Train Luggage Rules by Country: What You Can Really Bring Aboard

01

The no-weigh-in reality, and where it ends

Nobody weighs your bag at a railway station. There is no check-in desk, no sizing cage, no fee per kilogram: you walk to the platform carrying whatever you can carry, and across most of the world that is the entire system. The practical limit is physical. You have perhaps 90 seconds at an intermediate stop to get yourself and everything you own up two steep steps and into a rack, and every veteran of train travel packs with that scene in mind. But do not confuse the absence of scales with the absence of rules. Written allowances exist almost everywhere, and enforcement is tightening where crowding hurts. SNCF began fining oversized loads on TGV INOUI and Intercités services in 2024, Japan now polices bulky bags on its busiest Shinkansen lines, and Indian Railways has charged for excess weight for decades whenever it chooses to check. The rules below are the ones that actually bite.

02

Official allowances, operator by operator

Eurostar gives Standard and Plus passengers two bags up to 85 centimetres on the longest side plus one piece of hand luggage; Premier allows three bags, and no weight limit applies beyond your own arms. SNCF's TGV INOUI caps you at two items up to 90 by 70 by 50 centimetres plus one small hand bag, with fines of €50, €100 and €150 for one, two or three non-compliant pieces. Budget OUIGO includes one cabin bag and one hand bag, with extras from ~€5 if booked ahead. Deutsche Bahn, SBB and Trenitalia publish no hard caps: the working test is whether you can carry and stow everything yourself. Britain's rail conditions nominally allow three items. Renfe permits up to three pieces and X-rays them at AVE gates. Amtrak allows two personal items at 11 kilograms each plus two carry-ons at 23 kilograms each. Indian Railways grades free allowances by class: 70 kilograms in AC First, 50 in AC two-tier, 40 in AC three-tier and Sleeper, 35 in Second.

03

Bikes: fees, reservations and the folding loophole

A full-size bicycle needs its own booking on most long-distance trains. France charges €10 for a TGV bike space, Deutsche Bahn charges about €10 including the compulsory reservation on ICE and IC services, and German regional day tickets for bikes run €3 to €6.50. Dutch trains sell a bike day ticket for ~€8, valid outside rush hours. Switzerland asks ~CHF 14 for a bike day pass, plus a small compulsory reservation on certain InterCity trains in summer. Spaces are finite, often four to eight per train, and they sell out on summer weekends, so book the bike slot at the same moment you book your seat. The loophole is folding: a folded bike, bagged where the operator insists, travels free as hand luggage almost everywhere, including Eurostar, which otherwise accepts full-size bikes only through its registered luggage service. In India and Pakistan, bicycles travel booked into the luggage van through the parcel office for a modest weight-based fee.

04

Skis, cellos, surfboards and the Shinkansen rule

Skis and snowboards ride free and unremarked on Alpine routes, where Swiss and Austrian trains carry dedicated racks in winter. Musical instruments below cello size count as hand luggage everywhere sensible; for a cello, most operators expect you to buy a cheap extra seat rather than trust the racks. Surfboards and other two-metre objects sit in a grey zone: rarely banned outright, frequently unwelcome, always your problem to stow. Japan wrote the clearest rule of all. On the Tokaido, Sanyo and Kyushu Shinkansen, any bag whose length, width and depth total more than 160 centimetres requires a seat with an oversized baggage area, reserved free of charge when you book; turn up without one and you pay a ¥1,000 penalty and move the bag where the conductor points. Anything over 250 centimetres is refused entirely. Japan also offers the elegant alternative: takkyubin couriers move a suitcase hotel to hotel overnight for ~¥2,000-3,000, which is why Shinkansen racks stay half empty.

05

Where your bag rides, and how it stays yours

Overhead racks swallow anything cabin-sized, and they are the safest storage on the train because bags there sit above watching eyes. Large cases go on the stacks at carriage ends, which is where theft happens: the classic move is a quick lift at a long stop just before a big-city terminus. Sit where you can see the stack, or cable-lock the handle to the rail; a tiny lock defeats an opportunist working in a twenty-second window. Sleepers change the maths. European couchette and sleeper compartments lock from the inside, attendants control carriage access overnight, and berths include space for cases. On Indian trains, the chain-and-padlock is standard kit, sold on station platforms for ~₹200: loop it through your bag and the anchor under the lower berth, and sleep properly. Everywhere, the rule is identical: passport, cards, laptop and medication live in one small bag that never leaves your body, because the big bag's job is to be replaceable.

06

Left luggage: lockers, counters and prices

Most large stations will hold your bags, at wildly varying prices. German station lockers run €4 to €9 per 24 hours depending on size. Paris termini use staffed-entry locker halls with airport-style scanning at €5.50 to €9.50 per day. Japanese coin lockers cost ¥400 to ¥1,000 and increasingly take transit smartcards instead of coins. Swiss lockers sit around CHF 6 to 12. London's big termini use staffed counters at ~£12.50 to £15 per item per day, the most expensive mainstream option in Europe. Italy's KiPoint counters charge ~€6 for the first few hours, then step down hourly. Spain keeps consignas at major AVE stations for a few euros a day. India's station cloak rooms are the bargain at ~₹30 per day, with two conditions: the bag must be locked, and you must keep the paper receipt safe. Small and rural stations often offer nothing at all, so check before you plan a whole stopover around a locker.

07

Porters, platforms and packing like you mean it

At big South Asian junctions, licensed porters in red shirts with brass armbands will carry what you cannot. Agree the price before a bag leaves the ground: ~₹100-200 for a couple of cases is normal at major Indian stations, similar in Pakistani rupees at Lahore or Karachi, and worth every paisa when your train rolls in on a changed platform across two footbridges. Pack for the architecture, not the brochure. Trains reward soft duffels and backpacks over rigid four-wheel spinners, because the obstacles are vertical: carriage steps, narrow aisles, overbridges without lifts. Twenty kilograms is the honest ceiling one adult manages alone across a large station. Keep a small day pouch with tickets, passport, power bank, water and a warm layer, because your main bag may ride at the carriage end while you sit half a coach away. Label everything with a phone number that actually works in the country you are standing in.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions