OK..picky but a pass only works for the parts of the RER which are run by SNCF. If that is all the parts then OK, but otherwise no.

Well, I must admit we see quite a few posts that start with "I'm thinking of taking the Eurail train from . . ." so obviously many posters are not very familiar with what Eurail really is.

<OK..picky but a pass only works for the parts of the RER which are run by SNCF. If that is all the parts then OK, but otherwise no.>

RER E is i believe run in conjunction with the SNCF as is RER D but Eurailpasses are not valid on them. Why on part of B and all of C but not on D and E? PickyPal.

Back to OP

Yes with any railpass valid in Spain you can use the high-speed AVE trains or other high-speed Spanish trains except you must make a reservation before boarding - easy enough to do.

In first class you also pay a supplement i believe as in first class on AVE trains i believe you get a meal at your seat.

They charge you for a ride. Then they charge you for a ride up front. Then they charge you for a seat. Then they charge you for a meal at your seat.

But what about the toilets?

Since AVEs go so fast there are no toilets needed.

Thank you all for your help. When I said Eurail pass I meant the pass that is for exclusive use in Spain.

cuenca: and the envelope please - your decision is?

Rick Steves gives all the information you need to decide if a rail pass is a good deal for you in Spain (or elsewhere in Europe). www.ricksteves.com

as does as Robespierre talks about www.railsaver.com

A direct link to the calculator is railsaver.com/railsaver.asp

But beware - if Railsaver says individual tickets are cheaper, it has to be true. But if is says passes are cheaper, it may be wrong because they didn't account for special discounts like Smilys (Belgium) or PREMs (France) or those DB seasonal fares (Germany).

Actually, I found that Railsaver can't even be relied upon when it says the tickets are cheaper. I had an itinerary that included Puttgarden to Copenhagen. Railsaver said the tickets cost $X, and provided a link. The tickets were approximately twice as much there (plus fees).

On www.bahn.de, the tickets were also considerably more expensive than Railsaver's first guess.

And i doubt if railsaver.com figures in supplements like those in Italy and Spain that railpass holders may have to pay above the railpass coverage to take trains like Eurostar Italia trains and AVE, EuroMed, Arco and several other high-speed trains.

Especially on Venice-Rome routing where you could take IC trains with no surcharge or ES trains with a 15 euro surcharge - can't see how they can take that into consideration.

I see a recent deterioration in the accuracy of railsaver.com's pricing - but remember that it can only be as accurate as the data feeds they get from the railroads, some of which are more rigorous than others.

cuenca23,

I think that this discussion is a bit confusing, even for me and I've been on a lot of trains in Spain and throughout Europe.

Take PalenQ's advice and check out Budget Europe Travel Service for professional advice. http://www.budgeteuropetravel.com/

Ah yes - not long ago there was the Eurailpass and was easy to figure out

now there are about 100 Eurailpasses - some good for one country, some for two, some for 3 to 5, etc. and it's hard to figure out.

I guess the difficulty factor depends on the wit of the individual traveler. Personally, I've never had a bit of trouble.