Rail Fares in Europe
 

Are there any web sites to find the prices of train trips through Europe (Italy, Austria and Germany)? I do want a Eurail pass or similar just want to pay for each leg. Thanks

Correction ... I do not want a Eurail Pass or similar just want to pay for each leg.

The website www.railsaver.com will provide ths information, though a recent post by Ben Haines seemed to indicate that it may indicate fares lower than really exist.

Best wishes,

Rex

I am sorry when I leave a question hanging, so please would you give me any five second class one way fares from Railsaver and I shall give those from the January issue of the Thomas Cook European Timetable, which I have found reliable. Then we shall know whether you can rely on Railsaver.

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Most national railway web sites give fares for domestic journeys. For Italy, Austria and Germany, these are www.trenitalia.com, www.oebb.at and www.bahn.de. Fares in most European countries are calculated from the distance in kilometres. For international journeys, you can get an estimate by finding the stations nearest the borders, then adding together the nearest appropriate domestic fares (this does not work for Eurostar trains to and from the UK).

Rail fare markups as you get closer to the date of travel are worse than the airlines', so buy your tickets as soon as you know where you're going. I was quoted a total price of GBP 133 for a trip that ended up costing over GPB 400 about 30 days later (but still 30 days out from date of travel).

Follow-up to Ben Haines:

On this thread - - http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34538072 - - I quoted the 2nd cl fare for Prague to Vienna as $36 USD from www.railsaver.com and you quoted a January issue of the Thomas Cook guide (I think) as 40 euros.

I don't know what it would be at the counter this very minute.

And I don't think the experiement is necessary. If one site or another is out of date today, it might be right tomorrow. Moreover, fares do change, sometimes.

KSWL,

Which rail fares increase as the travel date nears? We have taken trains in Italy, Switzerland, and France without seeing such an increase.

<<Which rail fares increase as the travel date nears?>>

The generic answer is that fares "increase" on trains that are well-known (and expensive) enough that they offer advance purchase discounted fares (i.e., those disappear, thus the price of seats available rises) - - like the (channel tunnel) Eurostar, and maybe the Thalys? some of the major RENFE trains?

So for less popular routes like through northern Italy and up into Austria, it should be ok to buy them there without a significant increase?

Hi Clevelandbrown--The Eurostar increases steeply as the date of travel approaches, as does the Artesia from Paris to Rome.

Hi abby,

Yes. You can safely buy your tickets within Italy and from Italy to Austria after you get there.

I'm assuming that you will be purchasing a week or so in advance.

You can also buy tickets within Italy at www.trenitalia.com/en.

Darn, one more complication to deal with. I went to the Eurostar website and I could find no information there, in part because it was glacially slow; I knew the English had built the world's first digital computer during WWII, but I didn't realize they were still using it!

Rail Europe did have information confirming that discounts are available for certain trains, so I guess I'll have to check there for each prospective trip. I hate to lose the flexibility in touring to these non-refundable tickets, but the miser in me says to get all the discounts I can.