Rail Schedules
 

In looking at Raileuropes Spain schedule, and Renfe's they appear to have totally different schedules on the Barcelona to Valencia and return. Am I overlooking something? Also Raileuropes fares are all higher,is this the case normally?
Thanks.

Raileurope only has the most popular schedules, and it is sometimes out of date. It is always best to check with the schedule from the country's rail, or, alternatively, the German railroad website for information on-line. The best timetable, published monthly is the Thomas Cook European Timetable, but it is not available on-line. It does not carry all of the local train times, but it is fairly comprehensive.

And yes, Raileurope adds a premium for its tickets.

The service from Barcelona Sants to Valencia looks to be about hourly. Try checking it on the GermanRail site:
http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

One thing savvy travelers learn in a hurry is NOT to do business with Rail Europe. You pay up to 80% more in some cases for tickets. (I kid you not.)

You might like to know about this site, too:http://mercurio.iet.unipi.it/misc/timetabl.html

It will present you with an icon for each of the many national rail systems in Europe. Each icon is a link to the specific national rail site. I have never used the Spanish site, but if you read a little Spanish, I think it would be very helpful.

I use the German site a lot because it has an overlay of English captions which is very helpful.
It is fairly comprehensive for continental western Europe.

Here is another vote not to buy your tickets from RailEurope. Their fares are extremely marked up.

I found out last year when I checked comparable fares with SwissRail which charged about 60% less and has outstanding customer service as well.

Hi francophile,

I tried booking tickets through Swiss Rail and they told me that they did not do bookings that did not originate in Swissland.

Was I misinformed?

The French site, www.sncf.com, will sometimes give international ticket costs.
For example, the trip from Paris to Zürich is 87.60 € via the TGV and 70.30 via Basel on a non TGV route. The non TGV trip takes about 40 minutes longer, including a 37 minute layover in Basel.

Hi Ira,

I booked my tickets last year for travel in October '02. I had no problem at all. In fact, I paid a nominal fee to have the tickets mailed to me here in San Francisco and they arrived safely.

Just to verify, the website that you have for Swiss Rail is www.sbb.ch?

In case you need the email for customer service it is [email protected]

I will ask them as well because this is new to me.

Ira, are you planning on going to Paris again? If you are, have you decided to stay at Hotel Bonaparte again-I know you mentioned that the rates had gone up since the last time you visited.

Ira, I forgot to mention that the journeys we booked through Swiss Rais was from Paris to Strasbourg, Strasbourg to Bern, and then Bern to Paris. So I don't know why they told you they don't do bookings not originating in Swtizerland.

I am not sure what to say about the ticket purchasing difference being discussed above. Just this week I ordered from the SBB two Swiss Cards and train tickets from Munich to Zürich. I paid by sending my credit card number over the SBB secure site.

I just received confirmation that my tickets and the Swiss Cards have been sent and that they should arrive well before I leave.

The German Rail (DB) site seems to be the easiest and best site for trains all over Europe. I recently wanted a schedule for a client between Irun, Spain and Oviedo, Spain and went to the RENFE (Spanish Railways) web site (www.renfe.es) and they only said there were not direct trains between the two towns. The DB site, though gave the breakdown of several connections requiring a change or two. I've found the DB site to nearly always give schedules everywhere in Europe, even for the commuter rail lines in London. In Germany they'll even tell you when to take a bus or tram nearest you're local to get to the station in time for your train. www.bahn.de then highlight Internation Guests bar at top right, next page up highlight Travel Service bar on left then you get English timetable, put in date and destinations and all connections will come up, with explanations in English of required reservations, onboard amenities and such sundrieds as whether bicycles are accommodated on board that train. Pricing is given only for Germany, not international schedules.

I would like to thank one and all who provided me with such good information.
I am fairly new to this site, and already know the best information is given out.
Thanks again.

Ira, this message is for you if you still need to know about Swiss Rail.

I received an email today from Swiss Rail and they will handle any travel that includes Switzerland in the itinerary.

Is there a map of Spain that shows the train routes?

Also, in November can I wait until I arrive in Madrid to purchase AVE tickets, and would there be any places to purchase tickets other than the train station?

Thanks so much for any help.

TamT_
Don't know if this is what you're looking for, but there is a really simple map on the ricksteves site:

http://www.ricksteves.com/rail/spainport.htm

A more detailed map, but on a site that I don't think is kept-up anymore:

http://www.footloosetravel.com/rail_map/SPmap.htm

I would think that in November you could easily wait until you arrive in Spain to purchase your tickets. And I also suspect that you might be able to buy them through a local travel agent there instead of having to venture to the train station to do so...but perhaps others can give you more specific information about this.

TamT, www.renfe.es has all the information you need on Spanish trains. Click on "English" if you prefer and go to the "Journeys" section, which will give you information on all the the commuter, regional, long distance and AVE lines.

AVE and long-distance tickets (at least) are available via their sales website "Tiknet." Note that, if you are not Spanish, you can use your passport number instead of your DNI (national ID number) when registering for the site. In addition, you can buy tickets at the RENFE office at the Madrid (and other?) airports (in Madrid, hang a right after emerging from the customs area, it's next to the drugstore). I think you can also buy them from travel agents, but have never done this.

Tamt:
There's a Renfe Office in Barajas airport. As you come out of Customs, turn right - it's about 50m on the same level, just past an escalator. There you can buy your AVE tix/reservations.

For the English language version of the Renfe site just click on the British flag.