was shown as running through, but it would only let me reserve seats up to one of the stations in Austria. And sure enough, when it came to it, the train was replaced by a road transport from that point.

(Curiously enough, this summer I caught the same train for a journey within Czechia - and the same engineering work seemed to be going on, though this time it didn't affect me).

 

[Gordon]

travelling between Milan and Switzerland on Saturday 29th April. After much digging around it would appear that engineering works are taking place on the route from Milan to Brig (via Dmodossola) and Milan to Bern/Zurich via Lugano and the Gotthard Route and no trains will run on either route on this day.

I can’t find anywhere that lists engineering work.

Is anyone aware of a website that shows engineering work, where it will take place, the implicationsand the dates it will take place. Ideally for each European country.

It seems to be an area where continental railways fall down in lack of informations

1) Many European railways don't publicise engineering work overtly or in 'hard copy' aka list format. With the advent of journey planners, there is now a 'laziness' factor whereby the operator's website will just point you to the national journey planner which will either find a service if one is running or say 'no trains' if the service over a particular section is suspended due to engineering work. - the Swiss are 'good' at this method

2) There has indeed been extensive engineering work north of Milano in the past year - affecting trains to Switzerland