[bitschubser_]

If you now could just book a train between these cities on a common european platform (or local transportation provider...)... one could dream...

just booking a train and getting a quote crossing multiple borders (without interrail) is just a nightmare :(

[sloowm]

You can thank all local train operators for this. They have been fighting a shared ticketing system tooth and nail at the European level and the weak politicians in Europe who don't push for a shared system.

There is a legislative proposal but that will take years and operators are going to try and get around it: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/legislative-train/spotlight-J...

[JoshTriplett]

What is the rationale for fighting a unified system? A unified system would make it easier to travel by train, which should in theory encourage people to do so more.

Is this a problem of the operators within each country not wanting to be unified with each other because then they'd have to compete more directly? Or is this actually the operators between countries fighting over it for some reason?

[atoav]

As someone who often crosses the borders between Germany, Austria and Italy it is basically:

1. Enter my route at ÖBB (Austrians), DB (Germans) and Trenitalia (Italians) and see who is cheapest

2. Book one ticket for the whole trip

[MoreMoore]

Whenever I checked, trains from north Germany to Austria and back were always significantly cheaper on the ÖBB site. It was bizarre.

[gherkinnn]

Trainline works well enough including refunds, seat selection, etc.

It can't book the Eurostar as part of a larger trip and there might be similar limitations.

[bitschubser_]

Wow thanks for the hint, I did not know trainline it even shows the connections I’m searching for where trainitalia, sbb and DB failed :)

[bpye]

Of course - they add their own fees, though I guess there's nothing wrong with using them to find a route.

[0xFF0123]

Doesn't trainline support some of Europe now?

[sazor]

Trainline support most of the Europe. Used it from Poland to Portugal, not much of a hassle.

It does miss some regional train tickets which could be found on local platforms but major lines are covered fine.

[jazzyjackson]

I had a good experience earlier this year on a Paris/Berlin/Vienna/Venice/Stuttgart/Paris loop using raileurope.com and nightjet.com

I guess it may be more expensive but I don't mind, I find the booking experience very clear cut as to what is refundable, what is nonrefundable etc, easy to pick which class for each segment and so on. no complaints.

[folmar]

You can (except for Germany I think, that stopped accepting the tickets issued from international tariff book few years ago), but this will get you the base price, without any possible discounts, so is usually way more expensive than tickets bought directly. But gives you tickets with date change/cancellation possible.

[IncreasePosts]

Why isn't there a Google flights for trains? Do the operators hoard their data?

[rrr_oh_man]

In the end you’ll just have to buy 3-4 different tickets that become obsolete once you lose your connection in Köln.

[folmar]

Not needed, at least in most Europe. Operators share data and you can get timetable information from any of them for all trains, including combined itinearies, and the expectation is you get information from your local train company.

[OJFord]

..Google Maps? (Or Citymapper, or ...)

[vertan]

All Aboard is doing this, check them out: https://allaboard.eu/book

[postepowanieadm]

Given that the majority of the railway companies are state owned one could think that integrating them would be a easy thing for the EU to do.