Train Luggage Safety
 

Does anyone know from experience if one boards a train, are there luggage compartments that we can store our luggage? Or is there a luggage storage for a fee on the train? Or do we just hug our bags and hope for the best?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

I have no idea what country you are talking about but my recent experience in Italy was that in the first class section of the ES train each coach had a spot in the front for luggage. It could probably fit 10-12 large suitcases. There was also spots above the seats like what you find in an airplane (except no doors).

Carry-ons will fit in the racks above the seats. There are unattended luggage racks at the ends of the train cars.

Woody

We've used the trains in France. There is space for luggage at the end of the car, where you get of and off. Spacewise, it's somewhat limited, but there is no charge. You do have to keep your eye on your luggage, as the train personnel will remind you when you get on. There is overhead space for smaller bags. Hope this helps.

Yes there are luggage racks above each seat or row of seats and there are places for large items by each door. That said if you put things by the door be sure you can eyeball them when people get on and off. The overhead luggage racks can hold most luggage travelers are lugging around but you do have to be able to lift it above your head - though good Samaritans always offer to help. In first class especially there are often empty seats you can put your bags in near you.

You can bring anything you can manage onto trains with any fees for luggage, with exceptions at times for things like bicycles.

< In first class especially there are often empty seats you can put your bags in near you. >

That might be someone's seat later in the journey

good point - look at the reservation placards indicating whether or not a seat is reserved and from where. In my experience in 36 years of rail travel in Europe is that 90% of the time there are empty seats next to me it seems - but yes check whether the seat is reserved or not - including the one you're sitting in!

I always use my magellan lock with cable when traveling by train and leaving bags at the end storage. It is a cable with combination lock run through handle of all the bags and the rail of the rack.

StephenG,
Could you describe your magellan lock a bit more? I think I know what you are talking of - similar to a bike lock perhaps? Thanks so much.

All trains in all of Europe are not the same. I never heard of luggage storage for a fee, anywhere though.

Sometimes there are large open racks at the end of each car, to accommodate larger suitcases. There is a rack over the seats for smaller cases, and sometimes space at the back of or between seats.

dovima-

the cable lock is just a thin cable encased in plastic with a loop on each end. You can run the cable through your luggage handle and around the luggage rack, securing the loops together with a small lock. Mine is by Eagle Creek that I picked up at some luggage store.

If I can easily see my luggage at the end of the car from my seat, I don't bother with the cable and lock. The only times I've used it is when there was a door separating the luggage from the seating area.

When we went Munich to Nuremberg, the overhead racks were very small - large enough for your average laptop case and not much more. There were quite a few people with luggage in our car and they just kept it with them. We stashed some of ours under our seat and then on the seat in front of us - we found 2 rows of seats facing each other. The car got crowded after a few stops, so other people put their luggage with ours on that seat to save space.

Thanks, guys!
I'm off to my local luggage purveyor to purchase one of those...

As Suze says all trains in Europe are not the same. This sounds more like a regional train where luggage racks can be skimpy - on most long distance trains there is ample room in the overhead luggage racks.

Sofi - Good decision to buy the cable lock. We've used ours' one the train for years. We were warned before our first train trip, that since the luggage racks are near the doors, thieves sometimes hop on, grab a suitcase, and hop right off.

We also use our cable lock when we are on the road in a rental car. The rental cars rarely if ever have locked trunks or if they do, you can get into them through the back seat.

We try not to leave our unattended luggage in the car while sight seeing, eating etc.. If for some reason it is left in the car, we use the cable lock and wrap it through the suitcases and around a hinge or other part of the part of the car.

Between trips while it is in a drawer at home, we slip a piece of paper with the combination through it. We didn't get to use our own numbers, it came with a preset combination and no way am I going to remember it from trip to trip.

Enjoy your trip.

Nina

Sorry Dovima not Sofi is off to the luggage store. If you are like me, you can spend a lot of time and $$$ in one of those place :-))

Nina

Most people do not chain up their suitcases on a train. I'm not saying for someone not to, if they feel the need. But it is not standard practice, in my experience.

Ditto Suze.

In over thirty years of travelling by train all over Europe, I cannot remember ever seeing anyone chaining their luggage to the train. If I saw anyone do it, I'd assume they were madly paranoid, or that the case was full of gold bullion.

Putting luggage on seats is the behaviour of a lout - pretty much the same as putting your feet on those seats. There are of course people who do that sort of thing. If you're one of them, please stay away.

"Safety" of train luggage is a ridiculous preoccupation. In 50 years of taking luggage onto trains, I've never come across a single example of anyone running off with 40lbs of what will almost certainly turn out to be someone else's dirty underwear.

A nanosecond's thinking about it would show that you'd really have to be very, very stupid to take up such an unreliable way of making money when there are millions of easier ways of earning a dishonest crust.

Criminals that stupid would be behind bars immediately. And certainly coudn't afford a brief able to get them out.

Put your valuables in one place, keep them with you and guard them with your life. Leave the bulky stuff on the luggage racks - several carriages away from you if necessary - just like we do.