Advance rail tickets ?

How far in advance can I buy rail tickets at the station in Prague,I will be in Prague a couple of times before I plan to make the journey so popping into the station is no problem ?

We plan to go to the velke pardubicke horse race

in Pardubice by train and will need about 6 day return

tickets,I seem to remember there is a special group return ticket,how do I ask for this please.

I expect the trains from Prague that day (11th october) will be pretty full,would I need to reserve seats.

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Hardly anybody reserves tickets so no worries on that front, and there are LOADS of trains on that route so I doubt very much whether they will be full. If you want to be sure of a seat, just turn up at the station a bit earlier. I don%26#39;t know why they would be a lot busier - if anybody was interested they would probably go by car.

When you buy your ticket, just state how many people are going and the machine should calculate the group discount. You don%26#39;t need to buy a return ticket, but you can if you want. Just buy it in the day - it is very easy and quick.

Therefore, ask (or write down): %26#39;zpátečni skupinovou jízdenku pro X lidí do Pardubic, prosím%26#39;

(return group ticket for X people to Pardubice, please)

Look at www.idos.cz for times - you can also buy the ticket there if you want - click on the yellow shopping trolley button and follow the instructions, but it is really quicker and less fiddly to buy it at the station.

When getting the train avoid the local ones (beginning Os - they take over two hours and stop everywhere) and the Supercity pendolinos (beginning SC) - they are more expensive and not that much faster than the normal IC/EC/R expresses. NB the IC/EC trains tend to go from Holešovice station, a couple of metro stops from the Main station - if anything, they are more likely to be busy.

There is some useful information here http://www.pardubice-racecourse.cz/?lang=en

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I was interested in getting info regarding group discounts so read all the various offers, weekend travel, border tickets etc. but there is no specific info regarding normal group discounts, i.e. Prague to Brno, 3 people, how much discount can I get?

Can you point me to the appropriate page which I am clearly overlooking? Thanks.

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In case of 3 passengers first two get 25% off regular tariff, third etc. - 50%

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Thanks for that, but could you point me to the right page on the czech railways website. Or is this something that rail enthusiasts know but CDs are not advertising?

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It should say something about it in here (I%26#39;ll let you trawl through it) www.cd.cz/index.php?action=section%26id=129 but it is a commonly-known thing!

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Here it is www.cd.cz/index.php?action=article%26id=921

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GCEK

Thank you for that superbly detailed answer

The race meeting is the biggest of the year in Czech Rep,probably like derby day at Epsom in England and it will attract a very large crowd.

Thats why I thought the train may be near full.

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Got it - sleva pro kazdeho - only 2nd class! Now I understand. Thanks.

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I just asked a friend of mine from Pardubice and she didn%26#39;t know much about it - well, she knew that it existed, but it has never featured large, and she thought that most people would be going by car. I don%26#39;t think it will be on the same scale as anything in the UK, but it will be live on TV for those interested. I think a lot of people would come from Germany, or are locals and then by car - it is quite a niche thing in the Czech Republic. Certainly no more than a large football match - I think there were 35000 at last year%26#39;s event, which exceeded all expectations.

As I say, there are LOTS of trains, so that won%26#39;t be a problem.

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Mitchum (et al),

I am also planning on heading out to Pardubice on the train on 11th October.

Have you managed to find out the race times.? I know that there are 8 x supporting races but want to try and get there in plenty of time for the 1st race.

There are semi-fast trains (1hr 12 mins) at just past the hour and I suppose the 11am will be the call.

Cheers,

Luther