How to check trenitalia reservation fee ?

Question

Hi,

I had been plan to travel around Europe for a month, one of my destination is Italy. Meanwhile i plan to buy a 1 month Euro Global Pass.

But now I'm facing a problem which is I unable to calculate how much reservation fee i need to paid.

Because i read from a few forum said that Italy trains reservation fee will be around 3 -5 Euro but when I try to get the fee through http://www.raileurope.com it will charge me more than that.

For example:

Milan to Venice = 11 USD / 7 Euro

Venice to Florence = 24 USD / 15 Euro

Florence to Rome = 24 USD / 15 Euro

Other than that, http://trenitalia.com/en/index.html also do not provide me any reservation fee information.

Anyone from Italy can help me on this?

I also facing same situation my other destination as below:

http://www.bahn.de/international/view/en/index.shtml also unable to provide me the reservation fee.

Amsterdam - Prague

Prague - Budapest

Budapest - Vienna

Vienna - Salzburg

Salzburg - Zurich

Answer 1

Have you seen this webpage from Rail Europe?  

http://www.raileurope.com/us/faq/passes_...

It states that you can avoid reservations; however, all of the high speed and overnight trains require them. Here is the example that they give: Lyon to Marseille is generally about 1 hour 45 minutes on the TGV. A local train for this same route would be about 3 and half hours. A TGV reservation is about $11 USD per person.  

I think that the 3 Euro cost you have heard about is only for the Intercity trains.  These trains allow seat reservations, but they are not required.

So...it really seems like the reservations with the Euro Global pass might be quite high depending on how and where you want to travel.  We lived in Italy for 5 years and took many trains.....I can tell you that the high speed trains are probably going to be worth every penny of the reservation fee to you.  The high speed trains are not only a lot faster but they are more comfortable as well.

I wrote out some information on the Italian trains (including info on the types of trains as well as the reservations required for the Italian trains) on this website.....check out the Italy info here http://www.travelersguidebook.com/Italy%...  

I hope that this helps you some and that you enjoy your European vacation!

Answer 2

The reservation is always 3 euros. It doesn't change on different trains and it does not depend on the lengh of the journey nor the cost of the ticket. One more think, I don't think you have to worry about reserving in advance. You can do it when in Italy direcly at the railway station.

have a nice holiday!

PS About TGV: if you are buying an Interrail pass you won't be able to get on board of them. This is why I told you your reservation will be always 3 euros