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916
« on: February 10, 2011, 07:42:03 pm »
Is direct sleeper Venice-Moscow still running? I remember I saw RDZ carriage at Ljubljana railway station years ago. It used to run on route Venice-Ljubljana-Zagreb-Budapest-Moscow. Yes, it is still running. Once a week, Mondays from Moscow and Thursdays from Venice. As you can guess, still with "Tisza"+ EN Budapest-Venice. Tickets RZD/UZ-Italy are sold using "Global price" (btw rather reasonable since last year fare change: 155-165 EUR for RZD-FS and 100-110 EUR for UZ-FS; + 30 EUR for 2/3, 46 EUR for 1/2 and 104 EUR for 1/1). Tickets to/from Slovania/Croatia/Hungary - standard "East-West" tariff.
917
« on: February 10, 2011, 04:40:48 pm »
Thanks, daryankoff This means we definitely know now the fares for CityStar ZSSK>300km and UZ<500km (63 EUR) and ZSSK<100km and UZ<500km (35 EUR) p.s. and sorry about our small miscalculations for Čierna nad Tisou-Lviv, it seems we lost somewhere app.5 EUR with both CityStar and standard ticket ...  Well, we will try to figure out where...
918
« on: February 10, 2011, 11:53:52 am »
Is there a resource online that has all the european railway maps with the stations which will correspond to the stations from the jizdenka fare calculator? Most of the maps can be found here - http://www.bueker.net/trainspotting/maps.php . There you can see crucial border points and most of the cities. From reading other posts, I discovered that you can buy reservations separately. Would it be possible to buy reservations for certain TCV ticket segments so as to "upgrade" them to trains such as Intercity in Italy? It is exactly the point: ticket is issued for a specific route (valid for any train), while reservation issued for a specific train and specific seat/sleeper berth. Both parts are fully separate things, so you can buy ticket at one place, while reservation much later at another one. In some countries, like Switzerland or Germany there are almost no trains with compulsory reservation, thus you need only ticket to travel. In other countries high-speed and long distance trains require reservation, thus just having ticket is not enough, that is when you need to purchase reservation. So again, it is a big surprise that cashiers you met doesn't understand that you need only ticket part from them, but not reservation. TCV/SCIC-NRT tickets itself are usually valid for 1 month period, during any day of this validity period you can come to the station, purchase seat reservation for any train (whether TGV in France, EuroStar in Italy etc.) and board those high-speed trains. Another question on Trenitalia website. For longer journeys, the system always display the fast trains. Is there a way to find out the timetables for the regional trains? Yes, there are two simple ways to do it, either input shorter legs and then just "combine" those, so you have minimal connection time (for instance Domodossola-Venice: here you need to check timetable for regional trains on route Domodossola-Milan, then check Milan-Verona and Verona-Venice). Another way is to use DB website ( http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en?newrequest=yes&protocol=http:&). In column "Means of transport" check "only local transport", lower uncheck "prefer fast connections", afterward it will show the whole route just using regional trains, thus not requiring seat reservation.
919
« on: February 10, 2011, 12:07:24 am »
So basically the only real thing I will have to do is exit the train in Poland at the border then just cross over the border into C.Tesin and walk to that train station Actually you can hardly call it a border, you might not even understand when you cross it, since basically it is one town. I'm sure that the ticket agents will be less apt to speak in English at all (I found no issues in Vienna or Bratislava last time), but those are more urban stations. If you worry about language barrier you might simply write down your route and desired type of ticket on a piece of paper (even in Czech with a help of google translator) Maybe there is somewhere else close by in the Czech Republic that is maybe better then just going to Ostrava, I'm not familiar with the area at all so I just picked Ostrava being it's a larger city... Actually your choice of Ostrava seems reasonable, since other places are rather small, thus even less tourist oriented (unless you are interested in such). If you get bored with Ostrava you can always make a short side trip to any other destnation in Silesia or even Moravia (Olomouc, Brno etc.)
