train travel in Europe

It is undeniably the age of the train, with rail travel in Britain reaching its highest level in more than sixty years.

But despite growing consciousness of the environmental benefits of train travel in Europe, train companies say it is cost and convenience that is persuading motorists to get out of their cars and take the train.

The Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) said Britain had the fastest-growing railway in Europe, with passenger journeys having risen 43.6% in the past decade. On average 3.15 million passengers travel on the railways every day.

George Muir, ATOC's director-general said: "Britain's railways are a success, and this growth is a considerable achievement.

"Our railways have outperformed the growth of other countries in attracting more people to rail, and more freight is being carried too.

"The fact that our railways provide frequent and well-used services proves that the new trains and improvements to punctuality we have seen in recent years are attracting new passengers."

Best Deals on Passes Here!

travel europe by train

If you plan to travel Europe by train the first place you should research for train fares should be either nationalrail.co.uk or thetrainline.com. "National Rail's website" has a special promotion index page listing all the special discounted offers, says Martin Lewis from the consumer website moneysavingsexpert.com. By purchasing a rail-card you can get a discount of almost a third off most ticket prices.

The real key to saving money on your train fare is booking early. Advance tickets should be available at least 9 weeks in advance, although they could be purchased up to twelve weeks in advance. By traveling at off-peak times you can also save money. While you might think that buying a return would be cheaper than 2 singles, it is worth checking because many of the best deals are available on one-way tickets.

Best Deals on Passes Here!

Europass Travel News - Swiss Build Gigantic Alps Tunnel

With all the tunnels that go through them, the Swiss Alps have often been compared to an enormous Swiss cheese. That comparison was awakened in recent months when a twenty two-mile rail tunnel was opened near the Alpine town of Frutigen.

Costing almost four billion, the tunnel supplements a nineteenth-century tunnel through the Lotschberg, the mountain in whose shadow Frutigen lies. But the new one differs from older tunnels by going through the base of the mountain, rather than its upper reaches. In addition to the main tunnel, for rail traffic, the mountain has been laced with twenty miles more of tunnel for maintenance and emergencies.

"You can say it's a true Swiss cheese," said Patrick Belloncle, a spokesman for BLS, the Swiss company that built and operates the tunnel.

But the Lotschberg tunnel is only part of a sweeping program to protect the Alps, a Swiss national heritage, from environmental damage.

But when the Swiss go, they go 1st class. When the tunnel is fully operational in December, it will accommodate not just seventy freight trains a day, but as many as thirty passenger trains, capable of going one hundred twenty miles per hour, cutting an hour off the trip from Basel, in northern Switzerland, to the south.

Europass travel will be wonderful through here!

Welcome!

Welcome to the Europass blog.