This question is for the future. We just returned from Prague where we took the train to Budapest and back. It wasn't until we were on the train that I realized there was a 1st class and a 2nd class ticket. We had a 2nd class ticket. On the way to Budapest we were in a compartment with 6 seats and people came and left at different stations.
On the way back to Prague, we were in a car with rows of seats on each side,like we have in Canada. We occupied two seats yet nobody came and sat in the other two seats adjoining, even though other seats saw lots of passenger changes.
The ticket agent in Prague must have been a holdover from the Communist era. He huffed and puffed over every little action and acted like we were personally responsible for making his life miserable merely by existing.
Needless to say, he didn't discuss the various options.
Should we ask for 1st class in the future? We just wanted a comfortable, reasonably private trip.

Well, in any country, if you want to travel 1st class, you are supposed to buy a 1st class ticket !

First class compartments (the ones with ther sliding doors and the six seats) are usually a little nicer with sometimes extra padding on the seats, etc., than their 2nd class counterparts. Sometimes they seem exactly the same.

2nd is often more crowded than 1st because being cheaper it often fills up faster.

There can be center aisle coaches (the kind you are more used to) in both classes. I've seen them on more and more trains in more and more countries throughout Western Europe over the past few years. Some railroads use coaches which have a combination of both configurations in the same car.

So, none of those configurations is a marker of either 1st or 2nd...the number "1" or "2" on the outside of the car, however, definitely is. That's what one looks for as a rule.

As to 1st vs. 2nd and privacy/space, etc. Sometimes the 2nd class open aisle cars have two plus two seating whereas in 1st there might be one plus two; but I've traveled in 1st in the Czech Republic and been in 1st in a two plus two configuration so there are no guarantees.

Even though you may have had a reserved specific seat you can easily move around to other unoccupied seats as long as you stay within your purchased class.

As to the ticket agent in Prague...my worst experience was at Holesovice with a sullen agent but I've certainly dealt with non-comittal not-particularly-cheerful ones all over the place.

We took the train from Prague to Budapest (4:20PM).

The girl at the travel agency convinced us that there's no reason to spend more on 1st class.

It was one of those big cars with no separate compartments. Unfortunately, the smoking and non-smoking sections are separated by a piece of plastic that doesn't cover the walkway.

And of course, we were in the first row of non-smoking with 5 rowdy girls smoking like chimneys right in front of us. Luckily the car was 90% empty so we moved to the back (a got some dirty looks from the girls).

From that point onward the trip was most pleasant and went rather quickly.

My advice would be that while 2nd class was fine, you take more risks than in 1st class.

apply the same criteria to rail travel as you would to a hotel selection - do you take the cheapest hotels - after all they all have a bed, etc. well most Fodorites do not - same with rail travel, first class is usually well worth the higher costs, especially in this area of Europe.

I say, don't feel bad for not small mistakes like this. I sat in 1st class by mistake in Germany a few yrs back. I was busy looking for a non-smoking section and didn't realize the '1' and '2' marks on the train refer to the classes. So my friend and I sat in '1' for over 1 hr. When we got kicked out and sat in '2' for the last 20 min of the ride, I then realized how much cleaning and nicer the '1' car was.

BTW, I noticed the same attitude when I was in Prague. People there don't seem to hide their annoyance like we do.

I don't think we've ever had first class tickets on a train in Italy, France, Spain or Prague to Vienna--Vienna to Budapest. However, we do like reserved seats. We've found people in those seats occasionally and it's nice to have proof that they're in OUR seats.

For the first time, rather than buying tickets at the train station and struggling with sometimes less than pleasant agents, I researched the trains we would take on bahn.de, printed out our choices and went to a travel agency in Prague, where we bought all our tickets. What an easy way to accomplish what had sometimes been a nightmare. For instance, one charming agent at Termini in Rome seated us in different cars, which fortunately we noted before we left. We got it changed but had to pay extra for it.

On Italian Eurostar trains I don't really see much difference from 1st and 2nd class cars--1st is carpeted and the seats perhaps a little larger--not worth more money to us.

We had a compartment on our train from Prague to Vienna and loved it. We had it to ourselves for most of the trip. The train from Vienna to Budapest was the more often seen type 2 and 2 with an aisle in the middle.

We had a similar situation to the one Myer described on a train from Venice to Milan, with the plastic door separating smoking and non, but fortunately no smokers were on board. That wasn't a Eurostar train, but we weren't uncomfortable.

I know some swear by the value of 1st class seats, but so far I don't see enough difference to warrant the extra money.

Thanks all for your replies. It seems that what differentiates 1st from 2nd is quite variable...a bit of a crapshoot depending on country and rail line.

It's my opinion that folks who thing there is little difference between classes have never ridden in 1st class before - i've ridden literally 1000s of trains in Europe annually since 1969 and i can say there is a BIG difference between classes - 2nd class is usually not bad but first class is MUCH better. But sometimes there is a world of difference - first class is well worth the price difference IMO.