published on 9 June 2012
Here's an interesting thought. Already this year we have had a number of readers of our Europe by Rail book comment on the hefty supplements that some railway operators charge to holders of Eurail and InterRail passes. But even on itineraries through countries where fast trains require advance seat reservations, it is often possible to devise a creative journey plan that sidesteps the trains on which you might have to pay a pass holder's supplement.
published on 6 June 2012
The new EuroCity train service from Berlin to Gdansk, previewed in European Rail News on 1 May 2012, started today. It is many years since the two cities have been linked by regular daytime trains. The reintroduction of the daytime link between two cities that have an intertwined history is very welcome, yet the one-way fare is ridiculously expensive.
published on 28 May 2012
We are sorry to note the demise of the rural Albanian rail route that until recently served the western shores of Lake Ohrid. This was truly one of Europe's great rural rides, a journey so peculiarly full of character that we had already been wondering about including a fuller mention of it in a future edition of Europe by Rail: The Definitive Guide for Independent Travellers.
published on 3 May 2012
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.
published on 1 May 2012
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.
published on 20 April 2012
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.
