Getting best fare - journey from FGW territory to Germany

[whole diary]

[grahame]

I have research my journey for early next month - going to Nurnberg to work Tuesday to Thursday and my flight baggage allowance will be too little (need to take a lot of equipment).   I don't want to drive, so I am proposing the following:





Can I book and pay online, if so which site?   Can I pop along to the ticket office in Chippenham and have them book for me?  How do I find out about any comparative fares - I'll be paying (in essence) out of my own pocket?   What is a Bahncard 50 that was asked about - I'm over 50, so can I buy one?

Anyone have any experience they can help with on this one?   Once I get beyond Paddington my rail knowledge starts to get shaky, and beyond Dover, it's very wobbly!

[Brucey]

As far as I'm aware, UK^▸ (United Kingdom) rail ticket offices can't book Eurostar or journeys outside the UK (except the usual ferry links).

The Eurostar leg can be booked on the Eurostar website, with tickets posted or collected from St Pancras.  They can also book combined tickets online, which include a National Rail ticket from local stations to London International (LNE).  You may find buying a normal ticket to LNE is cheaper than the combined ticket.

Sometimes, I've found that Eurostar tickets can be cheaper elsewhere.  E.g. on the SNCF^▸ (Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais - French National Railways) (French national railway) website, provided you don't mind paying in Euros.  http://www.voyages-sncf.com/ (link to English at the bottom of the page)

The Brussels to Nuremberg (with intermediate stations) part can also be booked on the SNCF website.  They also seem to be able to offer a complete through ticket from London St Pancras to anywhere in Germany, via Brussels.

So my suggestion would be to use SNCF to buy a ticket from London to wherever you want in Germany and then any onward tickets.  Then buy an LNE fare from Melksham.  Return via Swindon is ^60.00, Any Permitted is ^65.00.  These should be available from the guard on their Avantix^▸ (Ticket Issuing System used on board trains) machine.

The Train Line appear to be able to book fares as far as Koln.

Fares within Germany can be bought (possibly cheaper than SNCF) at www.bahn.de

Alternatively, a rail appointed travel agent should be able to book the whole trip for you.  I've never seen any travel agent advertising themselves as rail-appointed, so you'd probably need to call round.  They may also charge a service charge?

[Electric train]

Could try http://www.bahn.coml not sure if they do the through ticketing you want

[old original]

http://www.bahn.co.uk/i/view/GBR/en/index.shtml 

is probably your best shot or failing that

http://www.raileurope.co.uk/

[inspector_blakey]

You should be able to get a through ticket from Swindon as far as Koln in theory...
http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/EurostarTicketSearch.aspx
...but I suspect the return journey being via a different route may complicate matters!

[grahame]

Glory be ... this is a complicated one.   I'm getting 400 + fares as far as Koln from some of the sites.   Working through your ideas / sites ... and I'll let you know what I end up with (or if I conclude that I should simply get in the car and drive!).

Many thanks for the inputs so far.   Best pricing looks to be to book in 3 sections - home to St Pancras, St Pancras to Brussels and Brussels to Nurnberg - using same outward and return routes (can't imagine why I would want to lug equipment around Paris, anyway!)

[grahame]

Following all that research, and the sites it lead me to, I wonder if I would be better to make a "trip" of it - get a ferry from Poole or Portsmouth then travel via Paris using a 5 days out of 10 multicountry interrail pass at 233 pounds.   Take 2 days down, 2 days back  ... take good maps, .... and make an adventure of it.

[Worcester_Passenger]

Fares-wise, Eurostar are a disaster area. Unlike the airlines, who build up the return fare from separately-priced singles. they work with return fares that are cheaper than the singles (but still expensive).

If you were travelling to a station in France, then your best bet would be to book a through ticket with Eurostar (or with SNCF^▸ (Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais - French National Railways)'s English-language site, raileurope).

But if you want to go to Germany, then Eurostar only acknowledge the existence of Aachen and Koln.

So I'd try to do a return with Eurostar to Brussels. And you ought to be able to get the German journey planner to route your return journey via Bruxelles - there's a 'via' field for this.

[John R]

The man in seat 61 is a good website to research through Rail journeys to the continent, so may be of assistance.

[johoare]

I was about to suggest that website.. no really.. ..

You might find that as long as you book the Eurostar, you can make the rest up as you go along (with a bit of research in advance obviously).. I did it going to Amsterdam although obviously I only needed one more train after Brussels and you need more trainsthan that..

