Understanding Seat Reservations on Czech Railways Trains

Czech Railways and Seat Reservations

Many of you may find the Czech Railways reservation system complicated, sometimes confusing, or even nonsensical. I will try to explain the whole issue of how reservations work in a few lines. We will discuss what express reservations are, what "I only want a reservation" means on the ČD eShop, or whether you always need a reservation on the Pendolino.

Commercial vs. Express Reservations

Whether it's a fast train or an international train, the classic advance booking period for buying a ticket is 60 days. But when and how do you know that you are still buying a standard reservation and not an express one? The limit when the pre-sale of standard reservations ends is 2 hours before the scheduled departure of the train from its starting station. After this time, approximately half of the seats on the train are locked and only seats marked as express reservations are available to the passenger.

And why is it two hours before the train departs, when you can buy a reservation a minute before the train departs? It's simple! When reservations are closed, at the station from which the train departs, they print out tickets for the train crew (or upload data to a flash drive) and the conductor marks the occupied seats with them. He dutifully goes around all the seats or uploads the data to the displays above the seats using a flash drive.

Seats that remain available even after some seats are closed are not marked as sold until the train departs. The passenger is only informed that this is an Express reservation and must therefore be careful, because it may happen that someone comes up to him during the train journey and shows him a reservation for the seat he is currently sitting in.

Unlike standard reservations, where their sale ends two hours before the scheduled departure of the train from its starting station, express reservations can be purchased even while the train is running.

Imagine that a passenger from Pardubice wants to travel by train from Brno to Prague and buys a ticket together with a reservation only at the station. The conductor cannot mark such a reservation with a ticket on the train, because before departure he obviously did not know about such a passenger, so such a seat is again marked only as an express reservation.

Reservation Prices

And does reserving a seat actually cost anything? Whether you answer yes or no, both answers are correct. Czech Railways is trying to motivate passengers to buy tickets through their eShop, and therefore offers free seat reservations when buying a ticket.

However, if you decide to purchase a separate seat reservation, its price will be CZK 35 per train. If, for example, you were traveling with one or more transfers, and you wanted to buy a seat reservation for all trains, it would cost you "train x CZK 35". However, the first paragraph still applies, when buying through the eShop together with a ticket, you have all seat reservations free of charge.

The reservation price is the same for first and second class.

SC Pendolino trains are a special category. For these trains, the price of the reservation is variable. You will get a reservation from CZK 0 to CZK 250. In this case, the price depends on the occupancy of the train. The most expensive seat reservations can be purchased during rush hour, the cheapest rides are in the afternoon and late in the evening. It is possible to get seat reservations free of charge at the ticket office for the section from Olomouc to Ostrava, but only after the train is already on its way.

I Only Want a Reservation?

You ask why should I only want a reservation? If you buy a Czech Railways ticket at the ticket office, its validity, with a few exceptions, is not limited to a specific train. If you buy such a ticket in advance, you can later buy a separate reservation.

A better example would be the case of a passenger regularly commuting to work or school. In such a case, he will probably have a route ticket, for which the person concerned will certainly want to reserve his seat on the train. And how else to do it than by buying it yourself via the "I only want a reservation" button.

Why can't I choose a seat from the map?

If you are traveling on a train that started its journey outside the Czech Republic, you may be wondering why it is not possible to choose a seat from the train map. On the railway, it applies (there are, of course, agreed exceptions) that the reservation system of a given train is managed by the railway company of the given state. So if the train leaves from Austria, its reservation system is the responsibility of the Austrian railways. From Hungary Hungarian railways, etc.

Why can't I choose a reservation at all sometimes?

There is no common system in Europe that would cover reservations across carriers. It follows that if a carrier wants to deal with reservations for its trains, it usually does so at its own expense and through its own technical capabilities. These systems can communicate with each other, but not share information, such as the train layout that passengers want so much.

In addition, there is an agreement between carriers that the reservation system is managed by the railway carrier where the train starts its journey. Of course, there are exceptions to this as well, and there are agreements when the management of the reservation system is transferred to one of the carriers.

For trains in the OS and Sp categories, this function is not available at all. If you look closely, you won't find any numbers on the seats of these trains.

Why can't I choose seats in the direction of travel?

The trains are made up of classic carriages, which can be turned in one or the other direction when assembling. With such a large number of trains and carriages, it is very difficult to maintain and guarantee their order. It is a little easier in this case with complete units (railjet and Pendolino). These trains do not disconnect, they keep their direction and do not turn around (unless there is an emergency on the track). With these trains, the guarantee of direction is possible and the carrier even offers it.

How do you orient yourself at the boarding doors?

Some of you may have noticed that in addition to pictograms, there are also numerical designations at the boarding doors. This numerical designation is intended to direct the passenger to their seat as comfortably as possible. So how does it work?

The numbers should be read from left to right. If you see a frame at the door (see photo), it means that the first seat you pass is seat number 11, at the other end of the car is seat number 106. If you come to the door at the other end of the car, the numbers will be written in reverse order, 106 - 11.

Exceptions on the Railway

We wouldn't be on the railway if we didn't have some exceptions. Above, I gave you SC Pendolino trains as an example of mandatory reservation trains, but this does not always apply. If you take a train, for example, from Prague to Pilsen, Cheb or newly to Karlovy Vary, you do not need to have a reservation, because it is a binding train.

But beware, if you decide to continue, for example, to Olomouc, it is necessary to have a reservation, and it is not free, even if you were traveling, for example, from Pilsen. You will always pay at least CZK 35.