alt Hacker NewsQuite a few countries (France, Spain, Italy for starters) require seat reservations in advance for any long-distance/high-speed trains now. And worse, they have a quota for passes, so even if the train has space, you might not be able to reserve a seat and therefore get on the train. A real shame as it makes it far less flexible than before.
For France, Spain, and Italy, only the inter-country and the high speed rails (TGV, Renfe, Iryo, Frecciarossa etc) require reservation?
In Switzerland, some of the touristy intra-country routes (ex: Tirano-Chur, Interlaken-Lucerne) may require (a rather expensive) reservation.