How to buy train tickets in internet?

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Hello!

My question is about how to buy train tickets in Europe through internet?
I know only about Russia and Ukraine, but not sure about any other countries.

I know, my question is a bit naive, but who knows may be it is already some service where I could buy any ticket all around EU?

I am especially interested in finding place to buy tickets from one European country to another.

Thanks.

DJK, don't worry it's not naive. Always better to ask, than risk overpaying or even losing your money with snide websites and agencies

...some service where I could buy any ticket all around EU?

In every country there is usually a national rail carrier (in some it's more than one and not always even state owned), for instance in the context familiar to you - RZD in Russia or UZ in Ukraine. Though most of the national railway companies do have some sort of international cooperation, there is no one website to buy train tickets for the whole Europe, because in every country rules, conditions and tariff regulation differ. But absence of such 'universal' website doesn't mean that you can't buy your ticket online. Solution is official websites of each national railway company, so for instance if you want to travel from Poland to Germany you can visit either Polish Railways or German Railways website and buy your ticket, or Hungary to Austria - visit Hungarian or Austrian railways website and buy the ticket there etc.. Obviously it's not very convenient to have all those dozens of websites with different interfaces, but unfortunately that is how the system works at the moment.

Totally different approach is to rely on private agencies, which aren't responsible for trains running, but simply re-sell European train tickets. Basically it's a story of a middle-man, agencies on certain condition agree with rail companies and can sell train tickets, but they don't work for free, meaning you will need to pay a certain commission for their services. So why to overpay if you can buy same ticket directly from an official national rail website?

I am especially interested in finding place to buy tickets from one European country to another.

Well, for a few (most often used, but somehow problematic) cases we created short step by step guides on how to buy train tickets via official website ( http://europetrainsguide.com/Advice/How-to-Buy-Train-Tickets/Countries.html ), with time we plan to widen list of countries and railway companies. But if you have any specific trouble with a particular connection, we will be glad to help to assist or at least point out where you can buy this or that ticket.

Also in case you plan to travel a lot, then you might consider a rail pass, although question of whether to use or not to use rail pass needs careful considerations ( http://europetrainsguide.com/Advice/Rail-Passes/Rail-passes-%E2%80%93-to-buy-or-not-to-buy.html ), it still does make sense in a certain occasion, but that's already a different story

Thank you so much for your answer, tUt.

The initial reason for my question was my friend's trip, which she is making tomorrow from Venice to Belgrade. The best I could find was the night train from Ljubljana to Belgrade. (2 changes within 17 hours from Venice to Belgrade didn't impress me)

I tried to buy that ticket online with sz website www.slo-zeleznice.si
I didn't figure out how to do it online.

Website of Serbian Railway doesn't give any price for such a trip neither.

I thought some ppl know the trick about such things )

Myself, I gonna travel in Europe next year.

I used to believe it is cheaper by train from Moscow to Belgrade, but after checking airfares it doesn't look that I could save much by train.

Still interested about travel between Cz or Viena and Belgrade...

Well, unfortunately Slovenian Railways don't sell tickets online yet, while Serbian do, but not for this type of route...c'est la vie
Although to be fair, it's not really essential to buy tickets in advance when traveling around Balkans, since in most cases fare doesn't depend on time of ticket purchase and almost none train require obligatory seat reservation. As result you can easily come to the station 10 min. before departure and buy needed ticket.

Regarding Venice-Belgrade route there are a few relatively cheap solutions to consider: a) catch local train from Venice to Gorizia (from 10,75 euro and 2-3 hours depending on connection, run often), Gorizia located right across from Slovenian Nova Gorica (actually historically it's one town), so you just need to walk from Italian to Slovenian side (also possible to take town bus) and catch bus to Ljubljana or train to Jesenice. Next catch direct overnight train to Belgrade departs from Ljubljana 21:16 (or 20:12 from Jesenice), arr. to Belgrade 6:16. Full fare ticket Ljubljana-Belgrade cost 49,2 euro; b) catch local train from Venice to Trieste (roughly 2 hours and 11,35 euro), then bus to Rijeka (few times per day) or even Zagreb (once a day), while then catch same overnight train to Belgrade (dep. Zagreb 23:55, full fare ticket is around 25 euro); c) if the journey isn't tomorrow, then also can be used a bit weird, but can be rather cheap option - RyanAir flight Venice(Treviso)-Budapest and then direct train Budapest-Belgrade (full fare is 15 euro)

I used to believe it is cheaper by train from Moscow to Belgrade, but after checking airfares it doesn't look that I could save much by train.

Though direct train (actually it's only one carriage) isn't very expensive, but still flights can be quite comparable here, unless you ready to travel with many changes and 'breaks' of tickets. While in your case (at least judging from your current IP), cheapest way to reach Belgrade might be actually to get bus to Tallinn/Riga, then fly to Stockholm (RyanAir), while from there directly to Belgrade by WizzAir or something like that, plus it can save quite a lot of time

Still interested about travel between Cz or Viena and Belgrade...

In both case everything is relatively easy, you just need to buy a bit in advance discounted tickets to Budapest (either Vienna-Budapest or Prague(if it's what you mean by 'Cz')-Budapest), here both Czech and Austrian Railways do sell it online, while already in Hungary get cheap 15 euro ticket Budapest-Belgrade