Trains

The honest comparison between a train and a plane is not 2 hours versus 1 hour 15. It is door to door: getting to the airport, security, the gate closing 20 to 40 minutes early, the taxi in from the far side. Add that up and high-speed rail tends to win up to roughly four hours of rail journey time, which covers most city pairs in western Europe, Japan and the Chinese eastern corridor.

Rail is also the mode where the rules vary most from country to country. Three things decide whether your plan survives contact with the booking system: when tickets go on sale, whether a reservation is compulsory, and whether the cheap fare ties you to one named train. Get those three right and the rest is detail.

Booking windows differ by operator, and the shortest one governs

There is no common European on-sale date. Deutsche Bahn sells its own long-distance tickets up to 12 months ahead; SNCF Connect says that normally you can buy about 4 months ahead; ÖBB Nightjet opens around 180 days out, with some direct Nightjet services extending to about 360; Taiwan High Speed Rail opens 29 days out; Amtrak takes bookings 11 months ahead and VIA Rail 10.

On a cross-border journey the constraint is whichever operator actually issues the ticket. DB puts that at usually three to six months, and cites about four months for SNCF — so a Berlin to Paris trip is capped at roughly four months out however early DB’s own sales open. If you are planning nine months ahead, fix the route now and diarise the on-sale date rather than concluding the train does not run.

Reservations: optional, compulsory, or built into the ticket

This catches more people than pricing does. On long-distance trains in France (TGV, Intercités), Italy (the Frecce, Intercity and Italo) and Spain (AVE, Avlo, Alvia, Iryo, Ouigo) the reservation is the ticket, so a sold-out train is genuinely closed to you. On conventional domestic and EC/IC services in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Benelux countries it is optional and turn-up-and-go works.

The exceptions inside that relaxed group are the ones worth remembering: Eurostar, night trains such as Nightjet, and the Swiss panoramic routes all run reservation-only. Regional services everywhere — TER, Regionale, most Media Distancia — are unreserved.

Rail-pass holders should read that list twice. Where a reservation is compulsory it is an extra fee on top of the pass and the quota per train is limited, which is why a pass holder is sometimes refused a train that is still selling ordinary tickets.

The cheap fare is tied to one train. The flexible one is not

That is the whole trade, and it is the same trade under every brand name. DB’s Sparpreis and Super Sparpreis, ÖBB’s Sparschiene and SBB’s Supersaver are all sold subject to availability and valid only on the connection named on the ticket. DB’s Flexpreis has no Zugbindung at all: travel any time that day on the booked route. Flexible no longer means a fixed price list, though — DB now states plainly that Flexpreis prices vary by route and by booking date, so booking early helps at every tier.

Italy makes the deadline explicit rather than leaving it to demand. Trenitalia sells Super Economy up to midnight on the sixth day before departure and Economy up to midnight on the second day before; Base has no cutoff and stays buyable until departure. So the discounts disappear on a schedule: inside six days Super Economy is gone, inside two only Base is left. Base is also the most flexible tier, with unlimited changes before departure.

Spain runs on airline-style revenue management, which Renfe says so itself — occupancy, the demand curve and how far ahead you buy. And Renfe is not the only seller on its own corridors: Iryo and Ouigo run the same routes, each site shows only its own trains, and Spain’s regulator put the two challengers at roughly a third of traffic on the competitive corridors in 2026. Check all three, or use a retailer that shows all four brands at once.

Britain has its own rulebook

An Advance ticket is the cheap one and it is strict: valid only on the trains shown, non-refundable, and if you miss the first booked train for any reason you buy a new ticket. Changes must be made before that train departs and cost a £10 administration fee per person per ticket plus any fare difference. The one exception is a cancellation or delay that makes you decide not to travel — then the refund is full, with no admin fee. Advance is not only for booking months out, either: on many routes it stays on sale until roughly ten minutes before the train leaves.

How far ahead you can book varies by operator, because timetables are normally confirmed about 12 weeks in advance and Advance fares load after that. In September 2026 most operators sold about 12 weeks out, Great Western reached nearly six months on weekdays, and Caledonian Sleeper and Heathrow Express sold a full 12 months ahead. Weekend dates hit by engineering work are the ones most likely to stay unbookable.

