Security on Night Trains

[doktorhonig]

There's been a report about a night train from Vienna to Sofia on Austrian TV. Unfortunately I haven't watched it (because I do not own a TV set ), and well.. the media always exaggerates. People want sensations, they want to be shocked, aso.

But nevertheless, here's a short summary (google translated). It basically says that there's a region at the Hungarian/Serbian border, where they say that the passengers are robbed on "nearly every ride". Now.. of course I wouldn't sleep there, if I was alone, but they even rob passengers that are awake, so not only stealth action.

Now I don't travel that direction, but when I go to see my girlfriend, I go through the Czech Republic. I actually consider this country as safe, but I also thought that Hungary was quite safe, too. I simply cannot imagine, that this stuff is going on for a longer time without some policemen riding on the train and catching these guys (if the robberies are really that frequent).

Has anyone had bad experiences with travelling through the night here? I'm actually a very positive thinking guy and like chatting with people from all different countries on these trains, but well, I don't want to be robbed.

[andysine]

I've actually just been on holiday to Bulgaria, and only got back from Sofia on Friday. My girlfriend and I took the overnight train from Sofia to the Black Sea Coast when we arrived and we had no problems on our trip. We reserved a sleeper cabin, but there was also the choice of a couchette or regular seating. Male and female passengers had different cabins, with 3 people to each, and security seemed relatively good. There was a guard in our carriage, in his own cabin, but I don't imagine it was anywhere near as safe in the rest of the train.

There are always stories of theft in that region. My girlfriend and her friends had some stuff stolen from a train last time they went to Romania, so you have to be extra vigilant. We kept the window closed as we had heard stories of thieves reaching into a carriage to steal belongings.

We kept our money and passports stored in a 'money-belt', a discreet pouch tucked inside your trousers which is pretty much invisible from outside. The only thing of value I had in my suitcase was my Nikon D60, which was packed right at the bottom. I didn't use it very often while we were on holiday, largely due to the fact that when I had it out, people would eye it up and it felt very vulnerable. Unfortunately, in Bulgaria and Romania there is a large Roma Gypsy population, and although they are not exclusively responsible for bag thefts, stealing is often their only source of income, and some even believe it is a proper vocation. One more than one occasion we got offered stolen goods on the street by Roma Gypsies.

Anyway, I suppose the long and short of it is we had a great trip and were lucky enough not to have anything taken, but it is always worth being vigilant and make sure you have everything insured.