920
« on: February 08, 2011, 10:44:15 pm »
... they also refuse to sell tickets that do not depart from Praha. Well, sorry to hear that. That is really stupid from them to say such things and obviously simply bullshit. Next time just call their authorities and demand the explanation. First of all any international ticket counter is able technically to sell any ticket from jiizdenka website. Officially "TCV tariff" recently changed the name, now it is called in documents SCIC-NRT, but it doesn't excuse them since it did happen not that long ago and any cashier perfectly knows what is TCV/SCIC-NRT and how to issue ticket with a help of it. Basically it is the only international tariff they can issue international tickets with in European connections, so it unbelievable that they refused. Is there a good place to buy TCV tickets in Praha? I heard of Wasteels but from its Czech website it seems they have ceased operations from 1st Feb. Wasteels ticket cashiers usually the most skillful, so hmmm... Maybe you can try Masaryk train station, it is also in the city center. Also you can try printing out screenshot from jizdenka and showing it to cashiers at the main station, so that they get an idea what you want.
921
« on: February 07, 2011, 04:14:53 pm »
Nice trick, but the problem is that some cashiers are not willing to sell just reservations without buying the underlying tickets (or at least showing the tickets if they were bought in advance). Hmm... maybe it does happen, but, as far as we know, there is no such railway rule in general. Does it? Such rule exists only in former Soviet countries. There, even if reservation and ticket are issued on separate ticket sheets (like all the international tickets), you anyway can't buy sleeper reservation without ticket no matter what. ... and you don't need any identity card to buy them. Or you can buy all those tickets and reservations on-line. Wow, that is a very cool solutions 
922
« on: February 07, 2011, 03:37:58 pm »
Do you think getting a Railplus card will help me save more? RailPlus does make sense when you purchase full fare ticket, since it gives 25% off. But no discount is giving for special tickets, like Europa Spezial Berlin-Amsterdam or "Prems" Paris-Lyon etc. So basically RailPlus will give discount for the fare found on jiizdenka. So in the option described in our previous most it will give discount only for Amsterdam-Brugge-Paris and Italian itinerary. But you might try another option - buying TCV for your whole itinerary. Probably in Prague they won't sell you one through ticket for all your destinations, but like 3 or 4 separate ones might work (first Praha -> Berlin -> Amsterdam -> Brugge -> Paris -> Lyon ->Bellegarde(last French station before Geneva), second Geneva -> Milan ->Venice and third Venice--> Florence -> Bologna -> Pisa -> Rome). For all such tickets Railplus will give -25%. But in order to understand whether it worth it, you actually need to find out the price of those tickets at any international counter in Prague (we discussed above that jiizdenka can't show such complicated routes), then compare total to the option with discounted fares offered by websites of relative railways for the days you want.
923
« on: February 07, 2011, 03:19:26 pm »
Slovak Rail website is correct, anyone travelling in a single or double compartment within Slovakia needs 1st class ticket. This is different to international travel, where 2nd class ticket for double is sufficient.
+1 Sometimes it does happen that double requires 1st class ticket on domestic routes. Actually we even remember times when, for instance, SNCF required 1st class ticket even for 4 berth couchette. Hard to imagine, but it did happen. So it is far not the most horrible thing counting ZSSK very reasonable fares for sleepers. Btw, if you are ready to play a small trick, then it is possible to save in such situation anyway. Just purchase 3 sleeper reservations for the same compartment (2/3, Tourist), it will cost you app. same price as 2 reservations for double. Afterward at another ticket counter - two 2nd class tickets. When boarding the train just hide one out of three reservations and show conductor only two 2nd class tickets and 2 sleeper reservations. Officially you would be fully fine, since you do travel in 3 bed compartment with 2nd class tickets, but there will be no neighbor since third berth in your compartment is sold, thus removed from sale.