Two things are worth knowing because they save real money. Split ticketing is explicitly permitted — Condition 14.2 of the National Rail Conditions of Travel allows a combination of tickets provided the train calls at the station where one ends and the next begins, and you do not have to get off. And a railcard takes a third off most fares, subject to a £12 minimum fare on weekday mornings for the 16-25 and 26-30 cards. Off-Peak generally starts at 09:30 on weekdays in big cities and 09:00 elsewhere, but the binding rule is the restriction code printed on the individual fare, not the general guidance.

North America and Japan work differently again

Amtrak sells three coach and Acela tiers with sharply different penalties: Flex is fully refundable and changeable at no fee, Value cannot be changed and forfeits 30% if cancelled before departure, Sale forfeits 50%. Sleeping cars follow their own ladder. Almost every Amtrak train is reserved and ties you to one departure; the Pacific Surfliner and Capitol Corridor are the unreserved exceptions, where the ticket is valid between the listed stations for up to a year but a seat is not guaranteed.

Punctuality is the thing to plan around. Amtrak runs most of its long-distance network on track owned by freight railroads, and in calendar year 2024 all 14 long-distance routes missed the federal 80% on-time standard — the best was 79%, the worst 33%. VIA Rail reported 30% on-time in the first quarter of 2025, down from 72% a year earlier. Do not put a same-day flight connection on the end of a long-distance North American train.

In Japan the trap is the pass rather than the timetable. The Japan Rail Pass does not cover NOZOMI or MIZUHO services; a pass holder must buy a supplementary ticket for each such journey, and it is sold only inside Japan, not online from abroad. Seat reservations themselves are free to pass holders, but the pass does not guarantee a seat and some trains have no unreserved cars. Baggage over 160 cm combined needs a reserved oversized-baggage seat, and over 250 cm cannot be carried at all.

Where to buy

The national operator’s own site is usually cheapest and is always the most authoritative during disruption, because it is the party that owes you the refund. Buying direct also puts you straight into that operator’s own delay-repay process.

Cross-border and multi-operator journeys are where the retailers earn their small booking fee: they will sell you one itinerary across companies whose systems do not otherwise talk to each other. Deutsche Bahn is unusual in doing both — it resells Trenitalia, SBB, SNCF, ÖBB, Eurostar and SJ tickets in English.

Where to book trains

Common questions

How early do I need to arrive for a train?

For ordinary domestic services, ten minutes is plenty — there is no check-in. The exceptions are international services with border control: Eurostar asks Standard and Plus passengers to arrive about 75 minutes before departure at London St Pancras and 75 to 90 minutes at Paris Gare du Nord, and the gate closes 30 minutes before departure.

How far ahead can I book a European train?

It depends entirely on the operator, and on a cross-border journey the shortest window wins. Deutsche Bahn sells its own long-distance tickets 12 months out, SNCF normally about 4 months, ÖBB Nightjet around 180 days. Deutsche Bahn describes international bookings as usually opening three to six months ahead.

Do I have to reserve a seat?

On French, Italian and Spanish long-distance trains, on Eurostar, on night trains and on the Swiss panoramic routes, yes — the reservation is part of the ticket. On conventional German, Austrian, Swiss and Benelux services it is optional, and on regional trains everywhere there is nothing to reserve.

Are rail passes worth it?

Only if you are making long journeys on most days, on networks where reservations are cheap or optional. On French, Italian and Spanish high-speed routes the compulsory reservation fees erode the benefit quickly, and the per-train quota for pass holders can leave you off a train that is still selling tickets. Price your real itinerary as point-to-point advance fares first, then compare.

Is split ticketing allowed in Britain?

Yes. Condition 14.2 of the National Rail Conditions of Travel permits a combination of two or more tickets provided the trains you use call at the station where one ticket ends and the next begins, and it confirms you do not have to get off and re-board. Each ticket keeps its own time and route restrictions, so carry them all and expect to change seats where reservations were issued separately.

How much luggage can I take on a train?

On British domestic trains nothing is checked in, weighed or ticketed. National Rail says you can generally bring up to three pieces at no extra cost, but you must be able to carry it unaided, and an item over a metre in any dimension that you cannot manage is not allowed on board. Japan is the strict exception: on the Tokaido, Sanyo, Kyushu and Nishi-Kyushu Shinkansen, baggage over 160 cm combined needs a reserved oversized-baggage seat.