ON THE RAILS

Forget commuter hell: travelling by train in Europe can be cost-effective - and even a pleasure. Our travel adviser shows you how
The Guardian
September 21, 2004

It's easy to forget, given the misery of using the railways in the UK, just how pleasurable it can be to travel by train in Europe. For a start, there is an impressive and growing network of high-speed lines - not just in France, but also in Germany, Spain, Italy and even Switzerland. And even if you do end up on a slow stopping service in Tuscany or Andalusia, even just passenger watching or taking in the view from the window is part of the fun.

But what is the best way to buy tickets? The plethora of different passes and deals can all save you money, but to get the best value, you need to take several factors into account.

Starting points
The first decision is whether to do the whole journey by train, or fly out to a starting point. Given the low cost of European air fares, bagging a cheap flight with or for example can be a useful time-saving option. Given that they allow you to book single fares, you could fly out, do your rail tour then fly back from somewhere else. Or you could come all the way back by train.

Using the high-speed lines
If you want to do the whole journey by rail, you will probably want to make use of the Eurostar and extensive French TGV links to get you on your way. The journey time between London and Paris is now down to two hours 35 minutes, where you could connect to Paris-Marseilles (three hours); or you can do London-Avignon via Lille or direct (just over six hours). Other key high-speed lines include Madrid-Seville (two hours 30 minutes), Hanover-Berlin (one hour 40 minutes) and Madrid-Barcelona, recently reduced from seven hours to four hours 35 minutes (and which should be cut again - to two hours 30 minutes - during 2005).

A point worth considering here is that high-speed lines allow you to plan day trips or itineraries that simply weren't possible a few years ago. You can get to the Loire in less than an hour from Paris for example. Cordoba can now be visited from Madrid, and Berlin and Cologne are particularly easy to combine.

Choosing a ticket
Buying a simple international return ticket can be cost effective on some routes. There have been £59 returns to Paris on Eurostar recently, and the £109 return fare from London to Avignon looks good value. But the cheapest standard returns to say, Berlin (£228) or Venice (£213) look poor value compared to flying, or (depending on your itinerary) using rail passes. In fact the further you go, and the more you want to travel when you get there, the better value you will get from a pass. Here are the main ones.

Inter-rail This multi-country pass is no longer aimed just at under 26s (although they pay a lower tariff). A full Inter-rail card allows unlimited travel for a month through 27 European countries and Morocco (the traveller's home country is excluded). It costs £415 (£295 for under 26s).

You can get a cheaper pass, by limiting your travel to specific zones. There are eight in all including, for example, one which covers Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland, and another Belgium, France, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. A 16-day ticket for any one zone costs £223 (£159 under 26), while a 22-day ticket for any two zones is £303 (£215).

The downside of these cards is that they don't include travel on most express and high-speed services - you normally have to pay a supplement. Travel from Paris to Lyon by TGV for example and it will cost you an extra £2.50. Other regional passes worth checking include the Scanrail pass (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland), Greece and Turkey pass, and the Iberic Railpass (Spain and Portugal).

Eurodomino passes
These are now the standard single-country passes for most European countries (plus Morocco). They allow you unlimited rail travel for a certain number of days (choose between three and eight) within a one-month period. The cost varies hugely between different countries and obviously also depends on how many days you want to travel. These are examples for five-day passes in second class in a selection of countries: France £186 (£246 in first class), Italy £158 (£186), Spain £129 (£162), Slovakia £43 (£64), Turkey £46 (£69). There are cheaper fares for those under 26.

The good thing about these passes is that expresses and high-speed trains are normally covered, though if there is a compulsory reservation fee, you will have to pay this. You will also need to plan your travel quite carefully to make sure you can do what you want to do in the days available.

Note too that some countries - Holland, Germany for example, have both Eurodomino and alternative national passes that usually work in a similar way. These are worth checking - a five-day Germany Eurodomino pass costs £168, compared with £154 for a Germany Rail pass for example.