The complete rail guide to Europe
Date added: 10 July, 1998
unless you take the train. Mark Hodson has the smart guide
fly. It’s grim but at least it’s quick. Well, it’s quick if you disregard the
airport-parking nightmare, the two-hour check-in, the snaking queues at security,
the flight delays and the long wait at the luggage carousel.
Not just for cheeky weekend breaks to Paris and Brussels, but all the way to southern
France, Spain and Italy.
rail links coming into operation this year. In addition, the experience is altogether
more civilised than flying: services are more reliable, security is more relaxed,
check-in times are shorter and you don’t have to scramble to get a seat, or pay
extra to take a suitcase.
as green as the fields swooshing past your window. In France, where intercity
trains all use nuclear-powered electricity, your carbon footprint is virtually
nonexistent.
you? Here’s our guide to where you can go, how to book, and how to get the best
fares.
Eurostar is fast, easy and — if you know how to work the system — inexpensive.
The key to bagging a bargain is to buy tickets as soon as they are released, 120
days before your last day of travel.
although this includes onward travel to any station in Belgium (Bruges and Antwerp
are favourites). Book online (www.eurostar. co.uk) and you will avoid the £5 supplement
to use the call centre (0870 518 6186).
a change of train in Lille or Paris. Of the two hubs, Lille is easier and often
entails no more than a change of platforms. Return fares from London are good
value: for £79 you can get as far as Poitiers or Dijon; for £89, Limoges or Clermont
Ferrand; for £99, Bordeaux or La Rochelle; and for £109, Avignon or Nice.
holidays, Bastille Day and this year’s Rugby World Cup (September 7 to October
20). If you’re flexible on dates, you can search the Eurostar website for the
days showing the lowest fares (click on "Latest Deals", then "On a Budget?").
When Eurostar moves to its new home at St Pancras on November 14, these times
will drop to 2 hr 15 mins and 1 hr 20 mins respectively. From the new Ebbsfleet
International station, near the M25 in Kent, Lille will be just 70 mins away.
leisure select and business are priced very differently — the former costs from
£139, rising to £405, for a return to Paris; the latter is a flat £450 — the seats
are identical. The main difference is that the business ticket is fully flexible
and refundable; leisure select is not. Business also buys you lounge access, a
dedicated carriage, a 10-minute check-in rather than the regular half-hour, and
— on morning departures — the option of an express breakfast.
(because the entire journey to France will be on dedicated high-speed rails);
and through-ticketing from any train station in the UK. At a stroke, the benefits
of speedy rail connections to Europe will be available to millions of people in
the Midlands and north of England. You just have to wait until November.
has a booking window of 90 days, compared with Eurostar’s 120 days. This means
if you travel at peak times and wait until the opening of the 90-day window, you
can miss out on the lowest cross-Channel fares.
connections 30 days later with Rail Europe (0870 830 4862,
rates. For instance, Paris to Nice by TGV can be had for just £19 each way, reduced
from £78.50. Go first class and you can pay just £33.50, down from £108.50. These
fares are understandably popular, so it pays to get in at the start of the 90-day
window.
Paris and the south of France — Marseilles, Bordeaux, Montpellier, Aix-en-Provence,
Nice and Toulouse. It has one-way fares from £13.50.
book you will be offered a choice of carriages: iDzen if you want quiet (no mobile
phones or children under 12), or iDzap, if you prefer to chat, play your iPod
or rent a PSP games console.
journey times to eastern France and on to Germany and Switzerland. The new 200mph
trains will have coaches designed by Christian Lacroix, with comfortable seating
and extra legroom. There will be 16 return departures a day between Paris and
Strasbourg, taking 2 hr 20 mins. Currently, the journey takes 4 hr.
will take 45 mins, down from 1 hr 35 mins. TGV Est services will run out of Gare
de l’Est. Details:
But the length of the journey — currently 5 hr between London and Amsterdam —
means that many travellers opt to fly instead. That may change on December 8,
when the Dutch unveil their own new high-speed rail line, cutting journey times
to destinations across Holland. London to Amsterdam will take just 3 hr 36 mins
(plus 20 mins to switch platforms in Brussels).
the train takes you to Centraal Station, slap bang in the centre of the city.
