Rail Travel in Europe

Another "helpful hints" post about the mechanics of travel by rail in Europe.

If you are already familiar with the subject, feel free to skip this one.

As I come to the end of my epic-length European trip, I find that I have learned a lot of important lessons about travelling by train in Europe.  Some of these things I mastered when much younger, and had forgotten, some of them are new lessons to be considered.  My comments are based on the idea of an extended trip involving a number of train travel segments.

My key advice can be boiled down into five main points:

[1]  Get a Rail Pass

The time you will save, as opposed to trying to buy individual tickets for each trip, will please you almost as much as the money you will save.  There is such a diverse range of travel pass products available now that it's almost foolish not to buy one.  Of course, there is the classic Eurailpass, but under that umbrella name there are numerous variants based on limited groups of countries, set or flexible time periods, and so on.  Many individual countries also offer their own national passes.  As my experiences in Switzerland clearly show, the national pass there covers even more travel options than the Eurailpass.  It's a point to check for whichever country you are heading to visit.

I bought an 8-days-in-a-month Swiss Travel Pass, and it had more than paid for itself before my sixth day of travel was over.  

Research is key.  Be sure to read all the fine print relating to whichever pass you are thinking of buying.  I didn't follow my own advice, and ended up paying almost $100 more than I needed to pay for one train route, simply because I didn't read that I could have gotten a discount on it with my Swiss pass.  Ouch.

Passes are almost entirely limited to travellers from outside of Europe, who must purchase the pass before they leave home.

Key point: the Eurostar trains through the Channel Tunnel between the U.K. and Europe are not covered by Eurailpass or any national pass.  That trip you have to book and pay directly through Eurostar.

[2]  Go First Class

A lot of people will just say, "I can't afford that."  Actually, in Europe, you probably can -- the fare difference is nothing like as great as one might expect in air travel.  The difference?  Trains generally have 4 seats on a row, 2 each side of the aisle, in second class, and three seats, 2 and 1, in first class.  Bigger seats, more leg room -- these you would expect.  The really big difference comes when you realize that second class often fills right up all the way, and then some.  Do you really want to spend three or four hours of your holiday standing in the aisle of a train because there are no seats available? 

First class rarely, if ever, fills up.  Euro trains love seats which face each other across a table.  On 27 train rides, I had a vacant seat opposite me on all but 5 trains.  On 2 of those 5, I had an airplane-style seat with a seat back in front of me.  Some trains also offer at-seat service of snacks, drinks, or even meals (depending on the travel time) if you are in first class.  Second class, you are most likely leaving your seat and walking how many cars to the buffet -- or lugging all food and drinks for the trip on board with you.

Another key point: many European trains have nowhere near enough space for baggage, as most passengers are making short local trips for only a day or two.  First class has fewer people competing for the limited available space.  Moral: arrive at the station early, and be ready to board as soon as the train arrives -- your chances of snagging baggage space are better.  And in first class, your chances are much, much better.

[3]  Reservations

Many trains require reservations.  Required!  No res, no travel.  This applies to popular tour trains like the Glacier Express, to most international trains, and also to virtually all high-speed train routes like the French TGV, the Eurostars through the Channel Tunnel, the Thalys, the German ICE, and others.  Some of these trains now have three classes of service, an added complication to life with a pass.  Again, read the fine print.  Reservations sometimes (not always) come at the cost of a reservation fee, which is additional to either your basic ticket price or your pass price.  The reservation fee does not upgrade your second-class pass to a first class seat (I saw one guy get evicted from a train for trying to argue that point and refusing to give up).

I booked tickets for this trip through a U.S.-based company called RailEurope, but I don't think I will go that route again. It seemed easy enough to get all my reservations and my pass through one source. But there were problems. The RailEurope system didn't include many stations, and also had less than complete information about trains and routes that were available. In reserving seats, I got much less favourable seat assignments than other passengers who booked directly with the train operators in Europe, even though they reserved long after I did.

I would have done better to make my reservations using the websites of the various railway companies, all of which have full English-language versions of their websites.

[4]  Schedules

Train schedules in Europe are clockwork-precise in many countries, and beautifully interwoven so that a change of trains rarely requires you to stop for any longer than 30 minutes -- and often much less.  So precise is the planning that the German railway, Deutsche Bahn (DB), actually hands out leaflets on their major inter-city trains which give the timetable of the train, and also list all connecting trains at every stop, complete with the numbers of the platforms where those trains will board.  In every station, you will find video display boards like those in an airport, listing departure times and the main destinations of each train.

[5]  Take the Train, Not a Car

I would never rent a car in Europe unless I had to travel in an area which doesn't have trains.  It doesn't matter that the German Autobahn has no speed limit (except when it does), when the German Inter-City Express train can cruise all the way at 300 kilometres per hour or more (180 miles per hour).  Even the more normal trains on conventional lines often cruise in excess of 150 kilometres per hour.  Despite those speeds, the real reasons to skip using a car are the crowded streets and growing numbers and sizes of pedestrian-only zones in cities, towns, and villages all over the continent.  Parking can be hard to find in many locations, and expensive.

And then there's the price of gas -- so high it can make you wonder why you ever thought gas was expensive in Canada.  It's a loser's game -- and those are only some of the very good reasons why so many Europeans don't travel by car. The people I really feel sorry for are the ones who rent a car at the airport to drive up to Zermatt -- only to find that they still have to park the car at Täsch and take the train the rest of the way!

Even for day trips, the trains are amazing.  I wanted to go from Zurich to visit the dramatic Rhine Falls at Schaffhausen.  Of course, there's a train station right there, made to order for the purpose.  No, wait -- there are actually two train stations, one on each side of the river.  Visit the northwest bank views of the falls, take a boat tour, then ride the train into Schaffhausen and come back out on the other line to visit the southeast side views.  Easy to do with a pass.

A Couple of Notes:

A special commendation to SBB, the Swiss Federal Railways.  Just as my first Swiss train was leaving Basel, some idiot tried to light up a smoke in the washroom -- with predictable results.  All of us were asked to decamp into the next car, and were glad to do it because of the raucous smoke alarm.  At the next station, police met the train and hauled the idiot away.  Right after that, the conductor came through and gave us all discount vouchers for the inconvenience -- CHF6 or near Cdn$10.  The voucher could be used for travel, or to buy products in station kiosks, or to buy food/drinks on trains, including the Glacier Express -- which is where I used mine.

And finally: European trains are much more modern, quieter, smoother-riding, comfortable, punctual, and easy on the nerves than any passenger trains in North America.  Only one problem: most of the trains have air-conditioning systems, but those systems were having trouble coping with the epic high temperatures which Europe experienced this summer.  Dress lightly -- this isn't going to be an Arctic expedition like so many long-distance air flights.