Eurail - Should I pay the fine ?

Gesowhueph78

Dear Madame/Sir,

I decided to travel with my wife Montreux, Geneva of Switzerland, Paris of France, Milano, Firenze and Venice of Italy in commemoration of my wife’s 70th birthday this year. As we lived in Geneva for six years between 1992 and 2000, we wanted to go down memory lane. So I bought eurail global pass with which we can use train 7 days in one month, through Klook, a travel-ralated company.

I downloaded the “Rail Planner App.” following the guide of Klook, google, and eurail.com and made a trvel plan to take trains for seven days from 2 May when I would arrive in Zurich. So I activated the eurail pass to start from 2 May.

We set off the trip on the 1st of May from Seoul as I planned. We arrived in Zurich on the 2nd of May and we took the train to go to Montreux. On the train to Montreux, the inspector got on the train and asked me to show him the eurail pass. I did not know to use the “Rail Planner App.” at that time, I showed him the QR code in the the voucher of klook where I bought the pass. The inspector took my mobile phone and he operated the phone this way and that. After a while, he said O.K and he left.

On the third of May, we took the train to Geneva. An inspector came to me and asked me to show him my eurail pass. I showed him the QR code, the same way as the other day. The inspector told me my pass was not valid and issued ticket of fine. At the Geneva Station, I consulted with an officer and I became to know how to find my pass in the “Rail Planner App.” The officer told me that my ticket was valid but she could not cancel the issued ticket of fine. She told me I had to make calls or write letters to SBB.CH.

I learned how to use the “Rail Planner App.” since then. We finished the journey and we returned to Seoul on 16 May. I wrote a letter to SBB.CH(I forgot the name and address where I sent the letter) to explain that my eurail pass was not invalid and the ticket of fine should be canceled. I have not received any response yet.

If the ticket was not canceled, I owe some money to SBB.CH. I courteusly request you to check on if the ticket was canceled or not. If not, please tell me how much do I owe and how I can pay for it.

I am immensely indebted to you for your patience and help.

8 October, 2024

Best Regards,

Youn ChulKim

RolandP

Hello Gesowhueph78

Welcome to the SBB Community. We are a customer support forum run by volunteers, we are not the SBB Customer Service.

We can give you some insights on the use of Eurail/Interrail, however we cannot solve the case here. Only an official reply from SBB is legally binding.

When using Eurail/Interrail, as well as Swiss Travel Pass Flex e-passes, customers must activate a travel day before entering the first public transit service for the day.
If they fail to do so, they travel without a valid ticket. It is the customers responsibility to make themselves familiar before travelling on how to use travel passes, just as it is their responsibility to have a valid ticket for the ride. There is no ticket sales on board the trains.

Eurail/Interail travel days are activated by adding a trip to the trip planner. The latter steps is important as only then the railway company will be compensated for the trip done.

https://www.eurail.com/en/help/already-bought-pass/adding-and-activating-your-mobile-pass

On Swiss public transit services ticket checks are conducted randomly; if you had not been checked the other day, you would have travelled for free and even saved yourself a travel day. This is not fair as you received a spotless service.

I assume the code you had received from Eurail was for a seat reservation and was certainly not the actual ticket.

The officer told me that my ticket was valid but she could not cancel the issued ticket of fine. She told me I had to make calls or write letters to SBB.CH.

Even if the day was activated by the colleague at the SBB Travel Center after the ride, you still had an invalid ticket on the train. And this is why the ticket inspector issued a fine. The fine is in this case justified, the retrospective activation of the pass does not legitimate the cancellation of the fine as you did not have a valid ticket during the ticket check.

You can reach out to the responsible department, by e-mail fahrausweiskontrolle@sbb.ch, to explain the case and eventually negotiate.

SBB can check at what time of the day your travel pass day was activated. If it was after your ride only, you are supposed to pay the fine.

Kind regards,
Roland

Gesowhueph78

RolandP

Thank you very much for your kind explanation. I will write a letter to the e-mail address you informed me. Accoreding to the reply, I will do what is necessary.

Best regards.

Youn- Chul Kim