With return fares from £69, there really will be no excuse for flying. Book with
Eurostar, Rail Europe or European Rail.
trip — but that’s no bad thing. Sleeper-train travel combines old-fashioned romance
with 21st-century timesaving. Not only do you avoid the whole miserable airport
experience, you also arrive bright and early in the centre of a city with what
amounts to an extra day’s holiday. (This assumes, of course, that you can sleep
on trains. Top tip: pack earplugs.)
over in the morning, drop your bags at left luggage, then head off for lunch and
some sightseeing before hopping on board the evening sleeper.
to Madrid and Barcelona, both journeys taking about 12 hr. The train offers a
range of accommodation, including Grand Class, where you get a cabin with ensuite
shower and a three-course dinner with wine. If you book 90 days in advance with
Rail Europe, you may be able to pick up a Prem’s fare, from £50 each way including
a couchette in a four-berth compartment.
hr), and Venice and Turin (13 hr). Prem’s fares are also available 90 days in
advance, making it possible to get to Venice in a six-berth couchette for just
£19 each way. Rome, Florence and Parma start at £26. (Note: there are no left-luggage
facilities at Bercy station. Stash your bags at Gare du Nord instead.)
to Russia or Turkey. London to Moscow can be done in 48 hr: Eurostar to Cologne
then a two-night sleeper to the Russian capital, with return fares from about
£290.
to Istanbul? This costs about £350 return, based on two people sharing a two-berth
sleeper — not bad when you consider that you can break the journey with stops
at Munich, Vienna, Budapest and Bucharest, for no extra cost.
enough slack in, you can find yourself delayed at a border crossing with a missed
connection. Consult the experts at European Rail (020 7387 0444,
luxury trains between London and Venice from March to November, with side trips
to Prague, Budapest, Istanbul and — new this year — Cracow and Warsaw.
the British Pullman to Folkestone. After crossing the Channel by Eurotunnel (on
a coach), you switch to the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, which gets you to Paris
by 9pm, followed by breakfast in the Swiss Alps, finally reaching Venice just
after 6pm.
meals included (but not a shower — this train is old-school posh, and old-school
doesn’t include bathing facilities). You can also book a single leg of the journey,
such as London-Paris. Because London-Paris-Venice is so popular, fares are rarely
discounted, but it is sometimes possible to get seasonal reductions of up to 25%
on less busy routes, such as Venice-Budapest. Details: 0845 077 2222,
age limits. This year, for the first time, you can also buy a single-country pass
or upgrade to first class.
as a "youth" and qualify for a reduction of about 35% on adult fares. Youths can’t,
however, buy first-class passes, which is a relief for the rest of us.
during the summer months. Single-country passes are valid for a month, for either
three, four, six or eight days of travel during that period. Europe-wide passes
are available for five days’ travel within a 10-day period, 10 days’ travel within
a 22-day period, 22 continuous days or one month’s unlimited travel.
at £197 for six days’ travel (youths £128), while Turkey and Bulgaria are among
the least expensive, at £73 (youths £47). InterRail pass-holders also qualify
for a 50% discount on Channel crossings with SeaFrance (0870 571 1711,
rail journey, and the convenience of driving their own car at the other end. There
are plenty of motorail routes crisscrossing Europe, though they’re usually confined
to the peak summer months.
fastest way to do that is the Eurotunnel. The car-carrying train runs up to 90
crossings a day between Folkestone and Calais; journey time is 35 mins. One-way
crossings cost from £49 for a car and up to nine passengers, with prices creeping
higher as allocations are snapped up. Bookings are taken up to a year in advance
at
self-check-in lanes, you can make it onto a train within seconds.
check car ferry prices at FerryCheap.com (0870 264 2644,
that runs between Calais and the south of France. There are two routes: one to
Nice via Avignon and Fréjus; the other peeling off to Narbonne via Brive and Toulouse.
Both arrive at about 10am. The trains are efficient, punctual and quick to load
and unload, although conditions on board can be a little spartan — there’s no
restaurant car, for instance.
late July. This includes a car and up to six people sharing a couchette.
which runs weekly from Den Bosch, on the Dutch-Belgian border, to Avignon and
Bologna. It offers a range of accommodation, including shared sleeping carriages
and private two-berth couchettes. Peak-season prices start at £569 one-way, for
a car and up to six passengers sharing a couchette.
This would be a lot more popular with Brits if it were easier to reach from the
Channel ports. The nearest jumping-on point is Dösseldorf.
(01766 512400,
including the Swiss Alpine Steam tour.
offering rail departures from the UK include Travelsphere (0800 191418,
Andante Travels (01722 713800,
countries;
Sleeper. Running six nights a week between London Euston and a slew of cities
across Scotland, it provides comfortable beds, convenient overnight travel times
and one-way fares from as low as £19.
on a weekly basis. There is no service on Saturday nights. You can book with First
ScotRail (0845 755 0033,
(0845 748 4950,
valid on the date and time stated, with a single operating company.
make the most of trains on the continent
29 June 2008
journey through Holland. 26 May 2008
demand grows. 23 May 2008
eponymous London rail station. 17 May 2008
pace. 05 April 2008
Lights – by rail. 20 March 2008
Posted: Friday, July 10th, 1998. Filed in General News.