European Railroad Discussion > Europe Pass Questions

I thought one of the experts here might know since getting through to Rail Europe is nearly impossible.

1. I'm traveling from Berlin to Pozan. I have a German rail pass that still has two valid days left on it from last weeks trip. And then a Poland Pass. But it's a through train so I won't have an opportunity to get the Poland pass validated at a Polish station. So will they do it on board or kick me off the train?

2. Return journey is overnight from Pozan to Koln. Then on to Brussels for Eurostar. My German pass will still be valid. And I have my Eurostar and EN ticket.  But I don't have coverage for Belgium. Can I buy a ticket on the train to make up the difference for the part of the journey the German pass won't cover? 

Any advice or insight appreciated.

You're have trouble with Rail Europe????   I thought you've always said that the railways in Europe were perfect and that Amtrak should copy them.

Well that was a useful response.  I am referring to the company RailEurope. Not the actual trains. Their phone hold times for agents located in the USA are normally far longer than say Delta or Amtrak. Their web site is excellent but often doesn't offer detailed information that someone beyond a casual traveler might require.  No reflection on the trains however. Just the ability to get accurate info in the States. I guess I wrongly thought someone here might be able to answer my question without another question! 

Why not aski "Seat 61" ?

You can probably easily buy a ticket in advance for the Belgian portion of your trip; otherwise you likely will be required to buy one on board -- rates may be higher on board.

Polish pass validation: you need to do more research on line.

Posted from iPhone

andersonb109 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I thought one of the experts here might know since
> getting through to Rail Europe is nearly
> impossible.
>
> 1. I'm traveling from Berlin to Pozan. I have a
> German rail pass that still has two valid days
> left on it from last weeks trip. And then a Poland
> Pass. But it's a through train so I won't have an
> opportunity to get the Poland pass validated at a
> Polish station. So will they do it on board or
> kick me off the train?
>
> 2. Return journey is overnight from Pozan to Koln.
> Then on to Brussels for Eurostar. My German pass
> will still be valid. And I have my Eurostar and EN
> ticket.  But I don't have coverage for Belgium.
> Can I buy a ticket on the train to make up the
> difference for the part of the journey the German
> pass won't cover? 
>
> Any advice or insight appreciated.



1. I assume you mean Poznan (Poznań in Polish or Posen in German)? In any case, you can activate the Eurail pass at any station in any Eurail member country. So just activate your Polish one before getting on the train in Germany. They will NOT validate it on the train and a pass that has not been validated will not be honored on the train.

2. The Cologne (note that it's either "Cologne" in English or "Koeln" if transliterating the umlaut) to Brussels route is served by both ICE and Thalys trains. Thalys requires reservations, ICE does not. Therefore, if you have a German Eurail pass, ICE is your better bet, as you can then buy a ticket just for Aachen - Brussels either on the train or online/at a station. Thalys also only has a limited number of seats available to Eurail pass holders. So if you want to take Thalys, you'd have to not only buy a ticket for the Belgian portion of the route (Aachen to Brussels) but also a reservation valid for Eurail pass holders for the entire route (i.e. Cologne to Brussels). Note that it is often much less expensive to buy a ticket online or at a station rather than onboard the train; the price difference can be significant.

pennengineer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> andersonb109 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I thought one of the experts here might know
> since
> > getting through to Rail Europe is nearly
> > impossible.
> >
> > 1. I'm traveling from Berlin to Pozan. I have a
> > German rail pass that still has two valid days
> > left on it from last weeks trip. And then a
> Poland
> > Pass. But it's a through train so I won't have
> an
> > opportunity to get the Poland pass validated at
> a
> > Polish station. So will they do it on board or
> > kick me off the train?
> >
> > 2. Return journey is overnight from Pozan to
> Koln.
> > Then on to Brussels for Eurostar. My German
> pass
> > will still be valid. And I have my Eurostar and
> EN
> > ticket.  But I don't have coverage for
> Belgium.
> > Can I buy a ticket on the train to make up the
> > difference for the part of the journey the
> German
> > pass won't cover? 
> >
> > Any advice or insight appreciated.
>
>
>
> 1. I assume you mean Poznan (Poznań in Polish or
> Posen in German)? In any case, you can activate
> the Eurail pass at any station in any Eurail
> member country. So just activate your Polish one
> before getting on the train in Germany. They will
> NOT validate it on the train and a pass that has
> not been validated will not be honored on the
> train.
>
> 2. The Cologne (note that it's either "Cologne" in
> English or "Koeln" if transliterating the umlaut)
> to Brussels route is served by both ICE and Thalys
> trains. Thalys requires reservations, ICE does
> not. Therefore, if you have a German Eurail pass,
> ICE is your better bet, as you can then buy a
> ticket just for Aachen - Brussels either on the
> train or online/at a station. Thalys also only has
> a limited number of seats available to Eurail pass
> holders. So if you want to take Thalys, you'd have
> to not only buy a ticket for the Belgian portion
> of the route (Aachen to Brussels) but also a
> reservation valid for Eurail pass holders for the
> entire route (i.e. Cologne to Brussels). Note that
> it is often much less expensive to buy a ticket
> online or at a station rather than onboard the
> train; the price difference can be significant.

Observations:

(1) Caution:  individual country passes are typically issued by the particular country's railroad, not the consortium that is Eurail (and which issues the multicountry Eurail passes).  Thus, DB (German Rail) likely will be unwilling to validate a Polish rail pass.  I was unable to get DB in Frankfurt to validate my Swiss Pass, for example.  This leaves either on-board validation, which may or may not be possible (the Polish rail authorities are the ones that can provide a definitive answer on this for international services that cross the Polish border), or getting off the train at the border and boarding the next available service after validation at the station.  It's more cumbersome than it ought to be, largely because the vast majority of rail pass users tend, I think, to arrive at airports.

(2) There is no German "Eurail" pass.  It's either a German Rail Pass issued by DB, or a Eurail Pass issued by Eurail.  When in Germany, you can likely just go to any ticket office and purchase a simple ticket on the train you plan to use in Belgium just from the German/Belgian border to Brussels (although it appears that DB no longer sells Thalys tickets).  If it's a Thays, you have the option of purchasing a ticket on line directy from Thalys....it would likely be Aachen/Brussels, but then there's the complication of using the German Rail Pass on Thalys, which, as pointed out, is all-reserved.   Thalys tickets are priced in fare buckets, with cheap tickets available months in advance and then becoming more expensive.    It appears that OP has purchased overnight space from Poznan to Cologne on the through EN service, but will need a connection to Brussels.  OP's German Rail Pass will get him/her to the Belgian border, so in likelihood it will be better to use a non-Thalys service.

(3) RailEurope is yet another consortium (of the French and Swiss national railroads) that acts as a travel agent in the U.S. and sells all rail passes and other tickets.  RailEurope is not Eurail.  It's a good place to get rail passes but isn't always the best place to go for other European rail products, which may be available at lower prices from the individual railroads or elsewhere.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 03/21/16 08:59 by reindeerflame.

Here is a thought. Buy a ticket for the PKP to Poznań. In 2014 I ended up not finding anyone to validate my Brit Rail pass before I boarded the Heathrow Express. In that case the guard let me ride but of course we were both speaking English, or at least understandable variants of English. If you do not know the language well I'm not sure how well playing dumb would work when you get to Poland?

I hope you get to ride the tram system there in Poznań. It looks pretty intense and they have some used stuff from Germany running.

http://www.ztm.poznan.pl/network/public-transport-guide/

Jim