European Trains Are Starting to Charge for Your Luggage

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For years, the appeal of European train travel included an unspoken promise: no baggage fees, no gate sizers, no anxious repacking at the check-in desk. You bought a ticket, you brought your bags, and the train accommodated you. That promise is quietly disappearing on some of the continent’s busiest routes.

It is the kind of travel that built the appeal of shows like the BBC’s Great Continental Railway Journeys, in which Michael Portillo has spent over a decade hopping between European cities by rail with little more than a small case, working his way through stations from Lisbon to Istanbul. The format works because European rail has historically rewarded that kind of mobility: step off one train, walk to the next platform, and go. The new luggage rules on several major operators are starting to add friction to exactly that kind of itinerary.

OUIGO, the budget high-speed service operated by SNCF in France and Spain, now includes only one small hand luggage item (36 x 27 x 15 cm) and one cabin bag (55 x 35 x 25 cm) in the base fare. Anything beyond that costs extra: an additional suitcase or XL item up to 2 metres and 30 kg costs 5 to 9 euros depending on the fare tier, and must be booked in advance.

On standard SNCF services, the rules have tightened too. SNCF Connect’s own terms state that a ticket includes one cabin item (55 x 35 x 25 cm) and one hand luggage item (40 x 30 x 15 cm) at no cost. An additional or bulky item, up to 130 x 90 x 50 cm and 30 kg, costs 5 euros if added online in advance. Arrive at the station with that extra bag unbooked, and the on-the-spot charge is 20 euros per item.

Spain’s low-cost rail operators have gone further still. On Avlo, Renfe’s budget high-speed brand, the included allowance is one small bag (27 x 36 x 25 cm) and one cabin suitcase (55 x 35 x 25 cm), with no weight limit specified but a hard size cap. A second larger bag costs 10 euros if added during booking, but if you try to add it at the station or boarding gate instead, the fee jumps to between 15 and 30 euros.

This is not a coincidence across operators. It is a structural shift, and it mirrors something the airline industry went through roughly fifteen years ago: low-cost carriers entered the market with stripped-down base fares, made baggage an optional extra, and the rest of the industry gradually followed.

Why This Is Happening Now

The driver is competition. The European rail market has opened up to multiple operators on the same routes over the past several years. In Spain, Renfe’s traditional AVE service now competes directly with Avlo, Ouigo Spain, and the newer entrant Iryo on the Madrid to Barcelona corridor and others. In France, SNCF runs both its premium TGV INOUI service and the budget Ouigo brand on overlapping routes.

When multiple operators compete on the same line, the headline ticket price becomes the primary battleground. Unbundling the fare, separating the seat from the baggage allowance from the seat selection from the flexibility to change your booking, lets operators advertise a lower base price while recovering revenue from passengers who need more. It is the exact mechanism that turned a one-way transatlantic flight into an a la carte menu of optional fees, now arriving on the rails.

Trenitalia and Italo in Italy remain the most permissive of the major operators for now. Trenitalia does not enforce a strict size or weight limit, though passengers are expected to handle their own bags and stow them without blocking aisles. High-speed Frecciarossa trains have dedicated luggage racks at the end of each carriage for larger items, with overhead racks suited to carry-on sized bags. Whether this remains the case as competition intensifies on Italian high-speed routes is worth watching.

Eurostar, now merged with Thalys for international European routes, allows two checked items per passenger with a combined dimension limit of 85 cm, plus hand luggage. The size restriction exists primarily for security screening at terminals rather than capacity management, but it is a hard limit that catches travelers carrying gear bought specifically for airline carry-on allowances, since 85 cm total dimensions is a different standard than the familiar 22 x 14 x 9 inch airline carry-on.

What This Means If You Are Planning a Multi-City European Trip

The practical impact lands hardest on travelers doing what European rail is best suited for: multi-city itineraries that hop between Paris, Barcelona, Milan, and beyond using a mix of high-speed and budget rail operators. A bag that fits comfortably on a Trenitalia Frecciarossa might trigger a fee on an Avlo connection three days later. A bag that cleared security for Eurostar might exceed the cabin allowance on a Ouigo leg.

