How to Master the EURail

For Americans, mainly due to the development of the interstate highway system in the 1950’s, train travel is not a hard-wired part of our travel psyche. Unless you live in Washington D.C. (like myself), New York or Boston, you probably don’t ever think about long-distance (over 4 hours) train travel. While suburban rail definitely functions in large urban areas (NYC Metro Area, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles come to mind), Amtrak is a curiosity to most people.

Europe, however, went a different route in the 1950’s and established the Trans Europ Express. This democratised train travel by making frequent, cheap international train travel possible. This service was the forerunner to the current EuroCity trains.

How the system is set up

Each country has its own train services within that country. Trains that run across international borders are run jointly by the countries that are the origin and destination. So for example, the Francisco de Goya, which operates between Madrid-Chamartin and Paris-Austerlitz is a joint venture between SNCF and RENFE, the French and Spanish train companies, respectively. Before the advent of the Schengen agreement and the European Union, passport checks occurred on the moving trains when they hit the border. You would be woken in the middle of the night, your passport stamped and then you could go back to bed. This no longer happens between many European countries. Austria and Germany however, retain the practice. I have also been stopped on the Hungarian border. More often than not, a police officer will politely ask to see your documents and not even stamp you.

Ticketing

There are several ways of travelling the rails in Europe, each with positives and negatives, depending on where you are. Its important to remember that the rules are different for every country. Here are your options:

1. Point to Point Tickets – If you’re only making one trip, e.g. you want to go from Paris to Munich, this is your best option. The more trips you take, the more costs you accrue through point-to-point tickets, the more sense it makes to buy a rail-pass.

2. Country Passes – These passes enable you to travel on the train systems and ferries of a given country for a set amount of time. Generally the only thing you will have to pay is the fee for a reservation (anywhere from .50€ to 10€). These make sense if your travel is, logically, going to be all in one country, as they are quite a bit less expensive than the Eurail Global Pass.

3. Regional Pass – This type of pass enables travel to a specific region for a set amount of time.

4. Select Passes – These passes are much like country passes, but group together 3, 4 or 5 contiguous countries for a set amount of time.

5. Eurail Global Pass – This is what most people think of when they hear “Eurail Pass.” It enables you to travel on all 21 countries in the system (Britain is not a member). All of these countries are contiguous except for Ireland and Greece, which must be reached by ferry from France or Italy respectively.

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The timing of these passes is all different. The first three passes, Country Passes, Regional Passes, and Select Passes are all for a certain number of days in two months. Meaning, you have a set number of travel days. A travel day is defined as any train leaving from midnight to midnight of a given day. However, if you are riding a night train that leaves after 7PM, you are only charged for the day of arrival.

The Global Pass can be bought for a stretch of time as long as 3 months. Meaning, you can travel all you want in that stretch of time.

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Where can you purchase the passes?

Eurail’s main site offers a really great explanation of the passes, how much each one costs and how much each one covers. When I bought mine, there were time constraints, and I was going to be in Europe for a period of time before I wanted to validate it, so I needed it quickly. I was able to use STA Travel, which provides the same services that Eurail’s site does. They were friendly and helpful and despite having to drive all the way to New Haven to pick it up, it worked out perfectly.

How to use the travel effectively

Assuming that you’ve figured out which pass to use and how long you want to be travelling, the most effective use of the pass comes in maximising the amount of travel you do, and minimising your expenditures elsewhere. Remember, you’re paying for the train, so you might as well use it to the fullest extent.

1. Night Trains – Taking a European night train is an experience in itself. Always inquire as to how much a couchette (fold-down bed) costs, but in most cases, it’s cost-prohibitive for the truly budget minded traveller. Remember though that every night you spend on the train is a 15-20€ hostel stay that you avoid.

2. Know Your Geography – This is a theme with my travel. Many people that travel don’t take the time to study the geography of the city that they’re going to. Which train station are you going to be arriving at? There are no less than 6 in Paris. Where you arrive will make a difference when picking a hostel and dealing with timetables.

3. Timetables – This is one of the more confusing elements and something I wish I had understood better before I left on my first trip. Searching the internet will bring confusing and incomplete timetables. The best rail-trip planning tool is the Swiss Railways Timetable. It even has a conveniently rememberable URL for use at hostels when you lose your notes “sbb.ch”. It has departure, arrival and stop information for every train on the continent, and has the most user-friendly interface. Use it not only to plan out your trip, but to keep alternate schedules in case something should change.

4. Know what the pass covers – Read the fine print. Many ferries in Europe are free, even super long distances ones that cross the Aegean. The beauty of having a railpass is being able to say “Hey, I’ve never been to [insert crazy place here], let’s go for a day or so.” Furthermore, some suburban rail systems are integrated with the national rail network, and allow you to use the pass if you happen to be travelling that day. The S-Bahn in Berlin is one example, and if I had known that the Eurail pass covers it, I could have saved myself 12€ worth of day tickets as I was seeing the sights there.

5. Eating and Drinking – In contrast to American trains, food and drink (including alcohol) is not only allowed, but encouraged and common on trains in Europe. This is a huge money saver, and my last stop before I get on any train is a grocery store where I pick up simple snack food, cheese, bread, some light meat, and of course, wine. If you have a compartment train, and your compartment is shared by you and friends, you can have your own personal banquet as you watch the european countryside roll by.

6. Enjoy the Stations – Yes, you could be flying ryanair for a little bit cheaper, maybe. But that means you might land 50 miles outside the city at Bob’s airport. Train travel in Europe is a long tradition, and by passing through such stations as King’s Cross, Gare d’Austerlitz, Atocha, and Santa Maria Novella. These are icons of the cities they serve.

Paris-Gare Saint Lazare
photo credit: Juan Seguí Moreno

Madrid-Atocha
photo credit: marko8904

Berlin Hauptbahnhof
photo credit: Tobias Mandt

Budapest-Keleti Palyaudvar
photo credit: sludgegulper

Does anyone else have good tips for the European rails?

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Title Photo: vxla