European Rail News 
Europe by Rail is an evolving project. As you can read elsewhere on this website, it is a book with a long history. And we think Europe by Rail is a book with a bright future. In this European Rail News section, we present material relevant to the book.
The notes include updates on train services in Europe, an occasional foretaste of material that we hope to include in the next edition and little snippets of practical information that we just did not quite have space for in the book.
Do remember that information relating to train services can change from time to time, so it is always worth checking locally before travelling.
Tallinn to St Petersburg: new rail service
The regular rail link between Tallinn and St Petersburg has been an on-off affair. Anything but regular in fact. While the overnight Tallinn to Moscow train has been a mainstay of the timetable for many years, the daytime link between the Estonian capital and St Petersburg has capricious appearances in the timetables, only then to disappear again. Too often, it has been a pawn in the less than easy relations between Russia and Estonia, with one or the other party axing the cross-border train as a reaction to some event on the other side of the border.
Berlin to Gdansk: new direct train
Europe’s summer rail schedules kick in next month, though in truth the volume of changes that come with the June timetable change are very much fewer than what we expect with the main annual timetable change in December each year. One of the more interesting innovations with this year’s new summer schedules is a direct train from Berlin to the Baltic port of Gdansk (still known to many German speakers as Danzig). The service continues beyond Gdansk to Gdynia, along the way serving the resort town of Sopot.
Named trains: five of the best
Okay, so we’ve been a little lax of late. We’ve taken quite a spell out to travel and now feel refreshed and renewed after some very memorable rail journeys around Europe. All in the interest of researching new routes for the 2013 edition of Europe by Rail. Among the memorable rail journeys that either or both of us made in March and April 2012 were trips on five named trains.
Fast trains from Berlin’s new airport
With the opening of Berlin’s glitzy new airport on 3 June this year, look for some changes to rail services in the Berlin area. A brand new station opens to serve the new airport, with the focus on local and regional links serving the Berlin and Brandenburg region. But the new airport will also host a small number of long-distance services.
Ferry links Dover Strait and Transmed
Keeping up to date with changes in European ferry services could be a full-time job these days. We used P&O Ferries for a crossing from Calais to Dover last week, and very fine it was too. A lovely crossing on a crisp, clear winter day as foot passengers on the Pride of Burgundy.
All change in France
The Thomas Cook European Rail Timetable has always excelled in its coverage of France. England’s nearest neighbour has long exerted a strong appeal for rail travellers (and not merely from England) and some of Thomas Cook’s earliest tours were to France. Timetable editor Brendan Fox and his team have surely faced one of their biggest-ever challenges this winter as French rail operator SNCF introduced wholesale reform of their schedules.
Bulgaria to Greece by bus
2012 is shaping up to be as difficult as last year for rail travellers heading south through the Balkans to Greece. In 2011, Greece put a hold on all passenger trains crossing its land borders, thus severing the popular rail route from Bulgaria to Greece that crosses the border at Kulata, which is part of Route 41 in both the 2011 and 2012 editions of Europe by Rail: The Definitive Guide for Independent Travellers. It now looks at though this lack of trains across Greece's borders is going to continue for some months yet.