924
« on: February 07, 2011, 02:42:55 am »
1) Is there a way to input multiple destinations? In the online version you unfortunately can't do it, but only change border point to travel through, but at the actual ticket desk you can ask for one through ticket covering multiple destinations. 2) There are 2 of us and we are planning to travel in this way: Praha -> Berlin -> Amsterdam -> Brugge -> Paris -> Lyon -> Geneva -> Milan ->Venice -> Florence -> Bologna -> Pisa -> Rome. Well, in your case Praha-Berlin might be cheaper to purchase a bit in advance from Czech railways eShop ( https://www.cd.cz/eshop). And only when there is no more discounted ticket go with standard full fare. Same story with Berlin-Amsterdam ( http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en?newrequest=yes&protocol=http:&). Amsterdam-Brugge-Paris would make sense to purchase in Prague, since it will be difficult to find cheaper ticket at the moment. For Paris-Lyon it is better to buy right now online from www.tgv-europe.com, it will be cheaper than TCV. Lyon-Geneve just purchase already on spot, no need to do it in Prague. Geneve-Swiss-Italian border (Brig-Domodossola) buy from Swiss railways some time in advance - https://www.sbb.ch/mct/wi/shop/b2c/adw.do?4004 . While for your Italian route it is almost definitely better to buy in Prague. Easier to purchase two tickets Domodossola-Milan-Venice (will cost 21.6 EUR) and Venice-Bologna-Florence-Rome (32.4 EUR). With such you will be able to travel on regional trains with no supplement at all or buy 10 EUR seat reservation and travel on high-speed EuroStar trains. So in general as you can see, for long-distance legs it makes sense to avoid TCV, since cheaper discounted option usually available, even on short notice like couple days in advance (you can always compare fare offered on website above and TCV fare from jiizdenka), but on short legs like your Italian itinerary TCV will always win.
925
« on: February 06, 2011, 11:44:10 pm »
we'll probably take RDZ carriage onward(Brat/Kosice-Lviv) In this case Kosice-Lviv probably loses its sense, since difference between Bratislava-Lviv and Kosice-Lviv with RZD will be minimal or even non-existing. I'll share my experience... Great, will wait for it. It is always interesting when someone "explores" Central-Eastern European rail tricks
926
« on: February 06, 2011, 11:06:12 pm »
We're gonna take the same train 15 and RDZ carriage back on route Lviv-Bratislava. Will be possible to reserve this carriage in advance in this case? Unfortunately, but probably no. The situation with any reservations for RZD transit carriages is rather absurd. First of all, Ukrainian and Russian system concerning international trains aren't synchronized or even 'connected', as result in Ukraine (where still all international tickets are handwritten) there is simply no way to access life time info about availability of seats in RZD carriages. In some cases, like Moscow-Venice carriage (where more simplified "global price" is used), it is possible to fax from Kyiv to Moscow with request to reserve seat from Kyiv (or any other UZ station) for RZD Venice carriage. But, as you can guess, this is really complicated enterprise. And even more RZD in most cases simply blocks in advance purchase of reservations from any other station besides Moscow (even russian Briansk, for instance) and they definitely don't give quota to UZ for selling tickets in RZD carriages, especially when there is mirroring UZ carriage running. So the only minimal hope in your case, is so called norm of the inverse return when RZD gives ZSSK small quota, so ZSSK can sell those reservations for the return Moscow-Bratislava. But even in this case it is probably limited only to reservations Moscow-Slovakia or, if lucky, RZD-Slovakia, but we doubt that ZSSK will sell any UZ-Slovakia for RZD carriage. But anyway you might ask, maybe you will be lucky. btw, it will be good if you can share your experience after you get back, so we and other interested potential passengers can get some actual news from the field 
927
« on: February 06, 2011, 06:36:24 pm »
