UK

Train travel
in Britain

Scotland by
sleeper...

Cornwall by
sleeper...

Channel Islands

Europe

Europe by train
introduction

How to buy
European
train tickets...

London to Paris
or Brussels
by Eurostar...

Albania

Bangladesh

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China

Indonesia

North Korea

Pakistan

Finding a seating plan for a specific type of train...

Seat Guru for trains?  Maybe not quite yet!  But on this page you'll find links to train seating plans, showing the layout and numbering of seats & sleeping berths in specific types of train and carriage for the key countries in Europe.  Keeping all the links working is difficult, so please report any dead links, or any new train seat plans.

Click the country where your train journey starts:

Train formations & carriage numbering...

Train formation plans show the train make-up with carriage sequence and carriage numbering for specific train departures, listed by train number.  You'll often find train formation plans posted in glass cases on station platforms so that you know where on the platform to stand to board your particular car.  Unfortunately, train operators don't usually provide this information online, but there are a couple of useful private sites that show this information, often with photos of what the cars look like:

• For Germany, showing both domestic and international trains by train number, see www.grahnert.de/fernbahn/reihung/reih0037.html.  Also shows train formation for City Night Line sleeper trains such as Amsterdam to Prague, Copenhagen, Warsaw, Munich, Zurich, and Paris to Munich and Berlin.  If you don't know the train number you want, use the journey planner at www.bahn.de to look it up, clicking on the service you want in the search results to see details including the train number.

• For domestic and international trains in Germany, Austria, Spain, Portugal, much of eastern Europe and the Balkans, see www.vagonweb.cz/razeni/.  It can help to know that CNL stands for City Night Line sleeper train, EN for EuroNight sleeper train, EC for EuroCity quality daytime train, IC for InterCity quality daytime train, and so on.

Can I book a specific seat?

When booking online, the Eurostar website (www.eurostar.com) and Swedish railways website (www.sj.se) set a best practice in letting you book a specific seat from a numbered seating plan of their own train's seating layout.  But these are the exceptions, and most online booking sites only let you choose 'aisle' or 'window'.  If you want to book a specific seat on any other train, you'll need to book by phone, preferably with an agency that uses the relevant country's own reservation system.  For example, if you call Rail Europe they are a subsidiary of French Railways, they use the French Railways reservation & ticketing system and can easily book a specific seat on a French TGV.  But they can usually only select basic options such as 'aisle' or 'window' when booking a German or Italian or Spanish train.  Conversely, German Railways UK office obviously uses the German reservation and ticketing system, they can easily book you a specific seat or type of seat on a German ICE, but can only access basic options such as 'aisle' or 'window' on Eurostar or on a French or Italian train.  There's a list of UK booking agencies here, if you really want to book a specific seat then try calling an agency with the most relevant reservation system.  Also worth knowing is that when booking French trains online, www.raileurope.co.uk only offers you basic 'aisle' or 'window' options, whereas the French Railways website www.tgv-europe.com offers many more additional options such as 'duo face to face' (table for 2, also known as Club Duo) or 'club four' (table for 4, also known as Club Quatre) in 1st class, 'carré' (table for 4) in 2nd class, and 'salle haut' (top deck) & 'salle basse' (bottom deck) on a double deck TGV Duplex.  I definitely recommend the top deck on a TGV Duplex to anyone without severe mobility problems!

Are we booked in the same sleeper compartment?

Berth numbering in sleepers and couchettes often causes confusion.  People with berth numbers 21 & 25 wonder if they're really together in the same 2-bed sleeper, when yes they are!  Look at the 'generic' sleeping-car numbering plan below, or search for the specific sleeper train you're booked on in the list below, based on the country in which your journey starts.  Adjacent compartments may have a communicating door when people travelling together occupy both compartments, for example 11/13/15 will often have a door through to 12/14/16, 21/23/25 will have a door to 22/24/26 and so on.

Above:  A typical sleeper numbering plan.  When used as a 2-berth sleeper, only the top & bottom berth numbers are used, for example 21 & 25.

Above:  A typical couchette numbering plan.  When used as 4-berth couchettes only the top & bottom berth numbers are usually used, for example 21, 22, 25 & 26.

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List of train seat numbering plans, country by country...

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