Best site/app for train schedules and tickets?
 

Hi everyone,

Ive been using Rome2Rio to look at train schedules, but it’s gotten a bit clunky.

Is there another trusted app/site to use for rail transport around Europe that will also direct me to a safe place to buy tickets?

Some sites are better for certain countries . . . I'm not sure if seat61 has been mentioned on any of your other threads - it is pretty much the bible for train travel https://www.seat61.com

It was, but I wasn’t aware it was all encompassing. Thanks!

Loads of good info at seat61. For European schedules use: https://www.bahn.com/en

Rome2Rio is OK as a starting point, but any info must be checked with the relevant company.

Each train company has it's own site. They do not necessarily give you the best information with regard to cross border travel, but do give you the best, and most up to date information for their own area/country. Some countries have multiple train companies.
Bahn.de, the site of the German company is pretty good but to be certain you do need to check the site of the company offering the service.
It is a shame there isn't a more joined up offering for trains in Europe, and it is a common complaint.

I’m about willing to thank someone with an Amazon gift card if they’ll coordinate rail travel for us. :)

What is your itinerary?

This site is aimed at hose using an Interrail/Eurail pass but the planner may be of use to you. You don't have to buy a pass to use it. Just put in where you are from and your start date and play away.

https://eurailplanner.com/

still sussing that out

What about Omio?

Rome>Florence
Florence>Venice
Venice>Milan (stop to see Last Supper)>Weggis, Switzerland
Weggis>Paris
Paris>London (via Eurostar)

What countries are you traveling to?

I always use the country's rail site, such as SBB for Switzerland, DBB for Germany, ÖBB for Austria, Renfe for Spain, Comboios de Portugal for Portugal....

We were cross posting.

I used the Trenitalia app for my travel in Italy and it worked great. I also used the Rail Europe app for my travel from Milan to Switzerland. They charge a small fee but it was worth it for the ease of use.

Lost my message, grrr.

Briefly, I used https://www.thetrainline.com/ for all train tickets in a four week trip to France. Worked well, I think I got on to that site from the wonderful Seat61 website.

With Eurostar, I always used to book directly on their website. You can save a lot by booking ahead (pre-covid you could anyway).

It's a bit of a mess, really.
Trainline, Omio (current trading name of GoEuro, which now owns Rome2Rio), Rail Europe, and Rail Ninja have widespread geographical coverage and sell you the tickets directly, also for international journeys across multiple carriers, but their connection options are far from comprehensive and they charge a bit extra over buying the tickets from the individual carriers (train companies). Also, if anything goes wrong (missed connection, ticket change needed) you're stuck dealing with them and not with the ticket offices on the ground.
Deutsche Bahn/DB (and ÖBB) have extensive train schedules across all of Europe, but they only sell tickets for trains they operate at least in part (see below), and their schedules don't include TGV InOui, Italo, Trenitalia's foreign branches (for the Paris-Milan Frecciarossa 1000 service, for instance) and possibly others.
Seat61 is great for travel between main cities, quite thorough and informative, but at the end of the day you need to go some place else (pointed out by it, but still) to check the current schedules and buy tickets. Also, it obviously doesn't cover all stations and all possible connections, far from it.
Google Maps can be surprisingly useful. It's not comprehensive (it definitely doesn't show all possible options) and doesn't sell tickets, but it covers a lot of companies (including some missing from the DB schedules, like Italo) and countries and actually suggests journeys that mix different companies, and directs you to the right companies' websites to buy tickets.
The websites of individual companies are your best option if they cover the connection you want; this includes many international connections, for the cross-borders trains they (co-)operate, but it's quite hard to know in advance which ones. I think DB and ÖBB generally sell tickets for each other's trains, ÖBB (and DB, too, I guess) sells all Nightjet tickets inluding for trains that don't touch Austria, Trenitalia sells EuroCity tickets to/from Italy, SBB sells EuroCity tickets to/from Switzerland, NS International sells a variety of tickets to/from the Netherlands (Thalys, ICEs, I think also Eurostar and maybe some TGVs and Nightjets?)...

Rome>Florence: search schedule and buy ticket at https://www.trenitalia.com/en . You must enter the station name in its Italian spelling, and choose the correct station if a city has more than one station.
- assume you will get on a high speed train at Rome's main train station, search FROM "Roma Termini", TO "Firenze S. M. Novella", which is Florence's Santa Maria Novella station.

Florence>Venice (again, search schedule and buy ticket at https://www.trenitalia.com/en)
- FROM "Firenze S. M. Novella" station
- TO "Venezia S. Lucia" if you want to go to the train station on the island,
- or TO "Venezia Mestre" if you want to go to the station on the mainland.

Venice>Milan ( https://www.trenitalia.com/en )
FROM: either "Venezia S. Lucia" or "Venezia Mestre", depending on if you are starting from the station on the island or on the mainland.
TO: "Milano Centrale".

There is another train company in Italy called Italo. But to make matters simple, let's just stick with the government's railway company, Trenitalia. At this point, you need something easy and straightforward.

For trains crossing country borders to and out of Weggis, I'd check schedule on www.bahn.com/en, but buy tickets at www.thetrainline.com

Do you mean the Weggis near Lucerne? If so, it's not on a main rail line. Any Swiss guidebook will tell you how to get there from Lucerne. A quick look suggests it involves a boat, a cable car and a cog railway, but it was only a quick look.

For Milan to Lucerne see: https://www.seat61.com/international...an-Switzerland

For Lucerne to Paris see: https://www.seat61.com/international...tzerland-Paris

From Paris to London see: https://www.seat61.com/international...m#Paris-London

SBB can show connections and sell tickets from Milan to Weggis, actually. (With the caveat that it can't group all Milan stations together like Trenitalia, but I'm moderately sure that all the direct trains to Switzerland leave from Centrale.) Apparently the quickest way is by train to Arth-Goldau, then train to Küssnacht and bus to Weggis. Taking the cog railway up Rigi from Arth-Goldau and down the other side to Weggis (with a cable car or bus for the last bit) takes 2 hours longer, although it seems a lot of fun. Going through Lucerne and taking the ferry takes an hour longer than going via Arth-Goldau.

Google Maps.
"Directions" pick origin, destination, "Transit" "Details".
"Tickets and Information" links will show at the bottom.

As others have said, the German bahn.de website is generally the most comprehensive for a schedule overview and international services, but the dedicated site for each country is usually best for buying tickets, as well as for most detailed listing of both schedules and fares, especially for regional trains.

But be aware that if you are looking at schedules months ahead of time it is possible that major international services will be loaded well in advance, but there may well be trains (mostly regional options) that are not yet listed in the system, but will be loaded closer to time. If you are searching for summer schedules in winter and the listing looks sketchy, you can get an impression of the sorts of services that may not yet be listed by pulling up schedules between your cities of interest within the next month (though sometimes there are quite a few more summer services, so a sample winter schedule might not reflect increased services that will be shown once the summer schedule is loaded).