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You may be able to buy your intercity
train ticket just before travel, but
it's wise to reserve your place(s)
at least a day or two in advance if
possible.
During holiday
times, it's essential
to reserve in advance in order to secure
the seat or compartment on the train
you prefer.
Please note: train
seat and sleeping-car berth reservations
may be made no more than 15
days in advance, and tickets
must be issued and paid for at the
time of reservation. In other
words, you can't reserve your seat
or sleeping compartment more than two
weeks in advance, and you must pay
in full when
you reserve your seat(s) or bed(s)
on the train.
For sleeping
cars, I'd recommend reserving
at least several days in advance if
possible. If you can reserve a week
or two in advance, do it,
just to be sure.
You can buy train tickets at any station,
and sleeping car tickets at any major
station.
The Turkish
State Railways (TCDD or
DDY) website has
an online
reservation and ticket purchase function.
I have not (yet) used it successfully,
but TTP traveler Andrew Broadbent
wrote that it worked for him. He
recommends using the system during
Europe's nighttime, when the load
on the TCDD computers is lighter.
Yo can also buy
tickets in person at a TCDD station,
from
a good
travel agency,
or at an authorized Turkish post
office, a list of which is supposedly
downloadable as a .pdf file from
the TCDD website, but which may
not download successfully.
It's a good idea to also use
these full-service agencies
for your other travel arrangements in
Turkey: hotels, tours, cruises, car
rentals, guides, etc.
The prices you pay to an agency may
be somewhat higher than the published
fares to compensate the agency for
its work in making your reservations
and issuing your tickets. (Selling
train tickets is not really a profitable
business.)
Also, you must pick up your
tickets from the office through which
you bought them. Unfortunately,
you cannot make a reservation through
an agency and then pick up your ticket(s)
at the train station (at least not
yet).
Finally, agencies are
not authorized to write international
train tickets (for travel
from Turkey to other countries).
International tickets must be written
by Turkish State Railways. But an
agency may agree to pay for and
pick up your ticket in exchange for
a service
fee (particularly
if you are ordering other travel
services
from the agency at the same time.)
The service fee is necessary because
the agency must actually send a staff
member to the railroad station to
buy your tickets in your place.
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