Thread by @jonworth

So rail nerds @TrainTracksEU @Koelschlenny @vorortanleiter @AndyBTravels @seatsixtyone @AnnaDeparnay @PaliparanDotCom @LenaDonat - let's plan @AdinaValean and @MarianMarinescu a nice rail route Bruxelles-Bucharest arriving latest morning of 17 Sept un Bucuresti Nord!

Perfect! Here we go...

Just 2 changes (in Vienna and Budapest), and time for a coffee with @lgewessler @MartinSelmayr at Wien Hbf en route!

Trip time 35 hrs 58 mins...

Now how best to book that? 🤔

OK, so we can book Bruxelles Midi - Wien Hbf - Budapest Keleti with ÖBB, €219,80 in a single compartment in the NightJet and a regular seat in the RailJet for the last bit...

But then it starts to get messy...

ÖBB cannot sell me a ticket for the Budapest Keleti - Bucuresti Nord train

How about Hungarian railways MÁV?

Well you can't actually book beyond 13 September yet, because for whatever reason the time horizon for their bookings is shorter than ÖBB's...

So let's try a week earlier, as an example

Lo and behold! A train, with online booking

Interface is in English, except... "Ülőhely 2. osztály" Ooops, 2nd class seat. No sleeping car to book here... Hmmm.

(And yes, sorry @AdinaValean and @MarianMarinescu you might have lost the will to live by now... but this is #EUYearOfRail so we're meant to put these problems right, aren't we?)

So let's try this from the Romanian side

OK, we have a train! On the right day...

Holds with baited breath for the next step...

No, damn, only seats here too...

But Deutsche Bahn's timetable told us there is a couchette car on part of the route

Where is it? 🤨

Can you help us find it @cer_railways as #EUYearOfRail is your idea after all?

So let's load up the nerds' website vagonWEB and see what runs here...

Turns out there *are* couchettes the whole way, and there is a better sleeping car on the Timisoara - Bucuresti section

vagonweb.cz/razeni/vlak.ph…

So what now?

Let's try and buy a ticket for a *seat* from Budapest to Timisoara, and then a *bed in the sleeping car* from Timisoara to Bucharest

So here we go - CFR can book us the seat to Timisoara, slumming it in 2nd class though - 79.64 Lei (€16.14)

And then Timisoara to Bucuresti... we can try the national booking interface of CFR... and once more face a calendar problem - bookings only possible until mid-August

Let's try it for 13 August (16 September is likewise a Thursday), and we get offers and prices!

295.65 Lei (€59.91) for a single occupancy compartment

So we're going to need:
3 🎟
3 bookings
2 different booking 📆
6 websites consulted

Cost: €295,85

And if something went wrong with BXL-Wien-Budapest... and a connection is missed...

...well you'd need a new ticket because you messed up the Rail Passenger Rights Regulation! 👏

And that's before we even get to the return trip!

Looking forward to that? 🤪 I'll forgive you that one, fly.

Seriously though: these are the sorts of booking and ticketing headaches #EUYearOfRail needs to solve! Wdyt @CER_railways @Transport_EU?

/ends