Train Reservations - Your Experience?
 

Anyone who has recently taken trains in Europe i'd like to ask you to report on whether you made reservations or just got on the train - what did you find - usually empty seats or were you standing? Was it in first or second class?
did you try to reserve a certain train but it wasn't available (including night trains)
how full were the trains - how many empty seats? Of course where was the train going.
More and more European trains are requiring reservations before boarding, even if half empty - this under the fairly recent development of 'yield management' practices - whereas not long ago European trains often had many empty seats, especially in first class, now they don't as capacity is better predicted by computerized sales - especially enticing advance purchase discounts so that walk ups may be in the minority.
Anyway please relay your experiences with reservations, empty seats, etc. Thanks!

So you're really asking for every experience on every train in every city all over Europe? The bottom line is sometimes there's empty seats and sometimes there isn't regardless of class, train, city or country. If you are now being asked to reserve a seat then reserve you must.

For short hauls, ie ~2-3hrs I've just gotten sought out a free seat w/o problem. The routes I have travelled are served by trains every 1-2 hrs, so 100% full trains have never been an issue.

For longer haul or when travelling w/ family I'll prebook 1-2 day in advance just for peace of mind.

Haven't taken a night train lately, so can't comment.

Like anyone else here, I can't speak for all of Europe -- but my husband and I reserved an overnight berth for a night train from Paris to Venice -- my understanding is overnight trains require reservations.

Other than that, we took trains and buses from Venice to Florence, Rome, and later from Kusadasi to Izmir and on to Istanbul, never once having to stand or face any sort of crowding problems.

I think it also depends on what days/times you're riding.

Happy travels,

Jules

I took four trains in France in August:

Regular train 2nd class from Paris to Périgueux
Regular train 2nd class from Agen to Arles
TGV 2nd class from Avignon to Lyon
TGV 1st class from Lyon to CDG

We had reservations, or actual tickets, on all trains before leaving home.

Every single seat was taken on the Paris-Périgueux train except for three in the smoking car, which we felt grateful to nab.

The train from Agen to Arles was similarly packed to the gills.

There were a few seats available on the TGV from Avignon to Lyon.

There were no empty seats in 1st class on the TGV from Lyon to CDG.

St Cirq: thanks for this info - do you know if there were empty seats in first class on the Paris-Perigueux and Agen-Arles trains? Or are you referring to the whole train? I've rarely seen a non-TGV first-class French train without empty seats and i've ridden a lot of them but i think this may be changing so i value your input greatly. I think the PREM fares in first class may be filling up the previously empty seats - good marketing i guess.

Bob:

Yes, there were some empty seats in 1st class on the train from Paris to Périgueux. But when the train got to Limoges and about half the cars were detached, there was only one 1st class car continuing, and it was full. I know because it was right next to the snack car, which I visited.

Likewise, there were a few empty seats in 1st class on the train from Agen to Arles when we got on at Agen (it originated in Bordeaux), but they filled up before we got to Arles.That train was so full there were people standing in every doorway between trains.

We took the TGV from CDG to Avignon on August 12. We had reservations (made on the SNCF site) but almost missed the train because we had to stand on line at CDG to get the actual tickets. Even though we arrived an hour early, the line was so long we would have missed the train except that about ten minutes before the train was to leave, when it was clear we were not going to get through the line on time, I asked an agent what to do and she just shrugged her shoulders. When I persisted, she said I should ask the person at the head of the line if I could go ahead of him. My French was really not up to this and I felt very uncomfortable about doing it but I had heard the agents telling the people ahead of us that all the trains to Avignon that day from CDG were complet and they were sending people to the Gare de Lyon for trains much later in the day. It seemed ridiculous for us to miss our train, for which we not only had reservations but had even paid for our seats, and have the train go with our seats empty and have us be enormously inconvenienced by having to go with our luggage to Gare de Lyon and wait around for hours for the next available train. So we cut in line, something I've never done before and which I hated doing, but no one on the line said anything maybe because it took literally 30 seconds for the agent to print out our tickets. The lesson I learned from this was that even with reservations you can't be guranteed you can get on the train unless you have the tickets themselves in your hands.

We took a RT from Rome To Naples. We had 2nd class tickets. Going down we found a seat quickly, but the car filled up immediately. I'm not sure if the whole train was full.

Coming back we had a 1st class ticket, but we were issued the wrong time and that train was leaving immediately, so we walked (ran) along the train looking for the 1st class carriages, until the conductor (?) outside motioned us to get on the train. We entered a 2nd class carriage right before the train left. There were no seats in that carriage so we went to the next carriage and were lucky enough to find 2 seats. The train was full with people standing in the corridors. However, that was the day that the "bombe" was found outside Rome (and Pompeii also) and the train had to be re-routed so this was not a normal day.

We were very surprised at how full the train was but did decide to reserve seats from now on unless it's a very short trip.