The single most effective response is the same one that worked for airline travel: pack to the strictest standard on your itinerary, not the most generous one. If any leg of your trip is on Ouigo, Avlo, or another budget rail service, plan your luggage around their cabin bag limit of roughly 55 x 35 x 25 cm rather than assuming the more generous Trenitalia or TGV INOUI allowance will apply everywhere.

NOBL Travel builds carry-on luggage to the 22 x 14 x 9 inch airline standard, which translates to roughly 56 x 36 x 23 cm, comfortably within the cabin bag limits used by Ouigo, Avlo, and SNCF’s standard cabin allowance. A single bag built to this spec clears airport gate sizers on the way into Europe and avoids the additional baggage fees on the budget rail legs that follow, without needing to repack or shift items between bags at each connection.

The Case for Letting Go of the Second Bag Entirely

There is a second, often overlooked solution to the multi-city luggage problem: not carrying everything with you at once.

A common pattern among experienced rail travelers is to base in one city for several days, explore day trips by train without full luggage, and store the main bag at a left-luggage point near the station. Stasher’s network of verified storage locations across European cities makes this approach far more practical than it used to be. Arriving in Barcelona on an early Avlo train, dropping a bag at a nearby storage point for a few hours before check-in, and picking it up later removes the bag from the equation entirely for that leg, regardless of what the train operator’s policy says.

For longer multi-city itineraries, this also solves the problem of additional luggage accumulated along the way. Souvenirs, extra layers bought for unexpected weather, or gear that does not fit the next train’s allowance can be stored or shipped ahead rather than forcing a fee at the next departure gate.

The Eurostar Dimension Problem

There is a quirk in the Eurostar rules that catches even well-prepared travelers. The 85 cm combined dimension limit for checked items refers to the sum of height, width, and depth, which is a different measurement convention than the airline carry-on standard most travelers are used to. A bag that is described as “22 x 14 x 9 inches” in airline terms converts to roughly 56 x 36 x 23 cm, a combined total of 115 cm, which exceeds Eurostar’s 85 cm limit if measured the same way.

In practice, Eurostar’s limit applies primarily to items checked at the baggage drop rather than bags carried directly to your seat, and most standard carry-on bags travel with passengers without issue. But travelers planning an itinerary that includes both flights into Europe and a Eurostar leg should check the specific terminal’s bag drop policy in advance, particularly if traveling with a second larger bag, since the conversion between airline and rail dimension standards is not intuitive and the two systems were clearly not designed with each other in mind.

This is precisely the scenario where having a single, well-built carry-on rather than a carry-on plus a separate checked bag simplifies the trip considerably. Check packing guides that cover the compression techniques that make a one-bag approach realistic for longer multi-city trips, which sidesteps the Eurostar checked item question entirely since the bag never leaves your side.

A Practical Packing Approach for European Rail in 2026

Start with a single carry-on sized bag as your base, sized to the smallest cabin allowance on your itinerary rather than the largest. Check each operator’s specific luggage policy for every leg of your trip before you travel, since the differences between SNCF, Ouigo, Avlo, Renfe, Trenitalia, and Eurostar are significant enough that assuming one policy applies to all of them will catch you out at some point.

Label every bag with your name and contact details. SNCF requires this on its trains, and it is good practice everywhere given how often bags are stowed in shared racks at the ends of carriages rather than next to your seat.

If your itinerary includes a budget rail leg and you are traveling with more than a single carry-on, book any additional luggage allowance online in advance rather than at the station. The price difference, often the gap between 5 and 20 euros depending on the operator, adds up quickly across a multi-leg trip and the on-the-spot fees are consistently higher than the pre-booked option.

Finally, build a buffer day into city-hopping itineraries where possible. A short stay that allows you to use storage, do laundry, and reset your packing before the next departure makes the difference between traveling light by choice and being forced into it by an unexpected fee at the platform.

European rail remains one of the most pleasant ways to move between cities anywhere in the world. The unlimited, unbundled luggage allowance that made it feel effortless compared to flying is becoming the exception rather than the rule. Travelers who plan around the new reality, rather than the old assumption, will barely notice the difference. Those who do not will find it out at the worst possible moment, standing at a boarding gate with a bag that does not fit and a queue forming behind them.