Link via @HRCH - The Guardian reports on T&E’s research about rail booking problems https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/apr/21/almost-half-of-eus-busiest-flight-routes-are-hard-or-impossible-to-book-on-trains-report
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@jon @bovine3dom @stefanlindbohm So in summary:
- SNCF, Renfe and PKP are bad at cross-border ticketing,
- 3rd-party incumbents (sorry for the oxymoron) are focused on populous Western Europe countries around the Blue Banana,
- 3rd-party incumbents don't support discount cards for lack of access or lack of integration.
@jon @bovine3dom @stefanlindbohm Aside that, interesting that there's such a gap between DB and ÖBB for the straightforward Munich-Vienna.
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@jon @bovine3dom @stefanlindbohm Aside that, interesting that there's such a gap between DB and ÖBB for the straightforward Munich-Vienna.
@cycling_on_rails @bovine3dom @stefanlindbohm Try it from MÁV - the gap will be even more!
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@jon @bovine3dom @stefanlindbohm Aside that, interesting that there's such a gap between DB and ÖBB for the straightforward Munich-Vienna.
@cycling_on_rails i love when each operator gets their own allocation of seats and sells them separately
if we banned nominative tickets arbitrageurs could fix all this nonsense for us
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@cycling_on_rails @bovine3dom @stefanlindbohm Try it from MÁV - the gap will be even more!
@jon do you really think T&E has heard of MÁV
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@jon @bovine3dom @stefanlindbohm Aside that, interesting that there's such a gap between DB and ÖBB for the straightforward Munich-Vienna.
@jon @bovine3dom @stefanlindbohm As for Spain, I'm not sure there's more than correlation between prices, market share and incumbent status.
Trainline runs gigantic ads in the Barcelona waiting area. So maybe there's consumer choice here (e.g. better comfort and/or luggage space in AVE).
Plus market share is driven by offer (how many trains each operator runs). And price by offer as well (related to comfort level).
Lastly, are these figures even for Barcelona-Madrid, or Spain-wide?
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@cycling_on_rails @bovine3dom @stefanlindbohm @jon @HRCH
Onything that crosses the edge of a discount card applicability could benefit.Recently saw someone dealing with an inability to book something like Metz - Luxembourg at the correct price applying all the relevant discounts.
I have similarly stupid issues with SNCF where the cheapest option to Paris involves splitting at Forbach, to get the correct discount on Forbach-Paris.
@Sobex @stefanlindbohm @jon Agreed, but I don't think @bovine3dom 's example involves discount cards. Just the same journey but priced differently via split tickets.
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@jon @bovine3dom @stefanlindbohm Aside that, interesting that there's such a gap between DB and ÖBB for the straightforward Munich-Vienna.
@cycling_on_rails @jon @bovine3dom @stefanlindbohm Looks like ÖBB doesn’t sell Sparschiene tickets on most Railjets from Münich while DB happily sells Sparpreise.
I guess that happens if everyone does their own discount pricing independently.
(A similar thing can happen with codeshare flights, so this isn’t unique to rail.)
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@Sobex @stefanlindbohm @jon Agreed, but I don't think @bovine3dom 's example involves discount cards. Just the same journey but priced differently via split tickets.
@cycling_on_rails discount cards are the easiest way to get discrepancies but you can get them in France just by comparing _tout public_ O/D tickets, usually where regions have extra-territorial prix "kilométriques" and splitting the ticket can let you surf the most beneficial formulae
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@stefanlindbohm @bovine3dom @jon @HRCH Yeah, in other words: does the value added justify the fee added? If you can offer a smooth route planner + end-to-end ticket booking in one payment (don't care if it counts as one "transaction" in legal verbiage) for a journey with 3+ operators that's already raising the bar.
And I think there'd be value in adding some flexibility on top (letting the user tweak or even build the schedule like Interrail app) but understand that's extra complexity for now.
@cycling_on_rails Exactly this.
And once we have the ”basics” (not really basic) of cross-border trips working, I’m super excited to keep adding features for more power user type scenarios. Like you say, if you know you want to take certain connections, or combine tickets a certain way that is different from what we propose. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves
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@stefanlindbohm i think i disagree with you pretty strongly here
finding the optimum route/price combination is quite a hard computer science problem, i don't think it's a bug that the SNCF can't give you that, they're quite simply institutionally too bad at computers. probably because they can't pay talent enough or give them enough political space to experiment
they went on the record recently saying that they thought selling tickets was technically difficult!
@bovine3dom Ok that’s a fair enough point.
I think my main resistance is on the part where you chuck over an unexpected number of tickets to the traveler who needs to deal with what to show where, and added complexity in disruption communication etc.
Tariff data is already in the MMTIS legislation from March, so maybe this could alternatively be solved by also obliging operators to allow a retailer to specify how to combine tariffs on a single ticket issued?
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@bovine3dom Ok that’s a fair enough point.
I think my main resistance is on the part where you chuck over an unexpected number of tickets to the traveler who needs to deal with what to show where, and added complexity in disruption communication etc.
