🚆 Trains

When booking will not work

The most common frustration in our train talk is a journey that exists but cannot be booked. Usual reasons:

• Tickets are not on sale yet. Each operator opens sales a set time ahead, and the window differs between operators and countries.
• Engineering works. When works are planned (banarbete, Bauarbeiten), sales can be held back until the changed timetable is ready.
• Only the operator sells it. Some trains, often night trains and smaller operators, can only be booked on their own website.
• Cross-border trips. A journey through several countries may need separate tickets or reservations, and the same train can cost different amounts on different sites.
• A price, then an error. A site can show a fare and then fail at payment when the last seats or berths go, or another operator's booking system does not answer. Trying again later, or on the operator's own site, often works.

When a train is late

In the European Union, under the rail passengers' rights rules, you can usually claim 25% of the ticket price if you arrive 60 to 119 minutes late, and 50% from 120 minutes, unless the cause was outside the operator's control, such as extreme weather. If a delay of an hour or more is expected, you can also choose a refund or another route. Claims go to the operator; many have a form on their website, and some offer more than this. Read the details on the EU's own page. The UK has its own Delay Repay schemes, and other countries have their own rules.

Keep your ticket and note the train number and how late you arrived. The departure board above shows live delays where the operator shares them.

Travelling calmly

• Check the track on the departure board shortly before you leave: tracks can change on the day.
• Leave yourself room at changes. The journey check flags anything under 10 minutes.
• Look for quiet coaches or quiet areas when you book (tyst avdelning, Ruhebereich).
• Most operators offer free travel assistance if you book it in advance on their assistance page, and the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower lanyard is recognised at many stations.
• Noise-cancelling headphones, snacks and a charged phone go a long way. Not every train has power sockets.
• If plans change suddenly, it is fine to step aside, breathe, and check the board or ask staff.

Night trains

Night trains are the most-loved train topic in our community. Routes and operators change often, so for current services see the Back-on-Track network's night train pages and The Man in Seat 61, and swap the latest news in the Trains forum. The journey check above marks trips that include a night train or travel overnight.

Words on the platform

Swedish, German, Norwegian and Danish words you will meet on boards and in announcements. Spot a mistake? Tell us in the forum.

German extras: a Kurswagen is a through coach moved from one train to another so you can stay in your seat; Zugbindung means your ticket is only valid on the train you booked.

For the hobby

• OpenRailwayMap: every railway line, station and signal on one map, with track speeds and electrification.
• OpenTTD: the free, open-source transport tycoon game, endlessly tweakable.
• Games our regulars play: Mini Metro, Railroute, Factorio's rail networks and the train simulators.
• Museums, heritage lines and miniature railways: share the ones you love in the forum, with photos.

Talk trains

Train talk has its own room in the chat, #trains: Open #trains (type /join #trains if it does not open by itself). For trip reports, photos and longer discussions there is the Trains forum. And Wren, the chat's resident bot, loves a train question: ask her for departures or a journey check in any room.