Conductor Confessions - an intro

This could well be one of my favorite categories. The idea? To talk with conductors, ticket window staff, you name it, and try to just glean info. What's their most interesting horror story? What tips and advice do they have for travelers on European and British trains? Let's see what the ticket-takers have to tell.

What came out of it, over the following months, was duller and more useful than the horror stories: the people who work on the trains know the exceptions, and the exceptions are what catch you out.

That has not changed, but where you find them has. The ticket window has thinned out across Europe, replaced by an app and a machine that will not answer a follow-up question. The conductor is now the most reliable human on the whole journey. Ask them, not the machine, when you want to know whether the connection will be held, whether the pass covers the branch line, or which end of the platform the through carriage leaves from.

Two things worth knowing before you ask. Reservation rules are the single biggest source of confusion for pass holders, and they are country by country rather than train by train; Seat 61 keeps the current list. And a conductor can almost always sort out a reservation problem on board that a website has told you is impossible. It costs a fee, not a fine, if you ask before they reach you.

Posted 01 April 2003 by Ant in Eurail Stories · updated by Chris