Booking European train journeys via trainline - booking fees cologne to basel to Milan

[Cleanmean]

Morning, I'm planning on booking our family train travel through Europe for summer. The route is cologne - basel- chur - Tirano- Milan - Venice.

The man at seat 61 has the best info that I've used to plan the route but I'm wondering which app to book tickets on. If I use trainline will I need to pay a separate booking fee for each step of the journey that I book? Can I hold the tickets of all the family on just my phone or share them digitally with each family member so they hold their own ticket?

I know the bit from tirano onwards is straightforward and I'll buy our tickets from the station in Tirano as they don't really change price if you buy in advance and the trains are frequent.

If I book with the German app bahn de for cologne - chur - tirano is this easier and cheaper Than trainline? I've checked and I don't think we qualify for any discounts.

I suppose I'm basically trying to find the cheapest and most convenient way to book from cologne to Milan. Trainline is certainly most convenient because I already have an account but I've read bahn de can be cheaper and allow you to choose seats? It's a big birthday present so I want it to be a stress free and disjointed as possible. Thank you!

Presume you've done a dummy search on your Trainline account? I just did and you can book straight through with seats reserved on each step for €4.50. The booking fee is just the usual couple of quid.

is it a through journey or do you plan stops to visit cities?

if it's a through journey you can look at the individual countries train network sites for prices for the whole journey. depending on school holidays etc there might be special offers.

trainline is very good though.

don't know about passing on digital tickets from the app/wallet, however when I last booked something for my teens I forwarded them the pdf tickets and they were able to use those.

travel light. take a bike look for you big luggage items. and a powerbank - not all trains have charging points.

good luck!

When DD's Interrail ticket turned up with the wrong dates I had to rebook all of her journeys through the Trainline, and it was brilliant, and so easy.

I've always booked the German legs of my trip through the Bahn.de app - as you say, to be able to choose seats rather than have them assigned. There are some good discount cards for German travel, I assume you've seen the info on Seat 61.

I book Italian seats through the Trenitalia app for the same reason, but haven't done a through journey. You'll need to consider the international conditions of carriage (CIV) for missed connections if that is all one journey.

Always book with the train operating company. That way you don’t pay a booking fee and if anything goes wrong, the actual company has to deal with it.

I’ve always found the Deutschebahn site easy to use. Look for “Sparpreise” for discounts and special deals. There have been some good ticket deals recently to get people travelling again and to try to limit car use.

I book on my phone (set up an account first) and you can email the tickets to your travelling companions.

I did do a dummy run on trainline but it wouldn't let me book as one journey, I'll retry. We want to book tirano onwards once we are there and not in advance as recommended by seat 61.

I'll also download the bahn de app today and do the same. I don't mind paying booking fees but do want all the tickets in one place. Thanks for the tip about looking for special offers!

It looks as if bahn.de should let you book that as a through trip, I just did a search on Cologne to Tirano. A long day of travel!

Just did dummy runs on the trainline and bahn de app and neither is letting me see the journey, both saying its unavailable. Very odd. Bahn de won't even let me see prices for basel to chur only. We travel in Aug so maybe its too early.

I wanted to compare to see what the prices are, if they're similar I'll just use trainline as I've already got my payment details set up with them.

@NowZeusHasLainWithLeda can I ask what details you put in the app to get info and costs up? Thank you

I was just thinking maybe it's too early. I only put in this week's dates but it gave me a through journey and the €4,50 reserved a seat and showed you choices like quiet carriage etc, on all 2, or in some cases, 3 trains.

Germany through Switzerland? It's possible it's no longer a through connection. Switzerland announced recently they'd suspend joint services with Germany and run their own connections from the border instead given the frequent German delays (on average 30 percent of all trains, and that's just delays over 5 mins) were messing up the Swiss system too much. In which case you might be out of luck with bahn.de.

Otherwise I'd have suggested looking for "Europa Spezial" tickets if they still exist, also with every Sparpreis check 1st as well as 2nd class tickets as there's often more available in 1st and discounted prices can be quite similar. May still be worth doing just for Cologne to Basel.

Cross-posted with others. Sounds like joint connections are still there for the moment, so ignore previous post.

@GrumpyPanda - do you think it would be safer booking chur onwards via trainline (not bahn de) given the issue with connections at the moment? Presumable chur to tirano is Swiss managed?

The man in seat 61 also recommends Rail Europe

https://www.seat61.com/websites/who-are-raileurope.htm

Worth trying that site?

This is not linked to the original post but I’m wondering if someone (please!) can help.
My family and I are off on an impending Europe trip invoking a high speed train journey from Paris to Madrid (with a change in Barcelona.) I suffer from severe anxiety and so this is a big thing for me to do!
Can anyone tell me if these trains are going to be the tilting trains?
Ive posted on another thread and some lovely people have given their advice. I’m just hoping that other people can inform me also. Thank you

is it the tgv?
if yes, then it tilts slightly in turns.
it's a very, very smooth train.

I did Paris-Barcelona last year and wouldn't even have said there was a slight tilt on the turn. I'm sure @greenacrylicpaint is right but it was so slight I didn't even notice it.

There are different operators on the Barcelona-Madrid line although the trains are pretty similar. You can have a look at YouTube videos of the journey to reassure yourself:

I don't think there are tilting trains on that line.

One of the trains is the TGV-think these are the double decker trains.
The other train is an AVE.
Other posters have said they don’t tilt……how will I know for sure?
Thank you for your reply!

I think if you ask Simply Railway on Twitter, he will know for sure. You could also ask the RENFE Twitter account but I don't know if they have much of a social media presence.

@Hi1985 I asked on a railway enthusiasts' forum for you.

Barcelona to Madrid trains are standard high speed trains, definitely not tilting. (Based on the Siemens Velaro ICE 3 design for the experts).

@Chersfrozenface how kind of you.
is that both the TGV and the AVE? They are not the tilting (pendalino I think is the technical term) trains?
mum sorry to pester but I can’t find anywhere with the information.
thank uou, thank you

The TGV is definitely not a Pendolino. You probably don't want to look at this Wiki page @Hi1985 as it's all about them, but there aren't any in France. In Spain they have used non-tilting Pendolinos on regional services of late but that's all.