[grahame]

Thanks for the ongoing suggestions ... I tried "seat61" but it can't quote me fares "between those cities" ... I ended up on a Belgian site that would book the tickets for me, but wouldn't tell me the price until after I'd given them my details and they had had a chance to work it out.  The various SNCF^▸ (Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais - French National Railways) sites were quite useful - to the extent that I looked at "via Paris" both ways, splitting tickets there ... but the costs added up, with the only advanced purchase tickets being for trains that didn't connect.

I even tried dropping a note to Eurostar to ask them (after I was unable to find the answer in their "questions we have good answers to already" section).  I wrote

I want to travel from Melksham, Wiltshire, England to Nurnberg, Germany on Monday, 7th June, returning on Friday, 11th June. I have been able to find out train times and connections, but every web site I have looked at so far tells me "fares not available" or "Total fare cannot be calculated".

Can you tell me what it will cost (I am looking for as low a cost option as practical, as I have to pay personally ;-) ) and how and where I can buy the ticket?

(Outward - 07:17 from Melksham, arriving Nurnberg 19:59
Return - 06:00 from Nurnberg, arriving Melksham 19:10)

and they replied:

Thank you for contacting Eurostar.

Due to recent disruptions we have seen an unprecedented amount of incoming correspondence. Please note that our Email responses may take longer than usual. All correspondance will be answered as soon as possible. We would like to thank you for your patience and understanding.

Which is basically saying "we can't cope with handling enquiries from new customers", isn't it?


I'm still researching this one. 

I have found Air Berlin flights from Stansead from 60 to about 120 pound depending on the day (and actually I hit the cheap days), but with 60 pounds "fuel surcharge", plus taxes, credit card booking fee, cost of travel to Stansted, cost of getting from Nurmberg airport to where I'm staying ... and the lack of ability to take as much luggage as I need, I'm disinclined to go with this.

Rail - I'm just about giving up on "conventional" research and Eurostar.  Surely - on a joined up European rail system - there's a need to say "I want to book from X to Y" and be able to do so.   You can find that train TIMES easily enough - but not the costs, nor can you book easily and through.

I *am* still looking at getting the Portsmouth to le Havre boat and then using a multicountry, 5 days out of 10 Eurorail pass. I reccon I can take 2 days down, 2 days back, using more local trains and the savings I make will cover the cost of a cheap hotel.  Just need to see it I can pack light enough to do it.

Road - I really don't want to drive - but it may be much more practical - but much more tiring and much less green 

[Brucey]

I find it very strange that rail providers haven't fully integrated their systems across borders?  Especially the UK^▸ (United Kingdom): we don't appear to be integrated in any way, which could be putting off foreign travellers from using our railways.

Strangely, the SNCF^▸ (Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais - French National Railways) website will give a price for a journey from Le Havre to Nuremberg, but it won't give a price for journeys from Paris or Brussels?!

I'd suggest popping into your local travel agent as they could probably give you one price for the entire journey.

[grahame]

Strangely, the SNCF^▸ (Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais - French National Railways) website will give a price for a journey from Le Havre to Nuremberg, but it won't give a price for journeys from Paris or Brussels?!

It will give a price for *some* services ... but not (?) ones that involve legs on certain types of trains - "Thalys" as I recall.   Since most of the journeys involved that type of train ...

[eightf48544]

Could try either the DB^» (Deutsche Bahn - German State Railway - about) website for tickets from Brussells or their office in Surbiton I used the office for Saarbrucken recently I think they can sell you all the tickets including from Melksham., they did me Eurostar and the ICE from Paris.


Does anyone know if the 46E? DB advance single is still available? I know someone that got one from London to Rostock from the website, but they said you had to tweek the vias and dates and times.

It's a pity you've picked a Thalys from Brussels if you had and ICE you'd probably get better fares from DB.  Although Eurostar and Thalys are suppose to have joint ticketing so you may be able to get to Koln on one ticket.

[Worcester_Passenger]

I find it very strange that rail providers haven't fully integrated their systems across borders?  Especially the UK^▸ (United Kingdom): we don't appear to be integrated in any way, which could be putting off foreign travellers from using our railways.

If you want to see how pathetically un-integrated it all is, including the continental Europeans, then look at http://www.railteam.co.uk/, which is the website for the "alliance of high-speed rail operators", offering "seamless high-speed travel across Europe".

Their idea of "seamless" does NOT extend to selling you one ticket for the journey from London to Nurnberg.