Tariff data is already in the MMTIS legislation from March, so maybe this could alternatively be solved by also obliging operators to allow a retailer to specify how to combine tariffs on a single ticket issued?
@stefanlindbohm i believe _in theory_ UIC's new ticketing standard allows for multiple tickets embedded within a single QR (sorry) code
@q is our resident expert there
so maybe somewhere the regulation needs to allow retailers to take advantage of that?
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@cycling_on_rails i love when each operator gets their own allocation of seats and sells them separately
if we banned nominative tickets arbitrageurs could fix all this nonsense for us
@bovine3dom @cycling_on_rails @jon @stefanlindbohm The problem with that is that it makes the thirty euro ticket go away, not the 120 euro ticket.
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@stefanlindbohm i believe _in theory_ UIC's new ticketing standard allows for multiple tickets embedded within a single QR (sorry) code
@q is our resident expert there
so maybe somewhere the regulation needs to allow retailers to take advantage of that?
@bovine3dom That would be an acceptable option yep! It would also make all trips a lot nicer for anything we sell, not only single-operator splits.
It wouldn’t necessarily solve the issue of making disruption claims easier, but maybe that can be coordinated by the retailer (even though the actual claim is nowadays almost always to be handled by the operator).
(I’ve seen that feature technically exists, so presumably only a matter of deployment and access.)
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@cycling_on_rails @jon @bovine3dom @stefanlindbohm Looks like ÖBB doesn’t sell Sparschiene tickets on most Railjets from Münich while DB happily sells Sparpreise.
I guess that happens if everyone does their own discount pricing independently.
(A similar thing can happen with codeshare flights, so this isn’t unique to rail.)
@partim @cycling_on_rails @jon @bovine3dom @stefanlindbohm But isn’t that a good thing? Perhaps an absurd comparison: it would be like Nutella going to Aldi and Lidl and forcing both to sell the same product (in our case, the same train) at the same price.
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@bovine3dom @cycling_on_rails @jon @stefanlindbohm The problem with that is that it makes the thirty euro ticket go away, not the 120 euro ticket.
@partim i dunno if i believe that
arbitrageurs would resell them for some mark-up but maybe like €40
i don't think anyone other than the SNCF would throw a tantrum and refuse to sell cheap tickets. and i am kind of ok with the SNCF throwing tantrums because it helps to erode public support for them
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@partim @cycling_on_rails @jon @bovine3dom @stefanlindbohm But isn’t that a good thing? Perhaps an absurd comparison: it would be like Nutella going to Aldi and Lidl and forcing both to sell the same product (in our case, the same train) at the same price.
@markusr i think it's more like if Nutella stamped the jars with LIDL and ALDI and then called armed police if they ever caught a different shop selling a jar with the wrong stamp on
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@markusr i think it's more like if Nutella stamped the jars with LIDL and ALDI and then called armed police if they ever caught a different shop selling a jar with the wrong stamp on
@bovine3dom But that’s a different problem. But a problem, agreed. @partim @cycling_on_rails @jon @stefanlindbohm
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@cycling_on_rails @jon @bovine3dom @stefanlindbohm Looks like ÖBB doesn’t sell Sparschiene tickets on most Railjets from Münich while DB happily sells Sparpreise.
I guess that happens if everyone does their own discount pricing independently.
(A similar thing can happen with codeshare flights, so this isn’t unique to rail.)
@partim That specific route is super confusing. I’ve also seen the opposite, and sometimes 2nd class gets the non-flex on one operator but not the other, and 1st class is the opposite on the same departure. The yield management on that train is bananas.
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@jon @bovine3dom @stefanlindbohm As for Spain, I'm not sure there's more than correlation between prices, market share and incumbent status.
Trainline runs gigantic ads in the Barcelona waiting area. So maybe there's consumer choice here (e.g. better comfort and/or luggage space in AVE).
Plus market share is driven by offer (how many trains each operator runs). And price by offer as well (related to comfort level).
Lastly, are these figures even for Barcelona-Madrid, or Spain-wide?
@cycling_on_rails
Just Madrid-Barcelona I think. The total 14.6m pax agrees with the CNMC annual report 2024 (for the corridor including intermediate trips).One thing that stands out is that the figure for places offered is just slightly above passengers (unlike other corridors where there was more of a gap). I think that fits with your point - it's not clear there was any meaningful capacity for passengers to make different choices.
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@cycling_on_rails
Just Madrid-Barcelona I think. The total 14.6m pax agrees with the CNMC annual report 2024 (for the corridor including intermediate trips).One thing that stands out is that the figure for places offered is just slightly above passengers (unlike other corridors where there was more of a gap). I think that fits with your point - it's not clear there was any meaningful capacity for passengers to make different choices.
@cycling_on_rails
As you say, Trainline advertises widely in Spain (well beyond Barcelona). It would be interesting to know what their market share is, if anyone knows, especially given the poor reputation of the incumbent's website and apps.Personally I have no expectation that Renfe would tell me about Iryo trains, any more than I expect Aer Lingus to tell me about Ryanair.
I don't think split ticketing is really a thing in Spain, but I may be wrong.
@jon @bovine3dom @stefanlindbohm
