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krasmussen
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25 comments

Posted 7 years ago

Need a singel Bratislva Hl. - Budapest Keleti on a EC train this summer.
I can see you can get a return for around 18€, and IDOS says a singel is 29,20€

But can it be cheaper than this? E.g. splitting the ticket at the boarder station or other tips?

Kind regards

Kim, Denmark

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ntrain
Traveller
123 comments

replied 7 years ago

The very cheapest is-as always, the BUS-try orangeways (but think twice about using) and studentagency-regiojet-has excellent buses with free cf, a bit complicated online payment procedure, but in the end will work.
NO need at all to worry about prebook etc when using train; just go to any of BP stations/ticket offices and buy a normal single for 15 eur , pay in HUF=a little under 5000 (may have raised a little) for direct EC-trains.
Yes-can be done cheaper: use local S trains to KOMARNO (hourly from Deli pu), walk over bridge to adjacent SK Komarom and find station (other side of town-walk about 35/40 mins), then buy new ticket. OR;if not to heavily loaded and also doing the sightseeing: take train to Esztergom from Nyugati PU, see town, find busstation or stop, use local bus to STUROVO, then SK/ZSSK train (mostly the same EC-train coming from BP.
Buy to/fro Border stops on direct trains is a no-no for HU;you will probably have to pay much more to the ever vigilante MAVia conductors.
IDOS or whatever is just for kapitalistiki old -western EU-people.

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Flo
Traveller
10723 comments

replied 7 years ago

Hi Kim!

Splitting a ticket for a through EC wont be possible as MAV doesnt allow to use (cheaper) domestic tickets for international journeys. So you could only do as ntrain suggested and cross the border on foot or by bus, using local trains on either side of the border.


Flo 8)

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krasmussen
Traveller
25 comments

replied 7 years ago

Thanks

Funny that this is not allowed in Hungary, because this was exactly what I did with a school group last summer (July 2015). The ticket was brought from DB on phone and mail. The sector was Budapest-Bratislava (my question in this thread is from Bratislava to Budapest), and it was a little pricey, so I ask her to make it cheaper, and then she suggested to split it at the boarder... At the same time we also benefited from the fact that MAV and ZSSK use different ages for child/adult.
In the direct EC-train there was no problem with the conductor at all. I showed tickets to the boarder station and seat reservation for the whole journey... But maybe special with groups...??

Anyway thanks for the informations, I now know what do to - and I agree that normal international tariff is for very rich people, or people who need e.g. the right to break a journey several times or others rights there come with them.

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Flo
Traveller
10723 comments

replied 7 years ago

DB certainly cant sell tickets according to MAV domestic tariff; as far as I know, regular international tickets (SCIC-NRT) sold by DB are always split at the border.

It is no problem to split tickets at the Hungarian border as long as you buy tickets for the international fare in Hungary (for instance if you travel with Balkan Flexi Pass in Romania and want to return to Budapest you will get an international ticket from the border to Budapest, no problem).