Since we are 3 of us travelling together it's probably better to avoid this #385 carriage from Bratislava if we want to travel in the same sleeping compartment? Or they will sell middle berth to us to be in the same compartment. No, middle berth is removed from sale at all, so if you need 3 sleeper reservations they will just sell you two in one compartment and third in the other, but nobody forbids you to spend all the time in one compartment and use middle berth on your own. In most cases RIC compartments are rather congested when having 3 passengers, so that is why UZ 'promo' 2/2 is appreciated by many passengers, but if all of you are together, then maybe compartment won't feel crowded We'll be probably travelling on Tuesday. That day as I know #384 isn't running. Yes, Bratislava-Lviv carriage (#384) runs on Wednesdays and Saturdays from Bratislava, other days of the week there is Bratislava-Kyiv (#385) carriage, so in total there are UZ carriages from Bratislava everyday - two days of the week to Lviv and five to Kyiv. As I understood #385 is UZ carriage and #382 RZD. So this special "promo"(2/2 in 2/3) applies only to #385 not to #382? Yes, #382 is Bratislava-Moscow RZD carriage and #385 is UZ Bratislava-Kyiv. 2/2 for the price of 2/3 is sold only in #385
928
« on: February 06, 2011, 03:23:51 pm »
So by making sleeping reservation on route Bratislava-Lvov correct train is R 609, Košice-Lvov R 609 or 8815?, Lvov-Bratislava R604 or 15? As a rule, such international carriages attached to local trains in the reservation systems can be seen with train number of those local ones according to the departing station. Thus carriages Bratislava-Lviv/Kyiv/Moscow departing from Bratislava will go under 609 R, but while departing Kosice already 8815, Cierna - 8860 etc. Same story on the way back - carriage Moscow-Bratislava runs with train 15 ("Tisza"), but during the reservation the number might have additional letters, for instance in European systems it will be 15VJ till Chop and 15UJ from Chop. With UZ carriages (going with train #7) it will be 7KJ, so it is good to give the cashier those letter endings as well, it might simplify her/his job. Also you can write down actual number of those carriages: Bratislava-Moscow (#382), Bratislava-Lviv (#384) and Bratislava-Kyiv (#385), so you can make sure you purchase in the one you want According to Slovakian railways sleeper costs 10EUR per way on route Bratislava-Lviv so they probably mean russian carriage. Yes, RZD carriages in such case always cheaper, since besides higher fare UZ also charges also VAT for all the reservations (as far as we remember, it is 18%) What's the difference between russian and ukrainian carriage, cause both are 2/3. Which is better to take? In most cases RZD carriages are a bit newer, but carriage #385 (Bratislava-Kyiv) has a small unique feature - you pay for 2/3, but in reality it will be 2/2 (middle berth just removed from sale). Same feature is in Budapest-Kyiv and Belgrade-Kyiv UZ carriages, but not in any RZD or UZ carriages Bratislava/Budapest-Lviv. Seems like a strange situation, but we don't have any particular explanation here, maybe it's just some kind of 'promo' from UZ, maybe something else, anyway they sell 2/2 for the fare 2/3 already for many years on route to/from Bratislava/Budapest.
929
« on: February 06, 2011, 01:57:41 am »
Is there a way to check TCV tariffs online? Yes, most reliable source here is http://jizdenka.idos.cz/IT.aspx?Lang=69 . All the tickets the website shows fare for can be purchased in Prague at any international ticket counter.
930
« on: February 05, 2011, 06:00:14 pm »
...they also offered me return ticket price for Čierna-Lvov leg(47EUR), so there must be European computerized system Well, not necessarily you need access to the European system here. The fare can be simply taken from standard East-West tariff book (in paper version or computerized version 'incorporated' into Slovenian ticket system). In case of tickets selling you don't need access to the real time information, cashier just adds sums of Chop(gr)-Lvov and Chop(gr)-Ceirna legs and multiplies it by two. While in case of reserving specific seat on specific train, cashier actually needs real time access to the general (in this case one of the European) systems in order to see availability, be able to 'remove' specific seat etc. Anyway, we would probably recommend to try once more, maybe even print out sample reservation from previous post, so cashier in Slovenia can actually see "realness" of the carriage. Even if your try won't be successful, we doubt that both RZD and UZ carriages from Bratislava are really busy, so that you can't purchase reservation before departure. Plus there is always an option of going with the same trains (as carriages) till Chop and boarding there cheap Ukrainian domestic trains till Lviv
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